Part 4 - My IronMan 70.3 journey

As you probably know, I usually don’t show my exact training statistics because too many people simply don’t understand that everybody is different. Everyone is on their own unique journey and obviously at a different stage on their journey. I don’t compare myself to anyone else. Believe me when I say: I couldn’t care less about rankings, official times, blabla. That doesn’t say anything about me or my achievements. I could go on with this forever but I hope you get the point.

So why am I sharing some training statistics with you in this article? To be honest, firstly I’m more writing this to myself reminding myself where I started, how I progressed over the years and where I am now. Especially only 2 days away from the IronMan 70.3, I really need this.

Secondly, I hope that you’ll see and understand that I just didn’t start with these ultra distances! It took me years of hard and long training, grid, perseverance and the will to prioritise this in order to be able to go for so long.

Last but not least, I guess what I want to show with these numbers is that it’s all relative. If you scroll through the images below from 2018 and 2019, you’ll notice how proud I am of my progress back then. Below these posts, you’ll see a few more recent milestones which I am also proud of. But that doesn’t mean that the progress I did in 2018 is less impressive or less important than the current ones. As I said in the beginning, we’re always on another path of our journey. It’s not about the absolute numbers but you have to see it from a relative perspective.

I’ll stop going on about this now and let you swipe through the pictures having a closer look at my trainings blocks from 2018 and improvements over the time. Happy swiping and reading :)

And here are some milestones from 2020 - 2022:

• Brick sesh example 1:

  • Part 1: 80 km cycling in 3:34 hrs (~600 m elevation)

  • Part 2: 11 km running in 1:03 hrs (~ 50 m elevation)

• Brick sesh example 2:

  • Part 1: 90 km cycling in 3:08 hrs (~ 650 m elevation)

  • Part 2: 6 km running in 32 min (~ 70 m elevation)

• My longest swim (in the pool and with shirt stops): 1.5 km

I’ve done the best I could to prepare for this IronMan 70.3 which will take place in only 2 days! Which sounds crazy to me because I’ve been preparing for this day for so long. It got postponed a few times because of Covid-19 and now it’s really taking place. Originally I would have trained even more specifically for this race but considering everything that has been happening in my life lately, I made some adjustments to my training block - still prioritising my training but also making sure that I don’t exhaust myself too much since so much has been going on. It honestly has been a struggle.

So even standing on the start line, trying it and giving it my best shot on that day, means to me personally that I’ve won. At the end of the day, all that counts to me is that I am able to look myself in the mirror and can genuinely say: I did my very best on that day and gave everything I had left. Remember, it’s always about the journey and not the outcome. Or in other words: Process over results.