Did my first Iron Distance today. I underestimated the distance (subconsciously), partially to avoid undermining my confidence. The distances were just numbers to me and I was unable to truly comprehend how they fit together and affect the pysche of the participant. I got out of the swim somewhat fatigued and was thinking that the distance that awaited me were just enormous. 112 miles on the bike and 26.2 on the run and I am already a little tired? The rest of the race consisted of a good amount of lows, some middles, and a few strong highs. The mental challenge was very heavy. I had some voices telling me numerous times ‘I don’t know if I can do this’. The confident, resilient voice within me wasn’t as loud or strong. It was back and forth. I have ran numerous marathons at threshold, a half-iron distance, and a 50 mile run, but this was different. This challenge was so ‘big’. That’s the only way I can describe it. I crossed at 12:48:15. I am satisfied with the time.
I give all my respect to anyone who finishes this monstrous endurance race, regardless of their time. This is the ultimate endurance challenge.
Congrats on the finish! The trick is you NEVER think about the entire distance during the race. Live/Race in the moment; 1 step at a time.
For the swim, think about swimming buoy to buoy or finish first lap or whatever. On the bike, I have my watch beep every 15 minutes to remind on nutrition, so think about what needs to happen in the next 15 minutes to be sure I am still going strong (i.e. pacing, nutrition, terrain, etc.) and adjust accordingly. When it gets to the run, that’s where your focus needs to come around. For me, it starts about thinking of each mile, then by the end it’s about just making it to the next corner / tree, etc. Bottom line find something that works and don’t get too far ahead of yourself.
I just wanted to add to the mental side of this. It’s really tough to keep mental focus for 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17 hours (name your finish time). Most of us tune out substantially when we have to drive a car for 3-5 hours. Now add to that the physical load for substantially longer while “driving”.
Coming back from a bad concussion, initially I was mentally tired from focusing on the road even after short 2 hour rides. I’ve always fle that the Ironman is a mentally taxing day and quite often my best Ironmans have coincided with the times where I had the biggest and most mentally taxing workload in my office, probably because my head was trained to deal with going continuously from 6 am to 8 pm between training, working etc.
Thanks for the insight. I’m doing my first 140.6 at IMAZ in…EIGHT weeks(?!). Geez, time flies.
I’ve done marathons and a 70.3 and can recall how mentally fatiguing they are. I think my brain unconsciously breaks up the race as a process. When I’m focused on monitoring details like not drowning, not crashing, nutrition and pacing, I don’t really have time to get caught up in trying to tackle the entire course, all at once, in my head. I’ll have a few moments where my brain stops and says, “Wow, you’re really doing it!” and that helps too. Like one other poster said, racing “in the moment” is best. That’s not to say it’s not going to hurt–it’ll just be less mentally taxing.
Anyway, congrats on the finish! I know it’s bad form to ask an athlete about their next race just after they cross the finish line but do you plan to do it again?
Did my first Iron Distance today. I underestimated the distance (subconsciously), partially to avoid undermining my confidence. The distances were just numbers to me and I was unable to truly comprehend how they fit together and affect the pysche of the participant. I got out of the swim somewhat fatigued and was thinking that the distance that awaited me were just enormous. 112 miles on the bike and 26.2 on the run and I am already a little tired? The rest of the race consisted of a good amount of lows, some middles, and a few strong highs. The mental challenge was very heavy. I had some voices telling me numerous times ‘I don’t know if I can do this’. The confident, resilient voice within me wasn’t as loud or strong. It was back and forth. I have ran numerous marathons at threshold, a half-iron distance, and a 50 mile run, but this was different. This challenge was so ‘big’. That’s the only way I can describe it. I crossed at 12:48:15. I am satisfied with the time.
I give all my respect to anyone who finishes this monstrous endurance race, regardless of their time. This is the ultimate endurance challenge.
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You had me until you wrote this but congrats on finishing your first Iron Distance race…They 'aint easy.
Man, I know exactly how you felt. I did my first IM a few weeks ago at Louisville. The swim was better than I was expecting, probably because I’m a swimmer, but the bike and run killed me mentally. The thing that got to me on the bike was seeing the mile marker signs for the second loop. I saw the mile 80 sign and was happy to be almost done but then realized I was on mile 30. It was so depressing thinking that I had to finish the second half of the loop only to do it all over again. I don’t even want to talk about the run.
Having said that I’m happy I did it and will do it again.
Thanks for the insight. I’m doing my first 140.6 at IMAZ in…EIGHT weeks(?!). Geez, time flies.
I’ve done marathons and a 70.3 and can recall how mentally fatiguing they are. I think my brain unconsciously breaks up the race as a process. When I’m focused on monitoring details like not drowning, not crashing, nutrition and pacing, I don’t really have time to get caught up in trying to tackle the entire course, all at once, in my head. I’ll have a few moments where my brain stops and says, “Wow, you’re really doing it!” and that helps too. Like one other poster said, racing “in the moment” is best. That’s not to say it’s not going to hurt–it’ll just be less mentally taxing.
Anyway, congrats on the finish! I know it’s bad form to ask an athlete about their next race just after they cross the finish line but do you plan to do it again?
As of right now, I have no desire to do another one. But, give me a little time and distance from the race and suddenly it sounds like a good idea again.
The best tip I picked up on this site came from reading a post of Rappstar’s. He talked about how when his mind started to wander to the pain on the run, he would count from 1 to 300 over and over. I did this for the last 10 miles. It really helped. I kept counting and stared at the ground. I didn’t want to look up and see how far away the next aid station seemed. Really excellent tip that was incredibly helpful to me. Giving my mind was a task helped keep it away from bad thoughts.
Jack, Congrats on finishing an Ironman.
I was on a 1 hour run today and I was starting to feel tired so I slowed down. I had no pain or sore joints, I just felt like slowing down. Then I asked myself, “How are you going to do an Ironman with that kind of attitude? What are you? A f#$&ing p#%$y???!!!” So I finished hard. I know Ironman is a different ball game, I did one almost 10 years ago, but its really about how you train for this race both physically and mentally that determines your outcome. I walked a large portion of the IM marathon simply because I was tired and felt like walking. I trained that way. I rode my bike at a “masturbatory pace” most of the time and I just thought that on race day things would be different. They never are. I went hard in the swim and then hard on the bike, but I never trained that way. I was feeling it the rest of the race let me tell you. My legs cramped up after an hour on the bike. The next 5 hours were long on the saddle. So you gotta be prepared for this race. Train like its race day whenever possible. When a low comes during training, fight it. I think thats something few people can do and I really want to win that battle this time around. I signed up for IMC 2012 a month ago now and every day I think about what I need to do to accomplish my goal of finishing in under ten hours. I know its physically possible, but its the mental stuff that holds me back. Anyways, just thought I’d share that.
well done great achievement. I underestimated the effect the bike would have on me psychologically more than anything, think physically I was OK but mentally I needed to dig deep and I’m not sure how you train for that other than by doing it. big pat on the back for you.
"Congrats on the finish! The trick is you NEVER think about the entire distance during the race. Live/Race in the moment; 1 step at a time. "
Exactly, thats why I tend to like courses with loops or laps. I just focus on the next segment. I’ve done a couple of off road 50km runs. The segments are from 6.2 miles (the 1st one) to about 2.5 miles. They never add up the total distance. Even being pretty tired its not to bad thinking, ok this segment is 2.9 miles long.
Exactly, thats why I tend to like courses with loops or laps. I just focus on the next segment. I’ve done a couple of off road 50km runs. The segments are from 6.2 miles (the 1st one) to about 2.5 miles. They never add up the total distance. Even being pretty tired its not to bad thinking, ok this segment is 2.9 miles long.
interesting to read this. i’m at the opposite end of this scale: i intensely dislike loops for the reasons above.
peggy
I did the Redman yesterday (first IM) and was really worried about how I would deal w/ the 4 loop run course vs. the stand alone marathons I’ve done that were 1 big loop. Prior, I wished it was a looped run or atleast a 2 loop run, but now that I did it, I think I have a differing opinion. Breaking it up into 4 sections, albeit still very mentally challenging, I think I prefer it now.
Like you, I had the voices. I just thought of all the mornings I woke up at 4:30 to swim, running and riding in the 100+ degree weather in Dallas for the last 4 months, and that this was the purpose for all of that. That’s what kept me going. Plus, it was a great day in OKC and was just happy to be out riding and running on a great day.
I did the Redman yesterday (first IM) and was really worried about how I would deal w/ the 4 loop run course vs. the stand alone marathons I’ve done that were 1 big loop. Prior, I wished it was a looped run or atleast a 2 loop run, but now that I did it, I think I have a differing opinion. Breaking it up into 4 sections, albeit still very mentally challenging, I think I prefer it now.
Like you, I had the voices. I just thought of all the mornings I woke up at 4:30 to swim, running and riding in the 100+ degree weather in Dallas for the last 4 months, and that this was the purpose for all of that. That’s what kept me going. Plus, it was a great day in OKC and was just happy to be out riding and running on a great day.
Did you happend to do Redman too?
I can totally understand what you are saying about thinking about how hard you have worked to help you push through. I did “ChesepeakeMan” in Cambridge, Maryland. Nice event. Competing field of 300 for the ultra. Flat as a pancake.
Wow, another guy on an internet forum, talking shit about how *easy *6:35 miles are http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3482066 yet when all the bullsh is pushed aside, walks his way to a 13 hour finish.
Props to you though for coming on here and also publicly saying you got your ass handed to you by the distance.
