Duh!

Hi. It's Laura.

As we get closer and closer to July 8  (triathlon day) the more obsessed I become.

During every swim, run and ride, I am imagining myself during the actual race. In my mind's eye, I finish every time. YAY me. I have not imagined and injury or a crash and my superstitious mind won't allow me too either.

Every day I get up and go practice one of the three disciplines sometimes two in the same day. Sadly there are not just three disciplines there are at least five. Transitions are the fourth discipline and getting up at 3:30 in the morning is another one. How on earth do you train for early rising you ask? You can and you can't.

You already know that The Husband and I are early risers, he is definitely better at it than I am. He also has the dog to help. Regardless we are both out of bed by 5:30 am and, if not already going, getting ready to go.

The start time for the Tri is 5:00 AM for the elites and the rest of us will be following shortly thereafter. It looks like I will be entering the water around 6:30 AM. But there is a whole lot more that goes in front of that. At this time, I am not sure if I have to actually go to the "hosting" hotel and be shuttled into the start area or if I will be able to get to the start area on my own (I will find out at the athlete briefing in July). Regardless the transition area, where you set up all your gear around your bike, closes at 5:30 am. So now is the time to practice getting up in the middle of the night and getting out the door.

An opportunity came through to me via email yesterday from the New York Road Runners. If you volunteer for this year's Brooklyn Half Marathon (13.1 miles) you are guaranteed entry in to next year's half marathon. Of course I may not want to run a half marathon next year but I might. So I signed up. Well, well much to my surprise, I have to be in Brooklyn at 5:00 am to help set up the fluid station.

I was flabbergasted at my own stupidity at first. I then decided to treat this as a training situation. What better way to practice getting up in the middle of the night than getting up in the middle of the night.

So next Saturday night while some of my friends will still be out on the town and some of them will be sleeping soundly, I will get up at 3:30 and get my tired, sorry, butt to Brooklyn to pour fluid for athletes that have been training for months to complete their own personal goals. And while all of you go out for brunch, I will be taking a nap.

See. You can put a training plan together for any discipline if you try hard enough.

Enjoy the weekend and sleep well.

Play hard!

Laura