An Ironman triathlon is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile marathon. It takes me eight months of training to get ready for this race. Since Ironman Lake Placid is on July, I have to start preparing in December when it’s still cold outside, so more than half of my training takes place indoors.

For the swim, I spend hours doing laps in a pool from December until July. Typically, I swim on Mondays and Fridays before work. I start out with a 1,500 meter swim in December and by June I’m swimming 5,000 meters per workout.

I did “swim” outside on New Year’s Day this year, but that was just to test a theory. How long could Jack actually survive in the Atlantic Ocean, in the end of the movie, “Titanic?”

At a water temp of 50 degrees, I lost sensation in my hands and toes after two minutes. Then breathing started to become difficult. I lasted just shy of four minutes, or 125 meters, before I had to stop.

My bike training starts in my house. The back tire of my racing bike is hooked up to a bike trainer to create resistance. I can spend hours watching Netflix while I do my training rides.

In winter, I will leave the door open to keep the room cold. The body gives off a tremendous amount of heat when pedaling. The longest of these rides is 90 minutes or two episodes of The West Wing.

Instead of taking a spin class where I have to adjust their bike to my body, I can use my racing bike which has been fitted to my body. I have very specific goals for the 112 miles of hills at Lake Placid. A spin class is not going to target the areas I need to work on, nor will it allow me to wake up at 3 a.m. and do a 90 minute set.

As for the running, I run outdoors, all year long.

By David Roher