It is hard to believe I am on a jet to Kona this evening. It seems like yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine, who is also a coach, and I was telling him I thought that I might not have a season at all this year. In February I was really struggling to get in 7-8 hours of training in a week. My work commitments and travel schedule were pretty aggressive and I had, yet again, found myself training in the seams of my life, instead of it being a normal part of my daily routine. I was really struggling with my motivation to train, along with the reality that my life was filling up with so many "have to's" that my "want to's" were getting squeezed out of the schedule.
I don't do well when I am not fit. I think about it non-stop and it adversely affects my morale. As the year progressed, I came to the conclusion that if I am not training regularly and am not in decent condition with regard to my fitness, why am I signing up for any races at all? It was then that I made the adjustment in my schedule and my season started to come together. By April, I had gotten myself into decent early season shape and raced respectably in a local Olympic distance race down in Texas. This was the boost that I needed all winter. Things started to come together after that. My fitness was still slow in coming, but with some help from my friend, Scott Davis, I started to put things together. A call from the Navy Triathlon coach, Jim Felty, really motivated me when he asked me to not only coach this year's squad, but would I send in an application as an athlete. To be very honest, I thought my days of actually racing as an All-Navy team member were over. I am almost 48 years old and ITU draft legal racing was never my bag, but especially not something I would think I'd be doing now in a crowd of young military elites.
The short story is all of this lead to me showing up ready to go at Armed Forces National Championships and rolling my best time ever. I had gone faster in 2006, but the course was a bit short that year, so my 1:58 in June was very encouraging. I also PR'd at Eagleman 70.3 and now was starting to think good thoughts about Ironman Canada coming in August. As I was just about to start my taper for Canada, I received another call from the All-Navy coach. It was very disappointing to hear that our All-Navy Ironman selectee, Nick Brown had crashed and broken his elbow and wrist. I was genuinely heart broken for Nick. Nick is a fantastic young navy officer, who I have written about before in my blog. He, and a few other navy officers like Cam Loos, are the future of the Navy Ironman teams. These disciplined and gifted athletes have yet to go as fast as they will in the coming years. As things go in my life, Coach Felty asked me if I was fit and could I represent Navy at the Hawaii Ironman. I told him I was quite fit and would be honored to once again represent my service at this prestigious race. So that is how I found myself on my way to Kona this year.
I honestly believe that my fastest races in the lava are in front of me, too. So why do I think that I will go faster in the future? There are a bunch of reasons, but the major ones are that my life is really starting to settle down. My personal life is beyond wonderful. I have a lovely home life with my wife, best friend, training partner and soul mate, Teresa. We live a simple and quiet life in Boulder. We both feel we have hit the jackpot living there. Another reason I think my racing will improve, is I switched to a plant-based diet (vegan) 6 months ago and the results for me have been amazing. My recovery, sleep quality, and wellness have changed dramatically. I have leaned out and feel I am at my optimum or close to optimum body weight at 152lbs. That is 10-13 lbs lighter than I raced in 2009 or 2010. Lastly, the major reason is that I have made a conscious decision to carve out that space in my life to make room for the thing that I truly love to spend my days doing-triathlon. I no longer train in the seams. I don't make any excuses or avoid the question. I schedule in my training into my daily calendar and I am open about it. In the past, I have been a bit self conscious about admitting that I regularly train on the north side of 20 hours per week. Yes, it is true, I have to say no to a few more work commitments. I had to commit to getting up earlier in the morning to get in my training. I have also had to ratchet up my time management skills to continue to have the capacity to be successful at 3 jobs while being Ironman fit.
So when I get off the jet tonight in Kona, this season is already a success. I am stepping onto the island in literally the best shape I have ever been. My personal life and work life are the best they have ever been. I am the healthiest I have ever been. Lastly, I am the happiest and the most content I have ever been. I want for nothing. I am scary fit, my wife digs me, I am closer to my friends than ever, and I love living every day. We never know when the journey will end, so we better dig it while we can. Me? I am digging the ride more than ever.
Shaka,
Jonser
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