Journey to Ironman Maryland 2015

Hello

Hello to new readers! I'm Chris Martin, and I've been blogging here about my racing off-and-on (and off, for a long while!) since I started doing triathlons. If you want to poke through the archives, you will find a lot of stuff that might interest someone new to triathlon. In the meantime, a little about me:

Age: 45

Married, "M," 18 years. One son, 15, "J" Two cats. No dog, because we are apartment dwellers, and if we got a dog it would be too big for our space.

First triathlon: Lake Belows Tri, NJ, 2008

Currently I am an engineer working for Cisco, but this is a pretty big change for me – my first career was in the arts – I was a dancer and musical theatre performer in NYC for 15 years. I left to go into Academia, but that didn't work out as planned – I picked up an MA in American Dance History from FSU and a Ph.D. from UMD in Theatre and Performance Studies (dissertation on race relations and ballroom dancing in the USA between the Civil war and WWI available upon request) – but never landed anything more stable than a couple of adjuncting gigs. So I took a lateral career move, and ended up as a project manager for a small company, working on Federal contracts. That ended in February of this year, and since then, Cisco, which has been awesome.

I started triathlon as a way to keep in shape in grad school after decades of dancing 40 - 60 hours / week. Today, I do it because it is a lot of fun (and it does help keep the weight down)!

Odd numbered years are Ironman years for me, and 2015 is looking like IM Maryland!

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ironman/maryland.aspx#axzz3KUSxjHQB

I've raced on this course two or three times at the ½ IM distance, it is flat and fast, and having the race in October will mitigate the biggest obstacle the race has held over the years – the heat. Eagleman (the ½ IM race on the same course) is run in June or July, and it can be blisteringly hot, with no shade, and brutal winds. At least October shouldn't be 103 degrees – the temperature on the day of my first (and only!) DNF.

This isn't my first Rodeo - I've done two iron-distance triathlons in the past, IM Wisconsin in 2009, and IM Coeur D'Alene in 2011. I was registered for IM Louisville in 2013, but went into the last month undertrained, and when I got a kidney stone two weeks before the race, I took it as a sign, and spent race day on the couch. For 2015, I have a plan to get my best time ever – a plan to race stronger, faster, and harder than I have in the past.

C.O.R.E. Fitness studio is the key to my plan. I'll be working with Ruth and the team to develop a personal training plan over the next few weeks, as well as regularly attending the Saturday Boot Camp classes. I'm getting back in the pool to train for the 2.4 mile swim starting December 1, and setting the bike up indoors to start training for the 112 mile ride January 1. I'm running in the Austin Marathon February 15^th, and I am planning on carrying that running fitness with me throughout the year. I'll do a few shorter races in the spring, and a ½ IM in late June or early July to assess the effectiveness of the training while there is still enough time to make adjustments – and then bang on through the summer and early fall to Cambridge, Maryland, and 140.6 miles of racing on October 3^rd!

I'll blog about the process on a weekly basis – look for updates on Fridays, for now – and I am happy to answer any questions about the process, or the sport, or anything else! I'm by no means an expert, but I have been racing for 6 years now, and learned a thing or two. And when I don't know something, I am pretty sure I know someone who does! My coach, Brian Shelden is a multiple has been doing triathlons a lot longer than me, is a regular qualifier for the World Championships in Kona, Hawai'i, and a great teacher.