Life’s not a Sprint, It’s a marathon: my 2022 & 2023 plan
For about seven years now a big part of my life is guided by my love for the sport of triathlon. It’s crazy to think that I found health in not one, but three different endurance sports. Yet that is exactly the case, I’ve found the best health of my life post ostomy, proctectomy, and other surgeries for my Crohn’s disease by becoming a triathlete.
With endurance sports, comes a lot of planning. A glimpse into the future on what I’d like to strive for. Now right off the bat, this is in an ideal and perfect world. Since I live with multiple chronic illnesses and an ostomy, the world is rarely perfect for me.
So what does that mean for me and what should it mean for you? Roll with the punches, adapt to the situation when you get hit int he face, get back up, and still fight for what you want.
In the past, that’s exactly what happened to me. The year I completed my full 140.6 mile IRONMAN (which consists of a 2.4 mile open water swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile marathon), I had a prolapsed stoma about 6 weeks before the race. It changed my training, it changed my goals, it changed an enormous amount.
But it didn’t change my mindset of not only getting to the starting line for the race, but crossing the finish line as well. What did change was my approach.
No matter what my plans are, there will be adjustments that have to be made. With this in mind, I still like to have a plan laid out to follow and one that gives me purpose when I wake up each and every day.
With this in mind, here is my general plan for 2022 and yes, even 2023…
Yup, if you read that title right and went through the entire plan, I’d like to complete a second 140.6 mile IRONMAN in 2023. I thought I would never say that again the day after I completed Mont Tremblant, but I was also told by so many that would change, and it has.
Now a normal health person who is not living with a chronic illness, might be able to create a goal of completing an IRONMAN about 8-10 months after they make the commitment.
For me though, it’s going to take much longer. Not only because I don’t want to die trying. But if I want to reach my goals, finish stronger, and finish faster than I did in 2018, I’m going to have to put a lot of work in. Most importantly, I’m going to have to build my body up in a way it’s ready for the torture I’m going to put both my mind and body through.
I’m still debating on how I’m going to document this journey and all that goes into not only my training, but what I think can help others in the Spoonie community even more, managing my health overall.
I was the lucky recipient of an amazing birthday, Festivus, and anniversary this year, a GoPro 10 Black. I’m hoping that I can master using this cool little toy to capture and share what I do in order to make the IRONMAN slogan true “Anything is possible!”
