The Female Athlete

My poor coach.  (lol).  He calls me last night, and our conversation went like this:  "Hey Chris"..."Hey how's it goin?"..."Pretty good, how about you?"..."Great".  This is pretty much how all our conversations start.  Then:  "OK. Would you Stop Freaking Out".  And yes, I believe he was saying each word with a Capital Letter.  I couldn't help but laugh.  I believe there may have been a few  "am I really gonna be ready for this, I'm so tired after 50 miles, how am I gonna do a century, never mind a marathon after" and "what the hell was I thinking" ...or something along those lines... in my training log this weekend.  I told him I'd climbed down off the wall of fear a little since Saturday afternoon, and I had  complete trust in him to get me there. :)   Then he said that all the people he's coached to their first ironman have been men, so maybe he needs to adjust his approach a little.  HAHAHA.  It would have never occurred to me, to be honest, but it's probably a good idea.  I consider myself a pretty tough woman, I can do just about anything a man can do (and more than some), but I am still a woman!  And let's face it, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that men and women are different in every area, and training is therefore logically no different.  I have been known to break down sobbing in the middle of a very tough workout, I don't think that really happens to guys.  (at least none will admit it!).  I have no idea why or what causes it, it's a physical release or something, but it happens.  And there are other things too, especially in the motivational area that I suspect are quite different.  All I know is I am grateful to have a coach that recognizes that, and that is going to be doing all the same training (albeit faster) that I'll be doing.  THAT is worth its weight in gold.  Here's my coach:

So, I'm good.  I can't promise there won't be more freak-outs, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum.  :)  Everyone I know who has done an IM has said to me "you'll be fine".  Sometimes it's hard to fight the moments of doubt that seep in during some of these longer workouts.  And it's only gonna get tougher as I get closer.  But as I said to Jen V on Saturday, as she was nurturing my poor abused muscles, "Chris always gets me where I need to be, and I trust he'll do the same this time too".  So there's that, and also the belief that we get what we focus on - Law of Attraction - so I'll just keep pulling myself back to that.  And as Chris also said - if you are tired, you're doing it right. 

Got this week off to a good start with my Monday morning swim, and felt pretty good.  And to top it all off, I got my new couch, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!  The summer weekends are going to be long training hours, followed by nothing but resting and recovering from the long training.  So now I have the perfect comfy never-wanna-get-off-this-thing place to do all the resting that I have to do after all the training. 

One final comment on this one:  After all that male/female differences discussion, just to be perfectly clear - NO, I don't think it should be called IronWoman for the girls, and if anyone ever calls me that I might have to smack them.  It is interesting how many people (non-triathletes) ask me that question, and those of you who know me well, know I am a feminist, but somehow this just doesn't fit that.  20 weeks from now I will be an Ironman, and damn proud of it, gender-equality-correct, or not.  :)

Happy Training!

Kat