Over the past 8 years I have found myself standing at 6
different starting lines (IMFL, IMKY, IMWI, IM Placid, IM Austria and IM Kona).
For all 8 of my Ironman races, I have felt the same flood of emotions as I wait
anxiously for the start of my 140.6 mile racing day.
Despite feeling the same mix of emotions from a nervous
belly to fully body excitement, I have discovered that every IM journey to reach
the starting line is unlike the last journey. Sure, every Ironman journey
shares similarities such as an investment in time and a greater investment in
money alongside commitment, hard work and discipline but there are also many differences, specific to what is happening in life while training for an IM.
Over the past 8 Ironman finishes, I have learned that the
pressure to arrive at the starting line healthy and hungry to race is always
the ultimate goal because racing with a healthy body and mind is simply the
result of my body positively adapting to the right amount of training stress
alongside the right amount of recovery to foster performance gains.
A healthy, motivated and injury-free body will always
outperform an unhealthy, unmotivated and injured body. Plus, it is a lot more
fun to reap the rewards of your hard work effort when the body can train consistently
well with proper recovery to reduce risk for fatigue, burnout and injury.
Because life doesn’t stop just because I am registered for
an Ironman, I am constantly aware of the many outside stressors that can affect
my training journey. Therefore, over the past few years Karel and I have
developed a strategy for training for the Ironman to ensure that we minimize
setbacks in our Ironman journey. Thus we train smart by training hard and
recovering harder. And above all, we love to race smart with our current level
of fitness as we find ourselves raising our limits by being challenged by our
faster competitors.
Because hard work is only one component to arriving to race
day with a healthy body and mind, I do not see training for an Ironman as a
journey that involves only long miles and hours of swimming, biking and running. Certainly, I am well
aware of the positive impact of hard work as well as a balanced and healthy, wholesome diet. More so, the timing of nutrition with training as well as the critical need for
sport nutrition during training is a specialty of mine. Alongside my specialty of understanding how to
fuel a body in motion, strength training, recovery tools and sleep have also
contributed to my body tolerating the demands of Ironman training.
No matter what Ironman race I choose to participate in or
what the conditions are on race day, my desire to improve within every Ironman
journey provides me with the ongoing motivation to see what I am capable of as
an age group triathlete.
Over the past few years, I have changed the way that I
approach Ironman training and thus I have been able to help many triathletes
enjoy their Ironman journey without focusing on weekly hours or miles but
instead, finding enjoyment in the simple art of training the human body to
improve. Through quality training sessions, the body adapts well to training and
thus, habits are formed that are productive to race day goals.
In the last three Ironman races that I have done, I have
overcame obstacles while training for the Ironman but have found myself with
personal best times. Although different courses and race day conditions, I have
gone from a 10:58 Ironman finisher, to 10:43, to 10:37 and now, a 10:17 Ironman
finisher. Although this time drop has occurred over 4 years, my motivation to
train and race in Ironman competitions has continued, with gains in fitness,
despite the constraints of my life.
My message for any Ironman athlete (newbie or veteran) is to
stop counting weekly hours or obsessing on arbitrary paces that “should” be
performed by race day and instead, build a training plan that allows for
maximizing your performance over a period of time, without compromising other
areas in your life that can bring you performance gains AND happiness and balance in life.
Because every age group triathlete has the ability to improve if dedication and
hard work are grounded in your mindset, stop emulating what everyone else is doing within their constraints and freedoms of their
lifestyle and do not compare your readiness to succeed by another athlete’s
training hours, paces or miles.
On June 29th, 2014, Karel and I each executed a
perfect race which resulted in personal best times for every sport alongside a
total personal best time that will likely not be broken for quite some time.
This isn’t to say that we will not get stronger, fitter and smarter as athletes
but on June 29th, we found ourselves embarking on a day of racing
140.6 miles which was the culmination of training smart with the least amount
of training stress to foster the largest performance gains to be used on race
day. Because it is very hard to consistently improve in a race that lasts over
9 hours for most age groupers, I am incredibly thankful to my body for not only
giving me 8 Ironman journey’s to enjoy but for also allowing me to push it to
higher and higher limits as I try to discover my ultimate potential as an
endurance triathlete.
Race report to come shortly.