This wasn't me, I have never been the fittest, but getting tired going up stairs was not me. I have completed the London Marathon twice and I knew this had got me fit in the past. So in Dec 05 I signed up and started training for the Chicago Marathon. During that training I started listening to the Get Your Geek On Podcast, this got me interested in Triathlon and through listening to Kahuna and IronWils journey towards Ironman, I decided I would give this ago. A perfect race of 4hrs 15 in Chicag spurred me on, and made me realise if I really wanted something bad enough I could train for it and achieve. So 12 months ago I signed up for Ironman Florida, having never completed a triathlon.
As I started my journey towards Ironman I had a great many fears, primarily around the swim section. The run did not scare me, having completed 3 marathons, and yes the bike is along way, but seemed manageable. (This thought was pre having cycled greater than 50 miles).
The swim however was a different story. Pre signing up for Florida I could'nt swim 100yds freestyle, and there was no way I could breaststroke the whole race and make the cutoff. So there was a big fear over the swim cutoff time. As well as fears over getting swamped by other competitors and the sea being so rough I would struggle to breath.
Swimming has never come easy to me, I get bored easily!
Later on I would learn about Jellyfish and sharks, which would just add to the fear factor of the swim.
And so my journey began, with a number of races picked out, that would build me up to Florida;
Over the year, I have learnt a great many lessons, at both races and through training
In training;
- I can swim, though was never really sure how fast. Its amazing what a couple of lessons and then a whole lot of swimming can do for you. Over the period of Jan - Nov I swam 98 miles
- I can bike distances, it gets very boring, but I can do it.
- Over the period of Jan - Nov I biked 2400 miles
- Running leads to injuries, or so it seems for me. I don't know whether it was over training or something else but 8 weeks out from the big day in Florida my ankle flared up and caused my run training to get totally de-railed.
- Over the period of Jan - Nov I ran 430 miles
At the races
- At Galena, making sure the wetsuit is on properly can stop your shoulders tiring out
- At twin lakes, an extra few minutes on the bike can make the run so much easier
- At Steelhead 70.3 it was must take on more salt to avoid crampings
- At Chicago I learnt about swimming in a pack
I just hoped going into Florida I had learnt all the lessons I needed to learn.
2 comments:
Welcome to The Land of Blog my friend!! I look forward to following your daily grind!
Love the blog Tim! Enjoying the story too.
Post a Comment