finish an ironman

The.Big.Goal.

To complete an Ironman. When? God knows. First I have to get through a marathon, and get back into swiming.

Why would I want to do this to myself? Because it’s one of the toughest things I can imagine trying to put myself through. 10 or more hours of pushing my body to the max. Can I do it?

...to compete and actually finish. it does not matter how long it takes, i just want to cross that finish line once.

I’ve been training for the last year to compete in running competitions. I’ve now completed 2 1/2 marathons and have signed up for a marathon. Ultimately I will qualify to compete in an ironman Competitions!!

Every couple of months we get a magazine named GRAND: Living Well in Waterloo Region delivered to our doorstep. It’s a free magazine that contains interesting, well photographed articles about people, businesses, and places in the region.

An article that I enjoyed reading this month:

“Nothing stops him”: A look into the life of Don Andrews, a local triathalete that specializes in the Ironman. I followed Don and his teammates last year as they trained and raised money for “iron DOGS 4 kids”.

Although I would love to do an Ironman some day, I haven’t done a whole lot of research. And so it was a bit of an eye opener to read that this guy runs every single day (5:30 AM), then cyles or swims for a couple of hours on top of that. (I find running 3 times a week to be lots!)

As he talks about his recent race in Lake Placid, it becomes evident how gruelling an Ironman can be:

Then he hit the wall. Thirty kilometres into the runn, driven by exhaustion, his body began to shut down. Unable to speak or hear, Andrews was reduced to a walk, questioning whether he could even finish. “I was ready to check myself in to an ambulance.” Eating and drinking constantly to rebuild his energy, Andrews walked five kilometres before a passing racer coached him back into the race. Pointing out a shadow that lay across the road, he told Andrews, “When you get to that shadow, you’re running”.

A couple of weekends ago, while I was doing some raking with church friends, a man that I hadn’t met before was talking about his son-in-law’s experience running the Ironman. He said that the swim and cycle portions were ok, but that the run was gruelling. After barely being able to complete the race, his son in law vowed never to do it again. He was helped into a car and taken immediately to a hotel to sit in an ice bath. It was a full two months before he had fully recovered.

On the other end of the spectrum, Meredith has a contact in the financial world that speaks of Ironmans as if they were pretty straightforward. When I chatted with him in Toronto one evening, he said that once you’ve done an Ironman, you realize that they’re really not all that difficult. Likewise, my sister Hannah knows of an older lady who started doing Ironmans in her 50s or 60s and has done one every year for a number of years.

So there are definitely some mixed messages out there!

its more of a mental test than a physical one. i must break through that little voice telling me to stop. if i can beat that voice then i can do great things in life. training for the IRONMAN will make me a better person. your body can do anything….its all in your mind. plus, i want to prove that diabetes cant slow me down.

it was hot (95 degrees), windy!! and slow, but i did it! best of all, i am healthy and ready to get back to the trails. woohoo!

for arizona. i picked up my wetsuit yesterday. need to practice fixing a flat, buy straps for my friends’ bike box, and pack my bike today.
weather report for sunday: high of 94!

april 13th. it’s been kind of a secret goal for me. I didn’t think I would be able to pull it off because of my injury, and then the new achilles injury. I guess about now would be the time to taper, but taper from what?
_{at least I’ll be well rested}

I am ironman!

15 hours and change.

Great course, great staff, great volunteers.

I used Don Fink’s book Be Iron Fit. His 30-week training program got me to the line ready to go.

Nutrition is the 4th discipline in ironman. Keep eating. I estimate I ate around 60 gels over the course of the day.

Finishing was just as awesome as you think it would be. I was so stoked. Yeah. Yeah! I’m an ironman!

The best advice I got when I was kicking around the idea of doing an ironman: “That just sounds like a 6 month project.”

When I looked at it like that it didn’t sound like such a huge undertaking.

I really enjoyed most of the training, so that helped quite a bit. It was like playing. Even the really long stuff was enjoyable as I built up to it. If I didn’t enjoy what I was doing it would really have sucked.

But there were times when I was bone tired. And irritable. The end of the taper was probably the worst.

Ironman is a very selfish endeavor. It’s expensive, too.

But I had the dream, and I’ve done one now, and I can’t say I regret it at all. :)

b

All the long training is in the bank. Looking at my taper workouts almost makes me laugh. One hour run? Ha!

Less than 2 weeks. :o