Ironman Louisville

In less than 48 hours, over 2500 of the world's triathlete's will be racing in here in Louisville. With only eight official Ironman races in the continental United States each year, it's not hard to see why people get excited about having the chance to see and/or participate in one that takes place in your hometown.

Now entering its fourth year, Ford Ironman Louisville has already become a unique stop in the Ironman series and a favorite of some of the sports professionals.

The 2.4 mile swim takes place in the Ohio River, which makes for an interesting experience for those from out of town. The race here in Louisville is also the only one that has a time trail start instead of waves. Each competitor (with the exception of the pros) enters the water one at a time....a process that takes over an hour to complete.

The 112 mile bike course takes athletes from Waterfront Park down River Road out to US-42 and scenic LaGrange, seeing some of the world famous horse farms that Kentucky is known for.

After returning to the Great Lawn on Waterfront Park, the competitors head out on the 26.2 mile run that takes them past the Louisville Slugger Factory, Churchill Downs, Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and then down and back beautiful Southern Parkway before finishing up at Fourth Street Live! and what has become known as the best finish line shoot outside of Kona, Hawaii.

I will be volunteering again this year  in Transition Area 1 to assist athlete's as they head out on the bike. I'm looking forward to the inspiration and motivation that I get from watching the competitors!

You can go to IronmanLouisville.com to get course maps and lots of other info if you want to come out and cheer on these athlete's who have been working for months and years to get to this point. You can track racers at Ironman.com during the race as well. Good luck to everyone racing Sunday!

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

Bike

2 solid hours on the indoor bike in Zone 2...building endurance
I did a 10 minute warm-up, then increased my heart rate to zone 2 (125-137 bpm) and held it there for an hour and forty minutes, then did a 10 minute cool-down. I felt pretty good, but the time seemed to pass really slowly today. I listened to a podcast and some music, but I had to force myself not to check my time every few minutes.
Avg HR = 128 bpm
Max HR = 141 bpm

Here's a chart of my Heart Rate: