Beside from the usual fix of AFL and cricket, as was the go in Melbourne, one of the events that left a lasting memory was the Hawaiian Ironman (Triathlon). The images of Mark Allen and Dave Scott racing along the roads through the lava fields seemed the ultimate test of endurance for the super fit lunatic fringe!
During my late teens i caught the triathlon bug and competed in sprint distance triathlons (500m swim / 20km ride / 5km run) for a couple of seasons before the drain of spending 3 (plus) hours travelling to Uni and back each day put a halt to that!
Well, roll forward 20 years or so...
I'd dabbled in some shorter distance fun runs, with Run 4 The Kids (15km - flattish) and Puffing Billy Great train Race (13.2km - up and down through the Dandenong Ranges), being at the longer end.
After on-going knee issues, my physio and I decided that i should lay off the running a little - you know maybe cut back to running 3 times a week. Well, i saw this as the perfect opportunity to start to do a bit of cross training. Why should i only trash my legs but trash my legs when i could trash my entire body - so i entered the an Olympic Distance triathlon and started training!
After doing a handful of Olympic and Sprint distance tri's, as well as numerous road and trail runs over distances ranging from 7 km to 28 km, over the past 2 years and commenting that one day i may consider doing an Ironman Distance Triathlon...
I Entered Ironman Melbourne!!
For those of you who aren't all over all things triathlon and endurance sport, and as a reminder to myself as to what i have just signed up for, it entails:
a 3.8 km swim;
a 180 km ride; and
finally running a marathon - 42.2 km...
As i have a tendency to spend a bit of time on social media, i figured if i kept all my training, nutrition, and various other training related crap on this blog i wouldn't need to endlessly spam facebook and twitter.
Anyway, here commences what will undoubtedly be a very interesting 12 months!!
Wow! Go for it Tim. I will be very interested to read about your training up to the big event. I'm rooting for you.
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