I decided to start this blog hoping to inspire others to focus on the most important things in life: family, health, and the immense sense of satisfaction and well-being that comes from challenging yourself and succeeding in the process.
I'm immensely thankful for being blessed with a wonderful partner in life: my wife Lauris, without whom I wouldn't be able to pursue my goals.
I apologize if the first blog entry is so long, as I've had to recap everything that's happened since I started! I promise, future ones will be much shorter!
Well, I'm now 8 weeks away from my first Ironman: Ironman Western Australia, taking place on the 4th of December 2011.
The First Steps
2 years ago, I didn't know what a triathlon even was, let alone an Ironman. The extent of my participation in sport was 2 or 3 hours per week in the gym, focused mainly on some resistance training. Growing up, I played some basketball in highschool and some martial arts between highschool and college, but was never really an active athlete in any sport.
For those not familiar with the sport of triathlon, it consists of a swim/bike/run race, done in succession and without a break. Triathlon races can take place over a number of distances, the most common of which are the following:
- Sprint distance: 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run
- Olympic distance: 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run
- Half Ironman: 1.9k swim, 90k bike and a half marathon run (21.1k)
- Ironman: 3.8k swim, 180k bike, and a marathon run (42.2k)
Before getting into triathlon, I couldn't swim the length of a swimming pool without running out of breath and stopping, I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a teenager (and that was a mountain bike!) and the longest I had ever run was 10-15 minutes.
I stumbled onto triathlon by chance, after running into a friend of mine who had just completed an Ironman race. I went back to the office, all 89Kgs of me, go onto the internet and started doing research on triathlon and the Ironman (go to Youtube and search for Ironman Triathlon, trust me!). That was back in April of 2010. After a couple of days of research and a few conversations with my better half, I decided that triathlon was exactly what I needed. I've always needed challenges to keep me from getting bored, and that was the perfect fit: a challenge against oneself, a competition between the mind and the body.
And that's how the journey started: in April of 2010, I went to Wolfi's Bike Shop in Dubai. After chatting with the experts there on buying a roadbike vs. tribike, I decided to jump in with both feet and invest in a good quality triathlon bike. And that's when I became the proud owner of a Scott Plasma 2. The "Batbike" (more on that later) and I have spent countless hours together over the past 18 months, and our relationship remains strong!
Then I went and registered myself for some swimming lessons with Speedo Dubai. The instructors confirmed what I already knew: I was an absolutely horrible swimmer (kind of embarrassing when surrounded by kids who zip up and down the pool).
Run training was easy: get a pair of shoes, go to the running track at Safa Park and start running!!
I did that for a couple of weeks, swimming with Speedo Dubai, biking by myself in Nad El Sheba, and running in the park. Of course, there were the occasional mishaps, most visible of which were the few "crashes" on the bike, given that I had never ridden with clipless pedals before...
Then I realized I had no idea what the hell I was doing, so I decided to search for a coach. I had heard from friends that there were a couple of coaches in Dubai. I, once again, jumped on the internet and googled. I found the website for Tri2Aspire and owner/coach Jason Metters. I contacted Jason and we decided to meet on a Friday mid-morning at Ibn Battuta mall for a coffee and a chat. So, I met Jason there (he had just come back from one of the Golden Tulip Triathlon races in Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi), and a couple of phone calls later the real journey started.
Setting my sights on London
After meeting Jason and having a few chats, we agreed that the London Triathlon, taking place in early August 2010, would be a nice challenge to work towards. It was a daunting goal at the time, as it was an Olympic distance event with more than 20,000 participants. Let me tell you, scary stuff!! But I was looking forward to the challenge, even though back in May 2010, I was nowhere near ready for that.
Soon after I met Jason and took a couple of private training sessions with him, I registered for my first ever triathlon: Golden Tulip Sprint Distance Triathlon, in May of 2010, in Abu Dhabi. It was a sprint distance race (well almost, the bike was 26k and the run 5.5k), and I had swum 750m in training, could easily bike the distance and figured I could manage to run 5k! Oh how wrong was I. That race was to be an eye opener for me, a baptism by fire as they say...
So, on that morning I will never forget, as the clock ticked to 6:00am, I jumped into the water of the Arabian Gulf with 200+ other athletes. I positioned myself towards the back, not completely at the rear though. The tension starts building, you can feel it in the air. The airhorn goes off and I find myself thrashing around in the middle of a washing machine, trying not to panic and somehow move forward. 50m into the swim and I can't breath. I have to stop, and I start swimming breaststroke (a slow, very slow way to swim). Athletes around me disappear into the distance. After a few minutes, I settle down and start swimming properly again. I manage to finish the swim in an embarrassing 19 minutes, second to last swimmer out of the water. I run to transition, pick up my bike, and start cycling. I manage to catch a few people and things aren't going too bad. Soon, the bike is over and I drop it off in transition, put on my running shoes, and start running... for 500m that is, because that's how long it took me to start a 35min run/walk routine. I eventually finished the race in just under 2 hours, second to last person to finish... like I said, eye opener. How the hell was I going to race in London in 3 months at double the distance and 20,000 athletes???
So... I manage to shrug that race off the get back into training. I start building myself up mentally, realizing that confidence was a big factor in triathlon. I couldn't believe it when only a month later, at the last Golden Tulip Race for the season, I manage to finish the race in 1h40min, a massive 20-minute improvement on my time. The trick I learned then: have the confidence to start the swim in the middle of the pack, and realize that every single swimmer there is in the same washing machine, so why should you be the one to panic?? I swam under 16minutes that day, it changed everything.
Injuries, more lessons learned, and the London Triathlon
While my swim confidence was building, I started facing my first set of physiological problems: I started getting really bad knee pain when running. I ran though the pain but it only got worse as the days and weeks went buy. My right knee was driving my crazy, and with London approaching, things were not looking good. I finally reached a point when I was hardly doing any running at all. After seeing some specialists, I discovered that my ITB was inflamed (a common ailment affecting people new to the sport). It's a symptom of the body adapting and doing too much too soon. Running through the pain only exacerbated the situation, but London was close and I was too worried about my run fitness to stop running altogether.
So... the end of July beckons. Lauris and I fly to London, bike and race gear in tow... Lauris was immensely supportive. I was doing my best not to freak out, and was trying my best to hide it when I did! To give you an example of how inexperienced and freaked out I was: I had the guys at Wolfi pack my bike for me, had a bike shop in London assemble it back together (at a high cost!), and booked Lauris and I in TWO hotels: one for the duration of our stay in London and another for the night before the race (a hotel within walking distance of the race itself, in the Docklands of London).
London Triathlon, Race Day: I woke up at 4am on race day, feeling more or less ok. Maybe it hadn't yet sunk in completely. I prep my bike and gear and Lauris and I start our walk towards the race venue. It was pitch black, 10C degrees. We get there and the access to the transition is not yet open, so all athletes are sitting around, some on chairs, most on the ground. I felt like the only "newbie" there. All around me were "fit" people, chatting and laughing. Yikes!!
Finally, at around 5:30am, the doors open. I kiss Lauris and shuffle into the transition area, with all my kit and my bike. I find a nice place to rack my bike and set up: all looks good, not too scary after all, even though there were hundreds if not thousands of bikes being racked around me... My race start was at 6:45 and it was a wetsuit swim, so I need to put on my wetsuit. I had never done that before, so it was going to be an adventure. I walk back to where Lauris was waiting for me. I find a bathroom and try to "go". Every triathlete will tell you, the importance of "going" before a race is of utmost importance. But I was so nervous that the chances of that happening were in negative territory. I give up and wrestle with my wetsuit to put in on. After about 20min, I'm sweating profusely but the wetsuit is "on"!
Finally, they call us. I walk back to my transition area, pick up my goggles and swim cap and go to the swim start. They give us a briefing. Shit! everyone in my group looks so fit, all 500 of them!!! (what I found later was that Jenson Button was in our group too...). We walk to the edge of the water. It looks black and cold! (It was cold!, 13c water temp cold!). I jump in, for the shock of my life! It's so cold I can't breath. I'm gasping for air, my heart rate is at 180bpm. How am I going to swim????
Fortunately, I manage to calm myself down a few minutes before the start and the wetsuit does its job: I begin to warmup (or became too numb from the cold, I don't know). I position myself in the last 1/3rd of the 500ish group and wait for the airhorn to go. And then the washing machine starts! Except this time, I was a bit more experienced. I decide to stick to my own rhythm, swim slowly and steadily. To my surprise, I start overtaking people! A lot of people! hey, wait a minute, what's going on?? I was loving it. Before I even realize it, the swim is almost finished. I climb out of the water and look at my watch: 32min for a 1.5k swim! Fantastic! ha! spoken too soon. As soon as I stand up, the cold water in my ears did their job: I was so dizzy I couldn't even stand. Some volunteers help me take off my wetsuit (okay now I'm freezing!) and steady me as I walk towards the 2 flights of stairs to my bike. Along the way, I find my darling wife Lauris shouting words of encouragement and taking photos (a sight for sore eyes I can tell you that!).
Aaaaanyway, I somehow get to my bike, throw my wetsuit and swim gear on the ground, put on my race belt (carries my race number), helmet, sunglasses and run with my bike to the mounting line. I get on the bike and go. Okay, so by now it was a little after 7am. It was still freezing cold, the sun wasn't up, I was dripping wet from a cold swim, all I was wearing was a very thin trisuit, and I was zipping at 30kph on a bike. You can imagine how I felt. So I pushed hard, partly boosted by the good swim and partly to just warm up. I enjoyed the bike, especially riding towards Big Ben etc. Soon the bike was finished and I was back at transition. I look at my watch, it was coming up to 2 hours. I was ecstatic: I had a very good chance of breaking 3 hours at my first ever Olympic distance triathlon event! I put on my shoes and start running, feeling great. A few minutes into the run and problem 1 strikes: my right knee start to hurt badly (so soon???). I decide to push through, no choice! A few minutes later, my LEFT KNEE start hurting! (WTF????). So, 15min into the run and I'm already wobbling painfully. 30 min in and disaster strikes: my stomach decides to stop cooperating completely (now you know why you need to "go" before the race). I guess the combination of nerves, cold swim and freezing bike were finally catching up with me. I end up walking / shuffling for the entire 10k, at one point screaming at Laures asking her if she had any stomach medicine (she did and they didn't help). Eventually, I finish the 10k run in 1h20min, and my first Olympic distance in 3h20min. Disappointed, but once again, massive lessons learned...
Working towards a bigger challenge: Half Ironman Antwerp, July 2011
Fast-forward a few months into early 2011 and my commitment to the sport was getting stronger and stronger. My knowledge about the human body and sports nutrition was reaching new heights, I've had many adventures (including being attacked by bats during a training ride and earning my triathlon nickname: Batman).
I was training well, but still suffered a range of running injuries: in Nov of 2010 I injured my ankles running for too long too soon and in the wrong type of shoes. Nevertheless, I raced my second Olympic distance race in 2h49min (31min faster than London 4 months earlier!!).
Another lesson learned, and in January I started running again. March 2011 and I got injured again with Shin Splints (common running injury due to, guess what? running for too long too soon!). Recovered from those shin splints in May of 2011 and started focusing on my first "long distance" race: Half Ironman Antwerp on July 25 of 2011.
It still amazes me how my goals changed from "I want to finish a triathlon" to "I want to finish an Olympic distance triathlon" to "I want to finish a Half Ironman" to "I want to break 6 hours in a Half Ironman", all in 15 months! What a journey that was.
The date for the Half Ironman (also called Ironman 70.3) in Belgium arrived and I flew there on my own (I didn't want to drag my already super-supportive wife through another nerve-racking international race). I arrived in Antwerp and met up with a few of my teammates who were also racing there. What a difference it makes to have people you know around you: we recced the course, swam in the same lake as the one for the race venue, and had a few hilarious adventures...
Without getting into too many details, suffice it to say that my performance in Antwerp 70.3 was a massive boost of confidence: conditions were difficult: cold and extremely windy. I still managed to swim 38min for 1.9k in what was a violent swim, very comfortably biked 90k in under 2h55min in very windy conditions, and ran a half marathon in just under 2h30min, again quite comfortably. I crossed the line in 6h15min. I didn't break my 6h goal but I crossed the finish line feeling comfortable and confident. I had just run a half marathon for the first time in my life, and it was after a swim and a tough bike. I was happy.
Crossing that finish line in Antwerp feeling this way once again changed my goals: I was already registered for my first Ironman event: Ironman Western Australia on 4 Dec 2011. Antwerp changed my goal from "I want to finish an Ironman" (which is the goal most people have when participating in an Ironman) to "I want to break 13 hours".
And today, as I plow through 20 hours of training per week, I'm 12Kgs lighter than when I started this journey, and my aim remains to break that 13-hour barrier.
