Iron Man in 2007!

Is that too unrealistic of a goal?

Last night...

Wow – what a workout! My trainer put me through my “Day One” workout, added three exercises to improve swimming, running and biking and made me go through some serious pain.

Instead of 2 sets of 15 on the weight training we went 3 sets of 15! The toughest was left for last - the Bench Press. I’ve never been good at this. Never. And I always avoid it when I’m training on my own. I’d go and do flat barbell flies instead. The 2nd set of 15 was a struggle after 8. Stephen, my trainer, had to spot me to 15. It really felt like he was doing the lifting as I barely pushed. I was squirming, struggling and trying to get my mind to convince my muscles that they could do it. And to make matters worse, I did 60 crunches in between each set of bench presses.

I liked what he said though, “We go through the pain now so we don’t have to the next time.”

To make matters worse, I had to run home.

I decided to run to the gym for my warm-up. It’s 1.3 miles away. I figure if I go through a tough work out and run afterwards it will be great prep for triathlons since running is the last part.

The most important part of my session was the swim technique exercise he taught me. This is the stroke I’ve been trying to figure out through online research and talks with Jessica. He explained it very well and told me my swim will improve if I practice this exercise as much as possible - in and out of the water. I can’t wait to try it in the water!

The run home was so tough. As I turned from Brand to Monterey for the mile stretch to my house, I imagined what an Iron Man Triathlon would be like. Finishing late at night after a 2.4 mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and finishing up with a 26.2 mile run. How do you get your legs to work after 18 hours of that? And that’s what I tried to imagine as I forced myself home.

My run home came after running 1.3 miles to the gym, then doing three sets each of Leg Presses, Seated Calf Raises, Lateral Pull-Downs, Lateral dumbbell Pulls, Bench Presses, 180 crunches, a swimming, a biking, and a running exercise all in an hour and a half.

That’s nothing compared to an Iron Man. But it’s hell of a workout for someone three weeks into this Tri-training thing. I had to convince myself not to stop or walk as I ran home. I just kept my mind on lifting my feet and getting home. It took me 3 minutes longer to get home than it did to get to the gym. But I did it. I got home at 10:45 PM and I can say, this was the hardest workout I’ve ever done! But it was also made possible due to U2's "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" album blasting in my ears!

If I can do all that I’m sure by April ’06 I can do a Sprint Tri with no problem.

And maybe in 2007 – an Iron Man!

If I’m feeling now that a 1/2 mile swim won’t be too bad, what’s wrong with a 2.4 mile swim? It was just two weeks ago when I thought a quarter mile was crazy. Now I’m aiming for more!

Okay… maybe I'll aim for an Irom Man Tri in like 2008... maybe 2009. But yes, my goal is to eventually do an Iron Man Triathlon before I go to heaven.