Day by Day - Lots Going On

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time." Winston Churchill

This quote is true in life as it is in training, and it hit me last weekend as Madison and I were traveling to Houston for her volleyball tournament.

For this tournament, it was just Madison and I. I've got relatives in Houston and have driven there many times, so I know how to get there. But once there, well that's a different story. Our hotel was in downtown Houston and there are just too many roads. So before we left, I set the Tom Tom to lead me where I needed to go.

After getting gas and a quick bite to eat, we were off. My plan was to take 290. As soon as I made the turn to 290 I saw bumper-to-bumper traffic for as far as I could see. I knew it would take over half an hour just to go a few miles. Madison was suppose to be in Houston by a certain time for a team meeting and we were already pushing it timewise, so I made a quick decision to take the toll road to 71 and head into Houston that way. It's not a way I'm familiar with, but I had the Tom Tom. I just had to trust it.

Luckily Highway 71 takes you pretty much all the way to Houston so I didn't have to turn for a couple of hours. But as we got closer to Houston the Tom Tom would tell me which road to take next and which way to turn. It wouldn't tell me anything other than the next step I needed to take.

And that's when it hit me that my trip with the Tom Tom was kind of like my trip to Ironman. In both cases I know my starting point and the end point. But the journey in between is a journey I'm unfamiliar with. I have a plan (the directions from the Tom Tom and the training plan for Ironman) and as long as I follow the next step, I should arrive at my destination as planned. So for Ironman training, as long as I look at each days training schedule and follow the plan, I should be ok. I can't worry about what I have 2 months down the road. I have to accomplish TODAY's plan.

Accomplishing "today's" plan is not always as easy as it sounds, however. Driving to the tournament Friday night right after work and arriving at 9pm, then having a parent meeting, then upacking and putting drinks on ice meant it was late and I was not getting in a workout.

Despite wanting desparately to sleep in Saturday morning, I set my alarm clock for 6:30 am and got up and headed to the treadmill for an hour run. It was hard to do, but I'm glad that I did. After that it was breakfast, getting the girls to stay active, lunch and then off to the convention center for their afternoon bracket. The girls played well, but played some good teams and ended up ranked 3rd for that pool. We didn't get finished until 9:30. Then the girls still had to shower and eat dinner before getting into bed. Add to that the time change, and there was no way I was setting an early alarm for a Sunday morning workout. I told myself if I woke up on my own I would head down.

Needless to say, I sleep until that last minute alarm Sunday morning. It was up to shower, eat and load the car before heading to the convention center for todays games. The girls won one and lost one and were done. As I mentioned earlier, I have relatives in Houston. My Aunt and Uncle had come Saturday night and my other Aunt and Grandma came today. After we were done we went out to eat with them. By the time we were done and on the road it was a little after 4:00.
We got home just after 7:00. I unloaded the car and then settled in my recliner to relax for a bit before heading to bed at 9:00.

Monday morning it was VERY difficult to get up. I had a tough time staying awake at work and even went to take a nap in my car at lunch. My body would have been perfectly happy going home from work and napping again before going to bed early. I was exhausted. But my training schedule had something different on it. I wasn't sure how my workouts would go since I was so exhausted, but I did them anyway. And I felt better. And I wasn't as tired.

It's taken all week to feel like I've gotten caught up on rest, but I have managed to get in all my workouts so far. I'm hoping to get in my long bike ride tomorrow, but after a beautiful week with temps in the 70s, the forecast shows temps in the 50s with possible thunder showers and wind gust from 14-24mph. It's an organized pay ride, so it may be officially called off. In that case, I'll likely spend a few hours on the trainer. Oh joy. This time, I'm hoping the weatherman is wrong.