Post Race Lessons

Today is that day. I've been putting it off, but the numbers just keep increasing and it looks more silly.

I am removing the countdown timer for Ironman Muskoka as it has been almost 48 days since!

In those 48 days, I've learned alot.
1) If you don't train properly for a 1/2 IM, it will hurt for MANY days post-race.
2) Nothing is sacred between my wife and I. I must also include the "Lunch ladies" and random people she decides to share the yellow-socks story with.
3) Everytime the yellow-socks story gets told, it gets ever more exagerrated. They were NOT yellow.
4) When you tell someone you did a 1/2 Ironman, the average response at best is "Thats nice". You could just as well have told them 5km run or Full Iron or Double Iron and they would have been equally as impressed. There are those that get it, and then there is all the rest.
5) Your feelings for your bike will succomb to a love-hate relationship. I love to hate my bike. I don't even want to look at it until at least 4 weeks post-race.
6) Post-Race recovery sounds like a planned important part of the process. What they really meant to say is, "you will be so sick of training that you will gain 10lbs, go soft and your first workout will feel like an Ironman even though you only went for a 5km run". If you don't use it - you lose it.
7) Blisters take exactly 30 days to fully heal.
8) You will finally understand why people looked at you funny when you told them you signed up for a Half-Iron without ever doing a triathlon in your life and were still in the clydesdale category mountain biking.
9) You will be completely ignorant to the reasons why triathlon coaches look at you with dispair when they hear you signed up for a Full Ironman without first ever doing a Half-Iron and you've only got a couple sprints under your belt.
10) When coaches look at you in the manner described in #9 - you will get nervous.
11) You will never buy enough clothing with Ironman logo's on it. You will always wish you would have bought more. Wear it with pride.
12) DO NOT forget about the soiled clothing in that gym bag you didn't unpack when you got home from the event. You will need to burn those clothes.
13) Just looking at your bike will make you sick to your stomach, followed by the words "I hate you!"
14) The pictures taken by the 'professional' photographer at the race will always catch you picking your nose, sleep-walking(eyes clsoed) or some heinous facial expression as if someone just farted in your general direction. You will buy those pictures anyways.
15) You will cringe at the cost of the merchandise from #14. You will buy them nonetheless.
16) It takes a month before you start courting your bicycle again. Play gentle, take it nice and slow.
17) When you finally start workout out again, someone WILL eventually offer you a hammer gel / power bar / cliff bar / electrolyte tablet, try not to lash out and slap said offering out of the extended hand followed by the words 'phuck that $hit!!'. They were just trying to be polite.
18) Politely ingesting said products from #17 will immediately induce vomitting and bring back the freshly forgotten pain memories from your race.
19) 6 weeks after your race, you will forget all pain ever existed during the event. You will only remember the highlights, the glory and begin to convince yourself that it was actually easy. This is usually followed by registering for the next big thing - that is if you haven't already pulled a #9.

On the training front there is nothing to report. I worked late last night and skipped my planned workout, whatever it was going to be. The JPO program is like that, it changes on the fly. Very dynamic. So today was supposed to be a recovery day but since I 'recovered' yesterday I think I'll get some strength training in. I'm actually looking forward to a bike ride, assuming the weather is good this weekend.