Casting Iron

Among the things I’m most often asked about are my training regimen and how my preparation is going.  The second question is easy.  It’s going well.  The first question, well, that’s a bit more complicated. If you go to a bookstore and wander over to the sports section, you’ll find a part of it is dedicated to triathlon training.  If you happen to be near a large bookstore you may even find specialized books just about the Ironman.  Pop one of those books open and you’ll find several chapters on techniques and drills, followed by page upon page of schedules and nutrition regimens, complicated stuff.

Rather than use one of these elaborate schedules I have created my own unique training plan.  I have named it the WFR plan.  It stands for “Whatever Feels Right”.  Now I know this must sound crazy to some people.  The people who wrote these books are experts and should know what they’re talking about.  In all honesty, I’m sure they do, but that’s not the point.  When I decided to give up a life shackled to a desk, I wasn’t just giving up the desk and the office.  I wasn’t even just giving up the mind-numbing, soul-sucking work or the immoral, zombie taskmasters I had to pretend to admire.  Nope, I was giving up the whole enchilada and that included the slow monotonous march toward death known as routine, whether it be work routine or Ironman routine.

Before I go off on a rant on the evils of office life, let’s get back to the Ironman plan.  WFR means every day I wake up and at some point I try to exercise, a lot. It seemed like a good idea to bike to Spain from England so that’s what I did, because it felt right.  I felt my biking had gotten quite strong for the trip so it felt like it was time to focus on running a bit more.  I don’t like swimming very much so I relocated to a beautiful island because I knew it would make me feel like swimming more.  Now I swim whenever I happen to be by a beach, which is a whole lot of the time.  No schedule, no regimen, just WFR.

Now WFR should not be confused with the closely related but completely useless WFG, or Whatever Feels Good, plan.  I can assure you that a great deal of the time what feels right is very far removed from what feels good when training for an Ironman.  Still, I know the end goal and I know my body, so I push my body towards the end goal and it’s pretty much as simple as that.

Bike paths like this make self inflicted torture easier.

Finally a little disclaimer, I pretty sure following a strict training schedule would make me faster, but here’s a spoiler: I’m not going to win.  Given that cold, hard reality I prefer training the way I do.  If you want to be a pro get a schedule, a trainer, a little scale to weigh your food and an oxygen deprivation tent to increase your red blood cell count.  As for me, I’m tired of society telling me I have to be the best at everything.  I don’t want to be the best triathlete in the world, or even the best I can be, since other things mean more to me.  I just want to finish one of the hardest races in the world and have fun doing it.  That’s good enough for me.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano…

Or as we now say, “a sound mind in a sound body”.  I was always much better at the sound mind part, but since my return from the monastery I’ve been engaging in some serious German cross-training.  My training partner is nine years younger than me, recently left the navy and has an abundance of natural athletic talent, which essentially means he kicks my ass all over the place.  Here’s a little highlight from yesterday’s mountain biking:

I jumped like twice as high. We just don't have it on film...

Today we went for a short 8k trail run through the hills.  If the humiliation was good for anything, it’s reminding me how much work I have to do before I’m ready for my Ironman.  The bike ride to Spain should be a good appetizer.

Ok, I’m too tired to be witty.  I need to get my rest.  I’m pretty sure tomorrow won’t be a day off.