Last year I got in such great shape from doing 21 Day Fix that I got that thought, "what else can I do?"
In my mind, IRONMAN represents the ultimate test of fitness. Yes, there are other ultra events waaayyyy more crazy than IRONMAN but for me this is the pinnacle of what I'm willing to do. After having kids back to back, c-sections with both, gaining and losing over 100 pounds, seeing myself in a body that I didn't recognize and going through that process of losing weight and re-strengthening my body.... being an IRONMOM is the ultimate revenge. The ultimate come back. The ultimate f-you to the way I felt when I wasn't fit.
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| Abby Coyle crossing the finish line at Patriot 70.3 |
After doing IM Arizona in Nov 2010 I had zero desire to do another IRONMAN. Zero. It took every ounce of my being to train that year. I trained like a maniac too. I don't think I did fewer than 3 Cambridge Masters Swim classes per week for an entire year. I biked at least twice during the week at 5:45am, lifted and ran every afternoon, and was out the door by 6am to ride on Saturday. Then on Sunday I religiously did my ride / run brick to complete the week. I also never took a day off. I might have taken a few days off that entire year. It was crazy but it was what I wanted and needed at the time.
Last year I got a "whiff of crazy" and started to consider what it would take to do another IRONMAN. I talked with other moms who had done it, talked with my old coach Jesse Kropelnicki from QT2, and signed up for IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant, Aug 20, 2017.
This time, with a 3 and 4 year old, I really wanted to approach training with more balance. Frankly, training for an IRONMAN requires you to be a little off-center (shall we say?). Or is it that you have to be so "centered" to allow your body and mind to do things that other people don't consider normal? Regardless, the task in itself makes it so that it's not easy to be "balanced" and ask your body (and more importantly your mind) to do so much work. Basically, if you want to be great then "f" balance! But, I've kept myself from passing that line.
If you've been following my progress, you know that I stressed out all winter. It was too cold most of the time to ride outside and then we had a very rainy spring. Only recently have we been able to get outside to ride. I do feel that I'm racing against time to get my fitness to the level I want it to be. Regardless, a couple of weeks ago we did a 90 mile ride (which was tough) and I did a half marathon the next day (which went surprisingly well) and last weekend I did a 1 mile open water swim. Going into Patriot 70.3 I felt prepared.
What I didn't expect was the wave of emotion that crossed over me at mile 12 of the run (that's 69.3 miles into the race). At that point I was really in the zone and sweet talking myself to the finish line. Then, the realization hit me that only two years ago I couldn't run a mile. I had that moment, like - holy shit look how far you've come! With a quick glance over my should to make sure no one was watching I let those happy tears flow! I was crying and crying and just so damn happy. "I'm here. This is where I wanted to be. This is a big deal and I made it."
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| Abby Coyle Patriot 70.3 2017 Results |
Overall my results were pretty good! I was about 22 minutes slower than my last 70.3, which is pretty good considering Pumpkinman is in September vs Patriot in June which means I had a whole summer to get myself to that level of fitness. I have a ton of work to do to get me to IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant but that's ok! It's a lot of handle mentally but I'm proudly chugging forward!
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| Abby Coyle Results: Pumpkinman 70.3 2010 vs Patriot 70.3 2017 |
Great job! Keep up the training and brick workouts and you'll be ready to crush IMMT!
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