An endurance event like no other, a true test of grit and determination, a day of suffering for a lifetime of bragging rights. Something I never thought I’d even consider taking on, but after witnessing the old man complete his 6th full Ironman in Barcelona 2024 I was far too inspired to not give it a go myself, and I honestly couldn’t recommend it more to anyone else that may be reading this. Here’s what I learnt throughout the whole experience.
The training:
Undoubtedly the hardest part of this whole experience. As a complete novice, the beginning of this process was super interesting and I enjoyed learning anything and everything Ironman. I hadn’t swum lanes since school, so this was the first thing I worked on, and boy was it humbling. Due to swimming being much more about technique rather than purely cardiovascular fitness, I spent day and night watching videos on how to improve my technique and in the first 2/3 months I saw huge improvements, which obviously felt very motivating. However, soon came the plateau. I can assure you there is nothing more demoralising than putting hours down in the pool, and not getting any faster. Hence, a hatred for swimming was sparked, as no matter how many different drills or training intervals I did, I was actually getting worse. This was one of the lowest points for me, spending 1-2 hours in the pool 3 nights a week, staring at a black line at the bottom of the pool, forcing myself to do something I neither enjoyed nor was good at, and getting no where. About 2 months out from the race day I knew I had to change something and soon realised my mentality was most likely my biggest barrier, I took 2 weeks off swimming and came back with a fresh mindset. Whilst I didn’t suddenly become faster, I started to enjoy it a bit more, I became willing to go to the pool and put in the work and soon enough began to reach a point in my abilities where I was content with my speed and fitness in the pool. From this point onwards it was just about increasing the distances and getting on with it. The last 4 weeks I was swimming around 8k a week, 1×4km and 2 × 2km, which although wasn’t my favourite time ever, I no longer hated it.
I had never owned a road bike, nor road a bike other than a lime bike for probably the best part of 10 years and like most people who own a car, I wasn’t a huge fan of cyclists in general. The first 3 months of my cycling training was all done in my local gym on a watt bike: 1 easy ride, 1 interval ride and 1 long ride. The longest ride I did on the indoor bike was around 3 months of training and was for 3 hours, covering just over 90km, my legs felt like jelly and I managed maybe 15 minutes of running before calling it a day, humbled. I picked up my road bike off marketplace, funnily enough from a bloke called Sam, absolute legend, who had completed the Ironman Italy course the year before. Due to our similar style of training, it came with a few gadgets that made the bike perfect for what I needed. I then went and got my cycling shoes, helmet, bib shorts and a cycling jersey from various sources, and was now set for the road. As they do for everyone, the clip-in pedals took a while to get use to but once that hurdle was overcome, outdoor cycling became arguably my favourite training session. The roads around me on the Gold Coast were bliss once you came off the busier sections and the valleys were absolutely stunning. I still found myself catching the odd road rage from drivers but soon became numb to it and laughed it off, even Harry was getting sandwiches thrown at him in the UK so I knew it wasn’t anything personal. I was also lucky enough to have been able to borrow a friends Wahoo Kickr Core, which I was extremely grateful for so shoutout Stuart. After purchasing a Zwift membership, my cycling training completely levelled up. As the Italy course was fairly flat aside from a steep climb that we’d need to complete twice, an indoor trainer was ideal as it gave me a good opportunity to push on the pedals consistently without needing to stop for cars, lights or fuelling etc. The indoor trainer I had also was able to imitate climbs too but if I’m perfectly honest I tended to select alot more of the flatter routes anyway, indoor training can be challenging enough mentally, I didn’t need anything more to concern myself with at this point. By the last couple months, I was doing all 4 sessions on this trainer, 2 easy rides that were 1-2 hours, 1 interval/threshold session of 45 mins - 75 mins and then one 5-6hour long ride. To most this sounds a complete and utter chore, but with a movie on in the background and being out on the balcony under the sun, they ended up being some of my favourite sessions. I wasn’t having to stop to eat or drink either, I’d mastered my nutrition with the most effective intake of carbs per hour for myself being around 75g, which was made up usually of lamingtons, bananas and rice bars. Then I’d have around 500mg of sodium per hour through my electrolyte tabs to replace my sweat loss. Other than changing tyres remaining a bit of a faff, I felt most prepared for the cycling leg and unsurprisingly it ended up being my strongest on the day too.
Running, I have mixed reviews on my running training as I suffered a fairly big injury about 8 weeks out from the event. It was the sessions that I looked forward to the most, running on the Gold Coast is one of the finer things in life, nice & flat, easily accessible routes with incredible views. My running sessions consisted of 1 easy run, around 45 mins to an hour at around a 5:30-5:45 minute pace, one small brick run off the back of either my easy ride or interval ride which had me running for about 30 minutes at a similar pace or even a little slower, and then a long run the day after my long ride, typically ranging from anywhere between 2 - 3 hours, the peak session of my training week for sure. Due to all running being in zone 2, it was super enjoyable and where I felt most comfortable, meaning I avoided extra mobility/strengthening work. I usually did one mobility session a week, and soon found out this wasn’t enough. Due to weak calves and ankles I suffered from posterior tibial tendonitis which was the inflammation of the tendon in my right ankle, it made running super painful and even caused some discomfort on the bike. This was around 10-12 weeks out from raceday, so I started seeing a physiotherapist asap, Jess, and she was an absolute life saver. We worked on strengthening my calves, needling and staying off my feet as much as possible. She suggested it could have been from switching running trainers, as my Hokas were so supportive they’d caused my feet/ankles to depend on them, so when I switched to a New Balance they couldn’t handle the extra workload. I saw her for around 6 weeks and by the end of our sessions, shoutout the Australian Medicare that gives us a certain amount of free physio sessions a year, I could run with around a 4 out of 10 pain, a lot less than the previous 7/8. I still barely ran after this for the few weeks up to the race as it was more of a ‘just get to race day, take some painkillers at the back end of the ride and hope that combined with the adrenaline gets you over the line’ plan we were going for, which it indeed did.
The few days in Italy leading up to the race:
These were some of my favourite days for sure, the atmosphere from as early on as the airport was crazy. Seeing Ironman bags everywhere, with everyone so open to talk about the race, past experiences and just sharing as advice was incredible. We definitely got a few startling looks when we said this was our first triathlon which we’d only been training for less than a year, but they wished us all the best and tried to reassure us even thought their initial facial expression did quite the opposite. The Ironman village is so cool and all the staff are super helpful, I definitely recommend leaving plenty time to have a walk around it the few days prior to raceday, there’s no denying the merch is ridiculously expensive but why wouldn’t you want something to wear that’ll remind you of one of (hopefully) the best days of your life. Food-wise, me and H began to carb-load properly 3 days out, I think I hit 700g’s of carbs three days out, 800 two days out and around 950g’s the day before. There really is no better place than Italy to carb-load, we had a constant cycle of pastries, pasta and pizza for 3 days straight. We kind of felt horrendous for a good period of this time because of it but at least we had no problems getting to sleep. We had an easy run 3 days out just to keep the legs turning as bit of a shakeout, and we went for an easy half hour ride to make sure my rental bike was fine and if we needed to make any changes, which we didn’t (thankfully because we wouldn’t have had a clue if we did). I probably would recommend against hiring a bike just in terms of logistics as it was a bit of a stress getting it from the rental place, but on the day of the race my bike was near perfect bar some loose aero bars near the end. Me and H had decided to do a few open water swims in the same area we’d be swimming on race day just to get used to it and settle the nerves a little, it was extremely choppy in these sessions and my heart rate was sky high, but the mentality was that it’s definitely not going to be as bad as it was then as it will be on race day considering the swim commenced at 6am rather than when we tested it just after midday. The day before the race was way more stressful than it needed to be, we did over 10k steps and considering all we planned to do was lie by the pool, we didn’t even get much more than an hour of down time before we went to sleep around 8pm. All our gear was laid out on the bed, and after checking it through for the 6th time we decided there was nothing else to be done and it was time for one final 10 minute stretch then hit the hay. When we woke around 4:30, reality hit like a train.
We started the day by getting in a good amount of food down us as we were still over 2 hours from the start time. So whilst I was nailing Nutella sandwiches, Harry opted for some oats that he had to make, and eat out of, a plastic bag as we didn’t have any bowls or plates. Force feeding yourselves after opening your eyes 5 minutes ago at 4:30am was kind of gross but we knew it was necessary. We were trying to find humour in any minor inconveniences otherwise the nerves would just completely consume us. Getting our kit on felt very surreal, it legitimately felt like we were going to war, pathetic. For the next hour, we’d be sipping on electrolytes slowly and I had 2 carb bars but you didn’t want to overdo it to avoid feeling heavy for the swim leg that was up first, especially considering I felt like a limp whale at the best of times in the pool. Getting to the starting area and checking over our bits of equipment in the transition zone felt like a bit of a blur, the old man and his mate looked calmer than ever and apparently me and H were as pale as ghosts. We made our way onto the beach, said goodbye to our friends and family and made way into the starting coral to listen to the iconic pre-race speech by Paul Kaye. His ‘why’ speech will genuinely give you goosebumps whether you’re participating or just supporting, definitely doesn’t help the nerves mind. But when that ACDC sample kicks in, you snap straight into it, game time.
The race:
🏊♂️swim - 1 hour 29 minutes - 2:21/100m
As me and H decided to line up together, it meant I was in the group of swimmers that were a little faster than myself. So once we got the nod and ran straight into the sea, the first 500 metres was brutal. Getting swam over, kicked, scratched and all sorts meant I could not get into a rhythm for the life of me, submitting to a breaststroke every 100 metres or so and just trying to calm the heart rate, get my sighting and head back into a front crawl. It felt like eternity out to the first buoy, and then when we got there I knew we had the longest stretch of the swim to go. However at this point I managed to settle a little and got quicker with each 500m that passed. I can’t remember a single thought that went through my mind during this other than after this I never have to swim lanes in a pool again if I don’t want to. After what felt like the longest hour and half of my life I reached the sand and had never felt so relieved in my life. The hardest part for me was over and I could begin to enjoy the rest of the race. It didn’t help that once I got out of the water I had a banging headache and felt like I’d been flash banged to the point where my vision was even a little blurry, but still, we’d made it. My average heart rate was 167 which is absolutely mental and I’m surprised I still felt like I had any energy left in me but I was just grateful that part was over. Most of my training was at 140ish anyway so this wasn't anything too unexpected, but something to work on for sure.
T1 - 18mins 😂
Not sure what happened here, I wanted to take my time but 18 mins is laughable. The long transition zone didn't help but with family and friends the other side of the barriers here I was definitely just waffling too much, applying suncream and trying to eat as much as possible. I had a flat coke to kill any badness I may have swallowed in the sea, then had a rice bar and some fizzy sweets too, as well as 2 paracetamols for the stinking headache.
🚴♂️bike - 5 hours 58 minutes - 30.11km/h
My favourite part of the day, those long old sessions on the trainer really worked in my favour here as it was a fairly flat course so I was able to push constantly and it just felt like another session on the trainer. We had a good out and back stretch on the motorway of about 60km which we had to do twice, mentally I can imagine this took it’s toll on a lot of the competitors but because I was use to sitting on a stationary bike for 6 hours, this actually felt quite enjoyable. As my Harry, my dad and his mate were all out of the water before me, I felt like I was constantly trying to catch them, which worked well in my favour. The nutrition plan went perfectly, I stuck to solid foods on the bike to save the gels for the run. I had 80g of carbs each hour, a rice bar and a couple jelly snakes and then 1 bottle of water and 1 bottle of electrolytes at each aid station (every 30km, more or less every hour). This ensured I didn't dehydrate in the 28 degree heat, which was unfortunately rather common as we saw plenty people sat or lying on the floor roadside due to heat exhaustion before they even got to the run. As the water was so readily available, I was also taking a whole bottle to chuck over myself at each aid station to try cool me down too, I managed to keep my heart fairly low and average 138 BPM which had me in good knick for the run, but maybe with hindsight I could’ve pushed a little harder. Because my swim + T1 was fairly slow I expected to overtake a fair few heads early on but I was still passing people in the last 10km, I won't lie it felt good overtaking 5-10k bikes on my £500 rental.
T2 - 11 mins
I felt great coming off the bike and was ready for the marathon ahead, I fuelled up a little more with a rice bar and a can of red bull, caked myself in suncream and headed out onto the run course. At this point I was happy to still not have taken any gels yet, and I know my gut was grateful too. I could still do with shaving a couple mins off here next time too.
🏃♂️run - 4 hours 28 mins - 6:22/km
The first 20k went great, legs felt super strong, I was soaking up the atmosphere and managed to keep my HR at around 150 which considering the heat, was more than okay. The heat definitely hindered my game plan slightly, I was more than prepared to keep a 5:45 per km pace and the legs felt good for it, but the amount of water and electrolytes I was having to consume due to heat meant I was having to take my time at each aid station, and after just two hours began to struggle take in foods. Considering I had barely ran the previous 8 weeks leading up to the race due to my injury, the fact I had reached halfway with nearly no pain was incredible. I even forgot to take a couple paracetamol at T2 but this clearly didn’t prove too much a problem. However, after the first half things really started to take a dark turn. My ankle started to really hurt around 25/26k, but even after being offered a couple paracetamol by my sister on the sidelines I decided to go without, not sure why but at the time I must’ve felt like this was the more impressive route to take, dumb move. The pain definitely didn’t leave, but because at the 30km mark I now couldn’t take in any solids at all or I was going to throw them back up, my body started to shut down. The quads blew up completely, it felt like I was hauling two solid tree trunks around that wouldn’t loosen up for the life of me. Again, with the benefit of hindsight, I wished I’d forced down some carbs, but at the same time it felt like I could really just throw up at any second. I had consumed around 6 gels at this point, more than I’d ever done before but nothing too ambitious, but on top of everything else from the day this really put me at my limit. I decided to forgo food and just dawg out the last 10km, a lot slower than I’d hoped but I told myself the second I began to walk I wouldn’t be able to get running again, so reduced to a steady jog for the remainder and avoided walking at any cost. The 4 x 10k loops were brutal mentally, and as time went on the crowds began to thin out making it even more difficult. However the looped layout did mean I got to see my family & friends plenty as well as my lot who were competing too which helped so much more than you'd think. I hate to use the word disappointed as I'm extremely happy with my final time, but the main goal for the next ironman, whenever that may be, is to put down a serious running time. Especially considering since this race that’s been my main focus within training. On that last loop all I could think about was the red carpet that awaited me and I tell you what the experience of running that red carpet, ringing that first timer’s bell, seeing your friends and family cheer you on down the carpet to the finish line is genuinely incomparable.
After you collected your medal, there’s a huge tent waiting for you with endless choices of food. Just the thought of eating made me feel ill however I did take a plate full of tiramisu (never say no to tiramisu whatever the circumstances) and ate it whilst sat down in the crowd section by the red carpet whilst we waited for the rest of our lot to finish. I remember looking down at my medal not being able to fathom I’d actually done it, all those months of training on my own had actually amounted to something, I had something to show for it and most importantly never had to do it again. Although, the morning after, despite the severe pain my whole body was in, I was already wanting to re-live it and go again next year, wild.
