When a catastrophic event happens you have two choices. You can grow from the experience, or let it destroy you. When my dad died a few years ago I was left with a simple choice: I could either become more depressed and unhealthy, or strive to make it the best-worst event of my life.
When you have a goal as huge as an Ironman it takes a committment unlike anything else. On a typical day I leave for practice around 6am and don’t get home until 9pm. That’s a tough schedule to hold up. I’m sore. I’m tired. But more importantly I’m healthier, happier, and a whole lot better of a person than I was.
In triathlons it’s not like I can simply fake my way through a race. One you commit to an event, step forward off the beach at race day all those months of training hit you. Let me tell you, the last thing you want to be thinking is all of those practices that you missed. Coach says that if you take even one day off a week you’re missing 52 workouts already – that’s a full month and a half of working out! Holy crap!
My Ironman training goes against everything that I am used to because it takes effort and devotion that is unparalleled in most of society. For example, I HATE going to the gym right after New Years. It’s filled with some of the most unhealthy people I have ever seen and it depresses me when I realize that those people who need the gym more than most regular attendees are simply going to not show up the next day anyways.
The kind of perseverance you find in the people at my triathlon club, P2, does not happen. I run, bike, and swim with a group of people day in and day out who are the type of people that I promised myself I would surround myself with. The type of training that we do requires an endurance of the mind, body, and soul – and after a long weekend we get better through blood sweat and tears
When training for our enedurance events one thing you find out quickly is that there is absolutely no room for bullshit. You have to do the work or your completely screwed. As Oliveir Blanchard put it so elequoently, plicitics won’t get you to the finishline. When you’re out pounding the pavement, getting destroyed on your bike going up hill, or facing an onslaught of white caps in the swim every weakness comes to the surface at slaps you in the face.
You need to be prepared, motivated, and dedicated. I am doing the Ironman to be a better, happier, and healthier person. I show up at our 8 am runs with the most talented group of athletes I have ever seen not because I can hang in the pack, but to strive to be part of the pack.