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Gregg Gordon

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16 days and counting, and I already have a problem

Posted by Admin on September 22, 2011 in Training

We’re barely two weeks from the big day and I am in major distress… GI distress that is.  I’ve been battling some form of dietary discomfort since Monday, and it’s not immediately clear why.  I went to a golf tournament for work (and made it very clear to anyone who saw me that I’m a triathlete, not a golfer!) and ate seafood, so maybe that’s the cause.  Either way, I’ve been able to eat and my appetite, albeit somewhat diminished, is still good enough to keep me eating regularly, but I can’t seem to keep anything within me for long.

But, I digress.  This is a speed bump and while it’s prevented me from training at all this week (literally, not once!), I am not terribly worried since I can recall advice from my first Ironman in 2005 where my then-coach told me not to worry… that I have all the miles in me already and a few days without training won’t have any affect.  That gives me solace.  Roya seems to think that my condition is stress-borne, both from the anticipation of the Ironman and from work.  I think it’s more the latter.  I want so badly to perform well, to be on top of everything, to understand things quicker, to be a bigger asset to my boss, to produce good results, to develop good strategy, etc., and I don’t feel as if I’m living up to my standards.  Sure, I get accolades here and there, but they honestly fall on deaf ears.  For that matter, this is a common theme in my life since it has applied to athletics, music, academics, etc.  I always seem to fight through it and find some measure of success, at least by my definition, and I have to believe that this will happen again.

For now, I’m just trying to keep an even keel and get through these last few days.  I leave for Hawaii on October 3rd and between now and then, I will compete at the Westchester Olympic Triathlon this Sunday, work all next week, get my bike one final tune-up, go to a couple of social functions (that’s a true rarity for me), then pack.  I’ve had to order a few things as a rush, including a new helmet following my crash a couple of weeks ago, new cycling shoes following that same crash, new running shoes because the old ones didn’t feel so great on the longer runs, and some nutritional items.  Spending a few bucks on all these things, but that’s the literal price to pay to participate in this sport.

My awesome coach Christian has prescribed a great race-week program for me that includes a fair amount of course recon, and I intend to follow it to a tee.  Roya and I will be staying at a hotel for two nights, then on Wednesday, move to our rented house that we’ll share with nine other friends who all arrive later that day.  It’s about 4 miles from the central area of the race (what I believe they call the Ironman Village), so it’s a bit of a walk on race day for all of them to go back and forth, should they choose to do so, but that’s a detail I’ll leave to them to work out.  Roya has arranged “Team GG” t-shirts which is just so amazingly generous.  It will be cool to see everyone wearing them on race day.

I’ll post again on Sunday following the Westchester race.  If all goes well, that will be race finish number 87, thus making Kona potentially #88.  I am admittedly getting excited about this epic adventure that awaits me.  I feel ready physically and honestly, quite happy to get this over with.  In a post that I’ll soon publish, I’ll talk more about the psychological component herein.  That is, there exists a certain motivation that keeps me, and most others, focused on training and racing and a certain personality or character element that Ironman athletes share.  Some call it a Type A personality, others believe we’re OCD, and yet others just believe that it’s an escape from the empirical stresses of life.  I’m sure there are truths to all such theories, but there’s a lot more to consider.  In fact, there’s a story to be told here.  Assuredly, I’m asked by people who first hear about this Ironman thing why I choose to do that and if that is my definition of fun.  I can quickly and candidly share that it is not fun.  It is hard.  I don’t necessarily like hard.  I want to relax on the couch and spend all my time there with Roya and our dogs… but I don’t.  I’ll tell you why soon.