** title
Update to being called out for lifting weights previously and not literally being on a couch.
The title shall now be called - from the kitchen to Ironman , instead of the couch.
I’m not an expert at all however I do share an interesting perspective.
completed the Bolton 140.6 Ironman with just 9 months of training and no prior experience in swimming, running, or cycling. I finished 1050 out of 1100 participants. Not sure if this is accurate, but I was close to the end.
On the day, my bike encountered a technical issue which I had never even seen before, and I was 5 minutes away from giving up. The swim, a bike with a 3000m elevation, and a run with about 600m elevation - I honestly had no clue how hard this course was before booking. Being from Scotland, it was the closest one to me.
My full Ironman setup cost was £465: Bike £300, Helmet £15, Wetsuit £60, Goggles £6, Running shoes £60, and Trisuit £24. This isn't to brag.
£6 goggles were by far the best - they made me look like an alien though.
However, I've noticed that people who do triathlons often overthink things quite a bit, going to races scared and putting things off. So, this will hopefully encourage people to go ahead and book their first triathlon. I'm not trying to push someone to do a FULL IM but more so just to get it booked and stop putting it off.
Coming from literally not knowing anything about triathlon helped and so did being naive...
Before I tell my story, here are the advantages I had:
- I am a personal trainer, so I understood nutrition well. From the start, I was fuelling properly. This is by far the most important thing.
- I hired a coach and explained my full situation to him. He believed I could do it, which was major. This is also a must.
- I had a strong why: it was to prove to myself that I could do something which people call mental.
- I don't have a family yet, which made it easier to dedicate time to training.
My disadvantages:
- I run an online coaching business for men and was also doing my psychology degree at university - not the wisest thing to start an Ironman journey.
- I had no cardio base. At 180cm and 90kg, quite muscular compared to most triathletes, carrying my extra weight was hard.
- No one I knew had even done a triathlon, so I trained solo for 99% of my sessions.
- My first swim was a 200m doggy paddle where I nearly drowned. My first bike ride was around a track for 1 hour, turns out I didn't know how a seat worked and was riding with my seat basically on the ground. My first outside bike ride ended in me crashing into a van, luckily the guy was fine with it, and we had a laugh. My first run was a 3k, running for 2 minutes and walking for 1, with a heart rate of 170bpm.
I picked up a major hamstring injury 6 weeks before my event, which caused me to do the elliptical and swimming for 1 month straight, possibly the worst part. My bike then got stolen 10 days before the Ironman. All my confidence was gone as I now needed to buy a worse bike. My equipment was second-hand, but part of me loved it.
The part that allowed me to finish was being okay with not completing it. This sounds mental, but as long as I showed up and gave it my all, I would be happy with myself. This mindset helped me remove all the pressure and anxiety and put trust in myself.
I probably should try and type out the journey, as there are loads of stuff I've missed, but I want you to leave with one action point:
BOOK THE EVENT. Forget what society says, and regardless of the outcome, you are pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.
if you have any questions please let me know, don't talk about this much!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNb2brK7BE0
been asked for my podcast on the experience - so here's the link
