Ironman St George

Ironman St George is coming up fast, only about 18 days left! Training for this IM has been pretty tough. The weather hasn’t cooperated and my mental state just hasn’t put in the right frame of mind to train hard. But now that the tough training is done I’m getting excited for the race, go figure.

This IM I tried something a little different; Dread Pirate talked me into taking the spin class from hell, taught by Satan himself, not some underling demon, nope, the big wig. Actually Roy, the instructor, isn’t that bad but the class is pure torture. It’s a 2 hour time trial class where you are at maximum sustainable effort for the entire time, that is, when you aren’t at interval pace or taking a “pull” at the front. Zero recovery time. I’m totally drained after the class. It’s going to be interesting to see how things turn out. Oh, and set a new HR max the second week of the class.

I’m a bit concerned about my training because I’ve only done one 100 mile bike but a bunch of 75-85 mile rides with a run after the bike. I’m really hoping the monster spin class will make up for my lack of real riding.

My running has been “okay” nothing great, I’m hoping that I can ride the ultra marathon run fitness level through to IM. I’ve been getting in some decent running but nothing outstanding. I have been doing a good 3-4k swim before each run so hopefully that’s also going to help come race day.

I’ve really had to start swimming again and it’s felt pretty good, that is, until I tried on the wet suit, wow has it always been that tight? Guess I’ll be swimming in the wet suit from now until the race so I can get my shoulders and lungs used to the constriction.

I’ve decided to use my Road bike and put some aerobars on it. At first I was really skeptical about the set up but now that I’ve been riding it for a month or so it’s pretty nice, very stable and I feel good on it. The other big change to the bike is the addition of a compact crank, it should make spinning up the hills much easier. For a normal “ride” I wouldn’t need a compact crank but let’s not forget about the hilly marathon after the hilly ride.

Overall I don’t have any time goals for the race, just finish healthy and have a good time.