Sunday, March 30, 2008

8 weeks left

Hey everybody! This is my first posting, and it marks an epic milestone. Tomorrow (Monday) will mean that Ironman Brazil takes place in eight weeks. My official Ironman training plan started nearly three months ago. Wow, how time flies! Alot has happened since then. Besides training every day, I started my final semester at ASU, I started an internship at a manufacturing company called Precision Science (precisionscience.com), I started another internship doing the marketing and strategic development for a triathlon training company called Racelab (racelab.com), and I got a girlfriend. Oh and I forgot to mention that I have acquired some pretty attractive tanlines; my legs, arms, and face are quite dark.... but other than that it looks like I am wearing a white singlet ha ha.

These final eight weeks are the most integral part of training for an Ironman. I have broken the remaining weeks in to two parts: the first five weeks contain the most intensive and longest workouts, and the final three are recovery weeks which is part of my tapering period. With Ironman being so close I have been paying really close attention to my diet. I have cut out all fast food, most red meats, dairy, and unfortunately alcohol. Because I burn so many calories I eat 6 to 8 times a day. My first meal is around 5 a.m. before work, and my last meal is around midnight. All in all I would assume I take in 4,000-6000 calories daily. Most of my calories come from whole wheat pastas and breads, fresh vegetables and fruits, chicken, fish, legumes such as black beans, lentils, and edamame, and finally my personal favorite... peanut butter. Although it sounds strict, I sometimes find it very hard to say "no" to ice cream and cookies. With this diet and training I have gone from a baseball player type frame of a solid 185 lbs, to a skinny runner frame of 170 lbs, and on race day I will attempt to weigh in around 165 lbs. Each pound I lose is in essence "free speed" on race day.

There is nothing glamorous about being a triathlete, very little days off, and definately no weekends off. This past week I had a total of 13 workouts, 3 rides, 4 runs, 4 swims, and 2 weight training days, in total about eighteen hours of training. My longest swim was about 3500 meters (a little over 2 miles) my longest run was two hours and twenty minutes (about 15 miles), and Saturday and Sunday I put in eight hours of cycling (160 miles) and an hour of running (7 miles). Needless to say, I am writing this laying on the couch watching movies and doing homework with ice bags on my knees. Welcome to a day in the life of a triathlete :)

Daley

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."
-T.S. Elliot