Sounds like I was in a similar spot. After a ten-year layoff from sprint tris, I did a sprint a month before my 40th birthday. It got me so stoked that on my 40th I announced to everyone within earshot that I would finally tackle an irondistance tri.The plan was to do one to "celebrate" turning 40. One year to the day after that sprint race I finished an iron distance race.
I'm no expert by any stretch with only one of these under my belt but I can tell you that what paid off in spades was consistency in training. I worked on base through the winter and then followed the advanced program from the "Be Iron Fit" book. I had a few week-long layoffs due injuries and illness which I thought would be disastrous but the rest was actually something I probably needed anyway. I did 90% of my training below 80% of my max heart rate. I really stuck to this and found that even though my pace was slow at first, consistently working at this level allowed me to go faster than I ever have while still maintaining this aerobic heart rate.I paid attention to long bikes and runs as well as at least one brick per week after my long bike.MY key workout was the long bike. I never missed that one.On race day my legs felt fresh the entire day. My only issue was nausea caused by nutrition choice (something I will keep working on).
You CAN do this. Just be consistent with your training and stay aerobic. Save the fast intervals for when you want to work on improving your finishing time. If you just want to finish, long and slow and lots of it was the key for me.

Thanks guys so much for your input! I appreciate it so much!!!

Congrats to both of you on your Ironman finishes!! Any more races in your future?

I plan on doing the Redman Ironman in September held in Oklahoma City. A friend of mine at the local gym did it this year and gave a rave review of it. It is a smaller event but it is Iron distance and I like the smaller races. I have emailed the race director to ask a few questions for next year and he is promising an even better event. My wife is already getting tired of me talking about it. I like to tell others about upcoming races. Not to brag, but rather to keep myself motivated and focused. Then they are all asking me how training is going. It keeps me on my toes.

again, thanks so much all of you for your input! I am loving this! keeping the ideas and motivation coming!!!

Shell

Well, paying the $600 entry fee certainly helps..

Staying motivated isn't magical. It is a matter of technique. It consists of the following:

1)It starts with having a plan. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

2)Keep the plan in front of you daily. Do you use a dayplanner? Do you have a bulletin board in your house where you cannot avoid seeing it? That's what tells you what you should do TODAY!

3)Knowledge of results: Keep a training log, a diary, a blog at trifuel, post a coloured chart on the wall, whatever, but make sure you can see what you have done, and read it often.

4) Habit. Good results (and bad) are a matter of HABIT.

5) STAY HEALTHY. Learn your health deficiencies and remedy them. Maybe you have chronic fatigue due to low iron, fix it. Maybe you have tight hamstrings, learn to stretch. Maybe you have fear & anxiety, Get some self-help books and a sports psychologist. Whatever it is, learn how to make it good and keep it that way.

That's all about staying MOTIVATED.

Do you have it in you?

There's only one person who knows the answer to that question.

However, you may find inspiration for the answer in the roll call of Ironman finishers. Among them you may find people with whom you can identify, saying "There's someone just like me. If she can do it, so can I!"

Yesterday:
Sister Madonna Buder, 75 years of age, 20times an Ironman finisher.
or
MIssy LeStrange, W45-49, 22 times an Ironman finisher.
or
Sarah Reinertsen aged 30 swim 01:26:22, bike07:33:58, run05:51:39, total15:05:12

Sarah did it on one leg in 15:05:12 - that's 3 minutes faster than my first IMC finish in 2003!

Just do it, baby!

Geoff
and btw, Happy Birthday for the 12th.

I agree with rjkowski, to help yourself stay motivated (at least for your first one) it helps to have someone else to train with who is also doing the same race you are. After you've done one, and know what to expect, the next one might be easier to train for knowing what to expect.
Try slapping some old Ironman tapes from past Ironman Hawaii races and watching them, some of the stories they have broadcast through the years are very inspirational.
If you have yet to do a Ironman triathlon, let me assure all newbies, that sooner rather than later, you will be standing at water's edge asking yourself "why?" You might turn to your fellow competitor, repeat the question, and likely receive the non-answer "yeah, why?" Nowhere is this question asked more emphatically than at the beach at an Ironman triathlon.
Although there may be as many small reasons as there are triathletes, it seems to me likely we can find one big answer common to us all. Triathlon is not a unique sport. It is one of several that are based on survival, unlike war games which usually involve a ball and territory, or aesthetic sports judged subjectively for the grace of their exhibition of strength, or others symbolizing different facets of living. With any survival sport, the romantic quotient rises with the distance covered, the obstacles surmounted, and nature’s rough edges combated. Going it alone adds immeasurably to the feat, which is why we object so vehemently to commercial pressures to make this a team sport. They would gouge the heart out of triathlon, a Darwinian contest for the individual.
It is soppingly sentimental to say there are no losers among the finishers of a triathlon, like saying we are all winners in the game of life. Barf, because it's not true. Yet there must be a sentence that can be constructed -less gooey - but saying just that: There are no losers across the finish line. In a game of survival, the trophy goes to the fittest, but all who finish are deemed fit; that's the prize.
The effort to prove oneself so extraordinarily able is heroic (if there is such a thing as heroic with only oneself as beneficiary). In a race of the magnitude of an Ironman, it is a grand gesture. How often in our daily lives have we the opportunity to make a grand gesture, to be a hero to ourselves, to survive as superbly fit and able men and women? On a smaller scale, this can be said at the starting line of all triathlons.
After having finished 11 ironman's myself, I can tell you that it is much easier to stay motivated when you don't put alot of pressure on yourself to excel. If your out there and your feeling good, then just relax and enjoy the fact that you can. If your out there and going through a dark period, find something to keep you motivated, your kids, a family member, a friend, Julie Moss' knee crawl to finish in Kona..

No problem. I am no expert having only done one but I learned a fair bit from a year's worth of training. This and other websites like it are a valuable source of information but be selective as it is easy to get information overload and get pulled in all directions by different opinions. Consistent , long ,slow aerobic work will get the job done. Nothing fancy there.As for me, I promised my wife that next year would hold no iron distance races (she got a bit sick of the long weeks near the end). I plan to concentrate on a few half irons and maybe do another iron the next year. I WILL do more of them. It is a great experience and the training is as rewarding as the race. It's just difficult to do lots of them with four young kids at home.

ShellKG - I'm a newbie as well and am just starting some base training this fall and winter to enter my first sprint and Olympic events in 2006.

I'm from the Portland area as well and have heard about the Blue Lake events, but am curious if you've heard of other popular races that are in the metro area or reasonably close. My thought is that smaller races, something a little more low-key, would be preferable since I'm just starting out.

Any thoughts?

Shell,

Welcome to triathlon!! My professional advice for you would be to train this winter and get stronger in each sport, focus on a Olympic next year and maybe a Half IM by the end of the year depending on your progress. It takes a good two to three years to condition the body to be able to with stand the rigors of an IM and IM training. The joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles need time to get used to all the training that you are going to subject them to in order to avoid injury. Good Luck with your training and remember its the journey and not the destination.