This is the second week of bumped-up training.

It’s actually not that different from what I’ve been doing, but a couple of mid-week runs are longer and the weekend workouts are long.

I can’t say that I’ve been all that excited about it lately.

It’s definitely gotten harder, with the heat and humidity really picking up, I’ve had to kick myself out the door to get going.

Most weeks, I have four days with two workouts and the other three days have one workout each.

Saturdays and Sundays are tough because they are my long bike (now usually around 4-plus hours) and my long run (2-plus hours).

Then I have to be up at 4:30 a.m. on Monday mornings for an hour swim, and I do the group ride on Monday nights with the Seymour Multisport Club that is usually two hours.

That leaves me tired and grouchy by Tuesday mornings.

I have been really trying to take a nap in the afternoons as much as possible to try to give my body rest.

It’s hard, though, because I want to enjoy my kids being home for summer break and they like to stay busy.

My poor body just wants to sit on the couch, but my mind and heart tell me to get up and go take the kids swimming or play a game with them.

My training now takes up around 17 hours per week, and I’m stressing about how tired I’m going to be when I start back at work next week.

It’s not going to be easy starting a new job (I’m now going to be working as a speech-language pathologist for the Seymour Community Schools) and training.

I keep telling myself that I only have 11 weeks to keep doing this.

There are some workouts that I want to do (not too many right now), some that I am indifferent about, and some that I dread because they are going to be long or hard.

I know the workouts that I dread are the most important ones to do.

I am learning that most training is about mental toughness — like when the hill is so steep and my legs and lungs are burning and I just want to get off my bike and walk.

But I keep going because I want see that finish line.

Or when there is sweat dripping off my body and my face is burning from the heat on my run. I keep going because deep down in my heart, I want to finish Ironman Louisville and leave nothing on the table.

I want to knock it out of the park and know that I put my all into that race.

Stacey Parisi is a Seymour native and resident. Her columns will appear regularly in The Tribune as she trains to compete in Ironman Louisville 2015. Send comments to [email protected].