Published October 9, 2009 06:23PM
The forecast for Saturday’s race calls for heat and humidity, but chances are no matter what the day brings, Cmdr. David Haas saw far worse during his Ironman preparation. As commander of the USS Thach, Haas spent his five months of Ironman training on a carrier in the Persian Gulf. With temperatures of 130 degrees F and 80 percent humidity, Haas took heat training to a whole new level. “The temperature of the water in the gulf was around 105 degrees,” said Haas at the Ironman official press conference Thursday.
To get in his swim training, Haas worked out on a Versa-Climber and row machine twice a week, and got in swims around the carrier with his rescue dive team occasionally to keep his feel of the water. Haas ran on a treadmill on the deck in the hot weather, and set up his Computrainer on the bridge so that he would be accessible to his crew at all times. All in all, Haas managed to keep a training log of between 20 and 25 hours per week, and since landing on Hawaii he has been enjoying training on land. “It is so nice to ride a bike and have it actually move somewhere,” Haas said. “Six hours on a Computrainer will drive anybody crazy.”
Check back here to see how Cmdr. Haas’ Hawaii Ironman went, and for more age-grouper coverage, check out the upcoming January/February issue of Inside Triathlon.
UPDATE: Cmdr. David Haas finished in a time of 11:18:54.