Training Week #1

After several months of preparation my training finally begins! Today marks 30 weeks exactly until Ironman Louisville! I will be following the training regiment prescribed by professional Ironman coach, Don Fink, in his book “Be Iron Fit”. The book and training program was suggested to me by my “pseudo-coaches” John Bruno & Dane Simmons at Run-In, running and shoe store, in Greenville. I call them my pseudo-coaches because, I offered to pay them to coach me a few months back, as they both have completed IM Florida and multiple ultra-endurance races the past few years but, they quickly refused after hearing my story and the reason I am training to be an Ironman. I’m very grateful for all of John and Dane's help over the past few months, as well as tons of advice and guidance from my third pseudo-coach, Land Heintzberger, at Ironworks Multisport!

The training program consists of three 10 week training phases, first a base phase, then build, and finally a peak phase. I'll explain more to the phases as I progress through my training further. I must complete two warm up triathlons, an Olympic distance and a half-distance triathlon (Half-Ironman) a few weeks before the full Ironman. I will be training an average of 12 hours a week; swimming twice, cycling three, and running four times throughout the week. Needless to say, it is going to be a very busy 8 months trying to find time to fit in my training between my 2 jobs as a Firefighter and a Paramedic. Fortunately, Be Iron Fit has a lot of good time management techniques that I can utilize such as, working out at 4AM before work. I’ve also found multiple articles and forum posts at BeginnerTriathlete.com to help squeeze my training into 7 days.

This morning I went on a brisk 8 mile run after I got off from work at 7:30 and I just have one word to sum it up: cold. As I started running from Cleveland Park in Greenville the temperature was 22° with a wind-chill factor hovering around 5-10°! It was quite brisk to say the least but, I quickly warmed up as I headed North up the Swamp Rabbit Trail through Falls Park in Greenville.  There was barely a soul on the trail this morning and it was perfect. I had the whole path to myself and easily got into the groove without any distractors.

Picture taken from my Kodak PlaySport video camera during my run.

By the time I had finished up, the temperature had climbed all the way to 31°, just below freezing! Although I joke about the cold now, I had better enjoy it while it lasts because, I’ll be wishing it was that cold in late August in Kentucky!

Swamp Rabbit Trail headed back towards downtown Greenville.

Finally, my fundraising page through the Ironman Foundation is up and running! 

Please go check it out and help contribute to the fight against ALL types of cancer!