Life after Ironman

I've now been an Ironman for about 8 days...After a week, I'm down to saying, "I did an Ironman!" only about once a day and I actually took off my IMC sweatshirt and washed it. The post-race buzz has worn off a little, but Seujan and I have done a very good job of maintaining it with regular celebratory beverages ("'Nother drink? Sure! I'm not training for anything!")...which leads me to wonder if the post race "Recovery month" is so named because the stacking of celebration beers could make one NEED the other kind of recovery. OK, that's a little exaggeration, but it has been nice to have a few toasts and to relax a bit and work out for FUN. Sleeping in, running around Greenlake as the entire day's exercise (wow, is this what "normal" people do? One shower per day, wow), and remembering how much fun "junk miles" on the bike can be has been a nice reward for the months of training. Of course, my "working out for fun" eyes were bigger than my legs on at least one occasion when Seujan and I went out for a 55 mile ride on Saturday. We were both mentally and physically done about 10 miles before the end of that ride...but still had to pedal back to the car. Oops.

I haven't blogged much as things seem a little boring post race...I mean, big deal, I ran Greenlake and swam in the lake with long chat breaks to admire Mt. Rainier. Oh, and I think I spent at least 8 hours last weekend in coffee shops and bars shooting the breeze and catching up with people I haven't seen in months ("Did I mention I did an Ironman?" Maybe there's a reason I haven't seen these people in months...they may have been avoiding me?). The most exciting things to report have been that I got a bit of a cold last week and today, for the first time in probably 3 months, I wore a pair of shoes other than the Chaco sandals I swiped from SJ last spring...the ones I've worn to work every single day, worn to/from races, to the store, in the rain, and around the house. I pried them off my feet for one day (for another pair of Chacos, but still...), but true to my creature of habit ways, I'll probably be wearing them tomorrow again. Other than biking and running, there will be no socks or real shoes on my feet until it's absolutely necessary. Hoping the late summer/early fall hangs on until, well, December would be nice...