Ironman C'oeur d'Alene - The Training is Over

Well almost over. The Ironman C'ouer d'Alene will be held Sunday June 24 so these next few days will involve travel, registration and checking out the course. The serious workouts are over – at least for me.


I started training with Craig Strong and Precision Multisport  at the beginning of December – 28 weeks ago. There are about ten of us who have trained with PM for Coeur d’Alene. The training program includes a combination of group and individual workouts.

The group workouts have been a big plus as this endeavor doesn’t seem quite as insane if you have company. And the challenge of trying to keep up with the group has forced me to train harder than I would have. Our group workouts included a training camp weekend in Kentucky and weekend trips to Wisconsin and Michigan so we could experience something we don’t have in Illinois – hills.

I kept a blog to record all my workouts as I thought I might write a book someday about the experience. Here are a few factoids from that training data:

• I weighed 190 pounds when I started training and this morning I weighed 186. But now that I’ve had breakfast and lunch I’m probably back up to 190. This isn’t a good regimen for weight loss. You have to eat too much to survive.

• My functional threshold power measured (FTP) increased from 188 watts to 251 watts;

• Over the 28 weeks I trained for a total of 320 hours – an average of 11.4 hours per week.

• I swam 66 miles – 2.3 miles per week – which is 98% of the Ironman swim (2.4 miles)

• I biked (including spin classes) – 2,464 miles – 88 miles per week – 79% of the bike (112 miles)

• I ran 422 miles – 15 miles per week – 58% of the run Ironman distance (26 miles)

Triathlons are great for data crunchers. There are so many things you can analyze. When I’m running I often spend a lot of mental energy trying to imagine my time for the race. I’m always a great deal faster in my imagination. For this race I have two predictions:

1. I will start the swim shortly after 7 A.M. (I won’t be in the front lines.)

2. I will finish the race before midnight. (after that they turn out the lights, I think.)