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Joe during the bike and run portions of his Ironman race home , so it required a lot of balance . He had to get his swim in here at HAC , but some of the biking and running could be done outside or on equipment at home so he could be available for his kids . He also had to find a schedule that worked for that balance – and in his case , that meant getting up a lot earlier . He became part of HAC ’ s early morning crew , using his swim to start his day .
As he got closer to race day , he increased his workouts to 17 hours a week to be fully prepared to complete the event . One of the things Joe stressed was that sometimes he missed his workouts and sometimes he didn ’ t have time to get an entire workout in . His advice to himself was that something was better than nothing , and if he missed his early morning swim , he would try to make it up that night , even if it wasn ’ t for the full amount of time he ’ d originally planned .
Working out is a large part of the battle – but maintaining a healthy diet and getting the proper amount of nutrition is a huge component of training for events as well . “ The amount of food I had to eat to fuel my body was incredible . You have to eat if you ’ re going to work out that much . Be prepared with snacks – you have to know calories in and calories out . Appetite control is key .”
Along the way , he ’ d heard from his brother that their personal competition was off . After five years of continuous training , he was no longer interested in doing another event . “ He told me that he ’ d gotten all suited up and prepared for a 5 hour bike ride with a buddy . It was dark out , he was tired , but it was time to train so he got on his bike . They weren ’ t far into it when his buddy sped off ahead and Dan found himself on the road alone . It was at that moment that he thought ‘ Why am I doing this ?’ and that was it . He wasn ’ t going to train anymore , and he wasn ’ t doing the Maryland Ironman . But that wasn ’ t going to stop me from trying to break some of his previous times !”
Before Joe knew it , the first of October had arrived . He was physically prepared for race day , had rented high-end bike tires that were supposed to increase rider performance , and he was all ready to go . Unfortunately , bad weather caused the swim to get cancelled , so Joe had to settle for just the bike and run . “ It ’ s kind of a funny story ,” Joe laughed when asked how his times measured up against his brother ’ s , “ first the swim was cancelled , but I was pumped for the bike ride , especially since I had these great tires . I got the tires , asked if changing them was the same as my usual tires , and the rep
Joe ended up ranking in the top 25 % for his division .
confirmed that it was , so I put them on the bike and was ready to go . About 10 minutes into the ride , I realized I had a flat . The tires were more difficult to swap than I thought . It took about 40 minutes to get the change done . I was in front of someone ’ s house , and the SAG was blocking him in . It ended up being a whole ordeal . It was a rookie mistake , I could have avoided the whole thing by just pressing down on the tire . I got back on the bike and got to it though . Overall , even with the extended tire change , I was pretty pleased with my bike time and my run time .”
Joe ended up ranking in the top 25 % for his division , and he ’ s not done yet . He plans to go for the full Ironman experience this summer in Lake Placid .
enhance magazine | JANUARY 2017 39