"The question is not whether we will live, but how we will live." - Joan Borysenko

It has been almost a month since my last post, but it has been a busy month. The swimming and biking have cranked up quite a bit, and the running is coming along, although for a week or so the impact of hitting the ground with each step was bothering some muscles up through the right side of my body. I am basically clueless when it comes to naming the muscles affected - I know where it hurts and when it hurts; I will let the medical types tell me the names of things.
The month's activities were not just the training. I went in for my annual stress test with the cardiologist. The technician doing the work this time was the same one who was there when we ended up going from the stress test to the triple bypass surgery in 2008, and her first statement was "I really hope we don't end up the same way as last time." You and me both, sister!! That was an understatement! Unneeded worries - the test went extremely well. Dr. V looked at the digital images and the charts and said all was good, just keep doing what I am doing. So I hit him with "well, actually, doc, I do have a question..." (yeah, i know -- sounds like that Viagra commercial, doesn't it?) and first ackowledged he had told me before that my heart could not clear the oxidants in the blood fast enough if I was going to attempt a marathon, then with the caveat "I won't run all of it" I told him I wanted to do a full IronMan -- the third segment of which is in fact a full marathon. After further discussion, and acknowledgement from Dr. V that I managed the exertion for the Half-Iron in April and the Triple Bypass ride in July, he approved the full IronMan.  Woohoo!!
Then my next thought was like everybody else when they start this adventure: "What the heck am I getting myself into?" But I already know the answer to that, because a good friend of mine is doing exactly that. I have watched her progress, I have ridden with her, I swim with her on occasion, and I listen to her stories about her training. I will acknowledge right here and now that there is no way I will in 2011 be even close to her finish time in 2010...
So the first thing I did after the stress test was sign up for another Half-Iron distance triathlon. I know a lot of the training plans for IronMan start a year out, and this is more like 14 months, but it will be a good baseline to start from.
I set up a new website for this adventure, and hope to do fundraising to benefit organizations serving those with cardiovascular issues and limitations... check it out at CardiacIronman.com
So - here we go !!