Holy cow, we are down to 18 days!!!!  We actually leave for Hawaii 2 weeks from today!!  Things are starting to get real.

Bib numbers came out.  I’m #1710.

Today was supposed to be the day that I had to drop my bike off for transport, but that was extended until 9/23, so I get a few more days with my girl.

We got the itinerary from our travel group.

The Ironman athlete’s guide is out. 

Things are starting to happen fast.

O.M.G.!

I actually for the first time, peeked at the 10 day Kona forecast this morning.  -It’s hot, humid and windy, incase you were wondering.

This is the first time that I’ve really started to realize that this is actually happening.  It couldn’t come at a better time either because my last week of training has sucked.  I think it was a combination of the typical post race (Reston) mental crash, race fatigue and PMS.  Whatever it was, it sucked.  I was able to get in my 22 mile run on Friday, but I was supposed to do my last 6 hour ride on Saturday and bailed 27 miles into it.  I just didn’t have it in me.  In my defense, I was in Deep Creek, MD which is a challenging place to try to ride for 6 hours.  It was also windy and 42 degrees.  Mostly, though, I’m just over training.  Not over-training, but over training.  I’m over it.  I’m ready to taper and do this thing.

This Sunday I was feeling pretty bummed about quitting on my ride.  I’ve never quit on a major workout before.  I’m pretty sure, though, at the end of the day it’s not going to matter one bit.  My goal is to push through the mind fog this week and hit all my workouts.  This is the last big week before Taper!  I am excited.

I am noticing that I’m starting to drop some other things in my life.  Poor Roo hasn’t been walked near as much as she should.  My work emails are piling up.  I am a week behind in studying for my November CFP exam.  In my typical fashion, I’ve started to flog myself for all of these things, but I just need to stay relaxed about it.  I’ve bitten off a lot.  In the next 3 weeks Hawaii is my priority.  Who knows if I will ever get this opportunity again, I just want to embrace and enjoy it.  That’s not to say that I’m going to just throw up my hands and let everything else fall to the side, but I have to give myself a looser leash than usual.  There is only so much a person can do.

What I’m going to do this week is focus on having successful workouts, taking care of myself with foam rolling and stretching and being kinder to ME by not incessantly beating myself up about all the things I’m not doing.

So far, the week is off to a good start.

FYI, my celebrity blogger tells me he’ll have his Savageman race report done by tonight, so hopefully that will be coming soon!