Making it to the starting line is a gift. We are so close I can hardly stand it. The bikes are on a truck headed for the mountains of Canada. We’ve packed enough salt tablets to seriously help out with the winter driving conditions in a couple of months. I hope they don’t get confiscated by the Mounties at the border.
I am truly grateful because I can say “We are racing”. That’s right, Ann and I will both be racing on Sunday. I will definitely be looking over my shoulder as Ann has improved dramatically on the bike in the last several months. On a recent 100 mile training ride, we were only about 30-40 seconds apart(crazy, after 5+ hours of biking).
The race is this Sunday 8/19 at 7a.m. Eastern. We’ll hopefully finish anywhere between 6pm-10pm. We will be joined by athletes from over 50 countries. If you would like to see how we are doing, you can go to the following:
Ironmanlive.com (click “Ironman Mont-Tremblant” link or "Live Race Coverage")
You can either choose "Live Coverage" or "Track" an athlete(If you just want to check in and see how we’re doing) .
- Jeff’s Bib# 585 Locate Jeff Link (link will be live on race day)
- Ann’s Bib# 2254 Locate Ann Link (link will be live on race day)
For those that don’t know what an Ironman is, here is the short version:
- Swim 2.4 miles(about 60-90 minutes of swimming hard)
- Bike 112 miles(6-7 hours of biking hard – no drafting)
- Run 26.2 miles(A full marathon, this can take anywhere from 3-5 hours depending out how hard you ride the 112 miles)
The vast majority of the participants fall somewhere in the 10:00 – 14:00 hour time. The cut-off is 17:00 hours(midnight).
It’s a race, so the goal is 1-to finish, and 2-to finish as fast as you can. The trick always seems to come down to nutrition. You just can’t are unlikely to go 140.6 miles without food. So, you have to eat a lot on the way. The faster you race, the higher your heart rate is likely going to be(to keep the blood pumping to your arms, legs, brain, etc). But…the higher your heart rate is, the less your body can digest(all the blood is in the arm and legs, and not in your gut). So that’s why you’ll see participants eating easily digestible Gels, Gu’s, instead of delicious things like pizza and cheeseburgers(though I’ve seen this too). Too few calories and you’ll be on the side of the road totally bonked with 20(or more) miles until the finish. Too many calories and you’re still on the side of the road puking like you can’t possibly imagine. I’ve done both and don’t recommend it. It’s a very fine line, but it is very doable. Getting the nutrition right is the sweetest thing. You’re dialed in and feel like you can just go forever. It only hurts if you stop moving.
Thanks for Reading and thanks for all the good luck wishes from everyone!
