Do you know how to properly stretch? We’ve all done it. You’re getting ready to head out for a run or play a game of flag football with buddies and you start to do the typical torso rotation, twisting your hips a couple times, leaning over to touch your toes, arch that back and look up towards the sky, swing the arms back and forth a couple times. Okay. Good to go!
Wrong.
If you were to visit my townhouse, you’d probably think it’s a nice place, but nothing all that spectacular.
It serves me well as a low-maintenance base for the moment, but the ceilings stand low, carpet is nearing replacement, most walls are blank and I don’t have surround sound or cable.
I like the quiet, tree-lined street I live on and occasionally wrestle with simple projects to step the house’s game up. But you won’t see it featured in any home-design magazines.
However, the house does boast one undeniably spectacular feature: the couch.
When I show up to the gym, I’m on a mission: to challenge myself, accomplish goals and complete that day’s workout quickly and efficiently.
My triathlon training incorporates about three strength-training workouts a week, and on these days, I try to spend as little time in the gym as possible. I’m not rude, but I’m not there to socialize. And given my affinity for obscure footwear and ragged, free exercise apparel, combined with facial expressions that say, “I’m about to puke,” or “Aaaaaggghhhh,” not many people stop me to chat.
And even though I’m OK being weird at the gym, this approach isn’t for everyone.
For some, the thought of making a plan and dominating goals may seem like too much work.
Perhaps working smarter, not harder sounds boring, and at the gym you’d rather focus on things like meeting someone, getting huge and hogging the mirror.
Then you – my friend – would be much better suited for the alternative, longer-lasting, less-intense and more vocal workout routine of That Guy.
I apologize in advance for the randomness and fragmented nature of this post, but since registering for Ironman AZ back in November, that is exactly what has been happening in my mind. All day, every day, a continuation of fragmented thoughts ranging from “OMG I’m so PUMPED. Cecily Fuller YOU ARE (ALMOST) AN IRONMAN!” to “OMG I want to cry, where do I go next?”
The thought of Ironman is always there. That M-Dot symbol is there when you wake up in the morning; you chase it during each training session; it’s the seasoning on your breakfast, lunch and dinner; and it’s that bitter flavor you taste with each sip of an IPA. Friends of mine who have completed an Ironman of their own warned me that once you take the plunge and officially register, it’s all you will think about for the following year. 
The reality of this hits me as I sit here with a pile of anatomy flashcards to study and it’s all I can do not to break into the stack of Ironman/tri training books I just borrowed from a friend. The inner turmoil continues. So, instead, I will do neither and I will sit here and pour my feelings into my Ironman blog. I call this a happy medium.
If you’ve been following our #triforles training tweets, you already know we’re going full steam ahead.
And even though the race is still 11 months away, it’s never too early to map the route and jot down smart goals to set us on the right path.
So I laid out the key checkpoints on my road map to Ironman AZ to give a big-picture look at how I plan on dominating my goal: to finish Ironman AZ in 12 hours or less.
Here are the races I’ll be competing in this year: