A One Handed Blog

Spinning Ironman Style

My Ironman training kicked off in earnest this week and I’ve been getting back in the pool and back on the bike.

My coach, Paul Kinney, has me working out 8 times a week…8 I hear you say, but there’s only 7 days in a week. Well, on Tuesdays & Thursdays I swim at 5:30 am, go to the office and then I’m supposed to be lifting weights or running in the evening…10 months to go and counting!

Whilst I was swimming this week, Coach Mike had his Flip camera and kindly videoed me in the pool, so now you can see what it’s like to swim one handed…definitely need to pick up the pace a bit if I’m going to make that 2.4 mile swim in under 2 hours.

Despite my accident cutting my training short with two weeks to go before my first Half Ironman in October I’m determined to stick to my original plan, and with bones healed, start my bid to compete at the Ironman World Championship in Kona this October. That’s 140.6 miles and likely 16 hours of hard slog.

An Ironman triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike and finally a full marathon, 26.2 miles…all in one day. And the mecca for Ironman events is the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii…birth place of Ironman. Since I’m unlikely to qualify for Kona as a world class athlete, I’ve instead submitted an entry into the Ironman lottery as a challenged athlete. They pick 5 athletes from those that apply, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

This will be the biggest physical/mental challenge I have faced to date, without a doubt. I have 10 months of training ahead, 6 days a week for the next 42 weeks. In between I’ll be throwing in an Olympic triathlon or two, a Half Ironman event, a triathlon including a swim from Alcatraz and maybe a half marathon for good measure.

As part of my bid I plan to fundraise for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), these guys have a mission to provide opportunities and support to people with physical disabilities so they can pursue active lifestyles through physical fitness and competitive athletics, they provide support for athletic endeavors by providing grants for training, competition and equipment needs. As you can imagine, a cause near and dear to my heart.

So here goes, day one of training done, my first swim since my accident, nice to know it hasn’t affected my swimming ability, next will be to see how I fair on the bike…wish me luck.