In this episode, we hear from Ironman in training Andy Manning. Andy and his wife have three children above the age of 18, three grandkids all below the age of 10, and a 6lb miniature dachshund chihuahua mix. Andy works full-time and currently lives outside of Seattle, Washington.
While Andy is just getting started in his Ironman journey, he confesses that he learned to swim at 4, started swimming competitively at 7, and was on the swim team in high school.
He shares that he also tried his hand at track, specifically cross-country, but claims it wasn’t his thing. He also got into Mountain Biking as a teenager so it’s no surprise that he found his way to triathlon.
Having spent time both as an active duty member and in the Navy Reserve, Andy explains how he would take is bike with him when deployed over-seas so that he could explore the different cities visited while in-port.
Andy definitely has some road biking experience as he provides some details around a few of the longer distances bike rallies he has participated in recently.
I ask Andy to provide some details around the Sprint distance triathlons that he completed last year in Raleigh, North Carolina. Andy completed 2 races that both consistent of a 750 yard open water lake swim, a 14 - 15 mile bike course, and the standard 5k run.
Andy sets me straight on my belief that anyone that has a history of competitive swimming is automatically naturally good at long distance swimming. We talk about the importance of form and open-water sighting.
We spend some time comparing notes on our training program and we talk about the benefits of technology and analyzing data. Andy mentions that he builds workouts that can be downloaded to his smartwatch which allows him to stay organized while training. We also get the hear how he fits his scheduled workouts around his work and home life.
Andy gives an overview of this coming season. He has his eye on both a Sprint distance and an off-road triathlon. He plans to ride 206 miles from Seattle to Portland over 2 days as part of an organized event. In September Andy is signed up for Ironman 70.3 Maple Valley.
Of course, we talk about bikes. We talk about some old heavy mountain bikes that we own, Andy shares what he was able to purchase recently that serves as his road bike and we compare experiences on power meter pedals.
Andy shares that he had the opportunity to train with one of my previous guests and that he started following another guest on Instagram after hearing their story.