Milestones Towards Ironman Florida

I coached Bart Freeze on the Vanderbilt Triathlon Team during his senior year here. He impressed me by going from a completely de-trained state to completing a duathlon and olympic distance triathlon. Great guy; drank the triathlon kool-aid.


Photo: Bart Freeze 2 years ago at Monster Duathlon, his first race.

So I was suprised when he e-mailed me last December. "Hey I've signed up for Ironman Florida. Will you write me a training plan?" This was part of his self assessment:

In regards to swimming, when I get into a groove I can swim for a long time. However, I am slow. This makes it hard to swim with other people (masters classes for example) because it is difficult for me to do any of the workouts in the allotted time frame...

I am most concerned about the running. I am pretty heavy for long-distance running (about 198 right now). My legs generally get tired well before my heart/breath wear out...my legs have a hard time under the weight. Also, I am concerned about hurting my knees/feet from the pounding of long-distance runs.

Capital City Half Marathon, Columbus, OH
13.1 Miles 2:02:30



Photo: Bart looking svelte at the finish line, May 2.


I am getting in pretty awesome shape. Flirting with 180 pounds. Swimming at about 1:45 per 100M (which is waaaay faster than before). Starting to really get zenned-out when running.

I can tell you I remember how painfully slow Bart used to swim...1:45 is warp speed. The best part is that hegetting closer to ideal endurance weight and is doing 2 hour runs with no injuries! He is right on the right track for IM Florida, but there is a lot of work ahead. Next mission: Half Iron Distance Triathlon.

Swim-bike-run. Swim-bike-run. Swim-bike-run! Go Bart Freeze!!!