5 Lessons on the Journey to Ironman 70.3 Dubai
A few months ago I wrote about my decision to sign up for the Ironman race in Mont Tremblant, and the mistake I made signing up for the Full Ironman rather than the Ironman 70.3. My thinking at the time was that a year of training would be just about enough to be ready to swim 1.9km, bike 90km and then run a 21.1km half marathon.
I then decided as a mid-point on the journey to completing a Full Ironman to do the 70.3 here in Dubai. What was a long-term goal became an intermediate step. Well this 70.3 race happened last weekend and I’m proud to say that I’ve now completed the half ironman distance.
It has been an interesting training journey over the five months leading up to the race, and I’d like to share five lessons that I learned along the way. I believe that these lessons have value outside of athletics, and can support you in your own business or personal transformation journey.
Lesson 1: Break it down
When I realized that Ironman 70.3 was only going to be five months away rather than the ten months I thought I had, I initially panicked. I had half the preparation time that I thought I would have. I immediately got in touch with friends who had done it before and they reassured me that it was doable if I got my training right. But I became really convinced when I worked with them to break down the larger goal into the individual swim, bike and run disciplines. I then figured out what I would need to do to prepare for each of them individually.
The big picture was overwhelming, but thinking through the individual components made the goal seem more realistic and achievable.
Lesson 2: Get a great coach
One of my friends recommended I get in touch with her coach, who also happened to be one of the best triathlon coaches in the country (if not the best). I initially played around with the idea of going with an online training plan. After all, that’s what I had done when I ran the Dubai Marathon in 2009. But I realized that this time the goal was bigger, and I needed professional help. I’m glad I got it. The coach proved an incredibly valuable source of knowledge and guidance. He had helped many others before me achieve this goal, and he understood the challenges that people faced. He not only provided me with the training plan and adapted it to my evolving training, but he also understood all the different things that got in the way, from physical injuries to feelings of doubt.
Working with a coach who knows the lay of the land ahead is a valuable source of guidance and confidence along the journey of transformation.
Lesson 3: Work with a great team
One of the interesting side-effects of working with a world-class coach is that he coaches a world-class team. Two to three times a week we would go out together on group rides or swims. It’s one thing to train by yourself, but a different experience when you’re with ten other athletes whose abilities far exceed yours. I immediately went from thinking I was ahead of the curve signing up for this Ironman thing, to realizing that I was just a beginner. This mental reset of what is possible was a major source of motivation to persevere when the training got tough. Also valuable was seeing how others approached hard work and struggle.
Surrounding yourself with a great team changes your benchmark of what success looks like. Your level of performance rises automatically as a result.
Lesson 4: Build confidence along the way
The journey to my first Ironman 70.3 was not all growth and progress. There were times along the way where I thought I wouldn’t make it. When I started I could barely swim 50 meters in a pool without running out of breath, let alone the 1.9km required for the race, in cold open sea water, surrounded by 2,500 other swimmers. I was falling regularly off of my bike, and my knees hurt if I ran more than 10km. Did I have the stuff Ironman athletes are made of? Instead of comparing myself now with who I would have to be to finish the race, I made intermediate goals. I would practice getting off the bike without falling off. I would make sure the position of my head in the water was correct, then the right hand, then the left hand, and so on. These were small wins and they made me feel that I was making progress. Two months into my training journey I signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon, which comes out to about half of the distance of an Ironman 70.3. I didn’t think I was ready, but having that race a month away, and the confidence my coach had that I could do it, made me redouble my efforts. And finishing that race gave me a big boost of confidence that in two more months I would be ready to finish the Ironman 70.3.
It’s not enough to just make progress towards your end goal. You have to structure intermediate successes along the way that prove to you, and others, that success is achievable.
Lesson 5: When it gets painful, just put one foot in front of the other
All the training in the world won’t help you avoid race day. When the day comes, you have to go out there and deliver the results. I remember standing on the start line on the beach, with my wetsuit on, and surrounded by thousands of other athletes. I thought: “What have I gotten myself into? Can I even do this?” I felt a kind of mild dread come over me, and I just wanted to sneak out of there and go home. But I knew that the day had come, and this was a goal I had committed to. There was only one way to go: into the water. I pushed all the negative thoughts out of my head and focused on the way forward. The swim seemed to last forever, but I just thought: “keep going forward”. During the bike ride, my legs hurt, my back ached, and athletes were dropping out of the race all around me. But I kept pedaling. Not always fast, but always forward. During the run, I couldn’t feel my feet, I felt overheated from the afternoon sun, and everything hurt. I didn’t think about the 21km I had to run, I just thought: “take one more next step”.
When you’ve done the work to prepare, and you know your destination, you just have to push through to the other end. This is when your mental game has to be strong. And when things get tough, keep taking one more step.
Bonus Lesson: The end is the beginning
A couple of days after the Ironman 70.3 race I was back in training with a swimming lesson. At the end of the lesson the swim coach says to me: “I won’t go easy on you anymore. You’ve done your first race, so now I’m going to start pushing you.” I was stunned! The last five months felt anything but easy. I could barely imagine what forms of torture he had in mind. After I overcame my initial shock, I realized he was right. If I was to continue I would have to take things to the next level. Training for the next race would not be more of the same, or even a marginally harder version of it. It would have to feel the same way this training felt when I was an absolute beginner. It would have to be an order of magnitude harder than where I am now.
Progress is not measured in fractions, but in multiples. To move forward, you have to reimagine the goal, not just increase it.
Exhilaration
Success is its own reward. The feeling that you have when achieve a big goal you put your mind to is incredible. It’s something you can reflect on and relive for a long time.
A training buddy posted the following message on her Instagram profile after she finished the race: “Appreciate the freedom to experience the pain.”
It’s the pain that makes success so incredibly rewarding.