Believe You Can and You're Halfway There

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the power of believing in yourself and the impact it can have on your life.  Its a very simple concept as really all it entails is that you,  your own being, thinks that you can do anything.  However, this simple concept is difficult to wrap your head around.  More often than not the human species does not believe in themselves, instead wrapping themselves up in a self doubt that is consuming. Self doubt was something that plague my being for many years.  I spent a greater portion of my very early 20s not believing I was good enough for any one, especially myself.  Over coming this was not something that just happened overnight it took a conscious decision to understand that I was using not believing in myself as an excuse and that I was worth a lot more than I was allowing myself to be.

Once I shifted my focus, mentally and emotionally, to believing that I was worth something it was amazing how the life around me became attainable.  Through this I was able to gain more and more confidence till eventually it there was no question about who I was and what I wanted to obtain.  It was at this point that all my goals and dreams were finally something that I could work towards; by believing in myself I instantly covered half the ground needed to achieve my goals, I was halfway there.

As I turned the corner today at exactly 6 weeks post op I was thinking about how strong I have felt since the surgery, and how blessed I am to have had a relatively easy recovery.  Everyone has been attributing the recovery to how strong I went into surgery.  While this is definitely a part of it as I look back I believe more and more that my quick recovery stems for my 100% faith, desire, and belief that I was going to come back stronger from this.

When I found out that I was going to have surgery instead of being beat down by it I chose to look at it is a fresh start.  For me the surgery was a chance to see what I could accomplish when starting from scratch.  Embracing the surgery was probably the best thing I could have done for myself because it allowed me to look to the future instead of being bummed about the present. In my mind because I choose to fully commit and believe in the process I was already half way to recovery before even hoping on the table.

So the now here I am 6 weeks post surgery already starting strength training, been back to lifting fairly heavy for three weeks now, swimming for two, and just yesterday I was cleared to begin ramping up my training which occurred just in time to hit the 6 months out mark for the Couer d'Alene Ironman.

In preparation for being released yesterday I have been working on finalizing my race schedule for 2016:

May 2016 Troika Long Course or Olympic This will depend on how training goes for the next two-two and half months.  If it goes as planned I will be starting my journey with the race that fueled my love of endurance racing with the 70.3 Troika race, this race will be held exactly 5 months post op. :)

June 2016 CdA 70.3 This one is a little up in the air, for while I believe it is a great preview to the Ironman, it is a bit on the expensive side.

July 2016 Chelan Man 70.3 or Olympic Whether I do the 70.3 or the Olympic will depend on if I end up doing the CdA half in June or not.

August 2016 CdA Full Ironman No explanation needed :)

October 2016  Portland Marathon Retribution! I feel as though I need to go back and show Portland who's boss.

I am still finalizing my training program, and truthfully it won't ever be totally finished as I like to train on a fluid program.  While I will have a plan, written a month at a time, I like my plans to be flexible allowing me to make changes and upgrades based on how I am feeling, the weather, life, work, my husband, or just what I want to be doing.

Thank you all for following along on my journey you can continue to do so here or on instagram @ktl_bowker but most importantly don't ever forget to believe in yourself as it is the strongest tool you have.

How do you like your training plans to be? Do you prefer a set plan or one that is more flexible? What races are you doing this year?