??WE ARE IRONMANS??

Last Sunday Daan de Jong and myself have completed our first IRONMAN in Barcelona, Spain and made it to the finish line in 11h49 (10h48 for Daan). It all started with a phone call in February 2024: "Hey bro let's do an Ironman", I said to Daan that replied "Let me ask my fiancée first (now wife btw)" just to call me back an hour after saying "I am looking at bikes and it's not cheap!", the journey had begun.

We had never done a triathlon or marathon before Raceday and had no background in endurance sport before. Still, we made the bet to train for 5 months, without a coach, to complete the distance in sub 12 hours.

So here we went, end of March 2024, downloaded a free pdf online with a sample 3 months program for Ironman by Phil Mosley , bought a bike and started training. I did the full program twice (with a 2 weeks break in between to accommodate a few summer parties) and showed up to the starting line having no idea whether I was gonna finish or not.

Turns out, it worked—well, almost. My fueling strategy wasn’t dialed in, so I struggled during the final 25km of the run. Lesson learned: You’ve got to train your stomach just as much as your body!

Anyways, challenge was completed and here are a few things I'd like to share with you about that journey. Spoiler alert, it did not teach me anything about B2B sales:

Anyone can do an Ironman - Provided that you commit to the volume of training that it requires of course, but triathlon (even big distances) is accessible to anyone regardless of where you are right now. I've seen 60 + years old athlete smoke me on the marathon, people crossing the finish line after midnight and even kids, that did the smaller version the day before, carrying their medal around their neck proudly sitting on their Ironman Daddy' shoulders. The diversity of athletes participating is just insane and Swim-Bike-Run requires little technical abilities to complete the distances.

Swimming is not hard, it's boring - I thought that I would struggle the most with swimming since I had no background whatsoever and was quite scared of the distance. However, I found out though that not only you get comfortable quite quickly in the water but that the issue will be boredom. You only thrilled for about 200m beginning of every sessions, the rest is pain.

Enjoy your Food - It's Carbs time! Cause yes you can eat, A LOT. So to all my foodies out there, if you dream of eating 4000 calories everyday, enjoy early night ice cream (not so occasional anymore), post ride candies, roasted chicken, burgers, pizzas, carbonara pasta, and butter, butter everywhere in everything <3 you should really go for it and you will still find yourself pretty lean I guarantee it!

Enjoy your trainings - It's tempting to only go for what Dr Phil has prescribed on his free pdf but I did get bored, a lot. I found that mixing up the training with group rides, surf, trail runs, mountain biking rides and skiing has made my weeks much more enjoyable.

Racing is so much fun - The hard part is the preparation and commitment to 10-12 hours/week of training, the diet and investment in gears (this one hurts big time). Race day is fun day especially when you have Maximilien Bourdon Xavier Parenty Pierre H Leroy ??Lydia Nesic Gabriela Peixoto to cheer you up during the race with billboard and megaphones, you guys are absolute legends!

Flexibility is key. You need to be able to workout everyday and find a way to consistently show up for yourself. You will need the support of your loved ones and business partners to accommodate this new lifestyle, also say goodbye to parties and drinking and hello to 7am Sunday bike rides and Friday night fomos. A big thank you of course to Gartner, my leadership Morten Genckel Indre Blazeviciute-Pariente Joel Boulton and my team of Spartans superheroes for giving me the support & flexibility I needed to achieve this project. A huge and most special thank you to my partner Francesca for embracing early nights and massive meals with me, without you I wouldn't have done it.

Sport is a blessing - We forget sometimes how lucky we are to have a fully functioning body and good health, which is something we can keep for as long as possible but will eventually decline with time, regardless of how fit you are now. We should therefore make the most of it now, which will also help you keep your fitness longer. Some athletes have actually raced in a wheelchair and did a better time than me so what's your excuse?

Do a bike fit BEFORE buying - I had to buy another bike in June because the fit was wrong and the overall operation cost me a fair amount of money. When you need to spend 7 hours a week and more than 5 hours on the bike on race day, the fit needs to be perfect. Don't rush your bike purchase and do a pre-bike fit.

Train your Guts and race fueling strategy - Triathlons have 4 sports, Swim, Bike, Run & FUELING. Your guts can make or break your race. I didn't dial my fueling strategy enough and started puking gels and bars on the last 25km on the run. Probably because I overcharged my digestive system with carbs which created a gut distress syndrome. Also not eating enough can be a problem and you can end up "hitting the wall". So train your guts and your fueling strategy. Also, you should NOT try anything new on race day.

I hope this thread inspired you to do something similar and start your journey with your own objective no matter how small or big.

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Thank you all!

Adrien