The Road to the Ironman #2 – 600 pound Gorilla

I am often asked what is the hardest part of the Ironman and my general response is “what do they think the hardest part of an Ironman is?”. After a few more questions about the distances and a general description their answers vary.

• Some will say the swim, because it is 2.4 miles with 2,000+ elbows, knees, legs and feet smashing into you.
• Some will say the bike, knowing that 112 miles is far to drive in a car, but to do it on a bike adding in hills, wind, heat/cold, and rain.
• Some will say it is the run, a marathon alone is considered one of the toughest things any human can do but to do it after a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike ride is just plain nuts.

I like hearing everyone’s answers aware that I have not given my answer as of yet.

For me the answer played out this past Sunday morning…

Sunday was a planned 100 mile bike ride. You see most of us training for such a race do these silly things. Just you, the wind in your face, your legs in a continuous circling motion and that skinny unpadded seat for hours. Sounds like fun! Right! Don’t you all answer back at one time…

Back to the story…

There are us who train for these Ironman that will end up doing 5, 10, 15 or more of these 100 mile ride preparing for the big day. Me? Not so much. I guess if I really had the desire to finish closer to the front compared to my finishes near the back I would be on that bike for that many 100 mile rides. I simply don’t have the time or patience to do so. My handful of 100 mile bike rides are carefully planned so that at most I will be doing 3 maybe 4.  I know I have to DO a few of these rides so I do them hopefully before the big race.

Back to the story…

Knowing there is only 7 weeks left in my training, Sunday seem to be a good choice to get my 2nd 100 miler done. The air has turned cool and crisp. The sun still rises early enough so I would get done before noon and mentally I was as ready as I could be. You know what they say about the weather and the people that forecast the weather… yep what was suppose to be a nice morning with showers heading into the late afternoon, was a miserable, damp, showery morning. I looked at the radar and it looked like it would clear in about an hour, so one more hour of sleep! After my quick hour nap the weather was no better in fact it was worse. It simply was going to be one of those early falls days in Chicago where one is to hunker in and in enjoy the inside.

Now there will be those die hard cyclists out there that would say it wasn’t too bad. Get you butt out there and just do it. Add in the temperature hadn’t reached 60 and the need and desire of getting to the race healthy, I didn’t see the need to slip around a corner and break something.

So I was left with two options…

1. Do it another day. If I took that option there might be a chance I would never do it.

2. Place the bike trainer in the sun room, connect the bike to it and start to peddle.

Neither option made me happy.

Here is my idea of the hardest part of the Ironman… THE GREY MATTER BETWEEN THE EARS!

It is simple… The Ironman or anything difficult in life does not happen unless you figure out what you have between your ears!

Yes the distances are daunting, that is why they call it an Ironman. Yes the time you spend swimming, riding and running in the race are daunting, that is why they call it an Ironman. But for me and I would think most of us it is the time leading up to the race is the most daunting part of any Ironman… That is what makes you an Ironman!

Back to the story…

So there I was at another cross road in my journey to Ironman #2… What will I do? I have made it very clear the hardest part of doing this a second time around is the mental side. It has felt like a 600 pound gorilla has been on my shoulders this whole time. I needed to do this 100 mile ride for my training, but I needed it more to see if I am still was an Ironman.

So the bike went on the trainer, not looking forward to this because that stupid trainer is by far the worst way to ride a bike. In a runner’s sense it is similar to a treadmill, but about 100x worse. I set up my area with the nutrition I am using on the race, Ironman DVD’s ready to play, an iPad full of music and I was off. I was estimating this would be a 6 HOUR ride to finish 100 miles. Up to this point the longest I had ever ridden on the trainer was 56 miles, which was close to 3 hours.

I started with the 2007 Ironman World Championship DVD with the hopes of it helping me get into the right frame of mind, the DVD lasts a little over an hour or roughly 20 miles.

A second reason to do the ride was fine tuning my nutrition, because it is a bit different than most. I like the taste of real food, not gels, gu’s, bars and so on, I fully admit my choices are a bit unusual.

1. Drink an entire bike bottle every 20 miles. 3 water bottles with Carbo Pro, 1 with Gatorade with Carbo Pro.

2. 1/2 of a Twizzler every 5 miles. Nice treat, plus much needed sugar for fuel.

3. PayDay bar every 33 miles. Tastes better than a PowerBar, packed with protein, salt and sugar.

4. Salt Tablet every 1 1/2 hours. Keep sodium high lessen the chance of cramping.

As I continued to peddle I noticed this ride was feeling a bit different to most, I was strong, time seemed to be whisking by and soon I found myself at mile 56 and I looked I was under 3 hours. That alone was a bit unusual, so I pressed on. The mental side of the ride was just as strong as the physical side also another rarity. I melted away and it was just me and my thoughts, even the cranked up music fell into the background and soon found myself at mile 80. Still strong I pushed on putting in Ironman DVD #2 and peddled until the number 100 crossed my bike odometer. What a rush to see that number and to make it better I was at 5 hours and 15 minutes, NOT 6 HOURS!

My thoughts turned to thinking you know what is another 12 miles? So I pushed on…

Only once in my life had I rode 112 miles and I was on that bike for 7 hours and 10 minutes of pure torture. Here I was 12 short miles away and only at 5 hours and 15 minutes, game on! As soon as I saw the number change over to 112 miles and looked at the time I knew I just experienced my Ironman training moment that I had been searching so long for, 5 hours 52 minutes! That meant I took off a whole hour and 17 minutes off my previous and only attempt at 112 miles! 1 HOUR AND 17 MINUTES IS HUGE!!!!

Better yet finally that 600 pound gorilla was gone. I am not sure if others have Ironman moments in their training, but for me it is something that I look for during the whole process. Is it a good thing that I do this? Probably not because it simply adds more unneeded pressure to an already pressure filled challenge, but for me it is who I am. It is similar to last year when I went on a 16 mile run with my friend Katie only to make it 22 miles. I knew I was ready.

So it looks like September 18, 2011 was that moment for me. I am ready physically and now mentally. Does that mean I will have a 5 hour 52 minute bike ride in Florida? Probably not once you factor in the actual riding on a road, temperature, wind, humidity and so on there is a good chance it will be slower, but it should mean I will be faster than 7 hours and 10 minutes.

So if you ask me what is the hardest part of the Ironman, for me it is simple it is the mental side of the whole experience. This is also the hardest part of life, the mental side. Sometimes the hardest part of anything is just getting out of your own way. If you practice that the journey becomes much more enjoyable and simple.

Until next time… Your Fitness Buddy!