Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Off to the Beach; Ironman Florida Preview

Somebody asked me how long I'd been training for the Ironman... I paused and realized, it has been two years. I really haven't changed much of my routine over the past six months. There hasn't been specific focus for this race. I don't have a plan or program. It has been two years of just going from one race to the next, getting fitter along the way. Sure I've done some longer rides, some longer swims, not really any longer runs, but if I were to say I've had a specific training focus for this race I'd be lying.

This afternoon the crew heads South to Panama City Beach. I'm lucky enough to have some friends with some killer beach house access. John Gregg and his wife Katie a cruising down with me. John and our friend Colin will both be doing the race as well. Always good to be there with some others so you can be excited/nervous together. John is a Ironman veteran, he did this race last year and Louisville earlier this year so I'm sure we will lean on him for advice. For both Colin and I this will be our first 140.6 mile race and that is kind of scary. You simply don't know how your body will hold up for 10 hours and since neither Colin or I have done that before we just don't know. I expect John will be the first to finish then who knows but with any luck we all come in within an hour of each other.

People have asked, "Hey, what's your goal?" When I hear this I think, do I say what is really in my head or do I go a little more conservative? Realistically I think anything under 12 hours would make me very happy. But when I look at the pure math and the best case scenario I can't help but think I could go under 11 hours. The keys to making this happen will be pace and nutrition. The problem is those are two things I struggle with greatly. Needless to say this weekend will be a big challenge.

We have to be down on Thursday for athlete meetings. I'm sure this is where the World Triathlon Corporation will tell us how great Ironman is and ask us to spend way too much money on their officially licensed products and upcoming races and tell us how great it is to be associated with Ironman. They may also mention the race day schedule and some rules. I'm sure we will also try and get in a nice light workout Thursday as well. Friday is set up day. Bike goes into transition, drop off our bags for both the bike and run and then relax.

I'm excited to get down there and knock this sucker out and hopefully have fun while doing it!

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