Introduction

On Wednesday, April 11 I start my journey to Phoenix for Ironman Arizona. This blog is a diary of that experience. I hope to describe most of my experiences so friends and family can keep up with this craziness.

The actual journey started over a year ago when I decided to try Ironman. Arizona made the most sense since it was home for over 20 years and my mom still lived there. I could see her for a while and compete on familiar territory. Plus it is flat. Flat is good when there are 140.6 miles to travel.

I figured the swim would be no problem but the bike and run were going to be difficult. Since I had run a marathon a year earlier, and struggled mightily, I decided this was the place to start and then planned to run two in 2006. The Knoxville race in March sucked as bad as my first one in New Orleans but the second on the Outer Banks in November was encouraging.

The bike leg had always been my weakest leg since I had so little experience on one until I took up triathlon. I dedicated 2006 to getting better on the bike and I did. I took over 30 minutes off my previous PR at the Duke Half Ironman so I felt the 112 miles on the Ironman leg was a least possible.

One of the challenges of training for this race, at least for people in areas of the country who have cold winters, is getting enough miles on the bike during the key training months of January through March. The only option is an indoor trainer which is where I spent many, many hours. Thank God for the NFL and dvd players.

My next post will be on April 11. Be safe!