It Takes A Village….My Ironman Village

I’m six weeks into training and counting down to race day. Only 176 days to go! Half a year...so much work to do and so little time. Yikes!  I thought I would take some time to give some shouts out to people who have helped get me on this road to Ironman Lake Placid.

These first two…. I honestly do not know where to begin.  Ryan and Amelia….I love you guys!  They are kick a$$ personal trainers and get tons of credit for hardening my body and preparing it for the demands of long distance training. My life intersected with theirs at Body Resolution. Never did I imagine their span of influence would spill over from personal torturer trainer to therapist and friend. Check out BR at www.bodyresolution.com. They both challenged me in ways I had never been challenged; pushed me to new limits; and taught me to demand excellence, but also be good to myself. In some ways, they knew me better than I knew myself. Ryan is the one who first started calling me Nytro. Training and racing for long course triathlon means constant pounding on the legs. The cumulative fatigue that builds up over a race season doesn’t leave room for heavy leg training. After every race, there would be two questions: 1. How’d it go? 2. Nowwww do I get to train your legs?!?!? I guess it’s fair to say my legs are my strong suit and they always wanted a piece of them. Sorry guys, maybe some day we’ll get together for some Total Leg Annihilation!

Here’s Ryan, Amelia, and I (I'm in the middle) at the start of Tough Mudder Vermont in May 2011. Epic day. Greater than epic people.

Joey Adams of Intelligent Fitness (website coming soon at www.intelligentfitness.com) is a Master’s level Exercise Scientist. That means he knows how to interpret all those complicated charts and graphs that leave me scratching my head. He is a trusted advisor and someone I work with a couple times per year for VO2 testing. It’s brutal, but very valuable stuff. He has taught me some important lessons. While I didn’t want to believe him, the theory of base building is magic. For 8 weeks last February and March, Joey sentenced me to Zone 2…Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, do not let the heart rate go above 150 beats/min. He also taught me to categorize my races as A-B-C. I used to approach every race as an A race, but I also raced almost every weekend, so you can see this was not a winning formula. Joey has helped me build my engine. I’ve got to tell you, he's on to something here with this base building stuff because I PR’ed at every distance I raced in 2012. Thanks Joey! Still working on patience….and will be for a while.

Joey introduced me to Dave. Dave is my new tri coach. He is a USA Triathlon Level I Certified Coach and can be found at www.1K2GO.com. It’s great that Dave is certified, but he better have a whole lotta’ psychology based tools in his belt if he’s going to manage Nytro! She doesn’t always listen, she often does things the hard way (the really hard way), and mostly is in need of saving from herself. But you didn’t hear it from me…  Dave manages my training plan and trains with me twice per month. I’ve never had a coach before, but I’m really excited about working with him and seeing how it translates in Lake Placid.

Next up for supporters is Dealer.com. This is where I work. We are the leader in digital marketing solutions for car dealers. If you researched cars online in the last decade, you probably used one of our 15,000 websites. Dealer is unlike any place I’ve known with a strong commitment to healthy living. We have an organic café, a gym that rivals the best gyms in the country, a group exercise schedule that is far superior to anything available locally (CrossFit, yoga, kickboxing, spinning….on bikes that actually put power back into the grid!). We have a Life Team who is dedicated to all the missions at DDC to keep us healthy. I just won a scholarship for six months of training with the head coach. So now I get to add Scott to my list of supporters. He will focus on sport-specific strength and conditioning, body alignment, and nutrition. Nutrition…..my nemesis. Lots of opportunity here. Thanks DDC! Check 'em out at www.dealer.com.

A huge shout out goes to Sarah and REV Indoor Cycling….the newest love of my life (REV, not Sarah…although she’s pretty awesome!).  REV is the hottest place in town, specializing in kick a$$ spinning. Check out www.revindoor.com.  Sarah has not only allowed me a coveted spot on her team, but she indulges my crazy thoughts. She let me develop a concept called clubREV where the underground club scene meets the spin studio! This place is truly awesome and there is nowhere else I want to be. Sarah has created something special. REV and the people here will be a constant part of my Ironman journey. Come check it out.

Last but certainly not least, I want to shout out to these two guys – my big brothers! Meet Norman and Michael….the two people responsible for helping me develop what may be the most important tool in my Ironman tool kit – my mental edge. The ability to go deep into the pain cave. The ability to tolerate unbelievable amounts of discomfort. A never-stop-fighting approach. Why do they get the credit for this? Well for starters, they are my older brothers and I believe they were put on Earth solely to torture me. Daily. For at least 17 years. I had to learn to fight back. If I wanted to play, I had to play with the boys. If they weren’t physically pummeling me, we were playing the World Cup of soccer or the World Series of Baseball, even the Super Bowl of Football (tackle of course). Sports were a huge part of our childhood – both organized and unorganized – and survival of the fittest was of Olympic proportion at our house! Many thanks to my Big Bros for teaching me how to have the mental edge that is so important in endurance racing.

There are many others – family and friends – that support me in my journey each and every day. It would be impossible to list everyone, but some notables are my parents, JoJo, Jennyb, JT, Shawn… Thank you all.

Today I learned a valuable lesson. It’s Saturday night and I needed to do an hour long “easy” run, so I decided to play my clubREV playlist to pass the time on the indoor track. Final song was one of my favorites, Greyhound by Swedish House Mafia. Have a listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBRKSIj2tMc. Seven minutes of pure adrenaline administered via a Skullcandy central line. I finished my hour and kept it in Zone 2, exactly as the plan said. And then I replayed the song and laid down an extra mile. Screw Zone 2!!! “Hello my name is Nytro and I am an addict.”

On a side note, today I participated in the Penguin Plunge. For the sixth time, I took a plunge into the frigid depths of Lake Champlain in beautiful Burlington, Vermont to benefit VT Special Olympics. Water temp was 36…air temp 16. Yup, another shenanigan to remind myself I'm alive.

You can see I am surrounded by the most amazing support system. I can’t imagine taking this journey without them. They will play crucial roles over the next six months. Wait for me at the top, guys, I’m on my way! The point is…You don’t have to do the hard stuff by yourself. Have a support system. Lean on them. Let them prop you up when you need it. Don’t profess to know all the answers. Surround yourself with those that have the answers or can help you get them. Just open yourself up to learning and discovery in whatever journey you are on. And don't forget to have fun doing it. Makes sense to me…