On Monday, July 25th, I signed away the next 11 months of my life. When I was 20, I decided to complete an Ironman at ages 25, 50 and 75. Not sure why, but it seemed like a good goal at the time, and there was plenty of time before I would need to start worrying about it. Well, now I'm 24 and in spite of being somewhat unprepared, I signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2012. I'm not too worried about the running portion, I've run several half marathons and I'll run my first full marathon on September 17th. I've done 1 and 2/3 sprint triathlons (my roommate and I did one as a relay). However, I don't currently own a bike and I don't like to swim (I had to backstroke most of my first sprint triathlon, and that was in a pool). I'm moving to Salt Lake in 3 days and I start a PhD program in Biological Chemistry in 3 weeks. So I will be short on both time and money.
A few weeks ago I talked to my parents about signing up; they both expressed concerns over the time commitment, my current endurance base and me swimming with 2500 people (Mom...). I realized they were probably right, it was too much to tackle at once and there was nothing wrong with postponing it a year (26, 51 and 76 maybe?). But the more I thought about it the more I realized that I would probably keep putting it off, keep making excuses and finding reasons why I wasn't ready. I started reading training books and found a quote in one that I especially liked. "...so how do you know you're ready for Ironman? You don't, you commit, train like hell and pray." - Going Long: Training for Triathlon's Ultimate Challenge, Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to try to win my age group or qualify for Kona, my goal is to finish, not get injured, and not piss offany too many professors.
I would appreciate any comments from other people training for triathlons or people who are just interested in my progress. If you're going to criticize me, make it constructive, and don't bother telling me I'm an idiot, my parents will do a good enough job of that (when I finally tell them...)
Thanks!
Liz
A few weeks ago I talked to my parents about signing up; they both expressed concerns over the time commitment, my current endurance base and me swimming with 2500 people (Mom...). I realized they were probably right, it was too much to tackle at once and there was nothing wrong with postponing it a year (26, 51 and 76 maybe?). But the more I thought about it the more I realized that I would probably keep putting it off, keep making excuses and finding reasons why I wasn't ready. I started reading training books and found a quote in one that I especially liked. "...so how do you know you're ready for Ironman? You don't, you commit, train like hell and pray." - Going Long: Training for Triathlon's Ultimate Challenge, Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to try to win my age group or qualify for Kona, my goal is to finish, not get injured, and not piss off
I would appreciate any comments from other people training for triathlons or people who are just interested in my progress. If you're going to criticize me, make it constructive, and don't bother telling me I'm an idiot, my parents will do a good enough job of that (when I finally tell them...)
Thanks!
Liz
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