Goal: Hawaii - Triathlon Week

gemutliche · 06-24-2007, 03:12 PM

I'm 23, new to the forums, and have a long way ahead of me before I make it to my goal of the Hawaiian Ironman. But, you gotta start somewhere and my sister and I made a bet that the first there pays the others way provided they aren't doing it ill-prepared. Anyway, I'm up in Pittsburgh with work but I'll be heading back to Baton Rouge in August and hope soon thereafter to become a regular at the YMCA. Until then, I've been getting in a good amount of mountain biking and dreading the day I once again take up running as I always try to push too hard and then my knee's fall apart.. something called the "I.T. band" according to my sis.

Aside from that, I know I have to do a half marathon qualifier before the ironman and therefore I am in no rush to dive in. So for the most part I will be in the background reading the forums.

But if I had one question upfront it would be:
"If you had to eat the same things over and over each day what would they be?" I only ask this because I am 1 yr out of college, I wake up 10 minutes before I leave for work, and the hardest part of grocery shopping is deciding what to get... I eat anything besides asparagus (it makes your pee stink) and as of now I've got:

Breakfast: a glass of skim milk, bananna, all purpose vitamin, and oatmeal
Lunch: tunafish sandwhich, apple, loaf of bread? dunno need some carbs
Snack before workout: pb & j
Dinner after workout : chicken breast, salad, undecided baked potato vs brown rice, & miller lite

sfricks · 06-25-2007, 06:20 AM

Welcome aboard. Good luck in your HI quest.

First, you need to know that to get to Kona, you have to qualify. It's invitation only. A half Marathon won't qualify you. What this typically means is winning your age group in a 70.3 or 140.6 Kona qualifying race. This is going to require an extreme amount of discipline or some naturally strong athletic genes or both.

While your age group is not the largest in the field, it will still require a 4:15-4:30 Half IM or a 9:30-9:45 Full IM finish. Just for edification, that's a 1 hour swim, 5 hour bike and a 3:30 marathon for the 140.6. Again, good luck!

Your nutrition looks OK except for the loaf of bread. Seriously... a whole loaf? I will say that if you really have aspirations to get to Kona via the qualifying route, you're going to need to consume significantly more than what you've listed. You'll be putting in more than 20 hours a week of fairly intense exercise and will be willing to eat your socks to stave off your hunger!

Now... there is another way to get to Kona. EBay sells slots cheap. Just get sis to fork over $40,000 and you're in!!!