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Some of you may be wondering, how/what/why the heck did I sign up for an Ironman? Well, this year is not the first year that I thought about it. My journey really began 10 years ago, when I first started training to complete a triathlon. Back then I started with taking a swim class to learn how to swim laps. Sure, I could swim, like if you threw me off a boat I wouldn't drown, but I couldn't make it more than one length of the pool at a time. I think I took a swim class for about 18 months before I did my first triathlon, the Olympic Wildflower course in CA. In the summer of '00 I did 3 triathlons total, then trained for my first marathon - the next step in my Ironman journey. The marathon went exceedingly poorly. I was fine for about 15 miles, but then everything hurt, especially a knee that had given me trouble on and off all summer. I finished, but about 30 minutes slower than I had anticipated (5:07) and completely demoralized.

In the next months I tried half heartedly to run again, but my knee would start bothering me after a couple miles and I gave it up. I went back to cycling and in the spring of '01 I did a couple century rides and registered for Ride the Rockies again. In June I found out I was pregnant with Alex and while I still rode part of Ride the Rockies, I pretty much hung up my bike for 7 years along with my running shoes.

I got back into triathlon last year and it was fun. I found a good training group. I had problems and I worked through them. I think I fixed my knee issues with custom orthodics, a better running technique and lots of expensive chiropractor visits. Things were going well. Then, this summer one of my training partners kept bringing up Ironmans. At first, I was dead set against it. I ran a marathon and it sucked. It hurt. But she was persistent. And she got others to join her. And she made it sound like *fun*. And then peer pressure won out and I agreed to do it with her and two other TriBabes (and one token guy.) It helped that she chose a race that would have been in my top 3 - Ironman Wisconsin in Madison. My grandma still lives there and I've visited many times. Heck, I've already swam in Lake Monona (and thank goodness drank less of it than Becky, who spent several days puking after a day at the beach). The final event that helped me make this decision was that even though I was sick, I completed the 5430 Half Ironman, and did it well. Sure it was hard, and yeah I hurt but it was doable. And if I'm going to train for an Ironman, this is the year to do it. Adam is only in school 3 hours a day. That's long enough for a workout out, but not long enough to be gainfully employed (as Jeremy would like to have sometime in the not-to-distant future).

Step one of the Ironman adventure was registering. If you can believe, there are so many people interested in doing such a grueling, punishing race that several sell out on site and never make it to the internet. So on September 14th at 11:00 am, the 5 of us were at our computers registering to the tune of $576. Quite a racket they've got going on. We all got in. I have no idea how long it took to fill up, but when I checked back later in the week, registration was already filled.

Step two has been finding a new training group. TriBabes was a great group and introduced me to some awesome training partners but it's not an Ironman program. The coach has never done a distance longer than a half and if I'm going to do this, I need to do it right. Some of the girls are training with a swim coach at our health club but I'm not comfortable yet with working with her on my run. I've looked around Boulder at other training groups (yeah, this is BOULDER - for only a few grand I could train with legendary ironman Dave Scott if I wanted to) and I'm looking at D3. The D3 coach is Mike Ricci, who has done several ironman and coached many others. He offers sport specific training plans for triathletes to work on their weak sport and this fall I'm looking at starting a running program. I'd like to increase my run pace before hitting the endurance training later this winter. I'm envisioning training for a few 5/10k while maintaning my swim and bike base.

So what does this next year look like? This fall will start with an 8 week running program. I'll probably start with 3:30 hours a week and move up to 5:30 hours. That will take care of October and November. I'll take it easier in December through the holidays, then the real training will begin around February. During my peak training months, I'll probably hit about 18 hours a week of training. All the while, I have to keep my promise to Jeremy by keeping my shit together - cooking dinner, keeping the house clean and caring for various and sundry children. No prob, right?