It’s not exactly the Pyrenees, or even the local Southern California ride up Latigo Canyon, but this past weekend I made the climb up Mandeville Canyon on my bike. This was big for me for a couple of reasons. One, it’s a climb. My heart rate isn’t the hugest fan of climbs. It tends to climb right along with the grade of the road. But I made it up the 5-mile long 1000-foot incline with only one stop.

The second reason that this is big for me is because it’s a far more challenging climb than anything that I will encounter at Kona. The climb there is about 500 feet, hitting a maximum altitude of around 650 feet, and it’s spread out over the 12 miles leading to the bike turnaround in Hawi. Obviously Mandeville will never replicate the winds or heat that can accompany the climb to Hawi. But with continued work on the incline I will be more than prepared for the climbing in Hawaii.

All in all it was a very good weekend of workouts. A nice confidence booster as we begin to stretch the mileage in the coming weeks.

This last weekend we crossed the five month mark until race day. Yep... that doesn’t feel nearly long enough to get myself ready. I had a great weekend of workouts - 4:00 hour bike/run on Saturday, good swim and run on Sunday (neither were too intense since it was “Rest and Test” week). But the five months will no doubt fly by at a rate that my body isn’t used to evolving.

I trust that I will be ready in five months. I know the work that lays before me, and I know that I will do it. And I know that my coach has put together a plan that will get me to the finish line. But I am tired after four hours of working out. How I am going to feel after four-times that length. Yes, I am expecting to take 16+ hours to finish my Ironman. Such is the plight of the athletically ungifted as they try and complete an Ironman after a heart transplant.

But a finisher is a finisher, and I won’t get a smaller medal than the people who finish six hours ahead of me. And finishing is really all I care about.