Race Goals

The key for doing this is having realistic expectations. Plus, finding somebody to train with on occasion who shares my goals and abilities. I have such a friend, who I'll refer to as IF2 (iron friend 2) or T2.

T2 instant messaged and asked me if I decided to sign up for Ironman CdA. I hemmed and hawed and finally sent the link to this blog. Amusingly, T2's response included a link to a similar blog! Thus proving, great minds think alike. :-)

Generally, the training for ironman is all aerobic. That means nothing but long, slow distance and building endurance. Why do speedwork and train hard when you likely are NOT going to be able to sustain that on race day? Answer is, you don't, and just work on the endurance to complete the event.

To that end, I'm using the "You Too Can Be An Ironman" training plan by Gale Bernhardt, published in the June 2003 issue of Triathlete magazine. It is a 16 week plan to finish an ironman before the cutoff time, which is perfect.

The premise of the plan is to use the time available during the event and work on the correct pacing. The cutoff times for Ironman CdA are:

• 2:20 for swim
  
• 10:00 for swim/bike
  
• 17:00 for swim/bike/run
  

A realistic race-day plan for me is:

• 1:30 for the swim
  
• 7:00 for the bike - 16 mph (total of 8:30)
  
• 5:30 for the run - 12:35 min/mile (total of 14:00)
  

Toss in a few minutes here and there plus some extra time for transitions and I could come in around 14:30. That leaves a 2:30 buffer for the unexpected.

It usually isn't a good idea to set a time goal for your first attempt at a race distance. That is to avoid setting yourself up for disappointment and not feeling happy when the event ends.

This is slightly different. I need some general target times so I can make a realistic assessment of the pace I'll need to sustain during the event.

Event Timing

In an ideal world, I would be doing Ironman Canada versus Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

IMC is several weeks later than IMCdA. This gives that much more time to prepare, and more overlap with the summer and thus good weather for training. The timing is also better, because of other events in this area.

IMC is the last week of August. A month before that is RAMROD, a bike ride around Mt. Rainier. Three weeks before that is STP, a bike ride from Seattle to Portland. Three weeks before that is Pacific Crest, a half-ironman in Oregon which is a great training race for IMC as the bike course is roughly the same difficulty, etc. All of these are excellent training events for a goal race of IMC.

But, IMC isn't open and entry into it depends on winning a lottery slot. Or, paying a huge amount for a community fund entry. So, rather than pin my hopes on the lottery, or shelling out even more just to enter, I took the guarenteed entry into IMCdA.

This Blog

I started this blog to keep the IMCdA specific topics away from my regular blog.

This is for two reasons. One is I plan to blog a lot of detail about how the training is going. Heart rates, time, distances, links to maps, hours I sleep, swim, bike, run, strength training, etc. Plus, some nutritional information, and my weight and percentage body fat on a weekly basis. In other words, mind-numbing detail for non triathletes. Heck, it will probably be very dull for even the triathletes! ;)

Second, for now I want to avoid the scrutiny and pressure of having a bunch of people know. My friend Krisanne would say, using a baseball analogy, "Don't talk about the no-hitter". Perhaps a movie analogy is appropriate: "The first rule of the ironman is there is no ironman." I'm just going to quietly train and leave it at that. I'm not going to mention this blog to anyone other than a few people also in on it. So if you are reading this you know. I just toggled the public setting on this blog - it is available, but not linked to from my profile or listed on the blogspot index.

I have a few general training topics to cover, and then the blog will slip into training log mode. So for a bit it will just be me trying to describe what I'm aiming for and how I plan to accomplish it.

Anyway, IMCdA isn't until June 26, 2005 so I have a lot of time for planning and execution.

What Have I Done?

I signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

How did this happen? Didn't I say in another blog entry that an ironman would require a lot of time to train for? Furthermore, didn't I back out of a half ironmman this season?

This is all true, but some friends got me excited about doing it. Both are training partners I have an occasional workout with. One is planning on Ironman USA Lake Placid next year, and another plans on Ironman Arizona. Plus I know an acquaintance who will likely do Ironman Canada next year.

The key is all these people seem normal to me - I know many other triathletes who are on another plane of ability all together. It isn't too motivating to hear that those kinds of people are planning on an ironman - I just can't relate. But having ordinary triathletes and friends that are around my abilities (sorry, that isn't meant as an insult!) is far more exciting.

When I went to visit a friend in Vancouver, I really did mean to spectate and sign up for Ironman Canada. But I didn't. I did enter the lottery for Ironman Canada, and will eventually find out whether or not I made it in. Ironman Arizona is closed to general entry, but still open to Community Fund entry (a charity program that boils down to a $1000 entry fee). When my friend informed me that Ironman Coeur d'Aene was still open, I thought about it a while... and then plunked down my $442 ($425 plus some extra fees) and signed up. After all, a definite entry is better than hoping for the lottery or spending over twice as much!