Ironman triathlon

You can hear it coming out of the water, thump thump. Getting on the bike you can hear it even over the deep breathing, thump thump. Getting off the bike, the feet feel like lead weights attached to your legs, which somehow seem detached from your body, again the thump thump. The heart pounds during an Ironman triathlon, but it takes a big heart in more than one way to make it through a triathlon. The physical agony is hard but the toughest part of a triathlon is the mental strain to keep pushing your body when it wants to revolt and stop moving.

An Ironman Triathlon is a goal that a person works toward over a period of months if not years. The triathlete will break through many training barriers but they must over come many mental barriers. The first open water swim, the first long bike ride and the first 20 plus mile run. Probably the most demanding test is to complete the first long brick. A brick is a bike followed by a run. To bike over 50 miles and then go for a 10-15 miles is a huge mental and physical challenge. But the dedicated triathlete must continue to push through the barriers, logging more and more laps, more miles on the bike and completing longer and longer runs. Training when the weather is bad. Training when they feel tired or even slightly ill. With every stroke, pedal and stride the triathlete builds up the endurance and mental wherewithal to reach the final goal, finishing an Ironman Triathlon.

Usually people dread the swim, as most triathletes do not have a swimming background. If a triathlete has no swimming experience finding a coach or swim club to help out with proper technique as proper mechanics are very critical to completing the 2.4 mile swim. If the triathlete does have a swimming background and can click laps in a pool, they now need to try swimming without lane lines, crystal clear water and a mark only 25 meters away on which to key on. Transitioning from the pool to the open water takes some practice. Swimming with dozens of pairs of legs and arms churning the waters around you as you swim also battles you mentally. A triathlete finds out quickly that swimming can be a contact sport. Orientation while swimming can be an art as most triathletes do not swim in a straight line as in the pool. Aiming for the orange markers in the water appear pretty straight forward from land, but looking above the choppy water between breaths, orientation to buoys and landmarks becomes a game of hide and seek.

Bicycling

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