This week it has been a horrendous trial battling the flu virus that I caught on Sunday. On Sunday I ran 12K at Punggol, whilst simulating the actual heat I would face on race day. I started the run at 11.00 am in the hot sunny day, battling the heat as I paced myself slowly. Had my music playing from my phone as I ran easy. The heat really messed my pace as the heart rate monitor showed a high beat of 162, whilst the pace was slow. That was the same feeling I had when I did my first triathlon at East coast. I was running slowly in the heat whilst my hear rate was beating very fast, in the range of 182 then. After 45 minutes of running in the sun the weather turned and it started to rain. Hence it became a 45 minutes run on the hot sun with another 20 minutes of run with the clouds above me pelting me with rain. I guess, the dramatic change in weather may have weakened me enough to get sick the next day. I had to battle flu as I prepared to send my children and my wife to India.
On Tuesday after sending my family off at the airport, I had to do EFI safety supervision job at Diary farm adventure centre. It was raining lightly and I had no choice but to complete this job that I agreed to do last week. Hence I spent the next 4 hours concentrating on making sure the kids were wearing the hareness properly and supervising the belayers who were tasked to belay the kids. Even if you are sick, the mind is capable of switching gears to stay focus to get the work done at hand. I remembered the same experience I had for the 2nd batch of participants, who attended my leadership program. They did not know I had fever that night. Even then I followed through with a 5 Km run and swim that was intended for them the next day.
It all goes to sure one is capable of more then what you think you can do. I have lost 2 days of training and I look forward to running on Wednesday. It has been lonely and tough not having my family around. Then again my work is heating up and this week onwards it is going to requite me to stay very focus to complete the 3 projects I have for May. That is life isn't it, staying focus in the context of what you do. As a father, husband or athlete, there is a real need at times to dig in deep within your soul to ask your self why you do things that you do. At times you do get distracted and the price you have to pay can get phenomenal if you are not able to check yourself. When biking on the road, there were countless times when cars get very closed and it takes sheer concentration to keep my focus intact my not getting hit by a car or a bus. Likewise, it takes the same sense of focus when you start a training regime. There I am running and it makes no sense to just follow a routine for the sake of doing an activity. The ironman race is important to me it is about seeking a accomplishment I can be proud of. It is tough as I am not as young as used to be and this race is important for me.
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