Cograts to IC for hitting 50x140.6 of draft legal triathlon in 50 days. He just did that yesterday. The guy has gotten up for 50 days in a row, rain or shin, put his wetsuit on, did 43x100yard in the pool drafting other athlete/s, gotten on his bike and done and 112miles draft legal riding through miserable Utah temps, then put on his shoes and jog/hiked 26.2 daily. Some days he went really late and completely ate into his rest interval for starting the next day, but got out of bed and to the start line of tomorrow’s stage and tomorrow’s stage and tomorrow’s stage.
It occurred to me that during a pandemic, when the rest of us are talking about when we can get to race, Ironman’s deferral policies, public health limitations on even local racing, what parts of the world we can get to to race or not, this guy created his own mega stage race, with a daily 140.6 race against himself to get home fast enough so he has enough rest before starting the next day.
I know there is a massive thread on it, but most people won’t even realize he got to 50 days in a row, so it, s worthy of its own thread. In this thread, I am starting off on giving him congrats for the physical feat he achieved, describing somewhat accurately the format of his event (or his use of IV’s) so if we can stay away from debating if this is an Ironman or not, that would be great (there is another thread for that).
I think the accomplishment is pretty amazing from a persistence angle. For a while it was looking dicey, but there have been no ellipticals and no shortcuts from his self declared format (that I am aware of). His times seems to be coming down in general and maybe he has hit a groove that he can carry this to 100/100.
For those who have done the ST 100/100 (and that is only 30 min jogging per day, not 14-18 hrs of exercise per day), I am sure you can relate to the sense of relief when you hit 50 days and had established your personal groove and felt you could pull off the next 50 days. I wonder how he is feeling right now.
Ya it appears he has hit a nice groove in the 15 hour range. I think the most amazing thing thus far is that he has not gotten sick. The covering of the distances at a 100 or less HR still presents a big stress on the body. I haven’t watch any of the marathons, is he actually running any of it? The times suggest he is mostly fast walking, and this will be where he can chop off big time chunks when he gets into a running gear. Of course that is the most dangerous aspect of this whole thing, running gravity is his biggest enemy. So my guess is he continues with this pace until the very end if he gets there, and maybe a real running marathon or two at the end.
IT will also be interesting if his fitness allows some 14 flats, and he can get just a tiny bit of extra sleep/rest, and translate that into more faster times. Or it could be he is right on the edge and one false move will put him over, fascinating dive into low level human endurance for sure…
Ya it appears he has hit a nice groove in the 15 hour range. I think the most amazing thing thus far is that he has not gotten sick. The covering of the distances at a 100 or less HR still presents a big stress on the body. I haven’t watch any of the marathons, is he actually running any of it? The times suggest he is mostly fast walking, and this will be where he can chop off big time chunks when he gets into a running gear. Of course that is the most dangerous aspect of this whole thing, running gravity is his biggest enemy. So my guess is he continues with this pace until the very end if he gets there, and maybe a real running marathon or two at the end.
IT will also be interesting if his fitness allows some 14 flats, and he can get just a tiny bit of extra sleep/rest, and translate that into more faster times. Or it could be he is right on the edge and one false move will put him over, fascinating dive into low level human endurance for sure…
I would love for Dan to do an interview of him going into these final 50. It seems the fastest way to get an extra hour of rest per day is do some more running. If you fast hike 4 miles per hour, that is 6.5hrs for the marathon. I am not sure about the rest of you, but I find 4mph walking on the treadmill a really tough thing, whereas jogging at 5 mph is easier!!! I don’t know if he is doing any jogging yet, but based on those times it seems there must be some days where on many strides both feet are off the ground! I would suspect if he is interviewed his strategy for more rest would be biking faster either with more watts or getting more engines out to draft off (heck Macca won Kona 2010 by recruiting Faris, Tissink and Marino to be his train and put a massive gap on Crowie)…maybe James can give Macca a call and get those boys to come out of retirement and pull the Ironcowboy train. But all joking aside, getting some good engines out of the daily ride, and then adding some 4.5-5.5mph jogging could enhance his rest time daily.
But he seems to have hit a repeatable groove, which I think all of us just battle with in our daily lives especially during a pandemic with less structure in life.
So during these 50 days
He has produced 50 eventsHe entered 50 eventsHe completed all 50 events
He’s produced more events in the last 50 days than Messick has put on since the start of pandemic!!! There is more interest about his heroics on ST than all threads on the first page of the forum combined (well, by views)
Monty to answer your question on “when does he start to do more running in this second half”, Whittlefit posted this:
Day 51:
Swim time: 1:25:45
Bike time: 6:02:14
Run time: 6:01:09
Total time: Add it up… we are too tired tonight, haha!
That run time is exactly the 4 mph number we were discussing last night. It seems like his moving time was sub 13.5 on day 51, and he jogged at 4mph for 6 hrs on the nose. One of these days he’s going to break into the sub 6 hrs running routine.
In all seriousness, this guy should be the next person on the list for writing a book on mental toughness. On Day 3 of the TTT, I barely made it to the start line. Doing this for 50 days is ridiculously impressive from a mental stand point. The gymnastics he must be doing in his head are impressive.
In all seriousness, this guy should be the next person on the list for writing a book on mental toughness. On Day 3 of the TTT, I barely made it to the start line. Doing this for 50 days is ridiculously impressive from a mental stand point. The gymnastics he must be doing in his head are impressive.
iron cowboy is the new david goggins?
i love that hes doing this and the money he is raising for his charity work. dude is in another world endurance wise.
When I was self employed, I had over a year where I worked 12-13 hours every day including weekends. I was running a business during normal business hours and doing all the labor to flip a house after hours and weekends. What I found is I went numb to it and just grinded through.
I figure by hitting 50 days, it’s a similar thing.
Getting to 100 will be impressive, especially for the casual or non-athletic person.
6hrs is 4mph if the marathon was shortened to 24 miles (which I assume he’s not doing. For info,
at 4mph (i.e. 15 minute miles) the marathon is about 6:33.
He was doing miles at a bit under 14 minute pace, i.e. 4.38mph.
(Sorry, I can’t suppress my math training.)
Still, I agree he’s doing a great job and expect he shouldn’t have many problems going forwards barring some unforeseen incident.
(The second 50 should be much easier than the first since I don’t think he prepared his body for the first, now his body has adjusted, and the weather will be better.)
This is super cool, but I will never understand spoilers in titles.
Not sure if this should be pink.
Were you avoiding all media until you could catch the action that you recorded from NBC Sports Network or you wanted to see the highlights on ESPN or Sky Sports? What in the hell did he spoil?
This is super cool, but I will never understand spoilers in titles.
Not sure if this should be pink.
Were you avoiding all media until you could catch the action that you recorded from NBC Sports Network or you wanted to see the highlights on ESPN or Sky Sports? What in the hell did he spoil?
He may still be upset because last year on the last Saturday of the Giro I put in a thread title that this grand tour was effectively tied. He was upset that by doing so, any fan would know who the tie was in between and it should have been inside a thread since a endurance sports forum should be a safe zone from endurance sports news in 2020. This is another debate which some have a strong opinion about.
But putting that aside, I wanted to celebrate the success of IC getting to 50 and just stick to celebrating the format he has chosen to compete at, which is still a very tough format as I did not think that a lot of people who are athletes would have realized he hit 50 since probably only 10-15 people are actively following (or at least having an interactive discussion) on his progress.
I’m going to guess that an hour of harder running isn’t worth the extra hour of rest - at least not yet. The hour of harder pounding lasts far longer than another hour.
I’m going to guess that an hour of harder running isn’t worth the extra hour of rest - at least not yet. The hour of harder pounding lasts far longer than another hour.
Yeah, i think he is finding the fastest slow jog that gets it done early enough where the tradeoff is worth it. He is also building fitness day over day so its not just survival, but the stress vs rest tradeoff, to not cannibalize body mass too dramatically and get to higher capability for the back half. At day 50 the guys has to be in better shape than on day 1 given he is getting faster (until he does not)
Yup he has tremendous mental stamina. After following the 50/50/50 I was thinking sure he might push through this.
But. I am just not actually impressed by it.
Yes, it’s hard. No I probably could not do it unless I needed to.
Mostly I would never want to do it.
Or want to need to do this. Because at the root I think this is a publicity stunt for his business. And it’s working - so good job on that.
But at what cost to him? I think a year after the 50/50/50 he was still saying he was recovering.
It’s not my body, my family or my business so my opinion doesn’t matter squat and I know that. And I wish him well…I do…this is his goal and good luck to him.
Yup he has tremendous mental stamina. After following the 50/50/50 I was thinking sure he might push through this.
But. I am just not actually impressed by it.
Yes, it’s hard. No I probably could not do it unless I needed to.
Mostly I would never want to do it.
Or want to need to do this. Because at the root I think this is a publicity stunt for his business. And it’s working - so good job on that.
But at what cost to him? I think a year after the 50/50/50 he was still saying he was recovering.
It’s not my body, my family or my business so my opinion doesn’t matter squat and I know that. And I wish him well…I do…this is his goal and good luck to him.
I think we all have the values of what we would find impressive. You said you are not impressed, but implied that you could do it if you needed to. I think you could not. In fact, I think almost every triathlete could not even if they needed to.
We can back it with actions and prove we can do it (which he is). The rest of us, have no proof that we can pull it off. That is why this is kind of impressive. Because he is proving in real life what he personally can pull off. Getting thru 50 after a rough start with several 18ish hrs days has been pretty impressive in my book.
But people all over the world do day-after-day of 15-16 hours of very physical labor and just call it life. He’s doing 15-16 hours a day of moderately intense aerobic work. I think most of us could do it if we needed.
Some of this is just word choice. To impress implies (to me) admiration and respect. I do respect that this is without a challenging endeavor.
I find many many things in endurance sports to be impressive. People who run Badwater and then turn around and run back…impressive. Swimming around the Island of Manhattan several times in a row …impressive. Riding or running across the USA or the entirety of the Appalachian Trail… impressive. Completing every single Ironman course available … impressive. Back to back IM in different states or countries … impressive. And of course speed records and fastest known times. I actually have a whole collection of stories on my podcast. But I’ve learned (about me) that I am neither inspired by streakers nor do I aspire to be one. This is because … and again how I feel about this is a reflection of me not a statement on what James is doing … what a person has to give up to maintain that streak can be too much. To choose to be away from your life for 15-16 hours a day for 100 days is not something that I aspire to want to do. And I would suggest that this is motivated by either a very deep need or maybe even a sort of compulsion.
For info,