1. Three years ago, I had never run over a mile in my life. A month ago, I finished a marathon.

2. A few months ago, my average time for a 100 meter swim, while in the middle of a long, paced swim, was about 2:10. Now it’s around 1:50.

3. A year ago, I ran a half marathon in 2:10 and felt pretty worn out. That was with aid stations. Now I run a half marathon every week, with nothing more than one Gu, and it’s just another normal training day. Oh, and I do it in under 2:00, and that’s on a course with a decent headwind and some good hills.

4. Nine months ago I weighed in at 215-220 lbs. Now I’m at 200 lbs, and a lot more of that weight is muscle than it was before.

5. A few months ago I felt like I was accomplishing something when I swam 1500 meters. Now a 2000 meter swim feels like a light workout, and a 3000 meter swim today feels easier than a 1500 meter swim felt 6 months ago.

The one area I haven’t been measuring myself very well is on the bike. I don’t really know what I can do today that I couldn’t do six months ago. I just don’t pay much attention to it, so that’s where I can improve.

Oh, and all my pants and other clothes are a lot looser than they were. I also can’t wear my wedding ring because it keeps falling off.

It’s an easy jab to say it’s just a response to a mid-life crisis. But that doesn’t reveal the underlying reasons behind the mid-life crisis, nor the attending question “Why triathlon?” Why not a new, completely impractical, sports car? Why not a new wardrobe from Banana Republic and a new hairstyle? Why not start listening to your kids’ music? Actually, my oldest is almost two-years old, and I have been listening to more Kindermusik than I care to admit lately, but that’s not in response to a mid-life crisis, I swear. Here are five reasons why triathlon is the response du jour to the mid-life crisis many of us are having these days:

1. We’re fat. We weren’t fat 10 years ago, so doing a triathlon never crossed our minds. I mean, who would have the motivation to start this type of thing if they weren’t in a desperate situation to begin with? We weren’t back then, but we are now, so here we are, spending 10-20 hours per week in response to a condition that snuck up and grabbed us around the waist when we weren’t looking.

2. We’re ready to admit we’re fat. You were probably fat at 30, but it took you until you were 34 to admit it and start doing triathlons. Before that, you were svelt, stocky, husky, strong, burly, or manly (I’m talking to the men here, please don’t get offended womenfolk, you probably have your own set of reasons that are different than ours). Then you finally admitted those were all words designed to disguise the fact that you were fat.

3. We have some money. Actually, I had more money 10 years ago…what’s wrong with this picture?

4. Triathlon is real, and real is the new fake. We’re done with anything Chuck Norris is selling, the latest diet drink, lipo, or any and all of those fad diets. We always knew those things didn’t work. We always knew it was going to be hard work to get in shape, and when we looked around and asked “What’s really, really hard?” someone responded “You should do a triathlon,” and we thought “Yep, that’s what it’s going to take, I guess.” Triathlon replaces all those surgeries, diets, and pills sold on late-night infomercials with something we know will work or kill us in the process, and it only costs three times as much as any of those other things.

5. It works. Somehow signing up for an event, training for it because you’re afraid of what will happen if you don’t, changing your diet because you’re afraid of what will happen to your training if you don’t, doing the event, hesitantly signing up for another, and then doing that and realizing your time is 25% better than your first one leads to an addiction, and the next thing you know you’ve lost 30 lbs. but you see no reason to stop doing triathlons, because you have somehow come to like doing them and all that goes with the training, and you recognize that your life has changed forever, and even all those receipts for $40 containers of drink mix can’t bring you down.

The thing is, there have been plenty of other times during my training when I didn’t feel like it, but that didn’t stop me. I still did my workouts and felt good about it. Today, I just feel like sleeping. And at the back of my mind I find myself thinking “What does it matter? I’m not signed up for anything.” And that scares me. It scares me because I wonder if I’ll feel any different tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Maybe I’m just having a single down day, but what if it isn’t just for one day?

The trouble with it all is that it’s the beginning of winter, and that means the end of the triathlon season. Well, it means the end of every season except skiing and snowboarding season, but I don’t ski, and snowboarding won’t keep me in shape for triathlon, even if my back and hipflexor could handle it. My tentative plan is to sign up for the SLC full marathon in April, the Boise half-Ironman in June, and then the full Ironman in Panama City, Florida next November. Perhaps the marathon in April is enough to keep me running, but what about biking and swimming? If I don’t have an event until June, then I feel like I’m going to slack off on those two.

My coach says there’s a duathlon early next year in St. George, so maybe that’s something I can train for, but I need more ideas, even if it means traveling out of state.

You see, my mom is a bit of a health nut. Growing up she was always making dishes like cabbage casserole, carrot casserole, etc. And when I stopped eating her cooking and started making my own meals, which generally involved lots of cheese, or when my dad and I would be eating ice cream, she would be eating something healthful and would say things like “I really like what I’m eating better than what you’re eating!” Naturally, I assumed she was lying, and was just trying to trick me into eating some cabbage casserole, but I wasn’t about to fall for it.

Then, after I got married, my wife would say similar things. I assumed she was also lying, and that perhaps it was some sort of conspiracy. I mean, what type of deranged person would prefer to eat an apple instead of a half gallon of ice cream? Crazy.

But out of respect for others who don’t like to see a grown man throwing caution to the wind, or perhaps out of a heavily muffled sense of shame, I have tried in the past to not binge on ice cream in front of others. So when my wife would go out of town, then things could get a little bit out of hand. Late nights, movies, ice cream, candy, you name it. Yeah, some guys would have all their friends over, get drunk, and trash the place, but my way of partying is alone with movies and food.

Well, my wife went out of town this weekend. Yesterday, actually. So I made a batch of cupcakes and some pudding to go on top. But that’s when the strangeness occurred. After I made them, I didn’t feel like eating any. I forced myself to eat a few mini-cupcakes I had made, but it was hard going. I went the rest of the day without touching the other ones, because every time I went towards them I felt a little sick to my stomach and they just weren’t appetizing. Finally, right before bed, I forced myself to eat one, but I didn’t enjoy it.

Today, I woke up and had a green smoothie for breakfast. I went to open the bag of cupcakes to have one, but again, it just didn’t seem appetizing, so I didn’t. This afternoon I forced myself to eat two, but again, it was hard work and almost thoroughly without satisfaction. I’d much rather have a Jamba juice.

Am I forsaking all sweets forever? No, I haven’t said any such thing. I’m just saying that something strange is occurring, and that maybe my mom and wife weren’t lying after all. Maybe they really are crazy, and maybe I’m starting to get a little crazy myself.

Anyway, all of that was just leading up to today. Here was today’s workout assignment:

Steady, moderate effort
Type: Bike
Planned duration: 1:15
Planned distance: 0.0 miles
Ride on a flat to gently rolling course. Get at least 50% of ride time in 2 zone. Avoid 3-5 zones. Keep the 2-zone effort steady and continuous.

Workout #2: No zone 3 or above.
Type: Run
Planned duration: 0:30
Planned distance: 0.0 miles
Heart rate zone 1-2 on gently rolling course. NO zone 3. Walk hills, if necessary, to hold heart rate down.
Brick workout, fast transitions. Will br a tough workout, take in a couple hundred calories on the bike and don’t go out too hard on the bike.

As I mentioned, I like to stretch in the hot tub at the gym plus there’s a nice, flat running trail by the gym and where I live is a bit hilly, so even though I didn’t need to go to the gym, per se, since I could ride and run around my house, I drove there with my bike to ride and run around the gym area, then stretch, then shower and come home.

I was a mile into my ride when I heard something tic-tic-ticking on my front tire. I saw something light-colored whizzing around the wheel, so I quickly stopped. Sure enough, it was one of those thorns. I don’t know what plant or tree these thorns come from, but I’ve sure had a lot of them stuck in my shoes over the years, and if you happen to step on one with bare feet–boy howdy, they hurt.

I pulled out the thorn and then listened for the telltale blast of air telling me I was on my way to a flat tire. But I didn’t hear any air and couldn’t feel any coming from where the thorn was. The tire felt just as firm as ever, so I concluded I had thwarted the thorn’s attempt to get me. I was a thorn in the thorn’s side, which happened to have stuck in the side of my tire, rather than the middle, otherwise I would have been stuck with a flat for sure. Well, lucky me.

I went on my merry way, and about a mile later heard the sound of a flat tire rolling under a bike rim. Oh no! It did get me after all! But wait, my front tire looked fine. I looked at my back tire and sure enough, it was totally flat. Argh. And stuck in it was a big thorn. Apparently the thorn had caught up with me and took its revenge.

Now, the thing is…I hadn’t changed a bike tire in over two years. You see, the first day I ever rode my first road bike I got two flats…or maybe it was the first week. Anyway, very early on I got two flat, and then I never got a flat ever again until today. So I wasn’t exactly up on my tire-changing techniques. And it was the rear tire, which means getting my hands all dirty from the gears and such. Nevertheless, I dug in with gusto, thinking about how much more calm and controlled I was than Normann Stadler in Kona ’05.

Now wait…do I tuck the tube into the tire, or into the rim? Shouldn’t I have more than one of these red plastic thingies? Am I supposed to inflate the tire a little to help me get it in position and prevent pinches? Seems like somebody told me that once…ok, let’s inflate it a little. Ah, my trusty new Co2 inflater-thingy. Let’s put it on the stem of the new tube…nothing. How’s this thing work? My last one had a trigger on it…how do I activate this one? Did I not screw the Co2 cartridge on it hard enough? Maybe it’s screwed on too hard, let’s loosen it a little…no wait, I’m losing the air from it now, screw it back in! Ok, there’s no air going into the tire…maybe there’s dirt in the Co2 thingy…it was facing up before on my carbon wing, maybe some mud got in it or something. Let’s dig in it with an Allen wrench…yeah, there is some dirt in there, although no much. Would that really prevent all the pressure from the Co2 cartridge from getting out? Maybe…hmmm, I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should walk up to that gas station, but I don’t think the air there will fit on the long stem of this bike tube. Well, I probably should take this Co2 cartridge off the thingy…ok, all the air’s gone. Hey, I can press part of this Co2 adapter thingy…ah! That’s how it works!

Now that I had wasted one of my two threaded Co2 cartridges (retail price $3.45 apiece) I knew how the dispenser, or whatever you call that thing, worked and I could inflate my tire. I did so, put my tire back on, and started riding again.

I reached my halfway point of 35 minutes or so, and started back towards the gym. As I came down a winding side street, I heard a “whoosh!” sound and suddenly my front tire went flat. Argh! I had another spare tube, but no more Co2 cartridges!

I started walking down the road, in my bike shoes, but realized I was probably a mile or more away from the nearest gas station. I was in a residential area, with nothing around but houses. Should I knock on a door and ask if they have a bike pump? Would their pump fit the stem of my tube? I didn’t think so, unless they were a biker. I decided to call Te Koi. I knew he was at work, but hey, work can always be blown off to help a friend in need, right?

It was a bit more iffy than that, but Te Koi agreed to bring me a Co2 cartridge to fill up my other spare. I decided to get my new tube in so that I could quickly fill up and get going once he got there. I decided to examine my tire some more, and as I did I noticed there were a lot of thorns broken off and embedded in my tire. I started picking them out, and picked out well over 10 thorns. I then decided to check my back tire. I didn’t find so many there, but I did find one that was pretty well buried, and since the tire was inflated, it was harder to get the thorn out since I couldn’t bend or maneuver the tire to expose the end of the thorn so that I could grab it with my fingernails.

I thought that maybe I could press right next to the thorn with the point of my Phillips-head screwdriver and expose the end so I could grab it. As I pressed next to the head of the thorn, I heard the squeak of rubber against metal. The squeak that meant the rubber was adjusting in size…this wasn’t good. Did I just flatten my back tire too? I pushed on the tire and it was firm. Ok, maybe I imagined that noise. Maybe it was a bird, or a car driving by.

A woman with a kid in the car and a bike rack on the roof of her VW Passat wagon stopped. “Do you need a ride?”

“Nice try lady, I’m married, and you’ve got a kid. What kind of shenanigans are you trying to pull?” was what I should have answered back, but I just said “Thanks so much for stopping, but my friend is on the way.”

Te Koi arrived, and I felt the back tire again. Totally flat. Argh. At that point I knew I wasn’t going to be doing any more riding today. It was 45 minutes before I was on my run. I had only ridden for 45 minutes instead of 1:15, and my transition from bike to run had taken about an hour.

So, it’s been a challenging few days, in minor ways. But even though these are relatively minor things, it’s easy to get down about them. I was really pretty bummed about that triathlon swim being canceled. But at some point so many things happen that I just have to take a step back and laugh at the chaos. Sometimes the “endurance” part of an endurance sport like triathlon isn’t the swim, bike, and run themselves, but everything else you have to do just to be able to swim, bike, and run.

Thanks to Te Koi for taking time off work to get me back to my workout. I’m not sure who I would have been able to call next.

I’ve tried a lot of things, but triathlon combined with a healthy diet is the first thing that has worked. I think the message is that there is no easy way out of being fat, but there is a way out, and once you break through the first month or two of it, things get easier because you get used to your new lifestyle, and suddenly you wake up one day and realize you’re no longer the person you once were. Progress. It’s great.

1st photo – The beginning of the journey. Kerry in 2001 at 340 lbs.

2nd photo – The completed journey. Kerry at the finish line at 2009 Ironman Canada at 185 lbs.

3800m (2.4 mile) Swim

I looked at all the other 2600 athletes at Okanagon Beach in Penticton, BC, getting ready to do Ironman Canada on Sunday, Aug.30th. I reflected on the 8 1/2 year journey that I had undertaken to get here. Losing 155 lbs over this time period and developing a healthy lifestyle. The journey was not always easy, overcoming unbelievable odds at times. I had many health issues along the way, but was able to get through it all. This race was a celebration of how far I had come.

At first I thought that the Ironman was a crazy idea, never achievable by me. But as time progressed and the more that I talked to other veteran Ironman triathletes, the more I got passionate about the idea. I originally wanted to do it in 2008, but decided to delay it for one year because I felt I wasn’t ready. You need to be prepared physically and mentally to do an Ironman.

I seeded myself in the middle of the crowd on the beach. I felt calm, realizing that this was going to be a long day. We sang the national anthem at about 6:50 am and the horn sounded for the start at 7:00 am. I started slow. Bodies were all around me, but I zoned it all out and concentrated on what I had to do. My energy levels were good and I was starting to get into a rhthym. I noticed that I was off the buoy line, so I tried to get back on it. This seemed to be a constant problem throughout the swim. However, I seemed to correct the problem in the last 1500m. I swam to the first corner of the swim course at 1600m. There were two houseboats marking the back 450m leg of the swim course. I continued to ramp up the pace. As I was turning the corner, a girl hit my left goggle with her return stroke, driving it into my eye socket. I couldn’t see out of that eye until I was able to pull back the goggle a bit. I was now on the home stretch with 1800m to go. I continued to ramp up the pace. I was staying on the buoy line a lot better now and wishing that the swim would be over soon. I got to within 400m of the shore and started ramping down a bit. Once my hands could touch the bottom, I stood up and started running in calf deep water. I exited the water and proceeded over to the wetsuit strippers. I was a little disappointed with my 1:35 time, but thought that getting off course a bit may have cost me. I went to the change tent and got ready for the bike. As I got sunscreen applied to my body, I remember Clint Lien in the transition. I was a little rattled after the swim. However, Clint gave me words of encouragement and got me focused on what was coming up. I was really thankful for what he said to me.

180km (112 mile Bike)

I ran with my bike out to the mount line and headed south through Penticton. Forest fire smoke from a neighbouring forest fire had blown in recently. It was not going to be fun breathing. The crowd was awesome and you could feel the energy with every pedal stroke going through town. I exited Penticton and headed down the Skaha Lake Road. Just before I got to McLean Creek Road, I stopped briefly to make an quick adjustment to my bike. For some reason, I didn’t get proper footing and down I went. I banged up my knee a bit, but I still got up and continued on. The climb on McLean Creek Road was slow, but my legs seemed to handle it ok. I got to the top of the hill and then made the descent to OK Falls. As I was going down the hill, I noticed my back tire was flat. The Bike Barn Tech Support was almost immediately behind me and changed the tire quickly. I continued on through OK Falls and headed towards Oliver. At this point, I had established a good pace and heart rate and was taking in nutrition and salt tabs. I got to Oliver and realized I had another flat, darn ! I quickly changed it and got back on the road….only to find that I had another flat in Osoyoos at km 60 !! I said to myself..what is it with these towns…I keep getting flats in the towns ! The Bike Barn showed up again. They looked at it closely this time and realized that the rim tape was worn out and that exposed metal was constantly puncturing the tire tube. I got back on the road and began preparing to ascend Richter Pass. I started to shift down and found out that I couldn’t use the last three easy gears on my cassette. I quickly decided that I couldn’t waste time anymore with tech support and I needed to suck it up with the harder gear ! I started to climb the 11km of Richter Pass. Since I was moving slow, it was really starting to get hot. Also my breathing wasn’t good because of the forest fire smoke. However, I was climbing at a good pace. Luckily Richter is separated into four sections with flat spots in between. I passed a number of people in the ascent and was rewarded with a nice downhill. I passed aid stations and took advantage of the water and Gatorade. I also poured water over my helmet / bandanna to keep my head cool. It wasn’t long and I was tackling the 7 to 8 rollers. I felt I was climbing good on these, but again the heat was unbelievable. Depending on where you were, it varied between 36 deg C to 40 deg C. At times I was coughing from the smoke in the air as well. I finally got to the Keremeos Flats. It was windy, but I was able to keep my speed up. I tried not to over extend myself and kept a nice, steady pace like I did in the first 60km of the bike course. I got onto the out and back. I could hardly wait until I got to the bike special needs station at km 120. Once I got there, I reached in my bag immediately to get some vaseline. I continued to finish the out and back and start the Yellow Lake ascent. The climb to Yellow Lake was probably one of my biggest challenges in the race where I really had to fight mentally to get through it. It was ugly with people laying down in the ditch with their bikes, getting sick on the side of the road or ambulances picking up people that were affected by the heat. I got to within 50m of the ascent and my abductors started to cramp. I had a big decision to make…I got off the bike and walked it to the top. I needed to give my legs a little break. One thing was for certain, the bike had caused me a lot of problems during the race. I was going to carry it back to Penticton if I had to just so I could finish. I got to Yellow Lake at km 150 and I knew I had a few more hills to go, but it was mostly downhill. I got back on the bike and my legs felt revived. Also, I was going faster with the bike and I could feel the heat less. I felt new life and soared down towards Penticton, knowing that time was not on my side. I needed to be in transition by 5:30 pm. I got into town and went as fast as I could. I finally got into transition by 5:00 pm. I felt tired and a bit dehydrated.

42km (26 mile) Run

I gave my bike to the volunteers to be racked and proceeded to the change tent to get ready for the run. I didn’t feel good and didn’t know how I was going to run a marathon. My legs were so tired from the bike. I decided to walk briskly to try and get my legs back. I met Coach Sara at about km 2 while she was proceeding to the finish line. She called out to me to “jog it out”. I decided that I would at least try to start a walk / run routine by about km 5. I realized that I would have to run part of the time to finish. I took in ice water, Gatorade and flat Pepsi at the aid stations. As well I had my own salt pills and sports drink. I got to km 6 where I was greeted by one of my fellow athletes, Kendall. She was so excited for me and having her say that I was going to make it, helped me push harder. At km 8 by Skaha Park, Wade Church (Great White North Race Director) had a music tent and was playing some catchy tunes that were really motivating. The sun was starting to go down. It was going to be nice not to have it beating down on me. At km 15, I ran into Chris Brown and the photographer, David McClone. By 7:30 pm it was starting to get dark and the volunteers gave us glow sticks to wear around our necks for safety reasons. Both did a good job of motivating me and keeping my spirits up. My stomach was starting to feel better, but my legs were still tired. I walked most of the big hills by the McLean Creek turnoff and once I got to the top, I began running continuously downhill to the turnaround. We had to be at the turnaround by 9:00 pm. I managed to get there by 8:15 pm. It was completed dark by this point. Due to the shortness of time, I decided not to call for the run special needs bag. I climbed the hills out of OK Falls and felt like I was starting to get myself back together. I continued the walk / run and started passing a lot of people since most people in this position of the race were mostly walking. The second half seemed to go faster. I was encouraging other athletes to start running, so that they could finish on time. Straight walking just wasn’t going to do it. I got into town again and went by Wade’s music stand again at km 34. I felt energized. And then finally, I had been looking for my buddy Floyd from Fort St.John all day. I finally found him at km 40. It was so fitting that we would finish this race together.

I made the final loop on Lakeside Drive to the finish line. The crowd was unbelievable even at 11:15 pm at night. The whole finish area was lit up and looked like the Stairway to Heaven. I crossed the finish line and raised the finish banner high above my head. My final time was 16 hours, 17 minutes.

I had seen many obstacles today, but I still got it done ! The Ironman race was so symbolic of my journey to get to the race….adversity along the way, but still moving ahead and achieving the ultimate goal.

I just met with David for three hours last night, and we talked about goals, events, nutrition, equipment, and everything else we needed to cover to get things kicked off. He set me up with an account on TrainingPeaks.com, and soon I’ll be off and running, literally. As often as possible I’m going to pass along some of the tips I get from David in the training tips section of this site, as well as other sections. But despite whatever tips you may get here, there’s no replacement for the one-on-one attention of a triathlon coach and the motivation that comes from being accountable to someone, and I’m thrilled that it can be David of all people. I’ve only met him twice so far, but having listened to 20+ of his podcasts, I trust him implicitly because of his passion for triathlon, his experience, and his fascination with data. I myself am more mildly interested in the data, but I’m glad to have a coach that takes it more seriously.

More on this later.

Even better than guilt is the motivation of accomplishment. I’m not really into long-term motivation by guilt because I think it leads to depression, which leads to inactivity, which leads to more guilt, and then you get caught in a negative cycle, especially if you couple Ben & Jerry’s with that inactivity. Accomplishment is the feeling you get when you look at that photo and realize you really do look a lot better than you did when that photo was taken. So take another photo, and put it next to the first photo. That way you know it’s not just in your head. Then keep on working to get looking even better than you do in the “after” photo.

That’s about where I’m at. I peaked out at 236 lbs and 33% body fat. I had no muscle after eight years of virtual inactivity. I haven’t had my body fat tested since, but I’m sure it’s dropped considerably while my weight has dropped to 215 lbs. I’ve still got a ways to go to get to my goal of 180 lbs, but I know I look a lot better than I did before I started all this. I don’t even need the photos because every time I meet someone I haven’t seen in three years the first thing they say is “Man! You’ve lost some serious weight!” The truth is that while I have lost weight, it’s what I’ve replaced the fat with that really has made the difference, but I just accept the compliment as is, and boy, there’s nothing like knowing that your accomplishment is so obvious to those around you to motivate you to keep on going.

Perhaps you’re different than I am, but I don’t think I would have the will power to train for a triathlon if I didn’t have audiobooks to listen to during my training. I think I would give up. It’s that critical to my training. In business we would call it a dealbreaker. That is, if I were told I couldn’t listen to audiobooks while running and biking, I think I just might quit.

Audiobooks are different than music in that; 1) you don’t listen to them over and over again and get bored of them, and 2) it keeps your mind actively engaged, rather than passively engaged as with music. The audiobook becomes your primary focus, rather than a secondary focus. This means I can go do a 12-mile run and I don’t get bored and I don’t notice I’m getting tired. The same goes for the bike. It makes it all seem much, much easier.

Now with swimming I’ve never listened to audiobooks or music. There are waterproof headphones and waterproof iPod cases out there, and if one of the companies that makes them wants to send me some I’d be glad to try them out and review them. But I’ve managed to do my swim training without them. I’m not sure if that’s just because I’ve never had the experience of having audiobooks while swimming and so I don’t know what I’m missing, or if I’ve just resigned myself to that fate.

Another huge benefit of listening to audiobooks is that they actually motivate me to train. I don’t know how many times I’ve woken up and thought “Man, I don’t know if I want to go biking today” but then I remembered where I was in the audiobook and realized if I didn’t go biking I’d have to wait until the next time I went training to find out what happened next in the book. I often get so involved in the book I’m listening to that I can’t wait to go on a long bike or a long run so that I can listen to another hour or two of the book. In fact, while recovering from a recent injury that took me completely out of training, one of the primary reasons I couldn’t wait to get back to my training was so that I could read some new books. I really missed having that time to listen to a book and learn something new.

I haven’t found any specific type of book to be better or worse for training. I’ve listened to fiction and non-fiction books. I’ve listened to books on history, economics, and business. I’ve listened to biographies, fantasy novels, science fiction, action/thriller, etc. Right now I’m listening to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and prior to that I was listening to Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy. Most books are 10-20 hours, and so one can listen to 1-2 books per week if you’re training for a full or half Ironman, and I have listened to a LOT of books over the past few years since I got into triathlon.

Some suggestions:

1. Get the iPod Shuffle (shown to the right). It’s small, inexpensive, and convenient. The one downside is that there is no display.

2. If you do get the Shuffle bear in mind it’s kind of a pain to use with Audible.com, the reason being that Audible.com books have HUGE tracks. Atlas Shrugged has several 8-hour long tracks. This means if you are in the middle of a track and you accidentally hit the skip forward button that means you have to fast forward through four hours of audio to get to where you were. I did this twice in one day last week, and each time it took me about 10 minutes to fast forward to where I was.

3. You can get audiobooks on CD from the library for “free” and import them into iTunes and then onto your iPod. However, after putting in 20 CDs for a particularly long book you might decide that it’s worth the $10 next time around to just buy the audiobook from Audible.com or eMusic.com or something.

4. If this is new to you, start out with a book you know you’ll like.

Happy running and biking! And maybe swimming too!