Patience

Ironman racing is all about patience. Whether training, recovery, or the actual race, patience is key. Having patience can be a challenge. There are times in training when you feel like you need to push beyond what you should. You follow your schedule despite knowing you need to back off. You train while sick or injured. You become a slave to the philosophy that more is better. This is when you must exercise patience. In order to ascend to a certain level in triathlon, especially long course triathlon, you must take some risks. You must, at times, push your body to the edge in training. But once you get there, you must exercise patience and know when to back off.

This year, I feel like I've had to be more patient than ever before. I have chronic sinusitis as well as asthma. I'm on more medication than anyone should be on, especially a healthy triathlete. But, that's my life. And I realize it and have accepted it. In fact, what normally happens to me is I get sick prior to big events. Not like a cold mind you, but anytime I get a cold or the sniffles or whatever, it translates into a sinus infection and an asthma flare up. Hence, the common medical tent story. In fact, I have raced to date: 2 Ironmans, 3 half Ironmans, and dozens of Olympic triathlons. I have never raced a half Iron or longer while healthy. That's 5 for 5 when it comes to being sick. So this year was going to be different! I started seeing specialists. All the time it felt like. I went through all kinds of tests, exams, and appointments. Ultimately it was decided that I did indeed have some bad nasal passageways which, when my immune system was low, were allowing/contributing to sinus infections. Which in turn would compromise my asthma. After IMCDA, I will be having a second surgery to hopefully correct this. Or at least make it better.

So fast forward to this past week. I was finishing my big build. I was feeling pretty good until about a week ago. And then it started. I was feeling run down. My sinus specialist had called in a course of antibiotics that I was supposed to take once I started to taper (the point at which most people contract colds leading into endurance events). But here it was, over a week from taper and I could feel it coming. What was going on? I thought about the patience. Just be patient Yates, you are over thinking it. I slept on it. Still felt run down the next day. Overly tired. I started going through my old training logs and journals and realized something. I don't get sick because of the taper, I get sick prior to the taper! I get sick when I'm putting out the most volume and the stress and anxiety of the race is starting to build!! Damn, how had I missed that all this time? I immediately started on the course of antibiotics. Which was good, because that weekend (last weekend) I picked up some kind of cold. Shit.

I was protected right? I tried to be patient and let this thing take care of itself. But after an off day on Monday, I wasn't feeling much better on Tuesday. And come Wednesday I was devastated. I now had a sore throat and was still tired. I was watching my season and goals fall by the familiar sickness wayside. I was struggling to make it through the day I was so depressed. I was trying to stay positive, but couldn't. All the hard work down the drain. And then I called my Dad. He is a doc, so he immediately handled me like a patient and not a son. He gave me orders of who to call. What to ask, what to say, and ultimately he reassured me that we would get through it. I then talked with my wife. And she helped me get even more positive. I was quickly in contact with my sinus doc. After an exam, I was reassured that I hadn't developed a sinus infection! Most likely because I got started on those antibiotics when I did. I had most likely caught some of this viral crap that was going around. I almost hugged him right there.

So, now we are just over two weeks away from the race. If I had to guess, I'm about 80%, maybe 85% going into this weekend. My asthma isn't great, but it will get better every day without having to fight a sinus infection. What did I learn from all this? You must have patience when dealing with Ironman training and racing. You also must learn from the past. History is there to be studied, not dismissed. And sometimes, shit is going to happen. You can either hang your head (like I did for part of that day) or you can develop a plan to overcome. As I think about the upcoming race, I'm just damn happy I will have an opportunity to toe the line. And hopefully do it as close to healthy as this poor schmuck can get :) Thank you to everyone that was sending me positive vibes over the past week. It helped. 2 more weeks. And then it's on.

-T