I AM AN IRONMAN


June 24th will definitely be a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. Coeur d'Alene was a perfect place to lose my ironman virginity. After going through the ironman experience, there is no other place I would rather have done my first Ironman.

My biggest concern was lake temperature. I was concerned that my sleeveless wetsuit would not be able to handle the load of protecting me from the cold water. As it turned out, temperature during the swim was the least of my concerns after the canon went off. In the end my swim time was 1:48. I ranked 1985 o'all on the swim.

My bike was decent but felt I could have done better. Articles I read said to take it easy on the bike and save some energy for the run. I may have saved too much as felt I could have gone a bit faster on the bike. Bike time was 6:07 or 18.3 mph.

My run was OK. I just concentrated on staying relaxed and keeping good form. Managed to get a 3:45 on the run. I knew going into the run that I would have to run a sub 4 hour to get below 12 hours for finish time. I kept going over calculations in my head on what pace I would have to maintain. I pretty much kept the same pace the whole race. Averaged a 8:38 pace.

Finish time was 11:53:19. I ranked 507 overall. I passed over 1400 people on the bike and run. Not bad for a first time Ironman. My goal I had set earlier on this blog was 11:17. My bike was mostly the reason I was not able to get close to my goal time. And I do need to work on my swimming.

Just being sub 12 is something I can live with. It doesn't matter what your time because anything below 17 and you are an IRONMAN.

Hope you enjoyed my Ironman training blog. I do have an excel spreadsheet with my entire training log. If anyone is interested in checking it out, email me and I will send it to you.

My max hours that I trained in preping for this Ironman was 14.5 hours. No where close to what the training programs that I read recommended. Most had 18 hours or more for several weeks for first time Ironman.

Like I always said, I'm a low mileage marathoner and now a low training hours ironman.

What can I say. I've been a bag of mixed feelings today. Scared is the fist emotion that comes to mind. Scared of not finishing, fading on the run, not finishing the swim. Luckily, I have my family with me who reassures me the whole time that I will do well. Friend and family are praying for me, sending me their energy - what more can I ask for. Still, this feeling inside of me that I hide from everyone that I may not finish. I have never had so many negative thoughts before a race. But I keep them all inside of me. There are still so many unanswered questions that I have about an Ironman.

Hopefully all will turnout well and tomorrow I will call myself an Ironman!

The whole time I have been worried about the lake water temperature and my sleevless wetsuit. I see very few short sleeve wetsuits by people training in the lake. I had already decided yesterday that I would try a practice swim this morning. Started my swim at 7 am. (same time as race start for Ironman Sunday). Once I got in the water and started swimming, the water temperature didn't really feel too bad. It almost felt good. My focus turned to finishing the darn 2.4 mile swim. That first buoy just seemed so far. Did amost one full loop. Not quite a 1.2 mile swim since I cut the corners.

My fear of being to cold in the water was gone.

Ran 4 miles in CDA from the Hotel. Nice jogging trail. Having difficulty breathing - taking deep breaths, so I really focused on my breathing during the run to take in more oxygen. Seems to have helped with my headache cuz it went away right after the run. Temperature is nice and cool outside around 69 in the morning.

Arrived in Coeur d'Alene today. Haven't done anything for today or yesterday as far as training. Got a bad headache when we arrived - suspect the higher altitude. It's cool to see all the cyclists, runners and swimmers doing their thing. Entire city is filled with Ironman participants.

Been pretty much tapering this week. Nothing too hard. Now that my bike is on the way to CDA, Idaho, I have to settle for mostly running and swimming. I've been doing some very serious thinking on my runs about what kind of time I should expect to run. I get alot of negative thoughts about a DNF or fading on the run. I try really hard not to keep those in my head to long. I quickly start thinking about all the positive things I have going for me that will get me to the finish line. I'm shooting for sub 12 hr Ironman. Race day is always different than training. I always do better on race day than on training days. So this is one very big positive thing going for me.

If you have been sneaking in to take a peek at what I have been doing for training for my Ironman and have obtained any benefit from reading about my journey into becoming an Ironman, that's great. I'd like to hear from you. Contact me by going to the contact me link. Or go to my website http://www.locorunner.com and sendin me an email. I would appreciate it if you let me know if this blog was useful/interesting/boring/waste of time.

Later, Locorunner
Good Luck to All CDA Ironman Participants
Come back to my website to read my post race report.

Swim 5X300s. 5:58, 6:10, 6:08, 6:28, 7:09. 36 minutes 1500 yds.

Ran at Seabourne park. 7:45 to 7:55 pace. Nice relaxing pace. Concentrated on my breathing and good form and relaxing during the run. Used 2120s. I think my run is Race Ready!

Recieved my new tires yesterday. Put them on my bike and tried them on. Felt good. Hutchison Fusion Road Comp. 1 hour

Got my bike ready for turning into Tribike Transport. Oiled the chain last night, waxed my bike (yes I waxed it). Bike looks really sharp and ready for Ironman Sunday.

Bike Rosenberg to Brookshire. Tried to take it easy today. Avg'd 18.3 mph. TT = 190 min.