'Anything is Possible'

Back in July, I was deep into my ‘peak’ training for my October Ironman, and I penned some thoughts on what I had learned from the process. It is now over three months since the race, my body and mind has just about recovered (it took longer than I thought) and I was recently asked to reflect on my experiences.

Although it is not business-related, I decided to post my thoughts on LinkedIn, in the hope that it may be useful for any other busy professionals considering racing an Ironman, or any other time-intensive endurance event.

Pre-Race

My training in the 10 months prior to the race had generally gone well, though I probably felt ready to race in August and spent the last two months fighting a battle between maintaining my fitness levels and staying injury free. I had chosen an October race to increase recovery time from spring marathons and to maximise the UK summer (warmer weather and longer days) for cycling and open water swimming, but next time would prefer to do it in the height of summer.

I was fortunate enough to be able to drop down to four days per week at work for six months, in order to maximise the time I had to train. I took Wednesday as a non-working day, and used that to get my long bike and brick run sessions. My logic was that this would tick off a lot of training that most other people would be forced to do at the weekend and meant that (a) if my weekend was free, I’d be able to do more training than other people and (b) if I had social plans at the weekend, I didn’t feel as much pressure to train as extensively.

I loved how this broke up the working week and was blessed with sunny weather on all but one of my days off, but would I do this again if I had the chance? Probably not.

Notwithstanding the 20% drop in salary I had to take, I think I could have crammed my training in alongside a five-day working week and still performed at a similar level on race day, particularly if I focused on the quality sessions – the ones that are going to make a difference to my predicted race time – rather than ‘junk miles’.

I became (at times, unhealthily) obsessed with taking a data-driven approach to my training. I poured over all the stats from my training sessions in Strava, Garmin and Training Peaks – heart rate, power, cadence, TSS – and used this to make sense of where I was at and measure the level of intensity required for future sessions.

I also become fixated with tracking my sleep every night. Every morning, my Garmin provided me with a sleep score to measure the quality of my sleep, my HRV status and a training readiness score, to tell me how able my body was to cope with training demands on that day.

Whilst this was incredibly useful to monitor my fatigue and understand how much rest and recovery I needed, I also found it to be stressful and anxiety inducing, as I was constantly second guessing myself. For example, if I woke up feeling refreshed, but Garmin was telling me I had not got enough REM, I managed to convince myself that I was tired and to not expect as high a performance with that day’s training. I have since turned off a lot of Garmin’s features and ended up trusting my gut more.

I travelled to Cascias feeling in decent shape. I had to contend with a few niggles in the build-up, including multiple rounds of shockwave therapy for tendonitis injuries in my Achilles, knee and groin, but nothing serious enough that prevented me from training for anything more than a few days. I certainly didn’t feel in peak condition after a long year of racing, but knew I was still capable of overcoming what the day would throw at me.

Race Day

I had slept awfully in the days leading up to the race and despite an aggressive taper, my Garmin training readiness score was at just 65 (out of 100) when I woke up race day morning. I spent breakfast panicking that I would not have enough energy to even complete the race, let alone get the time I wanted, and was also frustrated that after doing everything in my power to be in my prime on race day, my Garmin was telling me otherwise.

How I was going to fuel my body became a huge priority for me leading up to race day and I listened to lots of different podcasts on the topic. I opted for Precision Fuel & Hydration products and really like how their website can provide a nutrition strategy for an individual’s race depending on race conditions, goal time and sodium levels.

My plan was to consume roughly 100g of carbohydrates per hour on the bike and run. On race day morning, I made sure I was well hydrated, and I had also had two beetroot shots every day for six days prior, which is supposed to improve exercise efficiency and fatigue resistance – the jury is still out on this!

I had a caffeine gel 10 mins before the swim start, and another caffeine gel as I headed in T1.

On the bike, I consumed a 30g energy gel (decanted into a bottle on to my down tube and mixed with a bit of water) or energy chew every 20 minutes. I drunk to taste throughout the ride and ended up having two litres of pre-made electrolyte drink and two 750ml bottles of Gatorade that I picked up at the aid stations.

In T2, I took on another caffeine gel before picking up a 500ml soft flask of electrolyte drink from my transition bag, drinking it quickly whilst setting off on the run. Throughout the run, I had a gel and an electrolyte capsule every 20-30 minutes, which helped to prevent any cramps, and walked through the aid stations so I could drink some water or Gatorade.

Apart from some stomach ache coming out of T2, I felt I nailed my fuelling strategy and will definitely look to adopt this again at my next event.

As for the race itself, it was an emotional rollercoaster!

I was fighting back the tears at the start as all athletes were on the beach, being reminded of how much we had sacrificed to make it on the start line. Ironman certainly does an amazing job of tapping into all that nervous energy before the race.

The swim went well for me. I was one of those triathletes that really struggled to swim more than a few lengths of the pool without stopping up until two years ago. I had worked so hard to get comfortable swimming in open water and it paid off, finishing the 3.8km swim in 1:09, despite having never done a sea swim before and in very choppy waters, which made it difficult to sight.

It was a mainly uphill 1km run out of the sea into a very busy T1, and then quickly on to a hilly, windy 180km bike course, which included some climbing in the Sintra natural park and some laps of the Estoril Formula 1 circuit. I was aiming for around 5:30 on the bike and although I came in over this at 5:42, I was still relatively pleased with an average speed of over 31kph that included two toilet stops.

Only when I saw the results later did I realise quite how much work I need to do to in order to be up there with the most competitive amateurs. Cycling was always the strongest discipline for me, but in a year where I did two spring marathons and focused so much on improving my swimming, it turned into my relative weakness! Given that the bike makes up 60% of the overall race, I will be focusing more on building up my FTP in the future, to shave as much time as possible off this leg.

Nonetheless, it was a solid enough effort and I came into T2 looking forward to the run. I secretly harboured ambitions to run a sub-3 marathon and think I may have been able to on a flat course, but this three-lapper was undulating. My run time was 3:14, giving me a final time of 10:18 – a bit under my sub-10 goal overall, but still a good result given how I felt on the day. I don’t think I could have given any more and on reflection, should have set some tiered goals, given that there is so much out of your control at a long-distance triathlon.

Post-Race

Having spent most of the year focused on one goal race, I couldn’t help feeling quite anti-climactic after it was over. Sure, I basked in the warm glow of satisfaction in the 24 hours post-race and it was great to receive so many congratulatory messages, but then I realised that nobody else was quite as bothered about it as I was!

It was partly this feeling that made me throw myself into more training too quickly after the race and with the benefit of hindsight, I didn’t give my body (and mind) enough time to properly recover.

I took it steady for the first few weeks, but then went on a four-day cycling holiday to Cape Town within a month of finishing the Ironman. I have never felt so sapped of energy and there was one day of riding where I could not actually feel my legs as I was pedalling.

Unsurprisingly, I got home and immediately became ill, suffering from stomach pain and huge fatigue for a few weeks. Only at the turn of the year did I start to feel ‘normal’ again and was able to start training properly once more (for Boston Marathon in April).

All in all, it was an incredible experience and I am already looking forward to competing in another full Ironman in the future. Completing this first one inspired me try to qualify for the World Championships in Hawaii/Nice, so that is now the goal I will keep chasing.

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TLDR – here are some top tips for anyone thinking of signing up to an Ironman.

• Train like a triathlete, not a runner, cyclist or swimmer
• Get comfortable swimming and racing in open water
• Train smart, not hard – focus on what is going to make a tangible difference on race day
• Know when to be data-driven and know when to trust your gut
• Have a hydration and nutrition strategy for race day that is refined in training
• Prioritise sleep
• Set gold, silver and bronze goal times for an A race to avoid disappointment and to accommodate the ‘uncontrollables’
• Take time to properly rest and recover post-race