My First Triathlon-ish, 3 Lessons I Learned From My Swim, Bike And Run

I am bollocked. This is one of the hardest things I've ever done. All right, enough warning, let's go. Yeah! 3, 2, 1. First peg. You sound awkward. Whose idea was this? Okay, it's getting, it's getting real. Very much. It's getting real, guys. Look at this bike there. We are ready. Let's do this. Coffee break. And now we are here trying to get some coffee into the body. The part that intimidated me by far the most was the swimming part. Wait, and then we follow that, so you just go around that loop? Yeah, yeah, that little loop. Yeah, that's one loop. That's like a shipping buoy out there with the light on. No, no, that's okay. Yeah, we're not going to go out there. We don't want to go out there, that's where you get bitten. But we just want to stay in— Shut up! Yeah, going into the water, Duke talking about sharks, and even this fucker talking about sharks. It literally was the part that kept me awake at night. Finding out the day before that the area where we were gonna swim, some woman got bitten 5 years before that in exactly the same spot. And I was like, you know, I feel like I have to tell you because if I know— if I didn't have told me afterwards, no, no, if I do something happen, then you will say, you will, you will tell like, hey, why didn't you tell me, right? We're here in Corona del Mar. Going on a little adventure today. Andy Blow, Duke Turan, and me. So what's the plan, boys? Where we're, uh, where we're going to be swimming? In the ocean. The best place for swimming around here. Yeah. And then after that, we'll get out of the water. How far is the bike ride, Duke? 80 miles all the way up to Glendora. So we're gonna jump on the bike Get about 6,700 feet of climbing in, and then from there, Mount Baldy. So we got a nice scramble to the top. It's, uh, gonna be an adventure today. Not sure what to expect, but that's also the exciting part. We'll shoot a few video clips along the way. Most probably it's going to be hanging on for dear life, or part of it. They said come to California and come for a swim, it will be lovely blue skies. Look at this. I can get this in the UK. Well, not the palm trees. Yeah. You guys taught me how to swim. Like, the only part that I knew how to do was swimming. What do you call this again? Breaststroke. Breaststroke. Yeah, that was the only thing I knew. So like I said, I'm not the fastest swimmer, so maybe I don't— I honestly don't— like, I'll do my best to not slow it down too much. Andy's going to go like out And then come back for us and out. Hold on, I think I do something wrong there. Let's do this. We good? Yeah. 3, 2, 1, there you go! Off they go. I better get after them. There goes Flo. Looking good so far. So far so good. Yeah, it's all good. Deep breath. I'll do it. How's it going, dude? Good. Yeah, yeah, man. Andy, keep that Oh, all good. Yeah, no, we're not. About 1/3 of 1 mile. No, we're not. Oh, he's doing really great. Andy behind him is a C Pro. As fast as this guy is. My arms are about to fall off, dude. Beautiful, right? On the bike. Yeah, let's do it. We finished the swim. Finish the swim. Yeah, dude, how you feeling? Pretty good. Warm up, right? For him, a warm-up. For me, I'm absolutely fried and toast, and I started cramping. Yeah, you did it, man. First time. That was That, like, I can literally not feel like this part. Yeah, Andy was freaking crushing it on the swim. God, he's such a strong swimmer. I was trying to just keep up with you guys even though it was going faster than I probably should have swum. There was this fine line between potentially getting eaten by a shark because you're on your own or stay with the group and kind of do that thing. So I kind of stayed with you guys or tried to, but we went for the not getting eaten Yeah, let's get the show on the road. Leaving the beach right now in Corona del Mar. Andy, ready for a little bike ride? Yep. All right, ready to go. Good. This is still the pre-warm-up. Yeah, to the mountains. Keep having to remind myself to drink. Because I'm not really thirsty, but I do need to keep hydrating and taking in electrolytes and calories. Oh, no more traffic lights, Andy. Yeah, it's lovely. All right, thanks for pulling over there, dude. Yeah, no problem. That was nice. We are 27 miles in, and Duke has a good pace going here. 22 miles, nice and flat. But yeah, so far good. What a difference when you ride behind someone. And Duke is a trooper. So is Andy. We are 47 miles in. A little water stop, filled up, got directions. Start climbing, get some climbing in. We have 1,000 foot done, we got 12,000 foot to go. We just asked for directions to a guy, and when we told him we were going to Glendora and then Mount Baldy, he said, God bless you. I was laughing. Now the easy part. Now the legs are warmed up. Yeah, legs are warmed up. First up, Floris, German. Are we there yet? Perfect. Duke, Trent, and Andy. You guys doing well? So where are we? This is Glendora High School. Glendora High School, 60 miles from the ocean. 60 miles, and you need 22 more miles to get on before you start running the transition. How we doing? Luke putting his beauty, uh, beauty cream on. Asian skin. Gotta stay young, you know what I mean? Forza, the first one, you guys. Good luck, okay? Thank you for the support. No problem. Oh, you guys, see you around. See you around. Okay, bye. And now the climbs begin. About 5,000 foot of climbing in the next 22 miles. I really got to keep an eye on my heart rate over here because I know if I try to go too fast, it just shoots up so quickly, especially since we have been going at it for about 5.5 hours since we started the swim. So more climbing. Yeah, baby! How are you feeling? Like a million bucks. Million bucks? Yeah, that's what I want to hear. A million bucks. Maybe like $4. $4.50. I feel like $3. I'm officially on the struggle bus. I can literally run faster than bike up this hill. Even power hiking would go faster than me riding up this hill. I'm in the lowest gear. Duke and Andy make it look like it's nothing. Getting up that hill. My legs just don't freaking— are not used to it. We're less than 3,000-foot climb in. We've got 13,000 foot of climbing to do today, and I'm already like, I've just got to focus on the mile. I mean, focus on the next 10 seconds, focus on what I can control. Just keep the intensity under control. Such a new experience over here. I knew it was going to be a humbling experience. Oh my God, this is so much harder than I expected this bike ride to be. It's been a long day. Yeah, it's getting steeper, so it's got to keep plugging away. Heart rate's getting into the 150s now even though I'm going slower, so Use your butties! Holy shit, dude! Ah, this is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's not done, it's still not done, man. All right, you're doing great, you're doing great, man. Trust me. 4,500 ft climbed. This is so hard. I just had to do a little talk to myself here. Where is the mountain right in front of us. I just have to tell myself we signed up for this. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, and at this point it's all about executing, going in there. I feel raw. I feel a whole roller coaster of emotions. I literally, I literally just have to tell myself, I'm proud of you. I'm not a cyclist. I've done maybe 10 rides in the last year, none of them with as much climbing as this. I just want to share how I'm dealing with tough spots because it is so easy to get into like a negative mindset at some point. And I just had to break it down instead of beating myself up how tough it is or how not strong I am on the uphill. I changed it into positive. Just telling yourself you're proud of yourself for trying, it's funny how that actually helps. All right, enough whining, let's go. So nice to get some downhill in after all that climbing. Look at these views. Look, Dick making it look easy, flying up and down the hills. I see you naked. I think your balls are hanging out. Oh yeah, there they are. There they are. Here, let me tuck it back in. I'm, uh, not even the dollar store anymore at this point. Discount. Discount. Inflation. We just took the fork to Glendora. We're about, I would say, 11 miles away from our destination. Truth be told, it was not an easy bike ride, you know, after the swim, and it was actually a fairly hot day. This is it, we've made it to Mount Baldy Lodge. We made it to the official end of the cycle section, 85 miles worth of pure Pure joy. Pure joy. I am bollocked, is the phrase. Totally bollocked. Holy smackers, dude, that was no joke. Good one, man. I hit the wall so hard on that one. At one point I just walked a little. It was faster than like actually going on the bike. Whose idea was this? I did not know that Biking uphill is that hard? See my ready kit? Yeah, it's getting more candy for the ride. Yeah, Precision Audition is right here, but look at that, fully loaded, fully loaded. How high are we going up to? 10,500? 10,500? We're at 6,500 now. Right now at 4,000. Oh, 4,000, so we've got 6,500 to go. And we are ready to head up Bear Canyon. Yeah, Duke, Yeah, Andy, how we doing? You're crushing, huh? Moving up those mountains. Those views, man. He needs a— yeah, it's a Nice. Yes, 8,400 foot. We only got about 2,000 foot climbing to go. And how far did you ride? Just a little bit. Little warm-up for Baldy. I blew up my legs so hard on the bike that just going up for a hike over here from 4,000 to 6,000 on this. Mission impossible, man. It's so hard. This is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. 11 hours and 20 minutes in. Funny how you can underestimate so many things. I'm like, oh yeah, I've gone up Bear Canyon a million times. This should be a breeze. Should be able to run up that. Hanging on for dear life here. Progress. Snow on the top. Extra obstacle course. Might as well. Well, that will do. My butt is cold. It feels so good. Ah, who would have thought, starting with a swim in the ocean, to be plowing through the snow? Never thought this moment would come, but we made it to the summit of Mount Baldy. Holy snackers! Let's do it, boys! Yeah! Take a look! Ah, good job! Thank you, guys. What do you think, Andy? Is it easier or harder than you expected? If it's harder than I expected, I should have expected it to be harder. The challenge is doable if it's made easy. I'm not going to try to beat Gonzo tomorrow, too. Taking a ski hut trail down. Downhill surely is a bit easier than uphill. So glad to be getting off this mountain. I just thought like you would destroy me on the swim and on the bike and I would destroy you on this one, but it was the other way around. You just destroyed me in all three. This is where it became interesting because I started getting a bit nervous and I was so glad that we had our friend Paul Sinclair because they were clear-minded, they're experienced on that mountain, and they were able to safely bring us up and down. I was looking back at the footage and we're literally talking about seeing things that are not there. How's the nature? Like, yeah, the like hallucinating. Yeah, I just had my second hallucination. I thought that a tree stump was a human, and it totally caught me off guard. This is the second time it happened now. Ouch! Uh-oh. You okay? What happened? Got a rock in the toe? Yeah. Oh shit, I got dreads. Not broken? Oh, that's painful. Oh no, you okay? You all right, Forrest? Is that a joke or not? No, I sprained my ankle. Oh no, but I'm good. Would you mind giving me my camera? Yeah, do you want to like, uh, we document this? Hey, let's take it. Just 9 miles to go, they said. Yeah, just a little nap, just a little nap and a refresh. No, I literally just Oh no. All right, just take your time, no rush. Yeah, I'm gonna send you an invoice for some new shoes, all right? You didn't say you're gonna ruin one of my best pairs of shoes. They're worn out now. I'm like, well, what am I gonna do with these now? Trail shoes? Yeah, trail shoes. They're all bad. Great deal. Yeah, Andy, last 0.1 mile. Oh yeah, happy about that. Same here. All right, Duke's going for it. Duke's going for the gate. Ocean to Long Island! Yay! Yeah, survival! Wow, what a success! How was it, guys? Awesome! Oh man, are you alive? You, you were born to Man, congratulations, man. How was it? Good, guys. Lovely. Oh man, congrats, dude. I'm good. Tired? Yeah, right? Yeah, a little worse for wear. This is a challenging one. What was the hardest part for you today? Uh, this. What? The climbing. I mean, just coming down the technical— climbing up Bear Canyon or down? Uh, climbing is okay, but it was just the technicality. What happened with your toe? A rock hit here. Oh yeah, you kicked the rock, she went down. I went down a few times. Andy, what was your hardest part? Uh, restraining myself from telling you what I thought of you. It took a lot of willpower. I was thinking some bad, bad thoughts. Oh, you're another line on that one. On the bike? Yeah, the bike. I had that on the bike. I think it was the— I think it was like the end of the— the end of the bike was pretty intense. Those last 20 miles were intense. And then the run coming down, I was golden. I really enjoyed it mostly. It was the— it was the last bit. It was actually the last bit of going up on the run. I just kind of run. Had a bit of a— Bear Canyon is brutal. Yeah, because it just doesn't stop, it just keeps going. Pay attention to what you love. Gotta be excited about what you're doing, you know. It's like, ooh, let me— I'm really excited about this like Spartan race or something a little bit different, you know, that not a lot of people are doing, and just start going that way. Start feeding that passion, see where it goes. Passion is so important. What excites you and scares you at the same time? I encourage you to do something beyond what you have ever done before.