Has anybody on here done an Ironman

[ERCougar]

St George Ironman to become a half Ironman next year:



http://ironman.com/mediacenter/press...#axzz1tk8zOljz

I worked the medical tent the first year, and I consistently heard from everyone, pro and amateur alike, that the course was ridiculously hard--the hardest one they'd ever done. St G folks listened to that and eased it up a little bit this year, but in so doing they turned from a 2000 point race with automatic world championship qualifying to a 1000 point race without the automatic qualifier. As such, many of the pros thought the course was too hard to justify racing it and didn't enter, which hurt the race.

So the rumor goes anyway--can't remember where I read/heard all of that.

[BigPiney]

That is a good move. It was too early in the year for that swim, and the bike was way too hard.

[Pheidippides]

So I volunteered for the Ironman Texas in The Woodlands last night. As always, a good time.

Last year I was signed up for a half Iron in Austin. I backed out at the last minute because of what I thought was an achilles injury but what I now think was probably the same tendonitis I've been struggling with recently. It's the only race I've failed to line up for.

In the meantime, three friends (two from law school and one from my ward) have been encouraging me to do a full Ironman. Between them they've done six and are quite experienced.

With the layoff I've had over the past three weeks to let my ankle heal up I've been thinking a lot about reducing my running mileage but increasing my overall workout intensity - i.e., adding in a lot more cycling and swimming. I don't think I can realistically continue running 40-50 mile weeks all year long for the next two decades with this ankle - this is the one I broke 12 years ago and the tendonitis is not a coincidence. However, with the podiatrist telling me that I can't even cycle during this period (and he's a cyclist himself), I've focused on swimming.

Friday I swam a full 2.5 miles straight. I swam it in 1:26:00. That's not fast. But it's not horribly slow either, and, moreover, it's almost a full hour under the Ironman cutoff. I suspect I look like a water buffalo swatting at ducklings when I do it, but I did it.

Last night I volunteered with two specific goals in mind: I wanted to see/talk to athletes at the end of the race to see the exhaustion, and I wanted to see the bike setups (I worked the bike checkout).

I think it's time. I have a sprint tri - open water 600m swim - the weekend after Memorial Day. If that goes well, I'm signing up. By well, I don't mean time, although if I gained 10 pounds I think I would take the Clydesdale division (based on last year's results). I mean the swim. If the swim doesn't panic me, I've got an olympic distance on the horizon in August, a half-iron in November, and a full-iron 364 days from today.

Biking won't be a problem. I'm in the process of selling my motorcycle to get a tri bike, but even if I don't I think I can do it on my Tarmac with the newly-installed aerobars. Running won't be a problem. And for the first time I'm confident that swimming won't be a problem either, as long as I keep training.

[Surfah]

I have a friend in my ward who just did St. George. He has done several olympics and halfs previously. He said it was the most physically challenging thing he has ever done. His time commitment to training the last year or so was too much for him to do another he said. He'll keep doing other races, but this was his one and only full ironman. He said since the race he has an additional 30 hours a week in his schedule. That's how much he trained. He said he couldn't do it to his family anymore.

As far as the race, he said the swim was brutal and they pulled a lot of people out of the water.

[Pheidippides]

I have a friend in my ward who just did St. George. He has done several olympics and halfs previously. He said it was the most physically challenging thing he has ever done. His time commitment to training the last year or so was too much for him to do another he said. He'll keep doing other races, but this was his one and only full ironman. He said since the race he has an additional 30 hours a week in his schedule. That's how much he trained. He said he couldn't do it to his family anymore.

As far as the race, he said the swim was brutal and they pulled a lot of people out of the water.

Yeah, this year's St. George was legendary because it was brutal. My friend did it as well (second time). That course is hard enough, and they had whitecaps (!!) during the swim because of the wind. This raised havoc on the ride as well.

I do not expect anything even kind of close to that in The Woodlands. When I'm really training I'm already doing about 20 hours a week. The extra 10 won't kill me. We'll see if it's something I want to do twice, though. My friends have.

[Surfah]

Yeah, this year's St. George was legendary because it was brutal. My friend did it as well (second time). That course is hard enough, and they had whitecaps (!!) during the swim because of the wind. This raised havoc on the ride as well.

I do not expect anything even kind of close to that in The Woodlands. When I'm really training I'm already doing about 20 hours a week. The extra 10 won't kill me. We'll see if it's something I want to do twice, though. My friends have.

I asked my friend what his goal was. He typically does a half in under 6 hours. He said once he got in the water he just wanted to finish. He said the wind was brutal and several times he felt like he was getting sand blasted on the ride and run.

[Moliere]

If you actually go through with it I'll be more than happy to volunteer to help with whatever.

[ERCougar]

Wow. I think you're crazy, but good luck! I can't even imagine a marathon after a century. Oh yeah, and a ridiculous swim.

[Pheidippides]

If you actually go through with it I'll be more than happy to volunteer to help with whatever.

How about pick up the pieces the day after and make sure my wife doesn't use any of the insurance proceeds to pay off my student loans?

Wow. I think you're crazy, but good luck! I can't even imagine a marathon after a century. Oh yeah, and a ridiculous swim.

Funny thing. Right after the hardest bike ride I have ever done (80 miles, 25mph head winds, not drafting most of the time, rolling hills), I wanted to do nothing so much as take a run. I had forgotten my running shoes so that was out, but a number of people on the same ride - no doubt training for the Ironman - did just that. I've actually already done bricks many times and am much more comfortable doing them than I used to be.

[Parrot Head]

So I volunteered for the Ironman Texas in The Woodlands last night. As always, a good time.

Last year I was signed up for a half Iron in Austin. I backed out at the last minute because of what I thought was an achilles injury but what I now think was probably the same tendonitis I've been struggling with recently. It's the only race I've failed to line up for.

In the meantime, three friends (two from law school and one from my ward) have been encouraging me to do a full Ironman. Between them they've done six and are quite experienced.

With the layoff I've had over the past three weeks to let my ankle heal up I've been thinking a lot about reducing my running mileage but increasing my overall workout intensity - i.e., adding in a lot more cycling and swimming. I don't think I can realistically continue running 40-50 mile weeks all year long for the next two decades with this ankle - this is the one I broke 12 years ago and the tendonitis is not a coincidence. However, with the podiatrist telling me that I can't even cycle during this period (and he's a cyclist himself), I've focused on swimming.

Friday I swam a full 2.5 miles straight. I swam it in 1:26:00. That's not fast. But it's not horribly slow either, and, moreover, it's almost a full hour under the Ironman cutoff. I suspect I look like a water buffalo swatting at ducklings when I do it, but I did it.

Last night I volunteered with two specific goals in mind: I wanted to see/talk to athletes at the end of the race to see the exhaustion, and I wanted to see the bike setups (I worked the bike checkout).

I think it's time. I have a sprint tri - open water 600m swim - the weekend after Memorial Day. If that goes well, I'm signing up. By well, I don't mean time, although if I gained 10 pounds I think I would take the Clydesdale division (based on last year's results). I mean the swim. If the swim doesn't panic me, I've got an olympic distance on the horizon in August, a half-iron in November, and a full-iron 364 days from today.

Biking won't be a problem. I'm in the process of selling my motorcycle to get a tri bike, but even if I don't I think I can do it on my Tarmac with the newly-installed aerobars. Running won't be a problem. And for the first time I'm confident that swimming won't be a problem either, as long as I keep training.

Is this the same ride you were supposed to sell in order to buy the Tarmac?

[Pheidippides]

Is this the same ride you were supposed to sell in order to buy the Tarmac?

Why, yes, yes it is! The wife isn't letting me get away with promising to sell it later this time!

(Actually, due to our similar heights, if I get a tri bike the Mrs. gets my bike fitted to her with a women's specific seat. Somehow this arrangement works for her rather than me just buying one for her. Don't ask me how the reasoning works - I'm taking whatever deal I get).

[Eddie]

I ran into an old neighbor who moved away last year. He did the St. George Ironman 2 weeks ago. I asked him how it went, and he just smiled and said "well, I finished it. That's what I was going for."

He never told me his time and I got the impression he didn't want me to ask. But being nosy like I am, I went and looked up his time online. This guy is a sub 3 hr marathoner, but he needed nearly 5 hrs to finish up the run in St. George.

I'll admit that I've been tempted by the thought of a 1/2 ironman - but nothing tempts me to do St. George.

[bluegoose]

When I'm really training I'm already doing about 20 hours a week. The extra 10 won't kill me. We'll see if it's something I want to do twice, though. My friends have.

He said he couldn't do it to his family anymore.

This is one person's take, so take it FWIW. Its not criticism or intended to be discouraging at all. just trying to provide an alternate perspective.

I'm not sure that I can wrap my head around doing this. For someone with a full time job with a spouse and small kids, and church and/or community responsibilities, this amounts to devoting roughly 4 hours per day throughout the week, plus 5 hours on both Saturday and Sunday, just to training.

Where is the time for yard and house work? How about any personal reading or study in the evenings? Helping with school science projects? How about attending little league practice and games, dance practice and recitals, school open house.... Not to mention, being to focus on anything substantial in the afternoon at work or in the evening at home because you are so sleep deprived from waking up at 4:00am to sneak in a 15 mile run or a 30 mile ride before work?

As bigpiney can attest, training to do a 70.3 is hard enough as it is. A full Ironman for someone in their mid 30's with a job with responsibilities and so much else going on? That is just madness, to me. If you can pull it off and still maintain a fairly well-balanced life, then my hat goes off to you, sir. But I've too many people put a serious strain on personal and professional relationships because of the dedication required to train right for these kinds of events.

[Pheidippides]

I just picked up my packet for my first ever triathlon. Sprint tri this weekend. I feel just like I did when I was getting ready for my first marathon, and I'm getting involved with a completely different breed of athlete. That much was apparent.

For this one, I'm trying to break 1:10. The swim - 600m - will be slow. Say 12 minutes. I know this. The bike is 11m, and I think I can average 22mph plus, so there's another 30. Add in 22:30 for the 5k run (a 7:30 pace, which is slower than my 10k pace) and 1:00 for each transition (admittedly fast, but I have a tri suit and slip on shoes) and that adds up to 1:06:30 (right? Somebody check the math). That is a stretch goal but I did - 17 mile ride @ 21.3 with a nasty headwind and three traffic lights plus two more intersections and then dropped a 7:30 mile after that with a :45 second transition - and I was holding back. So maybe.

[Pheidippides]

Oops. Double post