Ironman St. George 2010: day 1

4/28/2010
Here we go again.............for those of you who have known me for awhile, you know that this is not the first Ironman blog and you are probably wondering "why" I continue to do more of them! This will be Ironman number 10 for me and it will take place in St. George, Utah on Saturday, May 1. I am sitting on the plane with 4 other athletes/friends/clients trying to distract myself from the race that lies ahead. You would think that I have done this enough times that I wouldn't even get nervous and yet that is the furthest thing from the truth. In fact, I may be the most nervous I have ever been second only to the Hawaii Ironman. It's not that we haven't worked hard and put in some good training (though a little unconventional at times) it's more the unexpected that is so terrifying. As of now the weather is forecast to be rather unpleasant (low of 44 and a high of 65 and rain), this is a first year race so there aren't any comparisons to be made, there is altitude to contend with and a cold water swim (55 degrees as of the latest data). So a little bit to be nervous about I guess. Our training was pretty interesting this winter. I know that when I say that the Florida "winter" was challenging for training, I will get stink eye from those of you who endured winter up north but it really was difficult to get in the necessary bike training. So we had sporadic training that was termed "Kamikazi" training since it was composed primarily of several really difficult workouts followed by quite a bit of recovery. Not your typical Ironman training actually.The 5 of us made a dozen or so trips to clermont which is our favorite place to ride and did countless hill repeats. We carried back packs with our running shoes on our back so we could run in between hill repeats. I was the recipient of many verbal "I hate you's" and scowls but they kept on showing up and working hard. They endured brutal strength training workouts, hundreds of squats and lunges and other challenging core exercises, But I have confidence in them and I fully believe they will do well and that it will be a grande adventure for all of us to say the least.