10 Deadly Sins Of An Ironman

This episode of the Get Fast podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. You are joined by your host, former Australian Ironman champion Jared Donnelly. And I, as always, am Jordan Donnelly. The Ironman. Truly one of the toughest challenges you will ever undertake should you choose to take that leap and fill out that dreaded entry form. And despite the insane difficulty in swimming 3.9 kilometers, then riding the toughest 180 kilometers you may ever undergo, and then getting off that bike leg after five to seven hours, completely exhausted and only then beginning your marathon, I don't understand why thousands of people continue to sign up year after year. Because you cannot overestimate how difficult the Ironman event is. You know, the toll a 10 to 13 hour event puts on your body is extreme. And it's an event that despite its insane difficulty, has become somewhat of a commonplace challenge normality among punters to give the Ironman a crack. And it's important to remember that this event is far from normal. And we just had the first Ironman back in Australia for a while in Ironman Cairns. And today we are Talking about the 10 deadly sins of an Ironman. Because, dad, firstly, welcome to the episode. And secondly, lots of people watched the Return of an Ironman race and were truly inspired by the day. And personally I watched it and it was a stark reminder to me that this adren. This event is, to say it bluntly, truly.

Well, that's a good introduction, Jordan. You know the easiest part about the Iron man, and there's only one easy part.

Yeah.

Signing up.

Yeah.

The rest of it's hard.

Yeah.

And, and that's the problem. The easy part is signing up. And it's been interesting, the people who've contacted me, inspired by watching Cairns and signing up for the next available Ironman, which is fantastic. And for some people it's something that they just aspire to and love and embrace and even though they may not get the result each time, they just keep signing up for it. And that's kind of what we want to talk about, about today is, you know, how can you change the outcome from what you've been doing continuously? And I kind of get a bit frustrated I suppose from a coaching performance point of view where I'm not sure why people keep doing the same things wrong. So that's why we're doing this topic today.

Yeah. So today we are Talking about the 10 deadly sins of an Ironman and I've done a Very rough intro into the Ironman event this morning because for me it just can't be understated how hard it is. But it is also a absolutely wonderful event. You know, when you go to an Ironman event, the atmosphere is electric. The whole day is incredible. There are people who have just spent months and months training into such a tough challenge to get to such a tough event. And I think that is truly inspiring. So there are positives of it, but I think the context of how hard the event is needs to be said and reminded to people. So we'll get into that soon. But getting into our usual first segment of the day. Dad, what are you grateful for?

That's pretty easy. Amazingly, watching the Ironman from my computer for 15 hours on Sunday, it just reminded me of what an incredible opportunity we have to be able to witness sport, whether it's live or whether it's via a computer. But I could track every athlete that we coach from start to finish. I can just flick on GCN and watch any stage of the Dauphine or the Tour of Italy. The available it, technological advances we've had in being able to watch whatever we want and really get an armchair ride. And I sent you a video this morning of compilation of riders in the bunch during the recent. I think it was the Tour de Suisse and they just picked about two or three minutes of highlights. And what an incredible journey that that YouTube video was.

It was a footage of front camera and back camera camera on a bunch of different riders throughout the whole race.

Yeah. And that just made me think, I'm really grateful to have the ability to watch anything, anywhere, anytime.

Yeah, it was really cool. That's a good one. My gratitude this week is around music. I'm really grateful for music. I think music is just such a wonderful tool to help change your mood. Or the fact that we can listen to any music at any time on Spotify, for example. I'm really grate for that. If you're getting through a workday or if you're just going for a walk or something. Or for me, sometimes it helps get in the mood for a training session, gets you amped up. I'm really grateful for music. And so that's my gratitude for the day. And as always, we encourage you to ask yourself, what's your gratitude for this week? What are you grateful for? Just to direct your energy and attention that way. Moving on to our next segment, what has caught your attention this week? Dad?

I suppose on the theme of what we're talking about in today's podcast and it's really Based around the 10 deadly sins of Ironman. You can use this in any other sport as well. And what caught my attention was the recent Dauphine time trial, which I just love watching time trials. Whether it's an Ironman time trial or a cycling race time trial or a rowing time trial, I just love people pitting themselves against the clock. It's, it's individual, you're not relied on a team. So watching Geraint Thomas, who is in great form heading to the Tour de France in three weeks time and they use the Dauphine as their lead up race and lots of other teams use the Tour de Suisse. But anyway they've all got time trials and generally they'll have the time trial similar to what's going to happen in the Tour. And Geraint Thomas was riding reasonably back in the field in the time trial. As most people know, wherever you are on GC determines where you start in the time trial. If you're leading the gc, you start last. If you're coming last in the race, you start the time trial first. So you're, you know, you're in that position from that first place to last place, which depending on where you are in the race at the moment, at the particular time of, of the event of the days. So he had the advantage of all ineos guys doing the Tour, the time trial previous to his time trial race. So he had information that was gold. You know where the hard parts were, where the fast parts were, you know when to put the gas down, when to, when to really ease up, you know when to go hard, the times that he should be doing, when he gets to each checkpoint, etc. Etc. And he's come out and blasted the first half and he was 10 seconds ahead of the field and in those first 10 places they were all within one second of each other. One second, two seconds, three seconds, and he was 10 seconds ahead. And that's incredible amount to be in a pro race ahead after 7K, I think. Um, and as the race progressed, he progressively fell apart and ended up 27 seconds behind and came 15th or 20th after leading after the first time. Information, what's the word? The. When you. The timing, the timing mat. You know what I mean? Anyway, I just wanted to point out that doesn't matter how fit you are, if you execute poorly, you will still get a shit result. So in summary, you don't have to be a pro to do that. We do that every day as amateurs, as everyday cyclists and everyday Triathletes and swimmers, we need to execute better than a pro because we'll struggle more. Because they've got such great fitness, they can get away with it most of the time. But Geraint Thomas, he's at the top of the tree and coincidentally, the next day he won the stage, so he won the road race stage the next day. So that shows you how good a form he's in, and it shows you how execution is key. And if. If you're in the greatest form of your life and you still bugger up the execution, you're. You're going to have a crap result. Which he did. And. And it was great to hear him interviewed saying, oh, I can't believe how badly I mucked up that time trial. And, you know, even as a pro level, they're still making this mistake. So. So don't feel like you're the only person in the world doing it. If you keep doing it every time, then that is idiotic. But, um, and you haven't learned, um, so I don't imagine Garant's going to do that in the time trial at the Tour when it comes up, he will have learned his lesson.

Yeah, we'll find out when we.

Yeah, we will. So it's going to be interesting watching that. But the point I wanted to make, and that's the observation is you don't have to be, you know, a pro to still, you know, bugger it up.

So even the pros. Even the pros make mistakes.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. And I think he might have won the next stage because he had a little bit of extra motivation after mucking it up so bad he just did a 1k time trial to the finish.

And he did, didn't he?

Yeah.

Yep.

What's caught my attention is actually a question from one of our listeners who sent us a question on Instagram. If you've got any questions or any topics you ever want us to touch on, please make sure you can you send them through. Uh, but hit. The question is from Jack, and he asked about warmup drills for running. We'd mentioned on a previous podcast that we often do dynamic warmup drills before our running sessions to reduce the risk of injury and to make sure we are totally warmed up for the session. Um, and it's hard to go through specific drills on an. On a podcast. Uh, we may release some footage in the future of some drills that we do. But I guess the basic premise of any warmup drill, once you've done a warmup job before a running session is to take five or 10 minutes to basically increase the range of motion through your muscles so that they can get used to an increased range of motion, which they may have to do in the actual high intensity session. Uh, and to again just reduce the risk of injury when you start running faster. The beauty of this is that this is more relevant for the more higher intense athlete. We spoke on the podcast last week about how 100 meter sprinter has to do a really adequate warmup to prepare their body to sprint at maximal level for 10 seconds. You know, and for the triathlete, hopefully they're not doing such intense running sessions that require the most extreme warmup to get their body ready for that max effort. You know, your session shouldn't be that intense because the nature of the event isn't that intense. But regardless, you still want to do some on warm drills, which can involve anything from high knee lifts, butt kicks, you can call them, where you're flicking your heel into your butt, standard kick skips, where sometimes they're called Russian kicks, where you are raising your knee forward and then kicking your leg out. And again it's just increasing the range of motion through the hamstrings. There are a range of dynamic movements you can do and it's also a personal preference. So I, I like to watch a lot of the runners at the Diamond League Athletics, the Pro Athletic League, and see what they're doing in their warm up. And a lot of people have different warm up styles and they find what actually suits them. So I see some athletes warming up for a 5K and they do about 15 strides and the first ones that, you know, they do their jog and the first one's at 50% and the next one's at 55%. And there's, there's not long in between, there's 20 or 30 seconds in between. The next one's at 60%. Each one is just slowly, slowly faster and they build it up that way. We personally at Tribalo tend to do our warmup drills and then pick four strikethroughs and it might be at 60, then 70, then 80, then 90. There's no reason to sprint at 100% in a stride through. In fact, the 90% might be just getting to that 90% of the pace or just over that you're going to run in the actual session. But the point I'm making here is everyone's got their own little routine. You just need to come up with a routine that is going to make sure you are preventing the risk or any Increased risk of injury for the session. What would you add there, dad?

Yeah, they're great examples, Jordan. I think the rule of thumb for me is the longer the event, the less relevant the warmup is and why the longer the event is, you're going to be riding or running or swimming at a similar intensity from start to finish. There's not going to be. The exception is, you know, a Paris Roubaix or a Flanders race where you've got maximum efforts throughout the race. But we're talking maybe Triathlon, Ironman or 70.3. You still need to do some sort of warmup before the swim, but it shouldn't have maximal efforts in it. Whereas if you're doing a 20, 20 minute time trial, you need to actually get the muscles ready to fire right from the start of the race. So every, every event has a different warm up requirement. And so to answer the question, what warm up should I do? You know, it varies on length of the event is and what the actual event is.

Yeah, absolutely. And I guess, yeah, making sure you bring it back to getting the body used to or getting it ready for an increased range of motion. Cause the question was about warmup tools for running and just getting it used to that increased range of motion and ready for the intensity of the run is the main point you are aiming for. But getting into today's topic, 10 Deadly Sins of an Ironman. And there's a lot of sins that we could list. In fact, every, you know, normal lesson that we've talked about over many podcasts still applies. But in this episode we're really honing in on what you touched on the start, dad, which is what we think is one of the biggest problems in Ironman, and that's execution. And this is really important because the longer the event, the longer any event you do is the larger the consequence of poor execution. So the time of suffering is completely exaggerated the longer an event goes. So if you stuff up the execution in an 800 meter track event, you might run 4 seconds slower and so it's 4 more seconds of pain. And if you run stuff up the execution in 10k, you might be slower by a minute, which is not a good result, but it's only a minute's extra worth of suffering. If you stuff up into 70.3, it starts to become a lot more exaggerated and you might blow yourself up by 20 minutes or 30 minutes, which is not fun to go through. And then if you blow it up in an Ironman, you're potentially suffering for an extra hour, an hour and a half because you've completely muffed your execution. So that is why today is so important, isn't it?

Absolutely. And they're really good examples. And it's all in perspective, isn't it? I mean, it's still bad enough running the last 50 meters of an 800 where you tied up so badly that feel like there's a piano on your back. And it's only for four extra seconds, but it feels like an eternity. But, but you know, going through the Ironman and being an hour behind where you want to be, that's a long time to have think time. And that's the time where you should be saying, what have I actually done wrong here? Why am I in this position? Have I not trained well? Have I not executed well? Or is it a combination of a hundred things? But yeah, the time period is the thing that the longer the event, the more the mistake becomes exaggerated.

Absolutely. So let's get into the 10 deadly sins and the first sin is focusing on trying to achieve an overall goal, time instead of focusing on the process.

Yeah, Example today I just happened to be talking to one of one of the athletes who, who did a 90k time trial on the velodrome and people might go, that is insane. How could you possibly have the mental strength to do that? And I take my hat off to this athlete because I asked him about that. How did you go with coping with riding 90Ks on a velodrome? And you know, to be fair, the reasons why is because Melbourne's in lockdown, so he's only got, you know, an area to ride of 5 or 10 kilometers and you know, most of it's got traffic lights on it, so you can't find a venue that's going to be enabling him to do, you know, what he wants to do for his training program. So he's picked the velodrome. And you know, we all could say, far out, that is impossible to do. But the reason I'm using this example is because I asked him, you know, what were you focusing on? You know, now I'm at 88k, now I'm at 86k, now I'm at 70k. And his answer was fantastic. And it's, it's really drilled into him. Focus on what is my power right now? What is my 3 second power right now? What is my average power right now? What is my cadence? How am I pedaling? And he continued to do that for the next 2 hours 30. And, and he said to me, you know what, the time just went really Quick, because I was focusing on the right things. I wasn't focusing that was 90k to go, 80k to go, you know, what time was I riding? You know, he was focusing on all the key things we've talked about in the podcasts, all the key coaching tips that we've given. And he wrote a really steady patient. You know, his peak power was 2:18 for two minutes and his lowest power was 180 and he sat at 200 pretty much for the whole ride. And, and that's an example of someone who's really learning to not make the mistake of focusing on the overall time. You know, the time will take care of itself. At the end of the day, this is point number one, don't focus on your time, focus on how you're going to get that time. And at the end of the day, that is what you should be thinking about the whole event.

The other point on this deadly scene is that when you've just focused on the time, you are not taking into account the conditions of the day, which caught a lot of people out at Ironman Cairns, for example. Whereas if you are aiming to write six hours, the conditions were horrible on Sunday, it was really tough for bike riding and so most likely you're going to ride slower. And so if you're aiming for time, it's a really poor thing to measure yourself on. Whereas you just stick to your power and your power ranges and the numbers for your plan. Again, the time will take care of itself. It might be slower, but you will have executed properly.

Yeah, and, and the conditions are key because if you just. Exactly what you said, focus on the result of the time I want to do six hours and end up with 6:15, you will start the run disappointed. And if you haven't thought about, oh, 6:15 in these conditions, I'm pretty happy with that, even though my goal was 6. But you know, we had 40 kilometer headwinds for 110k and we only had tailwind for 70k. So you know, the times are going to be slower at Cairns because of the nature of the course. It's not an equal out and back course, it has an extra 30k of headwind. So having an expectation that you've done this at Basso or you've done this at, at west, you know, at Port Mac or wherever, it's not, it's not a comparison that you should be doing. You should be comparing your time on the day for what the conditions were on the day and comparing between other, other athletes on the day is Probably a more accurate thing for you to see where the perspective is. And I always look at the pros and see, you know, where they were their bike times slower than normal, were their running times slower than normal. And for Cairns bar, the first two or three professionals, everybody was slower than normal.

Yeah, it's also a hard one because the professionals are experts at riding into head and tailwinds, so they will be able to manage that, those conditions a lot better than the age grouper.

Yes, we presume that, Jordan.

All right, Deadly sin number two. And I call this the ruler of Truth. And if you look at, if you are able to look at your own data and analyze your power numbers, if you can look at your power graph for the day, basically it's this crazy squiggly line that's constantly up or down, whether at the time you're doing 300 watts or 200 watts. And we've spoken a lot on the podcast about the better rider you are, the less exaggerated that line is in terms of extreme ups and downs. A really good rider. The range of up and down is really small on the graph, so the graph looks a lot more even and the more erratic you are, the more erratic your graph looks. But I call this scene the Ruler of Truth. Because if you take a ruler and put it to the top range on your graph, so on the, on the vertical axis, there will be your power wattage and it might be, let's say your, the top of Your range was 250 watts. So that was the max wattage that you were supposed to push for the day. If you put a ruler at 250 watts and covered the graph and looked at how much of your power was above that ruler, that shows how often you were going above your range and, and actually doing one of these deadly sins and going above the rule of truth. Now, dad, you have this incredible ability that whenever we look at your graphs and look at your data, if we go to the top of your range, there is barely any of the power showing above that ruler of Truth. And especially in an ironman, we talk about results being consequences being exaggerated. The more time you're spending above that ruler of truth, the worse it's going to be for your performance over the course of the day and especially your run when you get off the bike.

Yeah, there's a few things in that summary you just gave. You're only basing that on what you've trained at and what your past experience is in races or in the most recent training. So the minute you spend 10% or 15% above the threshold number that you've selected. Whether you know, you selected 250 there as an example, if you've got 10% of your time or 15% of your time over 250, why, why would you think that that's not going to have a poor outcome? Have you trained at that number before? And if not, why are you now doing it in this race? So spending time outside or above that zone is only going to have one outcome, that you're going to progressively get tired quicker. And whether you get tired before the bike's finished or whether you get tired after the bike's finished will obviously be, be found out the minute you, you continue your event. So we always talk about the race being a three event race, swim, bike and run. And people for some reason continue to make the mistake that it's okay to push it on the bike. And above what I've trained at, above what I've previously raced at, because I want to improve, I want to get a better time, I want to get a bit faster, you know, result on the day, but in actual fact that normally ends up being worse result by going above what you're capable of doing based on your data, when you come to run, you will run so much worse. And Cairns has proved that. And I'd love to hear from listeners who have did the event and rode above what they thought they were capable of accidentally or on purpose and what the outcome of their run was, were they happy with their run. And there wouldn't be a lot of people who would be because the result would be because it was such a hard day if you, if you disregarded your numbers and raced the bike, you would suffer on that run.

The thing about this is it's often, it's like a hidden mistake, it's a hidden sin because you're not even aware of it. Because if you look at this rule of truth, these little spikes might be literally 10 seconds here or there, 30 seconds, sometimes maybe a two minute hill where you just, you push 300 watts instead of 250, um, and you don't think it's, it's actually that much of an effort. But over the course of 180 kilometers and a six hour race, suddenly you've spent 30 minutes at 300 watts over the course of the day. That's 30 minutes at, you know, potentially above a hundred percent of your FTP in a VO2 max zone. You know, that is going to have such an impact on how you're feeling for the day. It's, you know, imagine someone saying, go to 180 kilometer ride and make sure you're doing 30 times 1 minute VO2 max reps in there. You'd be like, no, you're kidding yourself, I'm not going to do that.

Yeah, it's such a good example and we really have to focus on that. And if you don't actually know what to look for in your review, then you're actually not going to. I think that's the reason why people keep making the same mistake, because they don't actually realize they're doing it. So getting your ruler out or even just picking that line, looking at your data and finding out how much time you spent at it will then be in your face. You know, you can't hide from that. But actually, you should know that before the event, before the ride. I can't go above 250 and, you know, my range is, you know, we talk about the range, it's never going to be one number. The range from the bottom to the top, the average might be 250 and your top range for five minutes might be 255, and your bottom range for five minutes might be 235. But so therefore we've already got something in between 235 and 255 and for one minute it could be 260, you know, so instantly we've got another range. So we want our average to be 250 across the whole 180k. But there will be periods where it's hilly, headwind, downhill, tailwind, where the power number will be lower than the average for your whole 180k or higher. But we've got to limit that range so that the ruler, it doesn't have 30 minutes at 100% and it doesn't have 25 minutes at 20% where you're actually not progressing properly. So there's so much to this because.

Yeah, I've said this to you before. I said, oh, you're going up a pretty steep hill. Let's say it's a 10% hill. It's fair enough that you're pushing a bit higher power there, you know, you might, you might have to drift over five minutes. And you just said, no, it's not acceptable. You know, go slower on the hill.

Get the gearing on your bike that enables you to pedal with less power. And if you've got a rear cassette that's 23 instead of a 30, then you can't do anything but ride at 100% because you don't have the gearing to allow you to pedal properly. You'll be at 60 revolutions per minute and in a, in a gearing of 23 at the back and you can't do anything but ride over the power that you, you know. And so that's another thing that comes into it, making sure that you know the course and, and you've got selected the correct rear cassette and front front chain, two chain tooth ring for the front. So you know that can cause you to have no option but to ride way above for another two minutes and another minute and another. Every time you've done that, you've got the, you know, you're peaking your power outside the range, which is at the end of the day is going to cause you to fatigue so much you would have expected to in the training sessions you've done leading into it. And I talk about it being gassed, you know, every time you do a peak power that's outside the range, you're guessing yourself one more time and there's only, you know, a certain amount of time before you are out of gas. And if you keep using the gas up too frequently, you get to the end of the bike ride totally out of gas and you can't run at all. No matter how good a runner you are, you just can't run because you have spent too much energy and burnt too much fuel, for example, out of gas. And it's ruined your day without you even actually knowing it. Jordan, that's the thing that I think the message I'm trying to get across here is you wonder what happened to yourself if you don't go back and look at what I just did in the ride. Did I guess myself in the ride? Well, go find out.

Yep, that is a deadly sin. We'll touch on in more detail a little bit later. But I think this what we just what we spoke about here with, you know, these peak numbers and the ruler of truth, this is for me one of the most valuable points I think I've ever heard from you and I think is one of the most important things that triathletes who want to complete a 70.3 or an Ironman, it's very important in both events, to be honest, any endurance event, but more important in these events because the consequences are so big. This has to be understood. And it's most important because it has the biggest consequence and because I think it is a little bit difficult to grasp this concept. The concept of power is tough. Regardless, it takes a while to understand how The Power Rangers work, what we're talking about with these power ranges set. And then this is kind of another level deeper in looking at these numbers. So it can be a little bit confusing for people, but it is worth understanding this point and going and doing this review process to look at your own performance and execution. And for that reason, this is why I think it is one of the most important points we can make on Ironman execution.

Yep. And I am so harsh on myself and you know, having this season done to half Ironman bike rides and, you know, I take great pride in pretty much there's less than 1% or 2% over the ruler in 90Ks. And that should be the goal. The variability index should be, you know, around 1.0, 1.01, 1.02. And to look at some of the variability index data from The Ironman at 1.12, that shows your normalized power and your average power were incredibly apart. And what does that tell me? It tells me that was a really big variation in power. That's what variability index is. It's showing me what the variation in power is from your highest to what your average is. And the closer it is to one. That means if you're picking 250, you're spending a lot of time at 251 or 249 as your average. And that sounds ridiculous, but that's what you should be aiming for. And when you get 1.12, you might have a normalized power of 280 and an average of 250. So you've got 30 watts difference, which shows it's 1.2 or 1.12 different. And that also sounds complicated, I know, but. But the point is you've got to stay within your limits. And the more times you go above that ruler, the less value you're going to get out of that ride for the run.

Yeah, yeah. The variability index is probably a rabbit hole for a whole nother podcast. You can go deep down into that. But yeah, the premise of this is there is a rule of truth in execution and you have to understand whether you've done well in it or not. Deadly sin number three. And this is again on execution of the power numbers, and that is having higher power in a tailwind instead of a headwind.

Well, Cairns was fantastic example and the start of the bike leg was predominantly a tailwind. Um, for me, I'm really pleased to see that in a race rather than a headwind to start with. I'm happy to start with the tailwind. It Lets me settle in and not have to focus on being at the top of my range. Because, you know, some of the secrets we, we give away for free here is, you know, when the bike is going slowest, which is a headwind or an uphill, that's the time to be at the top of the range that you've selected for the day. In a tailwind, when the bike is going fastest, or downhill, when the bike is going fastest, that's the time to be at the bottom of your range. And at cairns, we started with the tailwind and almost every body, bar none, had their highest power with the tailwind at the start of the event, which is the incredibly as big as deadly sin. And again, I asked the question, knowing that that information is given to you, why did you go out and do the opposite? And I suppose there's a whole lot of answers to that and I'm still searching for them. And you know, if I hadn't been able to do it myself over the years, then I would say, oh, okay, it's not possible to do that. You just can't because it's the start of the race and you're fresh. But it is possible when I have done it. So. And there are athletes that I have coached who actually have nailed it and got such incredible outcomes from doing this method of respecting where the headwind, the hill and the tailwind and the downhill is and underestimate this at your peril.

I laugh because again, you said that. Yeah, this is one of the most important deadly sins. And we just say that for every point, because every point here is just so necessary for execute your execution. And unfortunately, you know, because a lot of this information is important. That's why it takes practice, that's why it takes training, because you're not going to be able to remember all this stuff if you're trying it for the first time on race day, you know, so you actually have to practice it so that all these points are ingrained into you. And it leads us to deadly sin number four, which you've kind of made that point in there is having your first hour faster than your last hour. And this is the same that's on the bike, but the same for the run. Having your first 5 kilometers faster than your last 5 kilometers.

Yep. And the swim, having your first 1k faster than your last 3k, you know, you're just putting yourself into debt by, you know, fuel debt, nutrition and oxygen debt, heart rate. The harder you go earlier, the quicker you get to your lactate level. And we Want to stay away from that. We want to be under it the whole day so that we don't feel like we're swimming with a piano on our back or riding the same with, you know, riding through quicksand and running, you know, running on sand. It's got to be feeling comfortable the whole day if you can do that in a nine man. But, but, you know, at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we don't blow the race by making it the fastest part at the start of each of those legs. And of course you can get sucked in with everybody on. Let's take the bike. At Cairns, that's the tailwind. Everybody's flying, absolutely flying along and it's fantastic fun because you got a tailwind and you're fresh and glad to get out of the swim and everybody else is doing it. So this must be the right pace. And if I'm not, if I'm not keeping up with everybody around me, I must be doing something wrong. But guess What? Even if 99 out of 100 people are doing that, does that make them right? It doesn't. And that's the point I'm trying to make. You need to be, be so strict on yourself that when you're in the tailwind, that's the time to ride at this particular range. And you will lose very little time against someone who's riding flat out during this period. Because when you go to the headwind for the last 30k, you could possibly get three or four minutes back on them and lose 30 seconds in the tailwind. And which would you prefer? You know, and proves that you're not fading at the end and the other people are fighting. So you're clearly going to get off the bike in a better state to run as compared to someone who's absolutely fading. And we saw example after example when we go through and analyze our data from the athletes that we coached at Perth at, at Cairns, that, that, you know, the ones who faded throughout the ride, rode too hard early and faded and then ran average. The ones who paced it well, the finished strong on the bike and ran strong. That's as simple as it is. And if you keep doing that mistake, and whether it's a headwind or a tailwind, you need to ride to those conditions and you've got the numbers to do that. So there's no excuse unless you don't actually know your numbers. If you're looking down and you see that 250 is my number and I'm in a tailwind But I'm doing 262. But that's okay. It's not okay. You should be doing 242, you know, and then you turn around at the headwind. Okay, now it's time to ride 255 or 256. You know, at the top of our range, it's not the time to be riding 240, which is what happened. People are doing the opposite to what, what is required because of the, the, it's the beginning of the event and they're fresh and feeling good. We had an example of someone who didn't have a power meter and you know that it was so obvious that their average Speed for the first section was 34. And then when they did that section again for the second time with the tailwind, they did 30 k's an hour. And that proved that they were flying in the first section of the tailwind and come second section, that didn't happen. And these are examples of, of how riding too hard early can affect the rest of the day.

Yeah, and if I was a betting man, dad, I would strongly bet that not many more than one in a hundred athletes that raced Ironman Cairns would have a faster last half an hour than their first half an hour.

Yeah, you're 100% correct. Um, and, and you know, so on a day like Cairns or a day like Kona where it's horrendous conditions, and I've said this many times, when you go to Kona to do the Ironman, it's the world title. It's the hardest race in the world. The hardest conditions, the harshest conditions, wind and lava. And if you've done a 11 in 17 other events around the world and you go to Kona, don't expect to do 11 hours. You could possibly do 12 or 11:30. That's the difference between that event and other events. So you've got to understand, comparing events to events, and this is exactly what we're talking about your first half hour, or if you do that at Kona, it's going to be worse for you.

Yeah, and faster was the wrong word there because of course when you're finishing with a 30 kilometer headwind at the end of the bike legging cairns, you're going to be slower. I did mean, you know, better execution. I could guarantee that not many people had better execution in their last, you know, 30 kilometers or their last hour than in the first hour. And that is point number five, not being patient enough because you might ride really well and you Might ride really well in your range for the first 120km. But then you lapse in concentration or you lose a bit of patience and you ride too hard hard because you've got another tailwind section from 120 to 150k and then you've ruined your 150 to 180k. And that's not being patient enough, is it?

Yeah. And look, going back to the other point about patients from the previous point, it's if you don't show patience at that first tailwind, you know, when everybody else is, you know, flying past you, that is such a hard time to show patience. It's almost impossible. And that's why 99 out of 100 can't do it. You've just got to be in the zone and go, I'm not doing that. And you will reap the reward for that decision. And I say Ironman is all about patience. That is my biggest message every time I give someone a pre Ironman conversation talk. It's you have to be patient today. And if you lose patience and disband and or disregard your numbers, that shows impatience which will cause you to have a shocker.

Yep. Yeah, it's these execution points just keep on coming out. And we've touched on this already. But point six is on this theme of execution, disregarding the conditions is a deadly sin. And yeah, these power numbers and examples we're using right now is an exact example of understanding the conditions that you're racing in.

Yeah, and that's a bit of preparation too. And you know, it was pretty obvious from the weather report that where the winds were, where the tailwinds and where the headwinds are and how strong they were. And so we're not talking about just the wind in conditions, we're talking about the terrain. Where are the hills? Are the hills in the tailwind or are they both in the tailwind and the headwinds? Um, and therefore, you know, as you reach these different periods of the race, you need to adapt or adjust your, your effort. And it's regardless of power or heart rate or speed, you have to personally adjust your effort. Okay, I'm now in a headwind. Should I be riding a little bit harder here? Okay, now I'm in a tailwind. Is it okay to ease off the pressure a bit because the bike's going fast? Okay, now I'm going uphill. You know, how long is this hill knowing the conditions? Is it a 8 minute hill, is it a 25 minute hill or Kona it's an hour climb up to Harvey. Now what, what effort should I be putting in for an hour climb compared to a five minute climb? Well, obviously you have to be more conservative over an hour than you are in five minutes, so. So that determines the effort you put in. So you don't know the conditions, which means you don't know the course and you haven't taken any notice of the wind. Well, you only got yourself to blame. You must understand the conditions to give the appropriate response in effort, regardless of the technology you have.

Yeah, and you might. The conditions might be a shock on the day, you know, the wind might have been predicted to be a lot lower. And then on the day it's absolutely massive and you have to adjust your expectations and adjust your effort according to that and not expect to ride just as fast of time, or not expect to feel as good on the bike, or not expect to go as fast for the same power when the conditions have taken you a little bit by surprise.

And we're just talking primarily as examples of the bike, but imagine, you know, the water at Cairns was not smooth, so it was very choppy. So the conditions there, you know, were a lot more difficult. Was it hotter on the run than normal? Was the sun out for longer? You know, was it behind the clouds? Was the humidity higher? These conditions affect your body's response. And the hotter, humid conditions spike your heart rate, which, you know, the only thing the body can do is once your heart rate's above that threshold line, is to slow down. And even though you feel good, you know, the minute the conditions cause a response, you have to adjust to it. And that's the point of this number point.

Yeah, Deadly sin number seven, formulating your race plan on inaccurate test results or not. Recent test results.

Yeah, we definitely, you know, we've seen examples of this. People testing and thinking their number was X and putting that into their race plan and then X actually was inaccurate by 20 or 30 watts and you've got your race plan and then you go to do execution of that race plan and of course you're going to fail because the power number that you selected was inaccurate to begin with. So, you know, it's hard to take 75% of an inaccurate FTP test. If your FTP is 250 and you tested at 290, you know, straight away is confusion. What is it, 250 or 290, what do I take? 75% off and that'll have a huge outcome on race day. So knowing that your FTP test is accurate and updated to within two weeks. That's, that's so important. And going in with the wrong data will stuff your race plan, which will cause you to have the worst possible outcome because you're riding either too low or too high.

Yep.

And can you fix that during the ride? And we're talking about the bike. Can you fix that on the run? Yes. You can adjust as you go. If you feel like this doesn't feel right, this seems excruciatingly slow, or this feels so damn hard, I'm never going to be able to keep up with it. So you can make decisions you know that will stop you from blindly following the number. And you might not know that your FTP number was incorrect. Your power meter could have on testing day been not being calibrated properly, reading 5 or 10% higher or lower and giving you a poor outcome. And therefore, you know, if you find that you're 20 or 30 watts higher than your previous best, that's probably a red flag in your test. So be flexible. And you know, we're giving you all this information about data, but we're not saying blindly follow it, be a slave to the data. Yes. We're saying use it as reference. And if you find that, you know that after a course that's actually got an out and back, you know, 20k, 20k back after 40k, you can see what your average speed is. And you know that you're a rider who rides 250 watts and that averages out at 35ks an hour. If you ride 250 watts and you get back to the out and back section, which is even headwind, even tailwind, and you're riding at 31Ks an hour, straight away I'd go, oh, my power meter's not reading correctly. I've got to lift my game here and start writing harder. Or if you get to the end of the 40 minutes and you're riding at 38Ks an hour for 250 watts, this is, this is reading way too low and therefore I need to now adapt to the low number and slow down. They're examples of adapting and understanding that you know, you can change your mind according to how you're performing and how you feel.

Yeah. Seven Deadly Seven. The seventh deadly sin is getting your nutrition wrong. I'm sorry, just did number seven. So number eight is getting your nutrition wrong. This is a basic one, bit of a boring one because we talk about it a lot. But I guess you just have to remember that over a 12 hour potential 12 hour event you need to have practiced every facet of your nutrition and not let that be a factor in poor performance or poor execution.

Yeah, there's so much involved with the nutrition. It's, as we say, it's, it's its own topic. And, and your preparation of what you're doing on your endurance rides and runs, in training and trying to replicate that on race day. And of course, you know, race day has a little bit more intensity because there's no gaps in between. A lot of the, like on a, on a weekend endurance ride and run, you would have a day between, you know, the big ride and the big run generally. But on race day they're following each other. So you know, we do do, obviously sessions where they do follow each other and that's the day to really hone in on your nutrition, what worked and what didn't work. But, but those who don't do that come race day have no idea how much they should be consuming based on their training plan, their training practices. So I can't emphasize how important it is to practice your nutrition. So to come race day you should be across it, but the conditions may change from what you've been used to. So if you're training in Tasmania and you go to Cairns, you know, what you've consumed in a training day in, in June in Tasmania compared to, you know, it could be a 12 degree day in Tasmania and a 28 degree day in Cairns, you're going to use a different level of fuel. So not accounting for that is going to be detrimental to, you know, running out of fuel come race day. So, and if you actually do execute poorly, you're going to use more fuel. Um, so if you execute above the level that you should be and you're wondering why you're running out of fuel, it's a, because you've, you know, you've actually written or swam too hard or run too hard and your fueling hasn't been practiced at that rate that you're, that you're actually executing the race at. So, so they're important things to consider and you need to be flexible with your nutrition as well. If things aren't working on the day, don't keep ramming stuff down your, your throat. If for some reason it's, it's not agreeing with you, you can't keep continuing on that journey. You need to try different things. And that's why experimenting in training is so key. Can I have Coke in training on race day or have I had it in training? Well, you should have had a tryout of having coke in training so that when you get to race day, you know with the effect it's going to have on you.

Because it's contradictory advice because we, on one hand we say don't try anything new, but if, if you're in such strife that you're desperately seeking a solution and your nutrition is going so poorly that you actually can't consume any more of what you've got and you have to change it, then it's probably the worst to be in nutrition wise.

And that is why I would recommend, if you've never tried in training, you've never tried Coke, try it in training so that come race day you can know comfortably that you've had it before and didn't affect you adversely. Yeah, but the nutrition thing, it seems obvious, but it is. If you don't get it right, this is the bottom line. If you don't get your nutrition right on the day, it doesn't matter how fit you are, you're going to have a shocking day. Absolutely. You can be as fit as you've ever been in your whole life. The two things, if you don't execute the day properly and you don't have the nutrition down pat, then you will falter.

Deadly sin number nine. This is one you really like to stress to people before the race and even during the. And to think about this during the race and it's not being prepared for the worst parts of the race.

Yeah. And to think that you're going to cruise through an ironman like we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, that that is underestimating, you know, and respecting the event. They're going to be horrible periods that at 28k of the run or 36k of the run, where you're going to be tested beyond where you've ever been tested before. And being ready for those moments is what we're saying. Not being ready and thinking, I never thought I'd feel like that. Well, that's not respecting the event. Because they're going to be periods whether you're the pro winning the race or whether you're a mid packer or whether you're way down the back, you're going to be tested throughout the day on periods on the bike, periods in the swim and periods in the run. In any sport, whether you're a cyclist or an individual marathon runner, there's going to be periods where you're going to be tested. And if you're not prepared for those periods and have a plan in your mind to Deal with it then. That's a mistake. And what are the things we should be thinking about? Well, okay, I'm not feeling so good here. Should I just slow down a little bit? Regroup, regather myself? Do I need some more nutrition right now? Do I need to get some cooling at the aid station? Should I walk and recool myself down and get some sponges and some cold ice on me? You know, try to think of ways that you can get through these periods and think back about the training you've done. You know, the hard slog days of a six hour Saturday and a two and a two and a half hour run, Sunday with an hour and a half in the afternoon split run. I've done all this work, you know, sure that doesn't, that was hard but I've done the preparation. I can get through this. They're the things you should be thinking about. But to think that that's not going to happen on race day, then you'll be sadly mistaken.

Yeah, expectations can be the biggest killer in anything. Not just in Ironman event, but anything in life. And for me, I would laugh at myself to think if I was going to get eight or nine hours into an Ironman and then be shocked that I'm not feeling good, you know, and be in possibly the most pain or discomfort I've ever been in because it will have to be one of the most challenging, if not the most challenging thing you ever do. And to think that you're going to get to the 10 hour mark and, and not feel that level of pain or discomfort is. I'm shocked if you think that would be a shock, you know, and it just comes down to a little bit of expectation. And I talk about this even with small events like a, if you do a 5k run and you say I'm going to go out in at four minute pace, um, cause that's my aim for the, for the race. But you go out and you're actually not feeling good and you're running at 4 or 5 or 410 pace and you're feeling shocking. You know, the effect that that has on someone mentally when they're not expecting it is actually quite drastic. And they start over exaggerating how bad they're going and being a little bit too dramatic on their performance when it's only, it might only be five seconds but because you're mentally in your head so much that five seconds just feels like it's way too big because you're expecting to run a four minute pace. And again this is exaggerated in an Ironman. So if you've just got expectations that the day is going to go smoothly and you're going to do everything according to plan, then you're just setting yourself up for failure because things are going to go wrong. Whereas if you know that, as you always talk about dad, option one is the best case outcome. Option two is things aren't going as well. How do I, how do I limit my losses when I'm really struggling? Option three is just, I'm really, really struggling. How do I just get through this and finish? If you know where you're sitting somewhere along those three options throughout the race, then you can adjust your expectations accordingly and not let your mindset also contribute to the problem.

I couldn't have said it any better. You are going to sit somewhere in those three options and you need to have the expectation of that. The example you gave a 5k runner is perfect. So what if you're now 5 seconds behind or 10 seconds behind? You got two choices. You can drop your bundle and end up 40 seconds behind your PB or you can just. I'm actually coping with this. Just keep doing this and things may improve, they may not, but at least I've limited my losses and I won't get a blowout result. And that's what we're talking about here. And that's what you should have as an expectation that possibly 1% of the people are going to have option one, which is a PB. And again, we talk about PBS at Cairns on that day, you know, compared to Busso or Port Mac, you can't compare them, you know, so, so there's an expectation that's already false. You have to only compare with, with what's happening on the day there. And so I just really think that, you know, the three points we always say, which is trying to strive for a pb, looking to limit your losses and then just completing the thing, you have to remember that those three things are going to happen throughout the day and, and, and be prepared to hang in there. And that's the beautiful thing about the finish of the event is you will be most proudest of yourself when you cross that finish line. No matter how poorly or how well you actually performed, you, you will be proud that you didn't throw the towel in. And we've got examples of 1, 2 and 3 to the extreme from the weekend. And, you know, one of our particular athletes just fought his way to the finish, vomiting, incredible. You know, I'm almost most proud of his effort compared to Everybody else for fighting through and never giving up. And it would have been soul destroying to go through that, that such a debilitating experience. And yet, you know, he will look back and go, I bloody finished that. I'm so proud of that effort.

This is, this is one of my personal favorite points as well because it's a mistake that I often make just in training sessions. For example, and yesterday I had a situation where I was doing two kilometer threshold efforts and in my third rep I was really starting to struggle. My breathing rate was going right way through the roof. I trained at quite a hot part of the day and so I feel like I was overheating a little bit and I looked at my watch and I was about 10 seconds off the pace I'd run the other two reps in that I was aiming for. And I went into a little bit of panic for I reckon about five seconds before I reminded myself of this mistake and just remind myself to relax, breathe through it. If you run a little bit slower this rep, that's fine, just get to the end. And just by doing that 30 seconds later, I'd calmed down, my respiratory rate went back down, I'd lowered my heart rate slightly and then I was able to increase the pace again 30 seconds later. And that's a minute example. But for me, I really love this point because it happens often and I do have to remind myself often just to relax through those periods. And again, those periods are going to be much more exaggerated in an event like a 70.3 or Ironman.

Yep. It is a topic we can talk a lot about.

Yeah, deadly sin number 10, the last one. And you touched on this at the start, but it's not even knowing if or how you've even made mistakes and not reviewing your performance in detail.

Yep, this is gold to finish on because we bang on and our motto is plan, prepare, perform and that's what we've, we've instilled that into our athletes. You've got to, you've got to plan what you're going to do. You've got to go out and do it in your preparation and then you've got to do execution on race day. But there's one extra point that we never talk about that much. It's the review. And the review will stop you from doing what we've talked about in these 10 deadly sins next time. So if you don't review, you will make the same mistake repeatedly. And I think that's the difference between athletes who learn from event to event and those who continue to repeat the same result over and over again. They may have trained harder next time, they may have planned better, they may have executed better, but they actually didn't review what they the mistakes they made last time. So they can execute so much better. And it often be they do one of the three wrong. They got the planning wrong, they got the preparation wrong, or they got the execution wrong. The performance and it's generally the execution. You know, they might fix their planning and preparation up to so much better than they did before, but they still execute poorly. And that's probably what the 10 deadly sins are really about, is that. But the final chapter before you close that race book for that event is to actually go and find out what you did well and what you did poorly. And reviewing is the key. So what did I do in the headwind? What did I do in the tailwind? You know, did I evenly ride? Because, you know, most courses have got out and back twice. Did I ride the first half the same as the second half? Did I ride the first headwind the same as the second headwind? You know, is my tailwind slower than my headwind? All these things you need to go and review. Did I start the run, you know, at 5:30 pace, when my pace was 6 minute K pace, and then ran 5:56 minutes 6:26:30, is that what I saw again? And if you don't look at the review, you don't know the answer to any of those questions. And that is a mistake for the next event. And I can't highlight this enough. It is so easy to go back and review. It's easy if you've done well, to bask in the glory of, look how well I did. Look at these numbers. They're fantastic. I'm so proud of myself. But if you're in category two where you've limited your losses, well, why was I having to limit my losses? What did I do wrong in the race day, in the execution and identify them and delve deep into it. And we've got examples of guys aiming for a 540, getting 542 and then. And that looks like you've done it. You've done exactly what we asked. But you go into the session and you find that their first section in the tailwind was 50 watts higher than it should have been and the last section was 30 watts lower. Well, they got that. They got the right time outcome, but they didn't get the execution right, which meant they ran horribly. So on the surface of it, it looks like you've achieved the goal. But that's what we're talking about, detailed review, not just skimming the surface. Oh yeah, I achieved the time I wanted on the swim, bike and run. So that's my review done. Well, you know, as we've said, it's not about the time, it's about the execution. And the execution determines the time. So this review process is something that people shy away from because they really don't want to know. Especially if you're in category three where you're just trying to finish and that is more reason to be self critical and you're only doing it to yourself. You know, you're trying to look for areas that you perform poorly so that you don't make that mistake again. That's what the review is about.

Yeah. And you made the point at the start is it's not just what you did poorly, it's what you did well. And make sure you're acknowledging the things you did well and what you really executed well in the race as well as the mistakes you made. That's a great way to finish our last point. Bonus. Deadly sin that we wanted to touch on is not enjoying or soaking in the day and not having perspective on your result and achievement. And that's how we started the podcast with how crazy an Ironman challenge is and the fact that you've done it, making sure that you're not going about the day miserable and not enjoying or soaking up any part of it.

Yeah, especially during this period of the world where, you know, the races aren't on, they're on, they're off, you know, people planning and training and then all of a sudden one week out, that one state's in lockdown. So, you know, getting to the start line is hard enough. Enjoy, enjoy the whole process. It is a, it is a great. That's why you're doing it, because you love, you love being at the Ironman because it's such a carnival, it's a festival. There's people suffering immeasurably throughout the day. But the achievement of finishing an Ironman is pretty fantastic. And I know it's achieved a lot by people nowadays compared to early days in the 80s where it was seen as a freak show. And now it's pretty commonplace, but it's only commonplace for a really small percentage of the population who can actually achieve a 15 hour Ironman or a 12 or a 10 or if you're a pro and 8, it is an incredibly satisfying event to finish and complete, no matter whether you're in category one, pb. Category two, limit your losses. Category three, just getting to the finish. It doesn't matter. You have achieved the goal you set out to do and you need to enjoy the moment and really reflect on how hard it is. But you overcame. And I think the emotion you should feel coming down that red carpet should reflect the previous 10 hours or 12 hours. And you see people bursting into tears. It's so emotional because they just realize at that moment when they're finishing what they've just put themselves through. And I think that is something you need to really savor.

Yeah. And look, unfortunately, there was someone that actually died in the event in the 70.3 on Sunday, which is just horrible to to hear. And sadly, it was actually a friend of someone in the Tribala community as well, which is really sad. And I guess that just helps put in perspective what we talk about at the start of our podcast. And gratitude. Gratitude to be able to be there, especially with the conditions of the world at the moment. Gratitude for your health and to be able to complete, complete the race and to be part of all those festivities. And it kind of grinds my gears a little bit when I talk to someone not in the triathlon scene about an Ironman, because like you said, it's become more commonplace. Every event has 1,000 or 2,000 competitors. And so you hear stories of a lot of people completing an Ironman, but that doesn't take away how hard the event is just because lots of people have done it. And a lot of people not in the scene would say, oh, yeah, I've heard an Ironman. That sounds cool. It sounds pretty tough. Or they say, I'd like to try that one day, just flippantly kind of saying it. And I say, no, you don't understand. Most people can't run a marathon, let alone running a marathon after, like you always say, the hardest potential bike effort of your life. And I talk, I look at people who might complete around the bay in a day or something as a charity event, who aren't cyclists. And so they, they complete that day and it might be 120km around the bay, and it's one of the hardest exercise activities they've ever done. And they get off the bike and they can't walk after this 100 kilometer, 120 kilometer effort. And I say, well, imagine now doing 180 kilometers. And then you get to the end of the day where you can't even walk and try and run a marathon. And that's not even including the swim. So you cannot underestimate how tough the Ironman is. And if you've done it, then big hats off to you.

Yep. The only other thing I can say is, look, lots of people have climbed Everest. Does that make it easier? No, there's people dying all the time at Everest, but sure, there's lots of people achieving it, but it doesn't diminish the fact that it is one of the toughest things you'll ever do. And I suppose that's, you know, we talk about the deadly sins and we're trying to get across that don't do these things so that the next experience you have at this event is going to have none of these 10 deadly sins in your performance. And that's what we're trying to get across to the listeners, is that you can get a better outcome if you take note of these points that we're, we're getting across. And, and I don't expect people to get it right the first time, you know, but I don't expect them to repeat the same mistake the second time. You know, things can still go wrong and it's done. I've made mistakes in the 10th time at an Ironman for whatever reason. But you know, you've got to learn every time from the experience. And to be a better, to have a better outcome is what our goal is. We, we never want to just go and complete the thing just for the fact of complet it. We've got to have a purpose as to why we're doing it.

I guess the point we want to finish off with dad is you want to embrace the day for what it is. You know, the day is going to have all of it. It's going to have the good, the bad, the ugly. And you want to embrace all of it. And I want to finish with a quick story that highlights an experience that one of my most, one of my proudest achievements, which encapsulates kind of this principle. And it's the second time that we did the Tour of Flanders in Belgium. The second time I'd done it. And after doing it the first year, I was really excited for the second year to challenge myself on the day. And it's a Gran fondo, but really attack the heels and ride as well as I could. I was really looking forward to the first, the first year I did it, I was trying to just get through the day and trying to manage my effort. And this year I really wanted to see what kind of efforts I could do and see how strongly I could get through the five or five and a half hours. But on the day, I completely stuffed up my nutrition. I forgot to eat in the first enough or drink enough in the first hour and a half or two hours. And then I panicked a little bit. And at the next few food stations, I tried to over consume and catch up my food, and I consumed way too much, too quickly, and I completely, pretty much burst my stomach. My stomach was like this huge balloon. My, my whole midsection was like a cylinder. It had just blown up so much. And it was the most uncomfortable I've ever been on a bike. You know, you were kind of looking at me going, is everything all right? And I just was in this position, almost like a fetal position on the bike, trying to control that discomfort. And so the day turned into a completely different day to what I expected. I really wanted to be able to push myself and do better efforts than the year before, but instead I had to manage the rest of the day and push through that pain and discomfort and get to the end a different way. And for me, embracing that, and I look back at it and I really did embrace that discomfort. And I said, right, this is really hurting. This is really uncomfortable. But I'm kind of enjoying the fact that this is a different challenge to what I'm expecting. And getting to the finish line of that day, I was more proud than I've been in a lot of other events by how I handled it mindset wise. You know, I wasn't happy with the fact that it happened, but I really enjoyed the fact that I took it on as a different challenge and still enjoyed the day. You know, I didn't, I didn't not enjoy the day because of it. I didn't let it ruin my enjoyment of the race. And I think that's a really important point.

Yeah, you couldn't have given a better example. I do remember that day vividly. And when we crossed the line, the emotion you had was so much more emotional than the previous year. The first year was like, oh, far out. That was fantastic. I got through it. But, you know, this time it was like, wow, that was hard. I made that. I made that effort and I got through and I stayed with the bunch and I didn't drop off. And it would have been easy for me just to, you know, you guys just go, leave me alone. I'll get there in seven hours. But you didn't, you didn't drop your bundle. You limited your losses. You sat in, you did all the things that you'd learned and you know, that was so I could see it on your face. To get to the finish line was like, you know, it was almost tearing. It was, it was so emotional that, you know, the journey you put yourself through and this is what an Ironman's about.

It's.

It's just not the day. It's everything that led you to that day to that red carpet, you know, the day you signed up, the easy bit when you signed up for the Ironman. And from that moment on the journey you took yourself to that red carpet finish line. That's what's special about Ironman. And only those who've ever done one really understand what I'm talking about there. And you can still get that feeling from an Olympic event because you pushed yourself hard and get to the finish. For those of you who never even thought they could do a sprint event, it's the same feeling. It's all relative and perspective. But the Ironman is kind of one of those days where the journey to get there is so incredible and on the day there's so many highs and lows and that red carpet can't come quick enough. And you know, it's doesn't matter whether you're finishing in 16 hours in the dark and the guy says, Jordan Donnelly, you are an Ironman and you know that over the PA is just joy to your ears. It's fantastic.

Yeah. So on that note, we'll finish there. Congratulations to everyone that completed Iron Man Cairns again. Hats off to you. What an incredible achievement. And for those who have signed up for an Ironman later in the year, whether that's Port Mac, the Redata, Port Mac in September or Busselton, hopefully you can heed these words and have a amazing day and an amazing experience. When that race comes, that's it for us. Thank you very much for listening as always. We'll see you next episode.