This is the second part of my thoughts about completing an Ironman. You can read this on it's own, but I have my initial thoughts before talking and thinking it through a bit longer in the first part. Here it is:
There are a lot of fantastic responses here. I've been mulling over this since I wrote this and then some more after reading the responses. This ended up being quite long, it's really for me, but perhaps it will help others step back and recognise what they've achieved also.
Firstly, something that I didn't make clear initially; I had a great time doing the training and the event, I have zero regrets. I also just got my event photos and I was clearly pretty stoked to get across the line.
On to my thoughts after a bit more introspection. I've done two marathons and two 70.3s before this and they were all tough and felt like hard work to get to the end. Obviously, my pace was quicker in those, but it wasn't a huge amount quicker. So it can't be that the event itself isn't hard(obviously that's a very subjective description), but certainly, to past Justin it wasn't an easy thing. When I first started triathlon, I very literally would not have made it past the first 15 minutes of the event.
This leads me to a couple of conclusions;
I've obviously learnt to train smarter because I know I did more training for my second marathon and I don't think I did a lot, if any, more training for this IM than the other events. At least I certainly felt much less fatigued.
The consistent, purposeful training and the work you've put in leading up to this point is really the hard bit. You hear it over and over, but like with many things in life, sometimes you have to stumble across these bits of wisdom on your own before it really makes sense. You're really trying to make yourself stronger, you do that by breaking yourself a little and then building that back stronger. Recovery isn't just important, recovery is the main part, the breaking part is just necessary to get to the recovery part.
You don't necessarily need to go past your limits to expand them, you can push them from a little bit back. I certainly didn't finish this IM in the fastest time possible, I did it in about the time I expected to, but I got close enough that I could see my limits are quite a bit further away than I thought.
Every big event I've done I've always said I'd like to finish feeling strong. It had never happened, I'd never made it a top goal. It's always been; set a goal time that's probably a bit out of reach and aim for that. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but perhaps it's better to build to that. Use your knowledge and experience to get better. I don't do this sport to get on the podium, I do this sport because I like seeing what I can do and I like improving the way my body and mind work. I think, for me, this approach of setting goals that are near the limits, achieving them feeling strong and step them forward next time is a better approach in the long run than having to hobble around for two weeks after a race and be disappointed that my body didn't hold up.
So the way I feel about completing this IM has changed. I think things like this need to be considered within the context of the past. Six years ago, I struggled through the hardest thing I'd ever done, a 200km ride over two days with several food breaks along the way. During that event, I heard someone talking about this thing called an Ironman that he was doing in a couple of weeks. That genuinely sounded impossible and ridiculous but I think it was the spark that got me into triathlon, although with zero aspirations or thoughts of doing more than a sprint.
To be at a point where I have now finished an Ironman and responded to the catcher's question "Are you ok?" with "Yeah, I'm fine" is incredible. I finally finished a big event feeling strong. I've grown and improved myself in so many ways. Completing the Ironman wasn't hard, but that's not the impressive bit. The six years of growth and hard work to be in a position to finish it comfortably is what's impressive. It's fucking amazing.
If you've made it this far, thank you for indulging me and thank you to everyone that responded with their comments, they really helped me think this through. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
There are a lot of fantastic responses here. I've been mulling over this since I wrote this and then some more after reading the responses. This ended up being quite long, it's really for me, but perhaps it will help others step back and recognise what they've achieved also.
Firstly, something that I didn't make clear initially; I had a great time doing the training and the event, I have zero regrets. I also just got my event photos and I was clearly pretty stoked to get across the line.
On to my thoughts after a bit more introspection. I've done two marathons and two 70.3s before this and they were all tough and felt like hard work to get to the end. Obviously, my pace was quicker in those, but it wasn't a huge amount quicker. So it can't be that the event itself isn't hard(obviously that's a very subjective description), but certainly, to past Justin it wasn't an easy thing. When I first started triathlon, I very literally would not have made it past the first 15 minutes of the event.
This leads me to a couple of conclusions;
I've obviously learnt to train smarter because I know I did more training for my second marathon and I don't think I did a lot, if any, more training for this IM than the other events. At least I certainly felt much less fatigued.
The consistent, purposeful training and the work you've put in leading up to this point is really the hard bit. You hear it over and over, but like with many things in life, sometimes you have to stumble across these bits of wisdom on your own before it really makes sense. You're really trying to make yourself stronger, you do that by breaking yourself a little and then building that back stronger. Recovery isn't just important, recovery is the main part, the breaking part is just necessary to get to the recovery part.
You don't necessarily need to go past your limits to expand them, you can push them from a little bit back. I certainly didn't finish this IM in the fastest time possible, I did it in about the time I expected to, but I got close enough that I could see my limits are quite a bit further away than I thought.
Every big event I've done I've always said I'd like to finish feeling strong. It had never happened, I'd never made it a top goal. It's always been; set a goal time that's probably a bit out of reach and aim for that. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but perhaps it's better to build to that. Use your knowledge and experience to get better. I don't do this sport to get on the podium, I do this sport because I like seeing what I can do and I like improving the way my body and mind work. I think, for me, this approach of setting goals that are near the limits, achieving them feeling strong and step them forward next time is a better approach in the long run than having to hobble around for two weeks after a race and be disappointed that my body didn't hold up.
So the way I feel about completing this IM has changed. I think things like this need to be considered within the context of the past. Six years ago, I struggled through the hardest thing I'd ever done, a 200km ride over two days with several food breaks along the way. During that event, I heard someone talking about this thing called an Ironman that he was doing in a couple of weeks. That genuinely sounded impossible and ridiculous but I think it was the spark that got me into triathlon, although with zero aspirations or thoughts of doing more than a sprint.
To be at a point where I have now finished an Ironman and responded to the catcher's question "Are you ok?" with "Yeah, I'm fine" is incredible. I finally finished a big event feeling strong. I've grown and improved myself in so many ways. Completing the Ironman wasn't hard, but that's not the impressive bit. The six years of growth and hard work to be in a position to finish it comfortably is what's impressive. It's fucking amazing.
If you've made it this far, thank you for indulging me and thank you to everyone that responded with their comments, they really helped me think this through. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
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