Greetings fellow Suuntonizers,

I just wanted to inform you all (and especially Coach "King of Hearts" Fletcher and Lindh) that I survived my first IronMan in France on June 27th.

My timing was heavily affected by extremely slow transitions (it was my first triathlon ever as well), inadeguate bike accessories and nutrition.

I ate 1 power bar only on the Bike segment and I had no carbo-gel. On the other hand, the staff saved my life with bananas but since it was my only food I had to stop everytime to grab a full banana instead of eating just a slice on the go. I calculated I ate 10 bananas throughout the entire IronMan... I am amazed I am still alive.

This caused cramps on the marathon which was performed in 6 hours and 10 instead of my standard 3 hours and 40.

Among the other amenities I had to withstand... my speedsuit made my armpits and chest bleed throughout the entire race, I got sunburns because I forgot the sunscreen and I wasted 10 minutes to synch the foot pod which was DEAD due to the battery being in the T2 bag for the entire day under the sun.

The good side is that the T6c recorded EVERYTHING and the MemBelt did the same WITHOUT turning off Epoc or other "minor" recording functions.

If you want to look at the official pictures, they are on www.marathon-photos.com

Look for IM France 2010 and insert bib number 1080.

Total timing is somewhere around 15 hours and 40, just 20 minutes before the cut off time but I learned the lesson... I am already looking for tri-suits, wetsuits and tri-shoes for biking.

Yes Eddie,

I learned I shouldn't have faced this totally alone but it was a personal quest for personal reasons with little to no sports relevance to me. I find what I learned really invaluable indeed.

Had I gone with the present knowledge I think I would have missed the qualification to Kona by just a few spots because I can really tell from the HR that I didn't do my best especially at the Marathon where I half ran and half walked where I had promised myself I wouldn't give in... so I am really full of regrets, remorse and I see this more as a half failure than a total victory despite this being my first IronMan.
I think If I had qualified, I would have had to kill myself because ... I have problems with the American immigration services... LOL.

The lesson on nutrition is that under the sun it's nearly impossible to chew a power bar. These carbo-chocolate-coconut kit-kat replica are so sticky that without a good load of spit (or water) you can barely chew them and you CANT swallow them.

While other IronMen had carbogels stripped directly on the bike frames, I had to take these bars from the back of my suit in the pockets and then open them with my teeth... quite a hard predicament for one who only had 3 months of bike training.... then after I finally succeeded in tearing my first bar open, I had to get the bottle from beneath my saddle and that proved extremely hard with the half unchewed power bar still in my other hand.

Needless to say you can't drop the envelope and bar on the road because you'd get disqualified if dropping it out of an eco-zone. So you find yourself basically resigning to the evidence you can't drive, eat and drink at the same time. I performed the whole biking segment almost totally starved (and I already raced with 3 straight nights without sleep and a terrible back ache for driving 11 hours from Naples to Nice).

On the bike, I had to stop every 40Km to the aid stations to eat full bananas (only slices if you catch them on the fly) and at one of those stops anothe rider hit me with his wheel onto my left calf still locked on the pedal.

I struggled not to fall and I got my strain at the left knee.

I managed to eat the carbogel during the marathon but it was a bad mistake not to take any for the bike. It should have been the opposite, power bars in running and carbogels in biking... in the end i did the entire IronMan with 1 powerbar (eaten at bike setup before swimming) and 10 bananas... I had cramps everywhere, hence the bad timing.

Monday I drove back to Naples, Tuesday 3Km swim + spinning. Wednesday 15Km run, Thursday 4Km swim + Spinning, Friday 15Km run, Saturday REST (unbelievable eh!?) and sunday (yesterday) I went to this gym facility where I swam 2 hours and trained for 6 more hours... Pilates, Fit box, Step, Evolution Pump and Aerobics.

Needless to say I have just now finished weight lifting and am going to run now.

I try, Eddie... I really try but I can't help it.
I don't need a coach, I need a JAIL !!!!

I ran for so little ... I tried to run and walk to keep at least going under an acceptable time but i failed miserably. I had a serious problem at my right calf which would instantly go into cramp mode as soon as i started trotting. I had cramps even on the final corridor to the finish line... it was a nightmare.

I paid the ingenuities and no experience at the transitions, in the bike, in the nutrition, everywhere. I started out the run I could totally obliterate all of those who had whipped me in the bike segment and I had to surrender to a stupid injury coming out of inexperience. I can't stand this, I am full of regrets, I must do it again and do it properly this time. This time, believe me I will either get there DECENTLY or I will get out on a stretcher and there's no other way.

Still, this morning I went out for a run under a sun you could cook the eggs on the sidewalks and I found out I am still injured. 8.50km in 40' which is very bad since I generally go beyond 10km with this timing and, to the top of it, as usual, I didn't eat or drink... and I even lost one carbogel from my Ifitness running belt. Again... extra weight for nothing.

There's a good side... During this week I arrived to weigh 86.5kg and now I weigh 81.15kg. At least some good news.

So to tell the truth, I performed 3 hours of weight training because I couldn't sleep... My training day started at 4.20AM ...

God help me it's exactly as in this video for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx-5TFPZTus

I understand Dr. Banner SO much, the situation here is exactly the same.


What the hell... all I can say is thank God the swimming pool is closed on saturdays in July. I have arrived to the point of doing an IronMan 70.3 every single day... 

You need to do ABS, RUN and also take a diet.

There are diets designed for body builders whose purpose is to totally burn fat wherever it is on the body... I didn't do such diet because it was too close to the IronMan. It's all based on chicken meat, very little water and some rice. 4 weeks time lenght, guaranteed to make you lose AT LEAST 5kg.

There's a problem though for us athletes that body builders don't have: the need for water.