Pro Footballer Turns Triathlete? Our Chat with Nathan Jones - Part 1

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. In today's podcast episode, we have former AFL footballer Nathan Jones. Now, for those who are international listeners, AFL is Australian Rules Football. It's the biggest sport here in Australia and Nathan played at the highest level for 16 years. He played for the Melbourne Football club. He played 302 professional games and was the captain of the club from 2014 to 2019, which is a really prestigious honor. He was three times best and fairest or most valuable player for the club three years in a row. And he will go down as one of the all time legends of the Melbourne Football Club. He was a leader through one of their toughest decades in the club's history. And that's a really important part of this story, is that Melbourne, the club he played for, really had a tumultuous 10, 12, 14 years where they were at the bottom of the ladder. And for a club that's so got such rich history behind it, it was one of the darkest periods in their lengthy history as a club. And he was right in the center of it through that whole period. And anyone that talks about Nathan Jones as a footballer knows that he was kind of the center rock that was. He was their best player for a long time. He was their captain. And each week he had to front up when they were losing most games of the year for a long time. And it was hard for the fans, hard for the club. They churned three coaches and got to the end of his career and suffered a little bit more heartbreak when they won the Premiership last year after so much, so many years of hardship. And he missed out on the actual Grand Final. And that's not the story we want to paint of Nathan today because that's not the focus. And anyone that looks at his AFL career doesn't think of him that way. They think of him as an absolute legend of the game, a legend of the club, and very much a rock for that actual Premiership winning team. And you hear that part of him in today's episode, which is just so inspiring. And he really opens up about his story and his transition from his professional career to, to triathlon. And that's where we come in. He finished his footy career and needed something to do and he contacted Trivelo and contacted you dad to start helping him and said I'm doing a 70.3 in just over 12 weeks time. Can you help me? And what unraveled was a pretty fun story. And he just debuted in his 70.3 yesterday. And so in today's episode we asked him all about it and yeah, he dives into his whole triathlon career, how it compares to his footy career and everything in between. And it was a really fun, enjoyable episode.

I won't spoil the story, but the one thing I take away from it is the mental strength that Nathan Jones has. His ability to understand his strengths and weaknesses and his capacity to go through hardship but still have a smile on his face and be an unbelievably good human being around when people are probably losing their mind. And that showed in his race there were ups and downs. Just like in his career as a footballer. He had to battle through some demons during the race yesterday. And it's a great lesson that I want everybody to hear that even the very, very best people at the top of their sport have periods that are uncomfortable and you have to work your way through it. And the one thing he does get across to us is you are more capable in your mind than you think you are. Physically, you can be ruined, but you've still got a little bit more to give if you just train your mind to allow you to reach that next capacity. And I think that is the story of Nathan Jones. And I was proud to be his coach for this period, even though it was the shortest preparation on record. But I just, I just think his ability to understand what his journey was about and where he was going.

We can't wait for you to hear this one. So without further ado, here is Nathan Jones. Nathan Jones, welcome to the Trivelo coaching podcast. First question, Normally we have a certain question. I'm going to ask that second. But first, we just asked you off air. How are you feeling after your big debut 70.3 yesterday?

I don't reckon I've had like soreness like it ever. Like I've been beaten up playing footy and like, you know, just a general when with footy, I normally got like a bit of hammy doms and maybe some calf stuff, but I can't even feel my legs right now. Like I was saying before off air I was like, I got home in the afternoon yesterday and all of our living is upstairs. I literally like on all fours, crawled to the top and got to the couch and just like laid down. I was completely spent. But. And I'm paying for it today because obviously with footy, normally it was two days later. So today at work, getting in and out of the chair, I was like, oh man, I'm sore and I feel like it's getting worse by like it's what now? Five o' clock? And I'm like, I think I'm in for another 24 hours of pain before I see the other side of this. So anyway, good times.

So you've had a ridiculously established career in footy and you've transitioned straight into triathlon. We would normally ask a guest what does their chosen sport mean to, to them, but I want to ask you, what does sport overall mean to you?

Oh, for me it's like a way of life. Like it's all I've ever really known, to be honest. Like I've competed at a relatively high level since maybe like if I go all the way back to when I was 11, 12, as far as like state and national school titles in like swimming, cross country, athletics and then football, I pretty much did that every year almost until I got drafted. So I always had this like. And obviously in those younger years was, you know, summer sport for me was always like running, swimming and at one point I combined that with triathlons probably for two, three years. And then I didn't really commit properly to footy. So I've always been in this like cycle of routine, like with a challenge or a goal in mind and like the consistency of training and just like that's what I've lived and breathed my whole life and, and then obviously playing in the AFL for 16 years, that was my professional career, like my day to day life was that like live and breathe, preparing, trying to be the best, looking into like every little minute detail, nutrition, you know, preparation, recovery, strength, everything, like it was just all dialed down. That's. I lived and breathed that, that was, that's pretty much what it was. And then you just played on the weekends, That's. And I was real conscious.

Sorry, you go sorry, sorry.

Yeah, I was just real conscious as I came towards the end of my career. Like I was worried about what would happen when that is done. And I knew in my own mind I had to find something else. And that's. It was always, I think it was inevitable that I would come back to trials because I felt like it was something I never really got to sort of experience every last bit of it before I committed to playing footy back when I was sort of 16.

That's a really good summary of your career because just to give the listeners a little Bit of a guide. One of our very, very best, closest friends that I went through uni with happened to live next door to you and, and I would take Jordan and Liam and Matt and Georgia down to visit the friends and invariably the Joneses next door would have a match of, you know, a footy match on the local oval. And so we got a first glimpse of your, I don't know, your competitiveness, almost your brutality as an 11 year old.

I hated it because you guys, you're so rough. It was the roughest games I'd ever played.

That was good times though. That was. They're some of the best memories I had. Like just to paint the pictures like we lived in this court and obviously I'm one of three boys and then the neighbors you speak of had three boys and then the neighbors next to them had two boys and we backed on to a primary school and so it was like when you guys would come and visit or like other friends would come and visit, it was like we could almost have like five on five cricket games and five on five footy games. It was just like that's what we just lived and breathed day to day. If we weren't playing team sport, it was like every afternoon we'd just be out there playing some form of sport in some capacity. It was always, it always got pretty competitive. But yeah, they're some of the best memories I had of when I was.

A kid and you know, as you mentioned before, you know, you were always representing, you know, your school, then you, then your district and then you stayed at cross country at swimming and you know, competing at national level as 11, 12, 13, 14, all the way through school you were at the pinnacle end of. It's no wonder you could have, you know, probably chosen any sport to be reasonably good at because that's the competitive nature which, which is an intriguing question. The next one I want to ask you is why did you think. You have obviously thought your career is coming to an end as an AFL professional footballer. What was going through your mind? Were you ticking off sports going, what can I. Was it golf? What could I do? Bloody warm bowls or what? What did Half Iron Man. Well, how did that jump into your brain?

Yeah, there's a few things in my, like, I have like this bucket list of like and everyone does of things they want to do, like traveling and there's an element of extremism there. Like I would love to do skydiving, I've done bungee jumping, like, you know, heli snowboarding, all those kind of things. And the. The physical side of things is like, I'd love to tick a marathon off. I'd love to do a half ironman. I'd love to do an ironman. And obviously that connection with triathlon. And you add to the fact that my hobbies outside of footy are surfing and golf, which take up probably, what, five hours every time I want to do it. I just figured that, you know, in the interim, we just had twins. So I've got four kids now, and I was gonna. I was taking sort of. Well, I pretty much had six months off from the time that I finished footy. And I knew in that period, obviously, I was adjusting to one, life after foot footy and two, the additions, new additions to the family. I really needed to find some structure. Like, everyone sort of, if you follow the footy, would know that I missed out on us winning the premiership. So, you know, there was an emotional element to that. And, you know, obviously publicly, I was very positive, and I am very positive about how that ended up for Melbourne, obviously winning the flag and, you know, my involvement there and my role in that, and, you know, I'm proud of that. But still, there's the emotional side to the fact that I wasn't a part of it. And that's what I'd pretty much trained my whole career for. So I knew that I really quickly needed to move on. Like, I was proud of my footy career, but that was sort of just one chapter in my life, and I needed to start a new chapter, like, with my family. And an element of that for me was like setting a new goal. And like. And with the disappointment that came from an individual point of view at the end of my footy career, I was like, I want to set something where I sort of iterate that when you set your mind to it and you commit to something that you can achieve it kind of thing. And that would be like a sort of propel me into the next phase of life. And hence I got to the point where I was like, I'm gonna go for something that's half out there. I couldn't commit to a full ironman because I just didn't have the time. But, you know, I felt like a half was achievable. And as you know, Jerry, I did it in a small amount of time. I committed in December and we raced yesterday, so. And I was pretty happy with the result.

Well, what were your expectations? Because you're not new to the sport of triathlon, as you said, but you definitely hadn't experienced anything like a half ironman before. So what were your expectations right back 12, 13 weeks ago when you made that decision? How far did you think it was going to be?

I think I recorded that interview with Nathan and some of the answers I was getting back 12 weeks ago were going to be different to what he's going to say right now, I reckon.

Well, we had, yeah, we had a very interesting conversation. It was, it was pretty awesome really, because obviously there was that connection that we spoke of before and a few people and a crew at Giant that have helped me out for most of my career with bikes and stuff also recommended Jerry. And then there was the connection with my wife's family, knowing Gerry and you guys and your, the Donnelly family and then obviously the neighbors when I was kids. So there was like this three way connection. I was like, this is inevitable. I've got to go with Jerry. He's got to help me, you know, achieve this goal. And, and it was funnily enough, right. This is the reason why I seek out a coach was I started to prepare for the marathon. I was like, I'll do the Nova Marathon. And I trained for three or four weeks and I was flying, like running as quick as I ever have, stripped down a bit and then all of a sudden I just hit a wall. I was like running and I just couldn't run any faster. Like actually was going backwards. I felt worse. And then hence we had a conversation and I, I abandoned the plan to commit to that and I committed to the Ironman and I explained that story and, and hence I went on a journey with Jerry where he educated me on a very different mentality comparative to what I'd trained myself for, for, you know, 16 years in the AFL, which is, you know, it's a high intensity sport where you, you know, a lot of it is sort of anaerobic, burst, repeat effort, repeat speed kind of training. Whereas this is completely different with, you know, a lot of it, or most of it, if not all of it is endurance. And you know, there's a huge factor of letting your ego go and pacing and power management and all these kind of things which I have learned. It's been an amazing, it's like a, a university degree in triathlons in 12 weeks.

One of the text messages you sent me through about the 12 week program was, I just thought you had to ride your bike. It's like, I've never ridden a bike before. The shit you're telling me that I need to do.

Yeah, that's like so Funnily enough, I didn't have a time trial bike, so I raced, I had my road bike, which I've had for my footy career. I used to ride in off season stuff because I just loved it so much. And I raced the first two Xu, like warm up race on my road bike and I realized I was like, holy shit. These guys on time trial bikes, like, I can't ride any faster and they just fly past you like they're not trying. So that was my first intro to it. And then I only ended up being able to get onto my time trial bike six weeks before the race. So that was literally like the biggest learning curve of the entire thing was literally I was being honest. Like it actually felt like I had to learn to ride a bike again. Like you get on there and think, you just pedal and. But this whole understanding of like keeping your power in that sort of zone 3, 4 range, not 1, 2 or 5, 6 and, and like spiking power and you know, just controlling all that and using your gears and cadence and all this stuff, it's not stuff that I'd never even thought of like, but it all makes sense to me and the better I got it, I understood, you know, you controlling your heart rate and your energy exerted, which will help with the run and all these kind of things. So. But yeah, it was, it was tough because it's like I understood what Joey was saying but then it was a lot harder to put it into practice because it was like some days I'd do real good, but then I'd have huge amount in zone 1 2. And then I'd be like, oh, I'll fix that next time. But then I'd have a huge amount in zone five, six. And I was like, I can't bloody get this. This is like. But no, I'm glad we went through that process because it saved me on the weekend, that's for sure.

Look, and one of the things that, for those listening we bang on about, you know, practicing your event in the zones and on the, you know, using the equipment you're going to race on and, and you know, for you to have such a short 12 week period of training for a 70.3, when you, you've done, you've done basically no triathlon training since you were 16. So we're asking, we're asking a lot about, about you as a human to.

Be able to come from a great base.

But yeah, yeah, and look, you were pretty fit as a runner, as a football runner, but you also had Done a small amount of running, preparing for the marathon, even though it was not exactly what you should have been doing, but you actually got yourself to a good level.

Yeah, it was, it was detrimental.

But the funny thing is you took to the, to the TT bike like, you know, like you should have and, and your willingness, and this is what people need to understand you. You did, you know, as I say to people when they go to a race, leave your ego in the car and start riding like a mature or racing like a mature adult. And you did exactly that. You, you didn't express to me that you knew everything. You were doing the opposite. Just tell me, Jared, what I have to do and I'll do it. And that, that is why you got yourself to the start line in such great sh. You had the same attitude as you had as a professional footballer. You applied that to your career As a, your 12 week career as a triathlete. And it was a pleasure to actually have someone who is just going to listen and implement all the instructions, even if they sounded like, what the hell is he on about? But you understood eventually by trial and error. That does make sense. And do you think that was a big, do you think that was a turning point for you once you got on the TT bike and then realized, shit, I can actually, I can actually do these, these numbers and I can ride the speed that. And I remember when we did the first 2 xu race and you're on your road bike and ironically you would not have scripted this any better, but as I was coming past, you were coming out of transition and you just looked at me and went, how the you doing?

I still remember you look, you look back at me, I was like, what, what is going on here? And that was like that for the whole race, that whole 25k in the sprint race, I was just like, these guys are just flying past. And I was like, if I'm being serious about this, I need to learn like what's going on. So I think that ego out the door stuff, like I learned that pretty late in my career, like with footy, that didn't happen overnight, I think, but ultimately I started to get better results throughout my career when I took that, that path, you know, I adopted that mentality of like just seeking out whatever I could. And that's what helped me through my footy career was like just letting the ego go and just whoever was a professional or elite in their field, just listen to them and if they've got something that is worthwhile taking hold of, you know, take that little bit and add it to your sort of recipe and obviously coming to triathlon with no experience in a long time and only ever race when I was younger in sprint races, which essentially I could just have an all out crack and be done with it. Whereas I was attempting a half ironman, which as I learned. And I had some days where I thought, oh no, like I didn't say this to you, but I'd be like, oh no, I'll ride, I'll ride faster than that or I'll run quicker than that. And I, I cost myself. I still remember I called my wife a couple of times like, I'm stuck on beach road and I can't run anymore. Can you please come pick me up? And she found me like sitting on the edge of the road. I was absolutely spent. But then I was just like. And through those learning experiences, like, obviously it's where you're like, you know what? Like he's right. I need to just keep trying to do what you said. It was funny, like the more I followed the program, the better I got. And even though I didn't feel like I was seeing like amazing improvement, then I finally freshened up and I had a go. I remember when I told you with my road bike I was like, I want to ride at 40k an hour. And every single practice ride I did, I didn't get close to averaging 40k an hour. Like, I was like, I'm never going to get there, it's going to take me years. And then on the weekend, funnily enough, I think my average is like 39.8 or 39. Yeah. So I practically rode that quick off. Six weeks of practice on a TT bike, just following the program to like jet, particularly the riding stuff I followed to an absolute tea because I just was coming so far back from a skill set, like it really stripped me back to being like, like I said, I felt like I had to learn to ride a bike again.

And that trusting the process, that, that, that takes a lot of maturity. And that was the impressive thing. And for everybody out there, you just have to, if you believe in who's guiding you, it doesn't matter who your coach is. You've got to trust the process and give it a chance. And if it works out that that's, you know, you've experienced that with football coaches. You've had some shockers, you've had some brilliant ones and yeah, but no matter how good or bad they are, you still need to trust them, give them a chance.

Absolutely.

And then you can decide, well, this isn't working. And you know, you would have experiences that over the years, as your career unfold, that there was some, you know, disappointing periods that you trust the process, but all of a sudden people then stop trusting the process because it's not working.

Yeah, for sure.

But the question I'm going to ask is, so looking back now, is there anything that you think that you should have done better in that period or you think your preparation was as good? Even though we only had 12 weeks and I, when I first introduced you to the program and we had to fast track you and it was, we have to do a base training program in four weeks and you know, 12 weeks or eight weeks for someone and I'm saying and explaining to you, you have to get in those heels and you have to just do it and. Yeah, yeah, and by yourself. And you, you got out of bed at, you know, Sparrow's Fart and the Dandenongs in the rain and. And by yourself and four hours later you achieved a goal. And, you know, yeah. Anything that you think about looking back on that period that you're thinking, oh God, I don't know about this.

Oh, no. Like from a program point of view, I actually felt a real sense of relief. Like when we finally got going and I was getting like my update like that for me was like any sort of anxiousness about where, what direction my life was going in. I felt a sense of calm because I, like, at least I had that routine, which is exactly what I was looking for. Like, because I had a whole heap of change going on with kids and new career. Not sure what I'm going to do. Am I going to take a year off? I just didn't want to be floating around. And when I finally got that, I felt I've got my purpose, you know what I mean? I'm aiming towards something that's my challenge. I think the hard thing to adjust for me was like that I wasn't professional anymore. So if I had my time again, I don't know how it fitted in, but I'd love to spend more time recovering more time probably from a nutritional point of view, more time from a hydration point of view, but it was just like I would need to be more prepared with that. And I sort of ran out of time just on the day to day with family and that kind of thing. So I'm not saying that I didn't do that to. Do you do that? Well, because I'm just generally pretty good at that anyway. But If I was being really specific about it, like comparative to what I was like with my footy, I would just have put more time into that, which ultimately, you know, would help from a recovery point of view and output would be better and those kind of things. Sleep would be better. Obviously, I did it off the back of not having a lot of quality sleep and all those kind of things, like. But in saying that after I've been with my wife my whole footy career, and she was like, I thought you'd finished being a professional athlete. And then all of a sudden I'm up at 5 in morning going riding and I'm running and I'm like, I'm gonna race. And I mean, she's like, oh my God, I thought we were done with this life of like this. So I couldn't really convince her that I was gonna be like, not helping with the babies during the night because I'm getting up to ride in the morning. So I just have to commit to it and make it work in the best possible way. So I think that was probably the most difficult thing out of it was just realizing that, hey, I'm not like, this is not. I'm not making a living out of this. This is just a genuine interest and passion for me. So I'm just going to give it my best shot with whatever comes at me. And I just had to get used to, you know, if the babies woke up, they woke up, you know, if I didn't feel great or, you know, I wasn't feeling like today was the day, like, I just have to make some adjustments. Whereas, like, with footy, it was never like that. You know, my whole life would be put on hold because that was, that was my livelihood. You know what I mean? But yeah, that's what probably makes it even more. Makes me feel even more proud about the achievement, is the fact that you do it for that reason. That it is not to say that when I played footy, it wasn't for passion, but like, it was just there's much higher stakes and obviously getting paid for it and all these kind of things. It's like, that's like my day to day job 24 7. Whereas there's a whole heap of other things and this is just something I want to do for my own personal joy and, you know, challenge. And in the end, it was probably been more rewarding for the fact that I. I didn't let it take over my life, but I still found a way to fit it in because I wanted to. And it sort of proves to prove to me that I used to always shake my head at like guys that would do Ironman training and they'd have full time jobs and families. I'm like how the hell do you fit that in? But like if you're passionate enough about it, you just find a way. Like I remember those times when because I started a new job and I've done some stuff in the media recently which has chewed up even more of my free time. Like I was getting up at 4:30 in the morning to ride time trials like the 90k efforts and the 2:40k. It's stuff before work but that's just because I loved it and I actually grew to love the fact that I love getting up at that early in the morning. And then it's so many like minded people you see at that time in the morning I'm like what is this world? I've never even seen this before. But like there's so many crew out on beach road like running and on time trial bikes. I'm like this is awesome. Like I think that's one thing I've loved about the triathlon community is like and I said this in an interview after the race yesterday, like the morale and community sense as much as it's an individual sport like, like dealing with the Tribalo guys and all the crew you see on race day, like I don't know anyone very well but like you're all part of like that family and that team and, and, and as much as you're all racing in an individual sport, like you cross paths with everyone, there's high fives, encouragement, like I remember Tom Page riding past yesterday giving encouragement and then every time we passed each other on the run yesterday, like a high five. Keep going. And there's a few other Trivalo guys, I wouldn't even know their names I don't reckon but the same thing, like you see them and you just give them a tap on the back and I just loved that sort of vibe. It was such a cool vibe out there yesterday and it's been like that in the other local races with the 2 xu series. And yeah, it's just, it's been a really cool community to sort of invest my time into since finishing.

Tell us a bit about you've been in a team sport your whole life and had to rely on others around you and no matter how good a game you played, if the team lost, it still didn't feel satisfying, did it? What was it like when you're in charge of your own destiny. Tell us a little bit about the difference you felt.

Oh, I think that's the thing that motivated me the most, really. That's what I sort of alluded to before when I was mentioning, like, I wanted to find something that rebuilt my confidence in myself again. And that's not to say that I finished my career, like, all sad doom and gloom. Like, I was proud of everything that I achieved and I was wrapped for the footy club and stuff. But ultimately I didn't win the premiership, which I'd pretty much for my whole life as a kid and then 16 years of my career. That's all I wanted. And I missed out, pretty much missed out on the last game of my career. Like, I'd been an emergency in the four or five games leading up to it, so. And then I sort of had to make the decision to get home because my wife was going to give birth to the twins. So it sort of was just a wrong place, wrong time and the crossing of the paths. I had so much joy happen at home, but ultimately, from a professional sense, I missed out. And so for me, it was like I need a challenge to like, rebuild that sort of inner belief in myself. Like, I don't know where my life's going at the moment. I don't know what the next career choice is. I've got new kids, artists. I want to go and do something where I just have to rely on me. And I. If I really want to do it, I have to put the work in, I have to commit to it. You know, I have to train, I have to schedule, I have to get in a routine and. And I love that, like, that that kind of mentality is like. That's why I think I've been drawn so much back to triathlon. And I loved individual sports when I was a kid as well, with athletics and swimming and all these kind of things, because I just like the fact that you're responsible for your own destiny kind of thing. And I think the reward is. It's very gratifying when you put the work in and you follow the program and you get the support that you need and then all of a sudden you produce a result, which for me yesterday I had a goal of racing under 430. And I actually wasn't sure if that was possible because I was like, I've never done this before. 4:30 seems pretty quick. I hadn't even done like a 90k into a 21.1k run in training. I was like, I don't really know how I'm going to go. But like I said, I just committed once, once we agreed and signed up and I was keen to get on board with you coaching me, Jerry. I just followed it as well as I could from my day to day life. And then the sense of achievement when I crossed the line yesterday, it was just like overwhelming. And so many people said that with when you do the longer stuff like the 70.3 and the Ironman, it's like this, it's an overwhelming sense of personal achievement and I 100% got that. Like, I actually felt like quite emotional. I was just like, wow, I can't believe I actually did that. And I pretty much went 15 minutes quicker than I anticipated, really. And, and I still thought, well, maybe I could go a little bit quicker next time. And that's the funny thing because I started this whole thing out just as fun. I was like, I'm just going to race this for fun. I don't really care. I race that first 2 xu race. And I was like, I do actually, I do care.

I was going to say that was, that was a turning point for you, I reckon, when you, you were training hard and loving it, but you did that first race and you went, oh, I'm hooked now.

Yeah, that's the funny thing. So, and then, then pretty much leading up to the text you, this is how crazy I got. I started looking at like times from Geelong a few weeks ago and I'm like, well, I wonder if I could do that. And I was like trying to check out like what my age group, like the winner was and where my numbers sat. And then I obviously got the Excel spreadsheet where you can do the race plan. And I was just like, I got so hooked onto it. Like, yeah, I loved it. I loved the whole thing, really.

I want to go through the race, but I also want to take it back to that first conversation again. And dad, you can give your side of this. When Nathan said, what do you think I can do? And your personal goal was 4:30, but like you said, you don't even know if that was possible. Dad, how did you approach that part of the conversation?

Well, I, like Nathan would say, I kind of laughed and I just said, look, I have no idea anything about you, so you're asking me a question that's got no perspective. I just don't know what your running's like. I know you're good for 10 meters flat out and you can knock someone over and break away from the center bounce, but that's about all I know you can do. And, and really it was the unknown and that's how everybody comes to me with that question is, what do you think I can do the Ironman in? Do you reckon I can break nine hours? Reckon I can break 13 hours, you know, and that's, that's even a worse question for an Ironman because it's, it's the unknown. And, and it all depends on, you know, I kept saying to, to Nathan, it depends, mate, how much time can you put into it? Depends. The word is it depends on a whole lot of things. And you know, can you, can you get some training in that's going to be very specific, without interruptions, without inconsistency. You're not injured, you know, these are the things I'm saying. There is no ceiling. You have the opportunity to do whatever you like in this next 12 weeks and we'll know. And I said, you know, we've got a trivelo race calculator that you got to play around with and you'll know the week of the race exactly what you're pretty much going to do on race day. And guess what? You are pretty much within 30 seconds.

Pretty much of the original plan. Not the plan. I told you.

That's right.

I still didn't think that was possible. When I put the numbers in, it punched out 4, 16. And I was like, no way I can do that. I'm going to be a bit more lenient. And I think I told you in the end, 420. But I still, even leading up to it, I was, I was like. A few people were like, what do you reckon you'll do? And I didn't want to tell them. I'd be like, oh, I reckon like maybe 4:30 or just a bit under. Because I was like, if I fail at this, now look like the biggest dick. So I was preferred to just go a bit lower and then overshoot that and look way better.

Anyway, what do they say under, under. What is it?

Yeah, I know this thing. That's. I was going to say, but I wasn't quite sure either.

I don't know. But you know, you don't want to be, you know, have an egg on your face and, and look, that was, that's a bit of humility too. So, you know, you've got to really. But the conversation for me was, look, you can achieve whatever you want and we'll, we will know the results before the race and, and that's. That gave you confidence to go, okay, let's just see where the journey takes us. That's kind of how I remember the conversation. And, and I'm never going to commit to a time in week one of a 12 week program. And you know, that's just madness.

Let's take it to the race then. So take us through your experience. Uh, how are you feeling? You know, the night before and on race morning, you've been in this situation 302 times at the highest level possible in footy. Uh, how was it compared to preparing for game day?

Well, this sort of goes back to the question you asked me before, Jerry. I was like, and this is the difference. But it was like my week could not have been more busy leading into it. Like I mentioned, I started a full time job only a month ago. So I was working 9 to 5 and then I've been lucky enough to get a couple of media opportunities and funnily enough, I had Thursday night footy at the mcg, Friday night footy at Marvel Stadium, and on the Wednesday Melbourne played and I was involved in the unfilling of the flag. So for three nights in a row I'd work all day and then was at the footy all night until 10:30, 11:00'. Clock.

We were shouting at the telly, nathan, go home. This is the worst preparation. I'm saying to my wife, what's he doing? He needs to be home in bed on Friday night.

Here he is, 11 o', clock, he's.

Still in the studio.

Oh yeah. So Saturday came around and I was like, oh, I'm gonna try and get some sleep and then I'll prepare all of my stuff and lay it all out. And then obviously had to take my bike in and do check in. I booked that late in the afternoon to make sure because I knew I'd probably be busy. And it wasn't until I checked in and got home, packed all my bag for the next morning that I realized like this has actually happened. And I started to get a little bit nervous about it and I was like just cross checking everything in my mind, which like, with footy I would have already done this in the days before and I would have rolled up onto to the pre game training session the day before a game and just being super relaxed. But it's like I just didn't have the time to be that organized. So that Saturday was the day for me to get organized. But also was the first time I'd really spent any time with the kids and my wife for pretty much four days because I'd been real busy. So I juggled that for the day. And then that night, I was just real conscious. The one thing I concentrated on that day was even though my preparation wasn't perfect, was just food. So for the Friday and the Saturday, I was super conscious on the food that I ate. And just like, I followed a real similar loading program to what I would have done with footy.

Can you go into that specifically? Because that'd be really helpful.

Yeah, well, with footy, I used. Oh, I used to have. I used to use, like, a carbohydrate supplement called Vitago, but I don't think that's. I don't think you can buy that anymore. But it's. Anyway, it's like melodextrin or whatever it's called. I'd use that, like, as a additional carbohydrate replenishment thing because I hated the feeling of, like, eating carbs and feeling super bloated. And then just like, I used to eat all white carb stuff. So white rice, mainly. Just ate white rice because I knew it doesn't give me any sort of pain in the stomach. Very limited, very limited. Like a small amount of protein to sort of help with the. The balance of sort of the macronutrient stuff. And yeah, that's. I followed that program in the last couple of years of footy. I got a guy to sort of set me up on a very specific, like, diet, particularly leading into games. Basically, his theory was, like, only put in what you're gonna need kind of thing. So don't like. So like, basically, obviously was loading for the. For the race, like the base. Essentially, what I. What he would tell me to eat is like, anything like, white carbohydrate stuff because it sort of gets through the system really quickly. Fruit, high sugar, the same sort of carbohydrate content. Oats was another thing. So basically, for two days, pretty much, I just ate white rice and oats, bananas, berries. And then I use some of that malodextrin stuff with. With, like, electrolytes for hydration. And that was about it, really. I didn't eat anything other than that. And like, with the white rice, like a little bit of tamari sauce, like maybe 90 grams of chicken. That's pretty much it. But then I knew I'd get to race day and not have any pains in the stomach. That's the last thing I wanted was, like, I didn't want to have to, like, go to the toilet during the race. Cause I'm, like, pretty sensitive to that stuff. And that was the same with footy. Like I never wanted to get to the footy on game day and be like, just can't get off the toilet cause I've got such a pain in the stomach. So it was just consistency with that. And I knew what worked from footy days so I just followed that pretty much to a T. And I probably just tried to boost it up a little bit more obviously cause of the race being for four hours. Um, but yeah, that's all I really. That and hydration were the two things I worried about all the way up until once my bag was packed. Then I just tried to calm my nerves by chilling out for a bit and getting into bed early.

And that's interesting because the things that you could control your race plan, you, you would. Because we spoke on the Friday. Did we? Or the Thursday.

Yeah, well, so I did that, I did that on the Tuesday.

Yep.

Because I had some time and then I spoke to you. We just debriefed it on the Thursday at lunchtime.

Yep.

But the most important thing with that, and you mentioned it to me, was to prepare that early in the week. And I think a hundred percent that helped from a nurse point of view because I didn't really have to think about that once I had those numbers in my head. I knew them all week. So I didn't like even the night before the race, I knew what my bike power was, I knew roughly what my running pace was and I knew.

How come you didn't stick to it?

Well, I did every one of them other than my running, my running. I got too excited with the crowd as I actually transitioned and pretty much right at 10kpb. But yeah, I like essentially that took any stress away to do the race. And then other than the fact that like what I was saying before about just the nerves of wanting to achieve that, I really knew what, what it was going to take. It was just like could I, could I do it kind of thing. Like I'd done it in training but I knew I hadn't done it a whole lot. And plus I hadn't put it together. So I guess for me, because I crunched it out in a 12 week period, there was a few anomalies in that. Like actually could I put it all together and you know, I'd only done one 90k time trial and I hadn't done a 90k and a run off the bike like of anything near 21.

Which isn't normal for a travelo program. Just everyone knows we would normally do a lot more than that. But because of the short time, but.

I just had a short time frame, so there was that. I think those are the things that gave me a little bit of anxiousness. But ultimately I knew and Gerry told me this all the way along. Like I couldn't have ticked off from a training perspective like it any better. And I knew that in my mind, like I wouldn't. I was just going to give myself every chance by just following the following the program as close as I could. So ultimately, other than like the nerves of me just wanting to achieve that, I actually felt really prepared this is.

The end of Part one of our podcast episode with Nathan Jones. In Part two, he talks us through the entire Half Ironman debut experience, the highs and lows and the rollercoaster of emotions that come with it. The Part two gets really raw and quite emotional as Nathan breaks down the mindset he had to use to get through some really tough periods of his professional footy career, as well as using that same mindset to get through the pain and suffering that comes in the back end of the run Leg of a Half Ironman, Nathan really breaks down how the race unfolded and you'd be surprised to hear the absolute journey he went on to get to the end and how painful it was for him. And most importantly, did he achieve his goals? Did he hit the targets he set out to? He admits he'd made some mistakes in the race and did that cost him? You'll find out all that and more in his inspiring Part two of this story.

Sam.