The Journey Begins
12/05/2009 07:05:00 AM
I can’t exactly say why, but today was the beginning of my journey to potentially 14 hours of agony. Sometime this week I consciously made the decision to go ahead and commit to begin training for what can only be described as the longest and most difficult endurance race there is in the world. Yeah there are the “super” endurance races that individuals test their bodies over 24 hour periods or 100 miles or climbing K2 or Everest crazy stuff like that. But for the Average Joe an Ironman is the ultimate test of endurance and will power.
I’m surrounded by Ironman athletes and most of them women. Call it peer pressure or male pride, but I just can’t let it go by without at least a decent attempt at the event. Sitting around at breakfast recently while receiving the usual harassment from those young ladies and others, someone barked “Hey, what about doing an Ironman?” Little did I know that statement escalated from doing some local sprints to looking at signing up for Ironman Brazil 2011.
My weakest sport is the swimming portion of the event. Now don’t miss understand, I swim and even hold an advanced scuba diver rating. My wife talked me into doing an eight week adult lap pool session a couple years ago and after 8 weeks in the pool I couldn’t do 200 yards without stopping to rest and catch my breath. That “breathing” thing has me concerned because there’s not a side of a pool to hang on to in order to recompose myself.
Now I know what you’re thinking; I’ve heard it time and time again from experienced swimmers and many others. “Just give it time and you will eventually find a rhythm that you can swim and breath.” … argh!!! Well I have until May 2010 to find out IF I can find my rhythm in the pool. All of these Ironmen events sell out literally in 2 days, so we have to sign up the day after the event this year. This allows me to “train” in the pool and grow some gills!
So why was today the beginning? Tricia and I headed to the pool and I got in 1,000 yards for the first time in the pool in over 2 years. Yeap, that stupid breathing thing was an issue and I could only do 100 yards at one time without hanging on the side of the pool “recovering” my breathing. I did time how long it took me to get in 800 yards for the sprint this March and now I have to revise my swim time to 37 minutes!
I’m surrounded by Ironman athletes and most of them women. Call it peer pressure or male pride, but I just can’t let it go by without at least a decent attempt at the event. Sitting around at breakfast recently while receiving the usual harassment from those young ladies and others, someone barked “Hey, what about doing an Ironman?” Little did I know that statement escalated from doing some local sprints to looking at signing up for Ironman Brazil 2011.
My weakest sport is the swimming portion of the event. Now don’t miss understand, I swim and even hold an advanced scuba diver rating. My wife talked me into doing an eight week adult lap pool session a couple years ago and after 8 weeks in the pool I couldn’t do 200 yards without stopping to rest and catch my breath. That “breathing” thing has me concerned because there’s not a side of a pool to hang on to in order to recompose myself.
Now I know what you’re thinking; I’ve heard it time and time again from experienced swimmers and many others. “Just give it time and you will eventually find a rhythm that you can swim and breath.” … argh!!! Well I have until May 2010 to find out IF I can find my rhythm in the pool. All of these Ironmen events sell out literally in 2 days, so we have to sign up the day after the event this year. This allows me to “train” in the pool and grow some gills!
So why was today the beginning? Tricia and I headed to the pool and I got in 1,000 yards for the first time in the pool in over 2 years. Yeap, that stupid breathing thing was an issue and I could only do 100 yards at one time without hanging on the side of the pool “recovering” my breathing. I did time how long it took me to get in 800 yards for the sprint this March and now I have to revise my swim time to 37 minutes!
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