Negotiating the speed bumps

The last 2 weeks or so have seen me hit a few speed bumps (e.g. my daughter getting ill a couple of times, my own 24 hour stomach bug last week and then again last night and the emergence of some self doubt), but I think I have negotiated them now. I have trained strongly since Sunday with an excellent long ride on my own on Sunday, a couple of good sessions in the pool, another good controlled ride today and (despite having to have a couple of unscheduled toilet stops to deal with an upset stomach) a good controlled 90 minute run last night.

My head is also in a better place thanks to positive comments from people in response to my self doubt posting last week. The first of these was from Jason Wadsworth who always seems to come up with fantastic feedback just when I need it. Last week he emailled me within hours of my post and said:

"Time for reflection mate. Did you have those voice's when you ran your first half [marathon]. If you had listened to them you may have stopped but your character is too strong to listen to them. Reflect back on how far you have come and take from that the strength you need to move forward and achieve your goals. You can do anything. ... Often we spend so much time focusing on our goals that we think it can never be achieved. When we review how far we have come it can often reminds us that yes the road is difficult ahead but we have achieved goals in the past, we can achieve in the future if we want to."

Very wise advice and something that I have taken on board and will be putting into practice more often. I have been recording my sporting achievements over the last two years and I periodically look at the results (and by that I usually just mean the numbers), but I rarely reflect on exactly what I have achieved. I plan to do this in a blog post later this week. Thanks Jas! You have been a huge help to me already, I am so glad that I looked you up on facebook when I did. I used to look up to you as my First XV rugby captain at school and you are still coming through with inspiration and leadership even if (and possibly even because) you are so humble with it.

Others have provided positive reinforcement face to face. For example Geoff (Coach) in his usual way - "Shit yeah, you can do this and do this well." - it never ceases to amaze me how supremely confident he is in my ability to pull this off. Victoria (Race Director) from Challenge Wanaka at a promotional road show last Thursday evening also said that she had every confidence that I could do this. I have also drawn further comfort from the training diary of Tracey Richardson that I found online, as her entries are littered with pangs of anxiety and doubt and she got through Ironman NZ and then conquered the Hawaii Ironman about 8 months later. Then, today I received a comment on my blog from Rachel Harris (see comment on self doubt post) that was a great boost and reading her account of her Challenge Wanaka 2009 effort has spurred me on too (I love these random comments from people, as they make not only the journey more worthwhile, but they also drive me to write more in this blog).

Thanks to everyone for helping me through these speed bumps. I am sure there will be more bumps more obstacles to negotiate but now I am reassured that there will be plenty of people there to help me over, through and around them.