A Tale of Two Teams....

I feel very lucky to have a support group/team in California (where I was born and would love to live again someday) and another one in Oregon (where I currently live and have lived the majority of my life).

Socal Collective:
Members include: Natalie (my bestest of friends), Dave (Nat's dad), Todd (Nat's fiance) and a bunch of their Ironman friends. This is the team who's training schedule I am using from our wonderful Coach Gareth. I chose to do this because up until this point Natalie has been my link into the Ironman world. The first Ironman I witnessed was when she did Ironman Florida and afterwards we all discussed the possibility of doing CDA 2010. Last year Dave, Natalie and I all signed up together and planned to follow the same schedule. At the time I had no idea who I would actually be working out with since Nat lives in LA and Dave lives in Eugene. Which brings me to Team #2.

PDX Tri Clubbers:
Members include 15 or so triathletes who are all members of the PDX Tri Club and many of whom I've done Team in Training triathlons with in years past. This is the team who I am actually training with. I see members of this group usually twice a week at group workouts. And even though I didn't sign-up or pay for their Iron training schedule they have been very welcoming to an outsider:).

The positives of two teams:

Twice as many people to support you, motivate you and be your Ironman gurus and reference points

Twice as many people to commiserate with when you have been slacking or had a tough workout

Many more options for every aspect of training, planning etc...

Looking at the members of both of these groups, you have some of the best people around. They are solid, motivated and real and I look up to all of them. Each one of them pushes and inspires me to complete this thing, hopefully with a smile on my face!

The (not as) positives of two teams:

Two list serves which makes for A LOT of e-mail

When you skip a workout, you have two different groups to make you feel bad about it:)

I am constantly taking my SoCal training schedule and tweaking it to fit with Oregon crews schedule so I have friends to workout with

Both groups have different nutrition plans, training schedules and plans for taper so I am constantly second guessing if I am doing the right thing.

Since I am not 100% in either group, it's a constant question of who am I going to stay with, what pre-races am I going to participate in and who could I run a similar race with in CDA etc...

As of now the answer is I am racing CDA as a member of SoCal Collective, meaning I will be sporting their gear. This is my official team and these are the crazy people who convinced me to sign-up for this to begin with. Also let's be honest, I really want people to think I am from California:) What? I am not ashamed. However, due to a packed house, I am going to be staying with the Portland crew at the hotel they're calling home base. Ideally I will pace myself with either Natalie or Shannon but it's hard to do that in an Ironman so we'll see how it goes.

All in all I would not change this crazy collection of teams and friends for anything!

Finally, I will leave you all with two things I've recently received from my SoCal Collective team:

1. The bad news was the final training schedule which takes me all the way to Ironman. This did and still is causing me major panic.
2. The good news was my snappy new gear which I will be sporting during Ironman. I may not know how I am going to complete this but at least I know what I am going to wear. Yes I understand that this makes me very much a girl.

Now I just need to find some green compression socks for the marathon and I am set!