Unless you are lucky enough to be Robert Downey Junior, to be deemed an “Ironman”, you must complete an Ironman distance triathlon, consisting of a 3.8km swim, 160km ride and 42.2km run in that order, in the 17 hour cut off time. Watching these elite triathletes swim, bike and run around Kona all day once again made me realise how much I want to achieve this feat before I die, and got me pumped.
With that being said, I’m very easily influenced though. I also saw an ad for the McRib being back for a limited time, and within 48 hours I found myself ordering one from the drive thru (that's no joke!), despite not having McDonalds for well over half a year. Ok so that was a flash in the pan, and I could have done without the McRib, but the Ironman thing is a goal I’ve always kept at the back of my mind, never really acting on it (I’ve been told it’s a little harder than eating a McRib though). I’m not exactly planning on acting on it anytime soon, but it got me thinking about just how little experience I have swimming (and cycling to a lesser extent) and maybe I should vary my training a little bit. I mean, if you were to throw me on the starting line of an Ironman triathlon, first of all, I’d thank you kindly for paying my ~$800 entry fee, but I’d also start thinking of what I’d be capable of...
42.2km run…My strongest suit-I’ve run plenty of these, both in training and in actual races, and although my legs would be totally wrecked after hours of swimming and biking, I’d be confident I could do this.
180km ride…like Oprah with salads, I’m not massive on
cycling, and only put in a few token rides a year. The longest ride I’ve done
is around the 100km mark, which isn’t very impressive at all (well maybe to
Oprah, speaking of her), but no matter how long it took, I’m confident I could
get through 180km of cycling.
3.8km swim…nope. If I was standing at the side of a lake or
an ocean and you told me to swim 3.8kms, I would politely tell you where to go.
I’m just not sure I would be able to sustain a continuous swim over that distance, and if I could, I'd be close to that 17 hour mark on the swim alone!
Sure I can swim-I’m a competent swimmer and love a good dip in
the pool or to go for a surf. But endurance swimming is not my thing. Hell the
last time I swam in the lanes properly more than two years ago (probably the
last time I had a real “I want to be a triathlete” urge), I could barely string
together 100 metres without needing a breather.
So, after pushing out a 26km and a 28km run within four days of each
other this week, this morning I thought I’d ease up on the running for a couple of extra
days and take a turn in 25 metre lap pool at the local YMCA.
Just like a few years ago, I didn’t string more than 100
metres together without pausing for bit, and ironically felt like a fish out of
water for the whole time. In between rubbing my stinging, goggle-less
chlorine-filled eyes and getting chatted up by a male lifesaver mid-swim, I
managed to stay in the pool and get through 30 laps, or 750 metres total. Nothing
impressive (and even less impressive considering how long it took). Not exactly
an Ironman effort (ok, far far far from an Ironman effort), but you gotta start
somewhere right? And considering there are plenty of shorter distance
triathlons waiting to be struggled through, I think it’s time to promote the
triathlon thoughts from the back of my mind to a little further forward, and at
the very least, set my sights on a sprint distance or Olympic distance triathlon next year.
I'm guessing this is about how adorable experienced I looked while in the pool this morning
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