Training for a Half IRONMAN-"The Cheap Way"

My newest hobby is coming with a large price tag. I have just dove into this process for a month and I am inundated with buying decisions.  An IRONMAN is something that has never been on my radar, I might add a marathon was never on my radar either until my brother gifted it to me for my birthday. Just so he wouldn’t have to train and do it alone while his wife was pregnant. I never thought I would have loved the training so much. I was the guy to skip the “optional” basketball conditioning runs on the weekends. I seriously didn’t go to one. I hated running with a passion. I competed in the junior Olympics in my county when I ran a six minute 10 second mile in 5^th grade. The older I got, the slower this time became. In high school I ran consistently a 6 minute 30 second mile. I still hated it though.

I laughed at my brother for doing the Disney marathon two years in a row. Why would you pay someone to run 26 miles? I never understood it. I cheered him on at the race but never understood why he did it. What a difference a year makes. After kicking and screaming about never doing it, he just signed me up anyway. That way, I wasn’t paying anyone to run. Little did I know I had to buy two pairs of running shoes, energy gels, energy waffles, vests, race socks, and the list of secondary purchases were unreal. I ended up paying more than the actual race fee just in those items above.

Now, I am entering the world of triathlon. I never thought I would be anywhere near here as I used to moan and groan about the traffic delays due to the IRONMAN races at Panama City Beach. Now, I want to participate.

Which leads me to a ton of buying decisions. The first buying decision I had to make was a new bike. My old bike was a cruiser bike that was over ten years old. It was rusted, bike tubes had to be replaced and was SLOW. I went on a bike ride with e-bikes and mountain bikes to get blown out of the water by them. After plenty of research, I decided that a road bike would align with my goals. I’m not trying to break any records, just want to finish the race. Little did I know how EXPENSIVE bikes are. It didn’t take long for me to hop on Facebook Marketplace looking for some of the top bike brands like Trek, Cannondale, and Giant. A week went by with nothing good available. Or the price point was just too high. I needed a new bike, but I wanted to be smart about it. Who knows how long I would be riding this bike. I finally found an older model of a Cannondale road bike. It looked in great shape, a few dents and scrapes but nothing too bad. $150 was a good price to me, and it was in my garage the same night that I found it on Facebook. Thank goodness, it was in good shape. It rode well, but I had clip pedals that I was not used to, and the cheapest way would be to forego the clip shoes, and just buy some flats for $11.

Replacing pedals became a challenge, as I needed a 6 MM hex tool to remove the pedal. I got a box set for $19. I might have to take the bike in for a tuneup to clean up the shifting and other items, just to make it run as good as possible. It shifts gears a little rough, and it starts to ghostshift after I drove it on a sidewalk for a little bit. A tune-up is $130 at my local store. I might shop around for the best price but I think a tuneup could be good.

That would put me over $310 in bike expenses.

Swimming is the starting portion of an IRONMAN and I have almost no experience of swimming in a lap pool. I shopped around for a lap pool in my area. Some were in gyms with a high monthly payment. Some pools were in a aquatic specialist complex with once again, a high monthly payment. After some searching, I found something even better, even easier than that. My college has a pool included in my tuition payment. A pool that I never knew I paid for, and never used. My plan is to change that and make this my home pool for my swimming workouts. I will be attempting to be swimming once or twice a week to build my proficiency. I bought a pair of goggles at Walmart for $17. Mid-tier level goggles at Walmart.

Running will be my favorite event of this triathlon. I have done a marathon and just being able to walk out the door and start running is very appealing to me. It is 85% of my current exercise and something that I would love to do in a different setting, Running through a city that is foreign to me is an incredible experience. It reminds me of being a kid and exploring. One of my favorite training runs for my marathon consisted of a 5-mile run through downtown St. Augustine. I ran from my hotel all the way to the Castillo de San Marcos. Seeing all of the landmarks, and ending at one of my favorite landmarks that I visited as a kid was extremely rewarding. I’ll need a new pair of running shoes. My training and race shoes for my marathon have gotten hundreds of miles on them. I would like a fresh new pair of shoes for me. $120 later.

I also need a tri-suit but I plan on buying that closer to the race day. I plan on losing a few pounds during my training, so buying one now doesn’t seem to make sense financially.

Energy chews, energy bars, Energy gels, Electrolyte drinks, and more. Fueling my body is an expensive endeavor during my longest of workouts. Will probably be well over $100 for my nutrients.

I am already probably at $500 for all of this combined. The race entry fee is almost $500… Going at this from a cheaper perspective still will cost $1000. I am doing one of the races close to my hometown so I can sleep at my parents’ house too. Not to mention the time payments and pain. I am going to have to sacrifice some weekends. Some peaceful eveinings will turn into training sessions. After school, instead of going home, I go straight to the pool. Just to say after a year, that I am half an IRONMAN.