The Journey to a Texas IronMan

Hi Everyone,

This weekend, Dr. Crane and I attended a tri camp in The Woodlands, Texas to learn more about IronMan racing and preview the Texas IronMan course. It was a very busy weekend to say the least.

The camp consisted of roughly 18 or so athletes all with varying abilities. Attendees were from Texas, throughout the U.S., Italy and Mexico. An interesting thing I learned was how much we really already know about triathlon including the IronMan race. All in all, tips were taken, we learned better swim techniques for open water and had a good preview of the the bike and run course.

The weekend was a solid workout session. We both learned that our legs were tired from racing the weekend before. It was frustrating to me I could not power like last weekend however was reassured by experienced athletes I should not be all out hammering and to get back into the training mode. I laughed at myself at how I was ready to go, go, go but the body said no, no, no. The body was right as this was a camp, not a race. Fun mental stuff eh?

The weather was very cool for Houston in fact, locals stated it was down right cold. I thought this was a positive as the cooler weather allowed us a chance to focus on each discipline’s route and not worry about the weather. I will say, riding through the heavily wooded areas brought on a chill in the early morning. We were glad to have gloves on which is nuts for this time year in Houston. I kept thinking if only race day temps would be this cool. Something tells me we don’t stand a chance at that request. A huge accomplishment was yours truly actually had a long run this weekend with no foot pain. Okay, it’s sore as I type this blog but it was exhilarating to be able to run again.

Overall, the course is beautiful. As far as the water, well let’s just say “not so much”. After looking at the canal and all it’s glory I figured what the heck, after swimming in lakes with snakes and all the other water friends, what’s the point in grossing out? What the challenge will be is the humidity, heat and wind. That is okay with us. When we both race at the Kona IronMan in the future, we will be saying the same thing “One time, in Kona, just like Texas blah, blah, blah…..”.

So the next few weeks will be focused on nutrition and planning for race day. I don’t want you to think the course will be a snap, after all it is an IronMan event and what I have learned after four half IronMan races is there is always something to challenge you. Like people say, if it was easy, everyone would be an IronMan.

Talk to ya next week,
Janet