Emily Battle of The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg wrote an article about folks doing double- and triple-Ironmans. Yowza! Can't imagine what a 78.6 mile run feels like after a 7.2 mile swim and 336 mile bike ride. A couple of ultra runners and doctors chimed in - "ultra-runners often talk about the key to their success being their ability to numb themselves to the pain they feel as the miles build up." Worth a read.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
How much can the body endure?
Emily Battle of The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg wrote an article about folks doing double- and triple-Ironmans. Yowza! Can't imagine what a 78.6 mile run feels like after a 7.2 mile swim and 336 mile bike ride. A couple of ultra runners and doctors chimed in - "ultra-runners often talk about the key to their success being their ability to numb themselves to the pain they feel as the miles build up." Worth a read.
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Hey Scott
ReplyDeleteDude, you have become post-a-holic this week. I have only just caught up. I found this most recent newspaper article somewhat negative toward endurance endeavors. Reading this article, a would be endurance athlete would likely have preconceived notions of time commitment, pain, sacrifice, overdoing it etc. reinforced.
I am sure that most of your blog readers would look at such an event and say Coooool, that would so totally, insanely fun to do a triple Ironman one day. Where would I swim? (maybe one-way down a river) where would I bike? where can I find 78.6 miles of trails? … the mind races. Of course, countless generations of human evolution did not specifically mold us to swim, bike and run for 3 days on end, but I do believe this evolutionary process gave us the ability to do so and the adventurous spirit to explore the possibilities.
Cheers, Paul Charteris
Love it. An article about people more compulsive/crazy than us (typical ultrarunners), so that we look more normal by comparison. I guess doing a double ironman isn't that huge a deal except that sitting on a bike seat for 224 miles sounds hellacious, at least to my butt. Triple is crazy crazy crazy. That 68-year old is some stud, huh?
ReplyDeleteAs for missing dinner out with friends, I didn't even do that the night before for Ohlone (50k) this year (but did pass on an 8pm dinner party out before Firetrails, being 50 miles).
Roche-Wallace's 10 IM's in 10 days, now THAT'S scary. But then again, I totally suck at swimming and don't have a tri-worthy bike. Give me multi-day runs anyday over that!
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