Cheshire Fitness Member Success Story
Greg LaRue 44 years young! Greg has been a member of the Cheshire Fitness Club for 5 years and he is proud to report that he completed his first IRON MAN on August 30th, 2009 in Louisville, Ky.
He did all his swimming training in our pool and reported that this was the most challenging aspect (for him) of the IRON MAN Triathlon event. The first stage was a swim of 2.4 miles on the Ohio River and the water that morning was choppy and that the other swimmers were bumping into each other and "pretty competative," especially at the start. The other legs were an 112 mile bike ride, finishing up with a 26.2 mile run!!
Way to go, Greg!! His time was 12 hours, 52 minutes and 41 seconds and he reported that he managed to save a lot of energy for the finish, so that he was able to sprint to the finish line and meet his time goal. Greg shared a lot of positive comments about the organization of the event and especially the volunteers. He said that there were 300 racers and almost that many volunteers. Greg credits his family, training partner and girlfriend (who is a physical therapist) with providing him with support both before the event and during the race itself. He called this group the "A Team" and they were all at the event in Louisville, KY to cheer him on. He particularly credited massage as a great asset to removing the soreness and lactic acid out of his muscles while training for the race.
Greg is the father of three children (Andrea, age 23, Airforce Staff Sergent, Jessica, age 18, in school for Occupational Therapy at Ohio University and Tyler, age 14, in school at Owen Middle School and a promising linebacker). Seven years ago, while he was going through a divorce, Greg weighed over 220 lbs and is currently a trim 170 lbs.
SO, you may ask, how did he train to become an IRON MAN? Greg reports that he is not generally a good "worker-outer" unless he has to train for a goal, like a race or triathlon. He is very motivated by having a goal: he worked out 6 days a week for about six months prior to the event. Components of the three hours of daily training were running (not milage but time), road cycling here in the mountains and weight training for strength (along with swimming). He used his heart rate monitor to check his fitness level and wrote his daily and weekly training plan on a calendar and followed it each day to report outcomes. He did taper back for two weeks prior to the event with some pool time to stay flexible.
Greg reported that he gave up red meat for the last two months and gave up beer for the whole time he was training (this was REALLY tough for him...) He ate small portions and had small meals and snacks five times a day to keep his nutrition and energy going, Also, he had no fast food or soda during his training time.
Greg is now back to training for a half-marathon in South Carolina later this Fall.
So, when you see him around the gym or in town, congratulate him on being an IRONMAN. Not too many of us can claim that distinction!
P.S. He told me that his dad (age 70) is a prostate cancer survivor and has also started doing triathlons. _______________________________________