It’s been recommended that I start out with what exactly an
Ironman entails. We get the grand joy of
swimming 2.4 miles with a deadline of 2 hours and 20 minutes. Then we get to bike 112 miles by 10 hours and
30 minutes (total). Finally, after
sitting on a bike for some insane amount of time, we get to run a marathon (26.2
miles). The deadline for the race is 17
hours. This sounds like fun, right? ‘Cause let me tell you when I clicked “submit”
while registering for the event… I had a brief moment where it felt like I was
swallowing a cinderblock.
I signed up for the event with a friend; the various
locations were booked up leaving us with Mexico (ehhh) and Texas (ewww). Then we stumbled upon the Ironman in Canada,
which for some reason had a later registration opening. We waited until the day registration opened
and we both signed up. The ironman cost
$625 dollars, which kind of floored me, but what can you do? The best part was since it’s in British
Columbia I also paid $75 in taxes!
Before I registered I had bought some gear knowing that I
was at least going to branch into shorter triathlons. But as a whole before I bought anything, I
needed: A new bike, peddles, bike shoes, bike saddle, a wetsuit, tri-shorts, a
race shirt, good goggles, new running shoes, a hydration belt, GPS watch, more
various accessories for the bike. Using
Amazon and shopping sales I was able to get a lot of my gear at a good price,
but in the end I probably invested about $2,800 (including the race fee). But looking back I’m thinking that isn’t too
bad considering that I’ve gotten about a year’s “entertainment” out of this
event.
Once I had completed the 2012 Portland Marathon I began
logging my workouts in preparation for the Ironman. I logged almost every workout for about 6
months. I had two slots for each day,
one for my goal and one for my actual workout; most days I was aiming for two
solid workouts. Looking back at my logs
I can remember stressing the importance of recovering from the marathon before
I shifted to long endurance training. A
few days after the marathon when I was easing back into activity I actually
logged “nap” as my first workout. The
binder that houses these logs is perhaps the most important piece of the
Ironman to me. I have sections where I’ve
logged all my calories for a six week period, my body composition tests, firsthand
accounts of races from various people, training information, nutrition
information, glycemic index tables, and on the cover is the owl with his grand
advice. This binder is a major source of
motivation to me because it shows the effort and time I’ve invested. To my knowledge I am the only person who has
ever seen the contents of my binder.
I started swimming in October. Swimming was the most difficult area for
me. I hate putting my head under water and
I don’t go in water much. In fact, up
until I actually started swimming for training my family was convinced I couldn’t
swim. October is when I began waking up
at 4:30 in the morning (aaalmost) everyday.
Swimming requires getting to the gym as soon as it opens so I can lock
down a lane for myself. The hardest
thing to adapt to is practically force feeding yourself on the drive to the gym
because your body is having trouble even processing why it’s up and moving.
This is where I end with a life lesson I picked up from
training: working out first thing in the morning. In the evening the gym is a mixture of people
getting off work or slowly trickling in after finishing their evening tasks. Personally, I may get invited somewhere or
meet up with friends and the evening workout never even happens. The gym at 5am? These people are getting their day started
with something important to them. The
day hasn’t even started yet; this is before work, before the kids get up,
before worrying about which tie to wear.
For me it meant that there was virtually no way I was going to get a
call from work. The ambiance of the gym
at 5am is amazing, even though nothing is truly different than the evening. At 5am I won’t receive texts, calls, dinner
invitations, or drinks at the bar; my workout goes uninterrupted.
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