My birthday is coming up quickly, and with it my now traditional birthday run, (a mile for every year). Since this year is a bit of a milestone year though, I decided to sign up for my longest race yet, Ultraman Florida. Officially 6 months out from race day, and the training plan starts now!

What is Ultraman?

Everyone has heard of Ironman, even if you don’t know the distances, it’s commonly accepted that it is a very long, hard race that people can spend months if not years training for. To date, over 600,000 people have competed in and completed an Ironman sanctioned event. Considering the sport wasn’t popularized until the ABC televised 1982 Kona competition, where Julie Moss had one of the most incredible breakdowns ever captured in sport, this is just an incredible number of very impressive athletes from all ages and walks of life. Ironman has certainly proven that Anything is Possible.

Again… what the heck is Ultraman?

Ultraman offers something that Ironman’s corporate bulk won’t allow for. Something summed up so well in the welcome speech to athletes and crew, the event is about Ohana, Aloha, Kokua. Family, Love, Help. From the athletes to the crew to the volunteers, everyone there embodies those three principles. The race is about the shared experience, where the journey is the point. Specifically that journey takes place over 3 days, each with a 12 hour cutoff. If you miss the cutoffs, you are encouraged to keep pressing on however, just not as an official racer any longer.

We came together as stranger, competed as friends, we part as brothers and sisters.

— Gerry van de Wint

Why Ultraman Florida

In 2018 I decided to attempt a ½ Ironman race, my first event outside of road running. But to do that I needed to purchase a bike and re-learn how to use it. Oh, and figure out how to swim. At the time I could successfully not drown, but needed work on the whole proper swimming thing. I worked with a swim coach friend for a few weeks, then started swimming on my own at the local YMCA. It didn’t take long before this awesome guy name Pat asked me to come swim with his group. While I was super intimidated, I decided to give it a try,  and met a ton of amazing athletes and people. About 2 weeks after starting though, most of the crew was gone for a week, apparently off to some race called Ultraman Florida. At the time I had no clue there were events longer than an Ironman, and was completely in awe of the teams that went down to compete. Wausau had 2 athletes there, Chad doing his second year in a row, and Chris, the rest of the group were there as crew.

The stories that came back had me intrigued, and quite inspired. Chris had a rough go on day one however, taking a fall on the bike. He wasn’t able to bike the second day, but still completed the run, with his arm in a sling. If these guys can do that, certainly I could do a half ironman!

2019 Chris went back for try number 2, and his crew chief from the year before, Craig also competed. I was super fortunate to be a part of Chris’s crew and what an amazing experience it was working with our crew and getting to meet all of the other athletes and crew there. Inspiring to see the Ohana being built, and the continually forge connections lasting through social media and additional events throughout the country.

This year I’m turning 40. I’ve done 3 Ironman’s, 4 ultra marathons and a 24 hour continuous triathlon.  I’m ready to celebrate life by pushing further, it’s time for Ultraman.

How do you train for something like this?

Over the past few years I’ve developed my own sort of training plans, with pretty standard workouts during the week, then change it up over the weekends. Those longer weekend workouts then tend to grow over the months leading up to the event, with some ‘special’ days thrown in.

For Ultraman, my focus is to stack fatigue. Trying to build day upon day of the same sport, as the distances are extreme, and you have some time between the bike and run. However, swim to bike does still need to be conditioned. So, during the week we have back to back run days and bike days, speed work the first day and longer recovery sessions the second. Those days on the bike often lead into really long days on the weekend.

Some of my favorite sessions coming up:

• 4 mile swim in Lake Wausau followed by a 60 mile bike ride
• Annual birthday run, 40 miles this year, with an 80 mile bike ride the next day
• 18 mile run, followed by a swim 3k bike 6 hours swim 3k brick the next day
• 8 hour bike ride followed by a 7k swim and 20 mile run the following day
• 100×100’s into a 2 hour bike, followed by a 6 hour bike the next day and an 18 mile run the day after
• And my favorite – Peak Week!
  • 4k swim before work, 4k swim after work into a 2.5 hour bike ride, followed by 7 hours on the bike the next day and a 22 mile run the day after that.

These sessions are long, there is a huge time commitment, which I am abundantly thankful I’m able to commit to. I’m super fortunate to have a wife who’s on board for this journey and friends and crew who are willing to help with some of these super long days.

To me the hardest part of these next 6 months of training fun, is that most of it will be during the winter months. Where I’m forced to ride inside, swim inside and brave the cold for outdoor runs. But at the same time, need to be prepared to race in 90’s – which means cranking the heat for some rides inside. Running the treadmill with a heater instead of a fan. It’ll be an interesting journey for sure.

Meet my Crew

Goals

#1 – Have fun. This race is at it’s heart a shared experience, where my number one focus is on racing with some incredible new people. Getting to know my crew better than I thought was possible, and even getting to know some of the other crews out there. Coming from being on a crew myself, this adventure takes everyone with it. Three days fly by before you can believe it, and the memories created during that time are seared into crystal clear permanency to be remembered for a lifetime.

This event to me is a sort of celebration of life. 40 is a huge milestone birthday, and apparently my mid-life crisis isn’t to buy a sports car, but to attempt to push myself further than I have before. Hopefully to test the boundaries of what I may still be capable of.