The end of 2017 was a turning point. Just before they turned 3 they started sleeping through most of the night, and Julie and I were able to start getting regular amounts of sleep ourselves. This allowed me to refocus on training. At the time, I was already running 5-10 Km 1-2 x/week. In October 2017 I started some interval training to increase my lactic threshold. Again, nothing crazy only a couple of short hard runs and a couple of short easy runs a week. My goal was to start longer runs in December to prepare for a few 100mile races I had in mind for 2018.
I went to sign up for Cruel Jewel 100mile race in December and the race was sold out. I was disappointed at the time, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. A few days later a replay of the 2017 Ironman World Championship was on TV and I watched the whole broadcast (an edited version of the entire race). An Ironman consists of 3.8 Km swim, 180 Km bike ride and a 42 Km run. As a kid I watched the World Ironman Championship on TV a few times and always imagined competing in this race. I was hooked! It was also then that I remember reading a book a few years back on Rich Roll, called Finding Ultra. Rich was a guy who went from being an out of shape 40-year-old to completing a race called Ultraman. A 3-day multisport race consisting of Day 1: 10km swim and a 145km Bike ride, Day 2: 276km Bike ride, Day 3: 84km run.
In a matter of a week, I went from hoping to run two different 100mile races, to focusing on triathlons for 2018. The goal now was to train and compete in shorter races and work my way up to longer distances, so that eventually I can complete both the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, along with Ultraman World Championship, which also takes place in Hawaii. Two very extremely hard races to get into, as well as complete, but there’s nothing like a good challenge!
