What (I think) it takes

Many people ask me how one trains for Ironman. "Oh my gosh" they say. "How on earth can you do that?" I often wonder the same thing! I don't know exactly how one trains for Ironman, having never done one before. But I have done enough endurance events to be able to make some educated guesses.

Yes, the training plan is necessary. My plan is currently in the works and it will prepare me for the sport-specific demands of swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and running 26.2 miles in under 17 hours. The other ways I'm training for Ironman are more "invisible." Swim/bike/run requisites aside, here is my opinion on what it takes to do Ironman, along with my self-grades in each area.

A belief that the journey is the destination. My goal for Ironman is not just the obvious one of simply finishing. A significant part of my goal is to live the experience of training and preparing for something so big. My veteran Ironman friend Heather told me that training for this monster is a year-long process. From the day I signed up to when I earn my finisher's medal, it will have been a full year. And I intend to fully embrace every single second of this year. (Grade: B+. Even though I have always favored process over task, I can become overly-focused on the end point, on checking the achievement off my list. So I give myself something less than a perfect grade on this one.)

Executing my race plan. I'm a natural born planner. I love a plan...give me a plan for shopping, for work, for social engagements, for anything! I even plan my free time. I'm not kidding. So when everything I read told me that Ironman must have a race plan, I celebrated. (I'll share my race plan with you later, once I've actually figured it out.) I'm also not too shabby with implementing and following through on plans. What I'm not great at is adapting to necessary changes to the plan. I have been known to be spontaneous and to change direction mid-stream, but I need to whine about it first. (Grades: A for planning and for executing the plan; D for adapting to changes.)

A love of a challenge. Eleanor Roosevelt said "Do one thing every day that scares you." Even though I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone many times, I'm far from the most risky person I know. I avoid heights. I take the safest route down the ski hill. I can't look over the edge of the cliff. I can't even look out the window of a tall building without my palms sweating profusely. I once took a drive up Mt. Evans (a death-defying drive along a teeny-tiny crumbling road up to 13000 feet) and my feet sweated. And yet give me an athletic challenge and I'll take it. Okay, not all challenges. I'm sounding tough. If it involves riding a bike, though, it's a no-brainer. So it's a good thing for me that the Ironman bike leg (112 miles) is 80% of the entire 140.6 miles--it especially makes the run more tolerable. (Grade: B)

Tough mental fitness. I have to admit: I sometimes find the anticipation of an athletic challenge more exciting than doing it. The idea of a marathon jazzes me. And yet 18 miles into a training run, I have suffered panic attacks. Ditto for long rides. Crying on a climb really screws up my breathing. I can see an evolution, though, in my mental toughness. Things changed significantly for me when I moved to Colorado and my choices were to either hang with my tough friends or stay home. I chose to hang. Oh yeah, I still have work to do. This work mostly involves my self-talk, which I've written about before. Part of my Ironman race plan includes mantras I can pull out when the going gets tough. I suspect I'll be relying on my mantras a LOT. (Grade: B/B-)

Efficiency of movement. A race is a contest in getting from one point to another in as little time as possible. And in Ironman that means continuous forward motion for many many hours. Veering off course on the swim, or zig-zagging from one side of the road to the other on the bike or run, uses precious energy (see below). If I happen to encounter a roadblock or lose sight of shore on the swim, I need to be able to correct my path as quickly and with as little effort as possible. I'm preparing for this with some fun strength training this winter--exercises designed to improve my balance, lateral movement, and explosive power. (Grade: C. I loooooooove going forward. I don't enjoy so much anything that takes me backward or sideways.)

Using energy economically. Completing endurance events is not unlike Christmas shopping: if I blow my reserves in the first store, I have nothing left for last-minute gift ideas or people I forgot to buy for. Likewise, if I go out too fast or too hard early in the race, I might as well, at best, kiss my time goal goodbye. At worst, I risk a DNF (did not finish). Training is a daily exercise in energy budgeting. It involves not only wise pacing but also eating well before I'm hungry and drinking well before I'm thirsty. That's hard! I've spent the past four decades doing exactly the opposite: eating and drinking only after my body tells me to. If I eat and drink like that during Ironman, it'll be too late. (Grade: C-. I need major improvement on this one. Apparently, I have not learned from my mistakes. Each time I run I'm convinced I can keep up the blistering pace I set at the start when I'm fresh and excited.)

A heightened awareness of my body. Anticipating and preventing hunger and thirst is only part of what I'm aware of when training and racing. I mentally monitor things like my heart rate, breathing, perceived exertion, and internal temperature. And I've learned to tell the difference between what's within my normal range and what's not. I've also become pretty accurate at predicting not only my overall finishing time, but my times for the swim, bike, and run. And yes, I have time goals for Ironman, but I'm not sharing them. :-) At least not just yet. (Grade: A)

With the right training and preparation, my grades will improve. They may suffer temporarily, though, as Steve and I make our way through the 600 dozen Christmas cookies my mom sent. Thanks Mom! The spice cookies are particularly impossible to resist!