I Believe

There are no coincidences in life, and thus, I was meant to meet Belinda Granger just before I left Kona. She was meant to deliver a message that would get me through this ironman volume week:

I have been in the sport for a long time now and honestly a big percentage of it is MENTAL. You truly need to believe that you are capable of so much more than you think...you are so much stronger than you think....you are so much more determined than you think....you can deal with pain so much better than you think.

Yep, that was the last message Belinda sent me on Facebook, and there hasn't been a workout the past week that I have not called upon this advice. Physically, I'm feeling tired from 325 miles of cycling (with over 20,000 feet of climbing) and 48 miles of running, including a 30K trail race with 4100 feet of climbing. If you have a long run on the schedule, the best way to tackle it is to sign up for a trail race. Mentally, I'm copacetic, bring on that ironman at the end of the month.

Some highlights from this week's training:

• Jason riding with me for 184 of the 325 miles
• Feeling AWESOME during the 30K trail race one day after my 109 mile ride, and chasing my way to second overall
• Running into the kid in the above video
• Discovering the Bike Hut on Tunitas Creek Road (restores my faith in mankind and shows that we can indeed still trust)
• A quiet (and hot) Bay Area due to everybody being out of town for the weekend
• The bread pudding at Tartine
• And Finally...the TOUR de FRANCE on Versus