Ironman brain

9 days until my first Ironman. The countdown is officially in the single digits holy shit it's so close! This past week has seemed like a bit of a roller coaster of feeling exhausted and feeling better. Feeling really slow and sluggish and feeling light on my feet. 9 days is still a long way to go for my body to finish recovering. Recently I've had a handful of days of complaining about being so tired again. Of course that is followed with a day of work where all I can think about is crawling under my desk and sleeping. My brain really does feel fried when my body is tired. Just like my sisters tell me how pregnancy brain is a real thing, Ironman brain is a real thing. To give some examples of the dumb things I've done over the last few months:

• I tried to put my dirty dish into the oven instead of dishwasher
• I walked out of the shower only using shampoo and forgot to condition hair, body wash and shave
• I used the hashtag #androadintoaditch .... road, not rode
• I found my phone in the kitchen sink
• I put the new container of almond milk in the sink
• I tried locking my keys in the car
• I put my car into reverse to back out of the garage, then realized I never opened the garage door

There seems to be a trend of doing dumb things right after finished training which is why they happen in the kitchen, shower or car. Hopefully my husband doesn't take my keys away from me after reading this. I joke sometimes when he comes home from work on a Friday after I've trained all day that he should just be happy I didn't set the house on fire. 

Recently I've been thinking back to the last several months. About all the hard work, long hours, frustrating short runs, swims where I can't hit my pace. The negative workouts aren’t what I focus on anymore though. I remember all the long hours on the bike and how I can stay strong (with the help of some caffeine) for 6 hours. I remember all the climbing rides I’ve done and how I feel confident climbing and descending. I remember how far I’ve come in only the last month with running. It wasn't that long ago my runs weren't longer than 30 minutes. I think about the few races I have done, how well they went. I think about the dumb things I’ve done with a foggy brain because it makes me laugh at myself. I don’t want to take any of this too seriously. At the end of the day I do all of this because I find joy in it.

So right now I’m holding onto all the positive thoughts best I can and trying to let my body recover best I know how with lots and lots of foam rolling, eating veggies (with a side of unhealthy crap) and sitting on the sofa (or floor). This morning I finally realized that I've crawled myself out of that deep deep fatigue hole and now my muscles are simply tired from the day to day training. Now I'm trying really really hard to shut my brain off and stop thinking about triathlons because I'm so close to the race where thinking about it can make me want to throw up. I'm so excited about this race but as the same time I'll admit... I'm nervous.