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PTC woman joins Ironman group, ready to compete

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City resident Holly Anderson saw her first Ironman competition in September, 2002. She and her husband, Mark, both employees at Bicycles Unlimited in Peachtree City, loaded up a trailer with the bicycles of the Ironman competitors from the area, drove it to Madison, Wisconsin and worked on the bikes before and after the race. Peachtree City has the most most Ironman athletes per capita of any city in the United States with 28 and after seeing how much fun the group had in that competition in Wisconsin, as well as in several others, Anderson decided that competing in an Ironman was something she wanted to try.

This Sunday she will be competing in an Ironman competition in Lake Placid, New York. it will be the culmination of over eight months of extensive training.

Anderson teaches a spin class at Bicycles Unlimited and many of her students belong to the group that participates in the Ironman competitions. After the 5:30 a.m. class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Anderson would often go out running with her students. The long training exercises began on weekends in April and included swimming in the lake, a four to five hour bike ride and possibly some running, though typically one weekend day would feature biking and the other would feature running. Anderson estimated that from April-June, she was putting in over 20 hours a week in training.

“I knew there would be long days with lots of long training hours, but I expected the last two months to be really hard ” said Anderson. “It’s been really good because of the group though.” Anderson credited everyone, especially her family, which makes up much of the staff at Bicycles Unlimited, for being really supportive throughout her training.

Anderson has been coached for the Ironman by her husband who has been coaching since the age of 14. Mark Anderson, a collegiate swimmer at the University of Nebraska, where he studied physiology, now owns and operates a coaching company called Homeostasis and his students are coached in everything from general fitness to training for Ironman competitions.

“I got a lot of advice from people who have competed in Ironman’s before,” said Anderson. “Because I come from a biking background, I’ve been reminded that I can’t go all out on my bike. As for my coach’s advice, he has given me visualization exercises so that I can focus on the task at hand.” Anderson doesn’t listen to music during the long runs or rides. Instead she talks with some of the people she trains with or finds herself praying. “Most of time I’m running on Sundays, so I use that as my church time.”

An Ironman competition is a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. Since she will burn an estimated 8,000 calories that day, Anderson will begin to load up on carbs for several days before the race begins. She will also be traveling with four 30-ounce water bottles, pierogies, crackers and peanut butter, Luna bars and gels to make sure she has enough nutrients to sustain her for the race. She did a half an Ironman at Walt Disney World in May as a warm-up and feels ready for this weekend’s competition.

“I want to do my best and have fun,” said Anderson, who doesn’t want to get caught up in aiming for a specific time. “I’m not sure what to expect, but I hope that I can do better than just finish.”

As for what’s next for Anderson, she knows she will either be competing in or working the Peachtree City Triathlon Saturday, Aug. 28. She thinks she will be competing in other Ironman competitions in the future but wants to get through this one first and then rest and recover.

After the competition on Sunday, she will have earned that rest.