Hansmann conquers the Ironman Challenge
On Sept. 5th, St. John’s junior Stephen Hansmann participated in the Ironman challenge he started preparing for in October of last year. The Ironman challenge
On Sept. 5th, St. John’s junior Stephen Hansmann participated in the Ironman challenge he started preparing for in October of last year. The Ironman challenge is a triathlon that consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and ends with a 26.2-mile run. All of which had to be completed in under 17 hours.
When participating in a challenge that requires endurance and dedication, a training plan is important. With that training plan, there will be some difficulties. One of those difficulties for Hansmann was scheduling.
“I kind of made my own training plan just because I had to work and then I went to the cabin and worked with my dad on the weekends so I couldn’t really follow some of the basic training plans that people made,” Hansmann said.
Hansmann had to fit his training around things that he was already committed to, but he was still able to wake up at 4:30 a.m. and train some days. Along with a training regiment, he also increased the amount of protein and carbs he had to eat.
“For a while I was eating about 6000 calories a day just to be able to maintain any muscle mass that I had and keep biking,” Hansmann said.
Biking was the longest part of the challenge, so the increase in calories especially helped when biking.
“Prior to each bike ride I’d eat about 4000 calories the night before and I’d stop every 30 miles and eat peanuts, licorice, bananas, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” Hansmann said.
During the actual event, one thing that surprised Hansmann was how it began.
“The first 13 miles of the run was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be,” Hansmann said. When he signed up for the challenge, he was confident and excited about doing it; he had 11 months of training got advice and help from his parent.
“My parents both have friends who ran one [Ironman challenge] and so I talked to them a lot and I did a lot of research on what I needed to do for my diet and nutrition and proper training regiments and stretching techniques,” Hansman said.
He did a lot of work every day, such as researching and talking with those who have ran in these triathlons. He wanted to represent SJU and ROTC at first, but the original competition was cancelled due to COVID-19 located in Madison, Wisconsin.
“When I went there, I was going to wear my SJU ROTC shirt to kind of represent both,” Hansmann said. Even though the official challenge was cancelled in Madison, Hansmann took it upon himself to complete the challenge around the St. Joe area.
