Over the weekend, I signed up for the Duke Blue Devil irondistance race in October. I have no business trying to do 140.6. I don’t have time to train properly, and I’m a terrible runner. Like most people, I don’t anticipate any problems on the swim or the bike, but there’s no way I’ll be able to run the entire run. I don’t know if I’ll be able to run half of the run. I’ve done four half IM’s, and I’ve never even run the run in those races. If I can’t run the run in 70.3, why I should expect to be able to do it in 140.6?
I thought about that before I registered, but I registered anyway. Why? Because I have a two and a half year old son, and my wife wants another child ASAP. In March, I left my cushy state job due to budget cuts and got back in the newspaper business. I went from working maybe 35 hours a week with no deadlines to working 50+ hours a week with daily punishing deadlines. I’m having fun, but the stress level is pretty high.
I have been able train consistently at a decent level for the last few years, so my base is pretty good. I figure if I have another child, it will be several years before I could do an irondistance race with my family’s blessings. So I’m going for it. I’ll be stupid undertrained, and I’m thinking about putting up my running shoes in favor of a nice comfy pair of walking shoes.
The race is Oct. 8, and my birthday is Oct. 6. So I’m looking at this as a birthday present for myself. I have no training plan, and I don’t plan on utilizing one. My plan is to train as often as I can, and to make sure that I hit the standard target workouts – 4K swim, 6 hour ride, 2:30 run, 6 hour brick. I’m pretty close to everything except the big brick. My longest brick has been close to 5 hours, but that was just a 3 mile run and I started to cramp near the end. So I’ve got some work to do. And only 2 months in which to do it.
RP