Ironman is this weekend

Well, I have neglected my blog, it seems.  I have had many thoughts about what I should be posting here, and the past few weeks have had some pretty exciting acheivements, but taking the time to make complete sentences about it felt like it would be more than I was willing to attempt.  I continue to struggle through my night shift hours, and I have run quite the emotional gauntlet as my race approaches.  I definately have been limited by the hot summer and working this unforgiving shift.  I lost my work gym to renovations, and have had troubles getting away to go to my own gym.  I began flipping on my days off again so that I could train with a little more safety.  This cut into workouts because the flip day is worthless for any kind of accomplishments.  I am lucky if I can spell my name correctly on those days.  In addition, my night shift has led to me doing whatever it takes to stay awake.  This includes some unhealthy consumption of red vines and baby ruths.  I have been struggling to maintain my weight, and have been getting angrier and angrier at myself for not being able to say "no" to the available sugar. 

Despite the inability to finish scheduled workouts and the unhealthy eating, I have accomplished the 100/10 bike/run brick I have dreamed of since I started training for this race.  Not only did I do this workout, but, a couple of days later, I completed a 20 mile run.  I will not pretend that my pace made me feel the slightest bit proud of myself, but I was not walking.  My 100 mile bike ride included 2 laps on the ironman bike course.  The race will be 3 laps.  The best part of the ride is that the last part will be downhill :-).  The grade on the uphill is not very steep either (maybe 1-2%), so my extra flab will not cost me too much. 

This is my final week before my race.  I have been eating well, and doing some short, recovery workouts to rest up for the big day.  My sleep has not gone well the past couple of days, and I am frustrated by this.  Sleep is an important part of the race preparation process.  It is also an important part of the brain functioning to be an engineer process.  I have come to realize that I cannot be the best version of myself for as long as I remain on the night shift.  It makes me sad that I could not cut it as a nocturnal human, but I have come to realize that there are people with this gift, and I am simply not one of them.  I hope next year will lead to a position on day shift and with that the opportunity to be a more worthwhile athlete and engineer.