has begun...Well I've decided to try another Ironman distance triathlon this year. I have completed 5 of them over the years, but at each one I have suffered total meltdown. One of the items in my "Bucket List" is to complete an Ironman under 11 hours. Sounds easy enough and if you look at my splits for every event I should finish in the 10 hour zone. But like I said, something has gone wrong at every attempt. Hopefully my "experience" over the last decade has taught me something and I can finally cross that item off the list.
My first Ironman distance event was the Great Floridian. My days of racing motocross were coming to an end due to a number of reasons, including my little brother John getting injured. I still had a desire to be active and found this new sport called Triathlon. I sucked, but I was having a blast. I saw an advertisement for this new event in Florida that would be the "Ultimate Challenge" I signed up for the 1st Annual Great Floridian the next day. I went from the sprint distance, which were very popular in South Florida, to the Ironman distance. I set out to train for this event, but really did not put in the proper amount of training. I thought a couple 50 mile bike rides and a few 10 mile runs would be enough training. WRONG I was. I suffered like no dog has ever suffered. Especially on the bike. The course was long and we ended up doing around 129 miles for the bike leg. I remember looking down at my old Avocet 15 and seeing 112 miles and knowing that we were no where near the transition area. It was really, really, really hard to finish that event. But nearly 17 hours (yes it took me that long) later, I did finish. After a couple of IV's was already thinking of next years event.....
I have a little over 100 days to train for the REDMAN Triathlon. Wish me luck!
