By John Tucker
I've always wanted to do an Ironman triathlon. I first heard about the event when I was a high school cross-country runner. Back then I was naive enough to think that swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26.2 miles sounded like a fun challenge. Boy, was I young and foolish.
Well, I'm not young anymore, but it appears that I am still foolish. Not only do I still think that doing an Ironman would be a “fun challenge,” I'm actually two months away from competing in one. The Ford Ironman Louisville triathlon will be held Aug. 26 and I've been training for it over the last few months.
Throughout my adult life, my hobby has been running marathons. When people I meet find this out, they sometimes ask if I'm ever going to do an Ironman. I guess they figure if I'm crazy enough to run a marathon, I'm probably crazy enough to do a full triathlon. Up until present time, my typical response has been that I'd like to do one someday, but because of kids and work I didn't have the time. Training for such an extreme event, I said, was just too much for me to take on.
I meant it. I'd read articles about how much time triathlon training took (athletes training for an Ironman often do around 20 hours or more of training per week). These articles reinforced my opinion that one's life had to contain a good amount of spare time before taking on such a daunting challenge. My wife and I have two active children that seem to sign up for every extra-curricular activity that comes around. And since I don't like to miss my kid's games, concerts, plays or gatherings, I couldn't see how I'd have the time to train for a triathlon until they moved out of the house in a decade or two.
But when I found out that Louisville would be hosting an Ironman, I just couldn't resist. I'm a goal-oriented type of person and Ironman has been a long-time goal. Having it here, in my own back yard, was too much of a temptation. I figured that I could take a crash course in the various disciplines, train like crazy and complete the Ironman – reaching my long-desired goal in a relatively short but intense period of time. I knew with work and the kids and the training, I'd be stretched thin. However, with the proper amount of determination, I thought I could do it. The truth is that I didn't really understand how much effort it really took.
In the four months that I've been training for Ironman, I've spent over 150 hours training. In that time, I swam 74,000 yards, ran 250 miles and biked 1000 miles – and I'm just a beginner.
Training for a full Ironman is truly a lifestyle change – and this comes from a person who already led a pretty healthy lifestyle. It consumes your life. I had to change the time when I went to bed (I can't stay up much past 10 p.m. without it effecting my recovery). I rarely watch television or movies anymore. My leisure time is spent watching my kids at a ballgame (which actually is a nice thing). Essentially, because I have so much to cram into a day, nearly every hour of my day is planned.
Trying to figure out how to get in the large volume of training I have to do each week is like putting a puzzle together. At the beginning of the week, I look at my work schedule and my kid schedule and then try to figure out how I can sneak in my workouts. It's not easy. A typical day will find me getting up, biking, dashing off to work, driving to the pool at lunch, going back to work, going to watch my kids play a ball game and then finally home to do some chores around the house. Of the activities of the day, I'm more likely to shuck the household chores. My wife has been kind enough to take up most of those responsibilities.
Because I had such a limited time to learn and train for Ironman, I secured the services of a coach (Nancy McElwain of TrainSmartMultiSport.com) who could tell me how far I should swim, bike or run every day. As a result, I don't have to think about what I need to do. I just look at my schedule, see what I have to do and fit it in my day. It's odd to be in my early 40's and have a coach, but I couldn't have taken this on without the assistance.
So after describing such a harried lifestyle, am I regretting my decision to take on this challenge? Not really. I'm enjoying it. Sure there are days when I really dread the thought of jumping into the pool or I don't think I have the time to go biking for a few hours. But on the flip side, I'm probably in the best shape of my life. My body doesn't ache as much as it did in the past because I'm not running every day. I'm getting to do something I used to love to do when I was a kid – get on a bike and ride fast. And there's no way I can get too stressed from work or anything else because by the time the sun sets, I'm simply too tired to worry.
In truth, what I really had to give up for the Ironman was the mindless time I spent either watching television or surfing the Web. I also had to give up some of the freedom I had with my daily schedule. However, I think it was a pretty good tradeoff.
Ironman is an extreme event. It takes an extreme amount of time. It's not for everybody and at this point, once I've done Ford Ironman Louisville, I'm not certain if I'll ever do another one. After it's over, I will definitely cut down on the amount of hours I'm training. But I do see myself participating in shorter distance triathlons in the future. And I do see myself continuing my regimen of swimming and biking along with the running. I'm having too much fun right now to quit.
