Marathon Me

Sportscaster: What’s your prediction for Frank’s Ironman?
Clubber Lang : My prediction? Pain.

And there you have it Mr. T’s prediction for this Sunday. I can’t say that I disagree with him too much either. I know I am going into this thing way under-trained in the swim and the bike. But I don’t think it will matter all that much. I expect my time to be somewhere faster than 1:30 in the water and I know that I would have had to put a lot more time into swimming than I wanted to in order to make much difference there. I swam a 1:15 in Ironman Florida 3.5 years ago and I didn’t swim a whole lot more then I have thus far. Monday I finally swam a mile in the pool and so that brought my yearly total to 3.5 miles, which is farther than I have to go on Sunday, so I feel good about that.

Now for the bike, I had done a 6:03:17 bike split in ‘04, which was 18.5 mph. I don’t expect to go that fast in Idaho because the course will be much harder, and I was riding more back then. I’m confident I will come in under 6:30 for the bike, so that’s my goal on that leg.

Where I really hope to pick up some time is in the transitions. My first Ironman I did 10:16 and 9:29 respectively for the swim and bike transitions. I feel like I should be able to knock 5-10 minutes off of that total time, which should make up for my slower swim.

I am hoping that my run will be similar to Florida, because I am in better running shape now than I was then (my marathon PR has moved from 3:08 at the time of Ironman Florida to a 2:58 earlier this year). Since then I have also done 6 back-to-back marathons on a Saturday/Sunday which I am hoping will help with the running after the bike. I actually did my most recent back-to-back six weeks before this race, so I think I am as prepared as I can be from the running side. Three and a half year ago I ran a 4:18:58, or just under 10 minute miles. Again, this course is much harder than Florida, but I am in better shape so I am hoping for about a 4:20 marathon.

So my predictions for Sunday are:

Swim: 1:30
T1: 7:00
Bike: 6:30
T2: 7:00
Run: 4:20
Total: 12:34

Ironman Florida 2004 was:
Swim: 1:15:06
T1: 10:16
Bike: 6:03:17
T2: 9:29
Run: 4:18:58
Total: 11:57:04

My stretch goal, and the one I’d like to no so secretly hit, would be to go Sub 12-hours again. To do that I think I’d have to hit times more like this:

Swim: 1:20
T1: 6:00
Bike: 6:14
T2: 6:00
Run: 4:14
Total: 12:00

Ironman Florida has got to be the easiest of all the Ironman courses, so if I can come close to that time, I would be really happy. And my advice if you’re looking for an easy Ironman, head to Panama City Florida.

Check in Monday to see how the predictions went. Or you can follow along on Ironman Live, I bib # 445.

So in closing, I leave you with Clubber discussing my fate for a final time:

See you out there.

Frank

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Tags: Ironman, Training //