You Know Your Training for Ironman if...

Coach sent out some emails yesterday for her Ironman athletes. One was serious. One was lighthearted. I liked the lighthearted one. :) Some of them really resonated with me like...

• You use toilet paper to wipe the inside of the toilet bowl and think to yourself as far as "cleaning" goes - that will do, you'll clean it 'for real' after Ironman. Seriously, I might have to hire a cleaning team to do the house after Ironman.
• Dinner time is now what used to be bedtime. I don't remember the last time I had dinner before 9pm.
• You get on the scale and find you have gained weight. You think there is no mathematical way this could be possible for you to train more and gain weight. I might be at my highest weight ever right now, yet in the smallest size I've worn in years.
• You're too awake to fall asleep but to sleepy to stay awake. My sleeping patterns are all jacked up.
• There are more dirty water bottles in your dishwasher than dirty dishes.

• At least once a day you find yourself “on the prowl” – the point in the day where your hunger has become so huge that you start walking around looking for something, anything to shove in your mouth. And for me, I'm ALWAYS craving chocolate.
• Before you make plans, you say “I have to check my schedule”, not your work schedule or family schedule, but your workout schedule. Dave and I did a mad dash to see my niece and nephew play softball/baseball during our rest week.
• You keep hearing a voice in your head and it is saying “Meredith Gordon, you are an Ironman”. And it brings me to tears.
• Anything shorter than a 500 in the pool makes you feel like 'why bother'. Today's warmup was 1000.
• You’ve ridden more miles than you’ve driven in the past week. Especially true when you work from home.
• You think about Ironman incessantly. You drive to work and think "I am doing Ironman." You go to bed and think "I am doing Ironman." You wonder what you will think about after Ironman. Probably doing Ironman again? Gosh I hope not, but I think I said the same thing about marathons...

And two of my own...

• Don't bother buying new clothes. Even if you don't gain or lose any weight, your body shape will change so drastically that NOTHING will fit correctly. I, literally, just bought a pair of jeans a month ago that I had tailored to fit and now they are too loose.
• A new rash will appear weekly and they will be random and hard to explain. This week's: right below my belly button.