Some reasons for my obsession

I never intended to join the blogging bandwagon.
I didn't really think I had enough of an interesting life for people to want to read about it!! Then 5 weeks ago I absolultely obliterated my personal best at Ironman France, and qualified for the Ironman World Champs in Hawaii.
For most of us mere mortal triathletes, we look at the people going to Kona with reverence and awe. Wow - Hawaii, imagine actually treading water in Kailua Bay, riding out to Hawi through the Lava fields, and turning around on the run at the Energy Lab. One day. Maybe. (I used to say when I got to the 50 - 55 age group I would make it!)
For the non - triathletes, the Hawaii Ironman is still something many have heard about. The Gatorade ad of Chris Legh collapsing 50m short of the line has been seen by many, and in fact that footage was shown in my first year veterinary physiology class as a classic demonstration of how your body will shut down non - vital organs (such as your gut) in order to keep you functioning. "Wow" I thought in 2003 when I saw that footage. "Imagine having the mental willpower to push yourself even when parts of your body have shut down". (Link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq25qvY3ORU&feature=related
I know someone else who does that every day. My Father. He, and  several of his family members have a genetic condition called Motor Sensory Neuropathy, or Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease. My Dad absolutely LOVED sport and anything to do with being active. (He has been a window cleaner all my life). His condition always gave him some problems with balance and ankle weakness, but it never stopped him. It still doesn't, although he now finds it very hard to walk the kind of distances most people take for granted, and the kind of distance us Ironman triathletes would do as a brick run off the bike!!
So one of my big motivators for doing this sport is
1. That I can. I am physically blessed to be able to push my body for hours and hours. That makes the mental side of the sport a hell of a lot easier in itself.
There are many other reasons why I do Ironman. I wrote an article before Ironman South Africa in 2010 "Why I do Ironman triathlons". I will add it at some point along this journey. I revisted it before France, and all my reasons hold true.
So, in a fair amount of shock at having qualified for the biggest day in the sport, I took 2 weeks recovery, then back to Melbourne for a 12 week prep for Kona!! That was a bit scary, as I had gone through a 20 week prep for France. I had to be really careful that I didn't overdo the first couple of weeks, and having pulled my glute waterskiing in Dubai (whoops) I needed to take a couple of easy weeks of running. Sean Foster, my awesome coach kept holding me back, and only introduced some quality sessions last week.
The great thing is, I am finding that I am running as fast in training as I was just before France, and other than having to get used to riding the time trial bike again (I rode the road bike in France, as the course included 2000m of climbing!) my bike sessions have actually gone really well too.
I have lots of thoughts to share about Ironman triathlon. Thoughts are the operative word, because I have come to realise that to succeed in this sport - yes, you need to train (a lot!!), yes you need to be consistent, yes you need commitment and dedication, but I believe that RACE day is 20% physical and 80% mental, and it's how you train your BRAIN to race that counts.
More on that later, but for now, I hope I can keep some people entertained, but I also hope that some people will reach into their pockets and donate some money to the CMT charity. I have never raced for a charity before, but I feel that now is the time to do so. I am looking forward to the moment in Hawaii when I need to dig deeper than I have ever dug, and know that yes, I am doing it for me, but that other people may benefit from it too. Here is the link to the charity page
http://www.justgiving.com/JCoombe
10 weeks to go - week's totals =
22 hours/ 11.5km swimming/ 278km cycling/ 73.9km running