5 Things I Am Willing To Do...

So, after the sign-up. Now we are in. We are REALLY in.

What to do next?

Good question, huh? And one I was sick of answering myself. I mean, this is only my, what, sixth month as a triathlete? And now I am training for an Ironman. Man, I need some help if I am going to survive this next year. Sure, we navigated our way through our first season successfully and all, but I won't lie: It. Was. Hard. And part of the hardest part was never knowing if you were doing it 'right' or wasting your time or what not. I need someone to tell me what to do.

So we hired a coach to tell us what to do.

Now, I know that I say that nonchalantly, but let me assure you, this was not an easy or light-hearted decision. Luckily for us, we live in such a fit climate that the problem wasn't finding a coach, it was finding the right coach for us. And there are so many coaches with so many philosophies, ways of training, different specialties, personalities, everything! Oy, boy! We interviewed 5 (yes, 5!) different coaches and all but one Ross and I really liked. Each interview was 2+ hours, so that's over 10 hours, just on that. Not to mention Ross and I talked for hours about the pros and cons of each coach and what we would get out of them, what we needed, would we consider separate coaches, etc. We contemplated second interviews, but realized we wouldn't really learn anymore than we needed to know. And, when it came down to it, we had to go with our guts, jump in and hope we made the right choice. So we did.

Back to the story:
In the process of signing up with our coach, he had us fill out a number of worksheets on out health, goals, strengths, weaknesses, etc. to help him better understand where we were coming from and to aid him in his job of coaching us. One of the questions that struck me was:
List 5 things you are willing to do to accomplish your goals.

Huh? 5 things? Aren't I just going to be swimming, biking, running a whole lot? Maybe throw in some weight training and core. Do you want me to define how far I am willing to swim? How much time I will devote to biking? Put numbers on it? What's the goal here? I know it struck Ross, too, because he asked me how I was going to answer it.

So I thought about it a bit and came up with these five:

1. Pay a coach.
2. Keep an open mind and do whatever is asked of me from said coach. (Which I am guessing involves running, biking and swimming further than I have ever before.)
3. Define conservative goals for our business for the upcoming year (ie maintain it, but not focus on growing it).
4. Give the majority of my time to training, learning, recovering, etc.
5. Basically anything you ask of us. You're the coach and if you think it will improve me as an athlete, I will try my hardest to do it.

This was kind of an eye-opener to me, as I realized that IM training was going to be much, much more than hours in a week of training. It is going to impede on every part of our life. It is going to be a commitment that extends much further than the soreness of our muscles. It is going to affect the pocketbook, how we spend our family time, the business, where we spend our vacations, everything.

But, you know what, I am ok with that. By defining and knowing what we are giving up, we are accepting it so that we won't be resentful of it when it does indeed happen. I am reaffirming my commitment to the sport and to my goal for this next year.

It IS scary, but exciting at the same time.