I spent a year training for an Ironman. Here’s what happened
10 lessons on the pursuit of lofty goals
In September 2019 I had a crazy idea to sign up for an Ironman triathlon. An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike followed by a 26.2 mile run. Professionals will take about 8 hours to complete the race, the average for a 25-29 year old man is about 12 hours, and there’s a 17 hour time limit (midnight) to cross the finish line if you want to earn the coveted “Ironman” status.
When I signed up, I had never ridden a road bike nor swam laps. Although I ran cross country as a freshman in high school 10 years ago, I think 4 miles was my longest run since. Endurance training was something that I intentionally and vehemently excluded from my exercise routine. Could I go from square one to the finish line of a 12-hour endurance extravaganza in one year? I was going to find out.
And then of course, two months before my Ironman, like every event involving large gatherings of people this year, the race was cancelled.
I learned a lot over the past year of training, lessons that make me a better athlete and will help me as I continue training for the 2021 race. But in reflecting on this journey and the truly transformative impact it’s had on my life, I realized that certain core lessons are applicable for any goal that anyone pursues. I hope that as I share these experiences, you will find yourself inspired to chase that moonshot goal or to try something brand new with a fresh sense of commitment and intensity.
1. Passions are variable
Passion is supposed to be about something you love, right? The dictionary defines passion as “a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.”
I don’t like that definition. It implies that passions are fixed - you either are passionate about something or you’re not. In her book, Grit, Psychologist Angela Duckworth defines passion quite differently:
The word passion is often used to describe intense emotions. For a lot of people, passion is synonymous with infatuation or obsession. But in interviews about what it takes to succeed, high achievers often talk about commitment of a different kind. Rather than intensity, what comes up again and again in their remarks is the idea of consistency over time...Is passion the right word to describe sustained, enduring devotion? (57-58)
What I mean by passion is not just that you have something that you care about. What I mean is that you care about the same ultimate goal in an abiding, loyal, steady way. You are not capricious...You are, in a sense, pointing in the same direction, ever eager to take even the smallest step forward...You have your priorities in order. (64)
This framework for understanding passion allows for changes and new experiences. It allows for the guy who hated even the thought of running to eventually feel like something is wrong if he doesn’t run for more than two days in a row. Since passions stem from active decisions to consistently engage in something, we can consciously develop them.
So how do you make those consistent decisions and allow yourself to develop a new passion? Create an environment of accountability and to eliminate the chance to change your mind. Signing up for a race as daunting as an Ironman was an effective way to motivate me to train each day - knowing that if I wasn’t prepared by race day I risked serious injury helped keep me on track with consistency. I shared this goal with my coworkers, friends, and family so that they too could hold me accountable. With a specific goal selected and the people around me aware of what it would take for me to achieve it, I created an environment that forced me to be consistent.
Establishing a system of accountability is not difficult. Clearly define your goals and tell the people in your circle what you hope to accomplish. At first you may feel like the consistent engagement with your activity is forced, but over time, trust that it will become second nature. At that point, when the goal falls to the back of your mind and you’re practicing for the sake of the activity itself, you’ll know you’ve unlocked a new passion.
2. Be a student
To say I had a lot to learn about swimming, biking, and running is an understatement. Researching these sports very quickly became habitual; I scoured videos on swimming technique, read about different types of bikes, and experimented with several ways to warm up for runs. As I progressed, my lessons became more specific and meaningful, but it wasn’t until February that I finally absorbed a lesson I had been encountering but wasn’t yet experienced enough to understand.
The intensity of my workouts had me wiped. Even with two rest days a week, I wasn’t recovering enough to perform at my best, and I was constantly exhausted. In that context, I began to understand everything I had been seeing and reading about Zone 2 heart rate training.
A quick physiology lesson: At any given moment, a person’s heart rate falls into one of 5 zones between your resting and maximum heart rate. Through low intensity activities, during which an athlete remains in Zones 1 or 2 (less than ~80% max heart rate), the body burns primarily fat as energy, it improves its aerobic capacity and overall cardiovascular strength, and it recovers very quickly. As exercise increases in intensity and the heart rate approaches its maximum, the body burns carbs (stored as glycogen) as energy, produces lactic acid as a byproduct, and develops top-end speed and strength.
Training at high intensities is necessary to develop cycling strength or running speed, but too high a percentage of this training prohibits the body from fully recovering between sessions, doing more harm than good. Additionally, without a full recovery and a strong base of endurance fitness, you can’t execute your hard sessions hard enough to maximize their speed and power benefit. Train too hard too often and you won’t be efficiently improving your aerobic base, and since you’re not fully recovered, you can’t go hard enough to improve your strength. You’re in the “Zone 3 abyss.”
When I first started running, I didn’t know any of this - I was obsessed with getting faster. As a result, I ran a half marathon in December during which my average heart rate was 97% of my maximum heart rate. Although I ran a great time, I’m not proud of how fast I ran. I look back and think about how stupid and reckless of a run that was - it’s no surprise that it left me injured for 6 weeks. By now emphasizing low intensity training, I’ve been able to train more frequently, reduce injury risk, and approach my (limited) high intensity training sessions with sufficient energy to maximize the strength benefit.
This understanding came from thorough research driven by genuine curiosity. Treat your goal area as something to master. Be a student, and seek out as much information, science, and instruction as possible. Lessons and ideas that may not make sense at first will become more relevant as you gain proficiency, so don’t let increased success diminish your appetite to learn more. Look for ways to improve every aspect of what you’re doing so that when you get to a lesson as meaningful as this one was for me, you will have already built a habit of incorporating new techniques or knowledge into your routines.
3. Find the Community
I would have loved to join a running club, go on group bike rides, or eventually practice with the Masters swim team at my pool. To train alongside people who already perform these activities at a high level would have been motivating and helpful. I could learn from their experiences and adjust my training to match that of the experts. Since the pandemic made these in-person connections impossible, I instead sought out the endurance training community on YouTube.
The athletes whose journeys I now follow provide me with inspiration to keep training, lessons on technique, ideas about diet/gear/adventures, recaps of races and events, and the sense that I am not alone in this process to get to the finish line. Some of the athletes and YouTube channels that I adopted as part of my community are Lionel Sanders, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Nick Bare, Paula Findlay, Eric Lagerstrom, “Triathlon” Taren Gesell, Dan Plews, David Goggins, The Vegan Cyclist, GCN and GTN, Zwift, and Ed Baker. Although I’ll never meet any of them, I consider them part of my “team.”
Whether virtually or in person, find the community that exists for whatever you want to accomplish. Leverage their experiences, stories, advice, and ideas to help guide your practice and growth so you’re making the most efficient use of your time. Consider yourself as part of that community, regardless of how new you are to the activity; it’ll do wonders for your motivation during tough times. You are on your journey alongside the rest of your team, and together you’ll make progress and struggle in many of the same ways. Invite their input, influence, and camaraderie to maintain your focus and steer your progress.
4. Make the right investments
There’s no shortage of fancy triathlon gear marketed at the consumerist athlete like me. When I got started, I found myself in an interesting dilemma: I did need to make investments for each sport, but I didn’t know enough to always make smart ones. At times my choices were fortunate, like when I bought quality running shoes and excellent goggles right away. In other cases, my priorities were misaligned. Although I bought a top-of-the-line wetsuit in November that I wouldn’t wear until May, I didn’t start using a proper training watch until January, I delayed getting a bike until February, and I didn’t take a swim lesson until March.
So how can you avoid this dilemma and make the right investments? Rely on the community of experts you’ve plugged yourself into. Had I paid closer attention to all the YouTube content I was watching in the early months, I would have noticed that every cyclist and triathlete trains on Zwift, that having a device to accurately measure heart rate is paramount, and that using the proper tools for warming up, recovery, and mobility is crucial for sustained training.
Admittedly, I’m encouraging you to follow the people around you and the professionals, many of whom may have sponsorship deals with products. It will be up to you to sift through the advertisement/sponsorship fluff to find the investments truly worth making.
But to the extent possible, I would discourage you from trying and pursue something brand new on no budget. You may not need physical items; the smart investments may be lessons, coaching, or educational materials. Leverage the experts around you to find out what will be helpful so that your transition into the endeavor is smoother and your mastery is quicker.
5. Don’t overlook the little things
Earlier I mentioned how a far-too-aggressive half marathon left me sidelined with injuries for six weeks. The fact that I ran too hard was a problem in and of itself, but the run’s intensity also exposed other weaknesses in my training. I had spent zero time strengthening my hamstrings or glutes, my running cadence was low (mid-160s), and my stretching routine was unproductive. These problems amplified my high impact, quadriceps-driven, inefficient running form: patellar tendinitis was inevitable.
I’ll be honest, there’s nothing exciting about doing glute bridges, donkey kicks, and clamshells. This is the unglamorous training that no one sees, the hard work that doesn’t even directly contribute to better performance. But by staying humble and maintaining discipline with these exercises, I’ve avoided knee injuries throughout 2020.
It’s little things like this that are easy to overlook but can be crucial ingredients for progress. For your goals, this might mean spending extra time on technique, preparation, maintenance of equipment, or an indirect area like nutrition. Don’t think that if you’re not actively engaged in your activity you’re not making progress. There will be an entire network of little, perhaps tedious, choices and efforts that contribute to your success.
6. You don’t have to feel 100% to make progress
I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to take extra days off. Some days I hadn’t slept enough and woke up feeling exhausted. Other days I felt like I might not have enough time to properly warm up. Some mornings I felt minor injuries or had eat poorly the day before. The list goes on and on. Given the desire to maximize every training session, it was easy to let myself think that training on days when I didn’t feel 100% would be wasteful.
As reluctant as I’ve been to push through those moments of doubt and get started, I’ve learned that the stars don’t have to align each day to make progress towards my goal. It’s possible to have a great workout on 5 hours of sleep or with a slight hangover or with minor knee/shin/foot/etc pain. I don’t know if there’s anything scientific to this lesson - it might just be lesson in mental toughness. Don’t let your mind impose limitations.
Why does this point matter for anyone with a non-athletic goal? If we can make progress even when the conditions aren’t ideal, then we don’t need to do everything in our power to create those ideal conditions. In this way, you don’t need to make crazy sacrifices to keep you on track. Your journey doesn’t need to get totally in the way of regular life. Strike a healthy balance between your goal and everything else important to you, recognizing that sometimes life will seem to inhibit your progress. You can still make progress towards an ambitious goal while maintaining your family, social, and professional life.
7. Workouts can fail
There have also been several days when despite how a workout started, it would fail. Since so much of my training evolved into low intensity heart rate targeting, I became very aware of what my heart rate “should” be for a given running pace or bike power. Some days it was way off with no clear explanation.
I remember one Saturday morning in May I planned to do a 15-mile run, but by the middle of the second mile my heart rate was 175bpm when it should have been only 155bpm. Knowing that if I kept going for 15 miles in that condition I would need multiple days to recover, I made the extremely humbling decision to stop after 3 miles and try again the next day.
These types of failures didn’t happen often, but there were at least a half dozen runs and bike rides that I gave up on. The lesson I learned in those moments is to salvage those days in some other way to make progress. If a bike workout failed, I would spend that extra time doing mobility exercises to strengthen my legs. If I was feeling an injury during a run, as I ran home to end the session, I’d be hyper-focused on my running form to build better habits. I always found some way to improve even if my body was preventing me from completing the planned training.
For your goals, the equivalent of a failed workout might be an unexplainable lack of concentration, a mistake, tech issues, or any other factor that you can’t affect and that prevents perfection. In those moments, be humble enough to accept the circumstances and shift your focus. Find some related, helpful activity that you can control, and look ahead to tomorrow as a new day to try again.
8. There will be unintended benefits
A year of consistent training has made me a competent cyclist and runner, but as I reflect on this journey, I uncover several other ways in which I’ve benefited. My legs are stronger and more flexible than they’ve ever been. These three sports, especially swimming, are deeply meditative, and I’ve done some of my clearest thinking while training. I’ve listened to dozens of hours of podcasts, content that influences my personal and professional life. I’m in tune with my sleep, and my nutrition is dialed to perfection. I feel healthier and happier than ever, which I attribute to the balance I’ve struck and the unintentional ways in which training has added to my life.
With whatever you seek to accomplish, keep an open mind for other things you will learn or ways you will grow. I don’t think these are benefits you can plan for or that you even notice in real time without reflection. Trust that as you maintain consistency and as the lines between the activity and the rest of your life start to blur, you’ll experience unintended rewards that enrich your life.
9. You are not alone
Although the vast majority of my training this year was solitary, my family and friends have been with me throughout the year. There were times when it was obvious, like when my mom rode her bike around Cape May bringing me water as I ran a solo marathon, when I would talk to Chadd (another future Ironman, although likely an hour ahead of me) each day about our progress, or when a friend came to the pool to give us a swim lesson.
But far more often were the times when I felt support from the people around me even though they likely didn’t realize they were giving it. To the coworkers, friends, and family members who have on countless occasions checked in to ask how my training is going, thank you. Each of those interactions were meaningful to me, and I consider all of you to be part of my Ironman team.
Invite people into your journey, don’t try and go it alone. Share your goals with the people close to you because they will hold you accountable and you will feel their support. That’s not to mention you’ll probably make some sacrifices if you take your goal seriously, and following through on those sacrifices will require the buy-in and support of the people closest to you.
10. The journey is the reward
This was a tough pill to swallow. I dedicated an entire year to Ironman training. It was on my mind every day, influencing my routines, personal and family life, career, and much more. Beginning with no background in each of the three sports, I’ve ran over 1,000 miles since September 2019, spent over 100 hours on my bike since February, and become a confident enough swimmer to swim in the ocean this summer. All that progress and nothing to show for it.
This is obviously a myopic point of view, one I’m glad to have overcome during the past two months. My year of training has transformed every aspect of my life, giving me new passions and a collection of lessons that I can apply to any future endeavor. Although I’m not an Ironman and have never even participated in any triathlon, I’m proud of my progress.
Here’s a concrete example: On Saturday September 21, 2019, I did my first ever “long run” in my first week of training. I ran 6 miles at a 10:11 average pace, and my average heart rate was 181bpm. I felt like a champion after that run, but I was so exhausted that I accidentally fell asleep for three hours that afternoon. It took me two days to fully recover before my next run.
Fast forward exactly one year to Sunday September 20, 2020. In essentially identical weather conditions and on the same route, I ran 13.3 miles at a 9:48 average pace with a 161bpm average heart rate. While it doesn’t seem like I got much faster, remember that I now intentionally train slow so that I can increase my training volume. A 161bpm average heart rate for a two-hour run in the middle of 15 straight days of training would have seemed unimaginable a year ago. That’s improvement that I’m excited about, and it’s only just beginning.
For the next twelve months until I finally hear the starting gun of an Ironman, “the journey is the reward” will be my attitude. By removing some of the focus from the race itself, I think I’ll find even more enjoyment in the training process and the incremental gains along the way.
In whatever you set out to accomplish, recognize progress as a reward in and of itself. Developing a new passion, learning about different activities, engaging with a new community, experiencing the humility of setbacks, feeling the support of friends and family - these are the rewards of your journey. Let the goal itself steer you in the right direction, but don’t let the pressure of completing it distract you from the personal growth you experience each day.