1 Day: Tomorrow

The day has finally arrived. Tomorrow morning, at 07:00, I will begin my quest to become an Ironman. I've thought about this moment for a long time and it's hard to believe it is less than 15 hours away.

I've gone through registration and the Athlete Expo and turned in my equipment at the transition area. Now it's all about resting, taking in calories, staying hydrated and not over-thinking the task at hand.

Gear laid out with the appropriate bags

This morning the athletes were allowed to swim in the river to get a feeling for what it will be like tomorrow. The water was a balmy 85 degrees with a barely noticeable current when swimming up river. I plan on keeping my equipment simple on the swim with slightly tinted goggles, swim cap, and trisuit. Some athletes will be wearing a speed suit, which goes over your trisuit to reduce drag, but I feel that the benefits would be minimal tomorrow. The course takes you upstream for 1300m, where you then loop the edge of an island and head back down stream for 2600m. The swim exit leads you up a stone walkway to the transition zone.

Transition

After grabbing my bike gear bag and  getting to my bike, I plan on pushing out at a slower pace, ~17.5-18 mph. This is slower that I have trained at but with the uncertainty of the course, it will make sure I can pound the pedals hard on my ride back to transition. The course involves a loop that has a few challenging hills. And the nice thing about the last 30 miles is that it is a slow downhill. Once reaching transition, I plan on staying in my trisuit, slapping on my shoes, visor and sunscreen and tackling the marathon.

The run is a two lap course that basically runs you straight out of town then back twice. It is flat which will be nice because the heat will be at it's peak when I plan on putting my feet on the pavement. 26.2 miles later I hope to coming down the finisher's chute with my arms and head held high.

The finish line being set up

I know this post is nothing special, but I can't put my thoughts into words right now. I hope this tides most of you over. To you others, wait until the post race report.

Happy racing!

Drew

6 Days: Pre-race Strategy

There is a fair amount of planning that goes into an Ironman race.

I'm not only talking about registering ($600- that hurt), finding a hotel (another $400), traveling (I'll be driving the truck-$250) and assembling an entourage (the girlfriend and possibly a couple friends).

Planning out the race is the equivalent to writing out a 4 year plan. You can put tons of work into it and have short and long term goals, but one hiccup can derail the entire plan. Look at my Ironman Kansas 70.3 in June. When my bar extensions started to come loose, my entire plan went out the window.

Many things can wrong over the course of 140.6 miles. For example, I could cramp up at any point of the race, a could break something on my bike, I could crash on my bike, i could get bloodied up during the mass swim start, I could run out of gas on the run, I could push any discipline too hard, etc...You get the idea.

My race plan started yesterday following my 4000 yard swim. I am now in what is called a taper week. What a taper week does is allow for you body to recover while staying loose. You are not going to be building any strength this week or adding volume. Today was an easy 35 min run with four 5k pickups. Just some light intervals to get the heart rate going. Following my shorter and lighter workouts, I will be watching everything I eat. I mean EVERYTHING. I have all but knocked artificial sugars and alcohol out of my diet starting last week and this week I will slowly reintroduce carbohydrates into the diet to build energy stores for Sunday. These will go along with lean protein and a variety of fruit and vegetables. I also do not planning on doing anything outside of my exercise in the evenings. No yard work, different sports, and anything that could add stress to the day. There will be a fair amount of icing on the knees, a few ice baths and lots of stretching. Starting at 8, I will be winding down to get into bed at 9. I hope this leads to 8+ hours of sleep each night.

All of my triathlon equipment is strewn around one of the rooms in my house. The vast majority of these things will not be taken on the trip but serve at reminders to the things I really need. Tomorrow I will be prepping what will be going into my transition bags and what goes into my special needs bags. See, in an Ironman, you are not allowed to pile all of your belongings in the transition area. You put your bike gear (helmet, shoes, glasses, watch, HR monitor, etc.) into a bag which is given to you in the transition tent. If you so choose you can change clothes but most will not. The same thing happens when getting off the bike and going to T2 but only now you are putting on your run gear and heading back out. It's a little different from 70.3s but I think I'll manage. I will also be looking over every bolt on my bike for proper positioning and tightness. I will not have another mechanical failure due to not checking over parts of my bike.

I will be arriving in Louisville on Thursday evening and plan on checking into the hotel, getting a light run in and finding dinner. Then into the hotel to get a large amount of sleep. On Friday, I will check in and get all my registration items. There will be plenty of time to walk around the Expo and look at vendor products, along with spend a little money. After leaving, I am planning on touring Louisville and possibly going to the Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat factory before heading back to the Pre-race banquet. Every athlete is invited (with the option of paying for guests) to partake in the festivities and then to stay after for the mandatory pre-race meeting. Then it will be off to bed.

Saturday will consist of four things: doing a quick 10 minute workout of each sport, getting my bike and gear bags to transition, eating, and keeping my feet up. I plan on being in bed by 8 which is very early by any one's standards but the next morning starts at 4:30. The more sleep, the better.

Speaking of sleep, it's that time of the night.

Happy training!

Drew