Training for an ironman with Diane Bergeron

Diane Bergeron is a visually-impaired athlete who appeared on the podcast previously and spoke about her intention to complete an Ironman competition. In this episode, she shares an update on her Ironman experience. After competing and unsuccessfully completing the race in 2015, Diane shares that she was recently successful in her quest.

In her most recent experience with the Ironman, she shares that just over 2,000 athletes competed. Her goal was to finish the race healthy, strong, and feeling uninjured. She was able to accomplish just that with a time of 16:15:57.

In order to achieve this goal, Diane invested a significant amount of time and effort into her training. First, she evaluated the 2015 race and what caused her to be unable to finish. She considered what factors she could she have changed. After realizing that the run was one of her weak areas, she made sure to focus on this in her training. As a result, Diane did two marathons and a lot of running to prepare for the next Ironman. She worked on the spin bike three times per week and ran three times per week. She also incorporated strength building with lighter weights.

To avoid overtraining and lessen the possibility of injury, Diane made it her personal policy to have at least one day off per week. This allowed her muscles to rest and recover. As a result, on the day after the Ironman, she experienced little pain and felt strong and healthy.

Looking forward, Diane is aiming to qualify for the Boston Marathon. She is also organizing the first five-person relay team of all blind athletes to compete in the Canadian Death Race, for which she will begin training in January.

Diane has a website launching in January called http://www.blindironvision.com. To connect with Diane, email her at blindironvision@gmail.com.

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Go from average to epic with Dr. Don Rose

Dr. Don Rose is an endurance athlete and author of the new book, Average to Epic: A Mid-lifer’s Guide to Endurance Sports and Lifelong Fitness. This book serves as an introductory guide to a wide range of endurance sports and helps readers discover how to be successful as endurance athletes.

Dr. Rose discusses several guiding principles within the book, including:

1. Almost nothing is impossible
2. Understand your motivations
3. One person’s epic is another person’s easy workout
4. Enjoy and appreciate the journey
5. Think sustainable and long-term
6. Be prepared to examine your self-image
7. Have an attitude of gratitude
8. Don’t forget to give back

Dr. Rose encourages readers to do something bigger, or to adopt a big hairy audacious goal (BHAG). Think of something that you may think is impossible to do. BHAGs should be transformational, outrageous, outside your comfort zone, somewhat risky, time-based, and meaningful. They should also have a clear finish line, but with a long-term aspect.

Setting goals without a lot of experience can be frustrating. Dr. Rose encourages people to get some events under their belt to determine their starting point.

Dr. Rose also discusses his 10 truths of training, which define the essence of training that can be applied across many sports. These include:

1. Everybody and every body is different.
2. Know thy body.
3. Training is more art than science.
4. Know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.
5. Recovery, recovery, recovery.
6. Planning is important. Flexibility is part of reality.
7. Consistency is the key.
8. Find a training rhythm.
9. Avoid the middle ground.
10. Don’t use a workout as a measure of fitness gains or losses.

To learn more about Average to Epic: A Mid-lifer’s Guide to Endurance Sports and Lifelong Fitness or to connect with Don Rose, visit https://average2epic.com/.

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Using maximum overload for superior performance with Jacques DeVore and Roy M. Wallack