THE JOURNEY TO MY FIRST IRON MAN 70.3 TRIATHLON

[Music] [Music] today I want to sit down and run you through my journey from just being a humble young overweight boy to eventually becoming a half ironman it [Music] I was never really that into fitness and stuff like that for most of my life you know obviously I played football with my friends and stuff like that in school but I was never very good but that stopped when I finished school and I didn't really do much for a while I've tried to get into the gym you know I kind of did it but it didn't really pay off eventually I started to gain some weight I wasn't really in the best shape but I started to get into run and own tree know how that happened I think it was kind of like I would go to the gym one day and then I have a rest day but like a what if I went to the gym one day and then the other day I had instead of a rest day I just went for a run here you can see drama so I used to live just up here used to call at my house run down this road and the first couple times I could only get to this part here and then eventually I could get all the way down to this turning here so this one segment is half a mile there so I could just about get to there after a quite a bit of practice then eventually I could go all the way around in a circle and back to my house and then eventually I could build off that and I could go around two times I didn't have any apps like shriver to track my running I just usually put a timer on and I'd run round in a circle it was about two miles it might take me 30 minutes sometimes eventually I think I got it down to about 20 minutes I started to you know pay more attention to my running and that kind of became the main focus of my exercise and I'd start to track my runs and I start to run further and further away and before I knew her over of course of a few months I'd gone from running two miles to running three or four miles five miles six miles I could run you know like 10 miles on a Sunday a long run down I just ruin as far as I could basically away from my house turn around and run back we're not talking about any massive sort of pace here but I could continuously ruin a big factor that was my diet which I changed up I went vegan I was eating a lot healthier I was eating a lot cleaner I was starting to pay more attention to what foods made me feel good you know if I had a whole pizza on a Saturday night and went for a long run on a Sunday I wouldn't feel as good as if I've had a couple sweet potatoes and some veg and some beans on the Saturday night I'll be flying on a Sunday morning so as my love for running grew and grew I kind of stopped going to the gym as much and just focused on the running after doing a couple half mile runs in 2016 I actually completed my first full up marathon the Milton Keynes marathon 6:30 in the morning and a ready-to-go killed upon breakfast porridge toast good morrow fun run in fuel now I'm off to Melky tomorrow 25 mafia up until that point that was the toughest thing I'd ever done completing that event before it even finish the run like 20 miles and I thought I'm never doing this again I'm never ruining this far again this is too much 90 miles in just had a quick we break it feels like 90 miles if anyone's done an event like this before you'll know as soon as you finish you completely forget about the pain that went into it and you've just got this immense relief this feeling like you've never felt before so proud of what you've accomplished [Applause] so then I had to think what was gonna be my next challenge when I turned my focus to triathlon was we're not big inspirations for triathlon was bridge rolls I listen to his podcast I listen to his book I brought his book and I've read his book and it's a great book and rich roll at the age of like 45 you know he was a lawyer he wasn't very healthy he turned vegan doing his whole life around pretty much completed not even just an Ironman an Ultraman which is an Ironman over the course of three days then you compete five irons on five different islands in Hawaii in a week so I thought if he can do that why can't I just do one Ironman get into triathlon obviously we already know I can run I can run a marathon I was quite decent on a bike I didn't have a road bike but I could ride a bike I couldn't swim though I never learned how to front crawl properly I could only brush stroke and very slowly to the start of 2017 I decided to fully go into the Ironman training or the triathlon training I started going to try for on Club the Ruby tri club really helped me a lot they taught me how to swim basically from nothing and you can see if you know anything about swimming how poor my form is how slow I'm moving but over the course of a few months I gradually got better embarrassed swimming I got more confident in May I start to look around see what are the options what half of ents could I sign up for this year ends up signing up for Ironman Weymouth and it seemed like the perfect event for me it did have a sea swimming I'd never even swim in a lake before at this point but it was at the end of the summer in September giving me you know plenty of time to train for it so a few weeks before I signed up with the event I went off and did some open water swimming just to kind of get you so that your open water swimming this was the only swim cap they had it the first time I went open water swimming so I guess I'm stuck with this looks like a minion I'm stuck with this for life and if you've ever worn a wet suit before it's kind of like buoyance and you're kind of floating in the water it makes it a lot easier for you for not comment swimming so the open water swim didn't seem too bad for me anyway I started to plan out my training and it basically broke it down into the three different categories [Music] so I was gonna do two swims a week one in the fall and then one open water swim a lake near me on Tuesday nights I'd go and do a swim session with the club that'd be coach get some tips hopefully improve my technique and then on Wednesday I'd kind of go more for the distance and just try and see how many loops of this Lake I could do the whole lakes about half mile round if you swim in a nice big circle so that I was gonna hopefully bring up my distance and we're gonna get solid two hours or so swimming in each week then the cycling was gonna be slightly different so I've just got into my road biking about a year or so before I actually started training for this but then I kind of stepped it up to the next level with my own my training there it is when I look Italian is in fact my first short-sleeve choi siwon my first try see you in general also got some matching socks and here I was trying to increase the distance to more trying to get to about a hundred miles a week on the bike hopefully with too short arrives we're gonna be more speed focus and then one really long ride it was gonna get me closer and closer to the distance I'd be doing in the half I'm on a bench 56 mile bike ride in there and then running like I said this is my area on the most confident in so I didn't push myself too hard I think this is the area where you're most likely to injure yourself pushing yourself running too much so basically I did to rid the club which were two-hour long run so it wouldn't be a track session so I was doing like 400 meters as fast as you can and 800 meters faster can than having a rest and another 400 years at 5k pace 10k pace half marathon pace different things every single time in the same on a Thursday but that would be out on the streets are doing intervals around parks with different speed loops doing it sprint to lamppost and back it was a good variety to it and then on Sunday I do my long runs that either be ten mile plus runs one of the things I focused on while training was my diet I tried to not count calories during this whole training time because a lot of times I'm gonna be training multiple times in a day so I'm probably gonna be burning off whatever I put into my body anyway but my main goal is just to eat as clean as I possibly could so we're having porridge and things like that for breakfast this is kind of what a dinner / lunch she's looking look at them in it some days I was having four meals a day you know I'd have a tours in the morning go do some exercise come back have a smoothie and have something a bit later on for lunch before going training after that eat some more I was probably eating 3000 calories in training days I just wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna burn out basically and that was even more important as the training moved further and further along Tuesday we're in Wednesday and then did a double Tuesday Friday also got some swimming on Tuesday and Wednesday so every single day I've done two different activities it got longer in terms of days so I might have a rest day if I understand I'll do like a thirty mile bike ride followed immediately by tomorrow and that's what we call brick training the triathlon I'm not sure if it's because it's like bricks stacking on top of each other or because it feels like you're carrying bricks on your back when you're running after you fell on the bike for two hours either way it's not very fun but it's an important part and go cycle 70 miles and then try and run three or four miles it wasn't too bad if it felt very it would strange like a first I started running the first hundred meters beside all this doesn't feel weird at all and then it was like oh I feel like I can't even run I'm gonna have to really slow now and I kind of slowed down and there was a bit of a downhill I felt a bit better and then kind of flying now and it was still a bit weird and then eventually it kind of I kind of just got used to it kind of just felt like I was running with with tired legs which I guess this is what I'm training for another important part of triathlon is kind of the fourth discipline which is transitioning you have to transition between getting out of just having a 1.2 miles whim and then immediately getting on your bike as quickly as possible because you don't want to waste much time to train for that I excited up for my first ever Olympic distance triathlon which I was going to do before the event I did this in July and it was a great test of how my training can be going and also give me good tips on areas to improve I practiced transitioning at home which is something a lot people recommend and at my malory Park swims on a Wednesday night I was also cycling a lot and running a lot so it gave me a good idea and overall I really enjoyed my time on this event I had Nicole there to support me and it actually went by really quickly they can see my number there I think I did it in about two hours fifty it was in July 2017 so that was about a month and a half into my training so it's a good way to see how far I still had to go but the good thing about Olympic distance is the swim is not actually that much shorter than an Ironman distance I think this was about 1,500 meters and a Half Ironman is about 1,900 meters I did find it quite hard to swim in a place I hadn't won before because I've been doing the same open water swimming very used to you know the route you do I didn't really have to look that much but here when you don't know where you're going you're swimming so we haven't been seen before sighting is very important and so weak I definitely knew I need you to practice on before going to Weymouth I found the bike quite difficult getting out the water I often felt like very hungry immediately I don't know just cuz I haven't swam that much in my life but as soon as I go to import or out of a lake I'm very hungry so on the bike it was important to get a lot of nutrition in there I think I won't feel like naked bars on that event because they were quite small it's not a long event so you don't need too many calories but it was just good to have something in your stomach to get you going and a couple gels as I was going along and the bike actually went quite quickly I think it's about 27 miles and then the room was a 10k run here was where I really got into my own it's good that running was my strongest area because I was overtaking a lot of people while running whereas on the bike people have been flying past me the whole way so the Berk training obviously paid off I wasn't in too much pain I got to the finish line and I felt like I could keep going which is something I hadn't felt a lot of times before maybe that means I didn't push myself as much in this event but it wasn't about getting the best time for me it was just about really practising triathlons and how they work and seeing how things setting up your bike in the morning and things like that you don't really train when you're just practicing at home so it was a great event and I felt really strong after that training so as we got closer and closer to the event I think I kind of got more confident some days less confident as days but over the months I just kept training kept training kept pushing myself every day some weeks you have slip-ups where you know things don't go your way you've got to work more than you thought you had Amanda it was all going well until the cold pack of these pink wafers and I cannot stop it yet the rest is another important part of training getting enough sleep getting in the food and taking those days off if your body is really feeling it from the day before you know take it off because you want to still get to the start line you want to get to the event [Music] 60 miles only four hours decent I'm before new at the training basically flew by it was rest week or taper week so the week before the event you just kind of relax you really lower your training with two days before the race just about to get everything packed in the car ready to head down today before they've got everything we should need here except for my bike and my helmet wallet got my ID in there leave that flip-flops for going into the water this is kind of an order of when I'll need it my watch because also point doing an Ironman if you can't show it on Strava got some lubricant great for getting in and out of the wetsuit also helps hopefully with the sea rubbing on your skin nobody's gonna stop me from bruising or having any rashes I've got goals there got a swing cap I shouldn't need that they should have an Ironman one but I'm just thinking just in case I get there and they're like oh we we don't have any more Ironman ones you need your own and I've got one ready at least just in case try suit there and then matching socks I'm pretty gonna use my socks on the bike got my boat shoes there but my running bout might put that on on the belt on the bike just to have one number on me and some glasses if it's raining I'll probably put the glasses on then we've got water bottles for the bike for we two of these on the bike probably the two matching ones and then one of these for afterwards and then we've got all sorts of snacks here obviously this isn't gonna all be on the bike I'm gonna go first two gels blackjack and then two of these snack bars that's gonna be what I take with me and then these powders will be in the water bottles then we've got four running trainers wishful thinking got some Sun cream doubt I'm gonna need that and then for afterwards I've got foam roller hopefully I can find a bit of space in rubber legs now afterwards because then I've got a go on free our drive home so I've got clothes for afterwards as well so some trousers some underwear t-shirt some shower gel as well and some children's hopefully I can have a shower afterwards that should be everything we need we drove down to a move on this Saturday we're packed three hours registered for the event Ironman Weimer it was a bit of a mess because like the swim start the bike start the run start have finished on there all in totally different places so you have to kind of run around a lot we've made it through a muff we can see the sea I've got my bag problem is you've only got five minutes left to rack my bike and all my stuff's in the back here because we're stuck in traffic and I also got to go to my first Ironman briefing which was quite exciting this is when I really start to feel nervous I feel like before that I've been skinned so prepared trying to get everything ready for the event I've hadn't really had a chance to think about it as soon as I've got my bike rack's I had all my gear ready to go then I had to sit down and watch this like briefing on the event I was it was quite scary especially when they run for all the rules and I was just panicking like what I find accidentally break one of these rules I get disqualified and then I've just spent all this money in all this time training and I'm not gonna have anything to show for it thankfully that didn't happen I guess I've gotta go eat some carbs now go to sleep so we got to race day we've got a very very early to start the journey to Weymouth we've just been staying a couple towns over there's five for you three 443 a.m. or in a way to aim up now it is a couple hours sleep so they talked about in the they joked about in the big I know this is might be the earliest ever a porridge time to have my little tub of porridge I'll hopefully get me through the bike ride and after a queue up for the toilet and a bit of time standing around my wetsuit was on and I was ready to start the event and it was basically starting on the beach queueing up with a load of other people to get into the open water of the sea swim which apparently everyone had said before it's not gonna be that choppy that's a word that gets thrown around a lot trophy which is like how wavy it's gonna be how much she's gonna push you around I did not prepare enough for the sea swim it threw me all over the place I get hit in the face by waves I take a couple strokes go up for a breath and as I took the breath would just cover my face sea water which was nice and salty and not very nice and on the way out it was very tough a few points I had to stop and just do some breaststroke in which a lot of the people were doing and I was brushed joking and going just as fast as people that were front crawl and so I don't think it slowed me now too much as soon as we got to the first boy we got to take a ride and then the waves were kind of coming to the side of you but not directly in front of you so it wasn't quite as bad I got to swim along and then turn it around and the next boy and this one was a lot easier you had the waves behind you pushing you forward and before I knew it I finished a swim [Music] my target finish time for the event was about six hours and 30 minutes I've kind of broke that down in my head giving me like an hour for the swim four and a half hours for the bike two hours for the run and my swim I did really well I finished it in 52 minutes I mean that doesn't include transition time so by the time I've got out of the water round to the bike and got on the bike it was pretty close to my target time of an hour there we headed up on the bike chance there wasn't too much excitement on the bike the course it's kind of hilly but not overly hairy like there's bigger Hills around where I live than there are on this course I think so and it was quite enjoyable to be honest sadly there were a couple dramas basically at some point in transporting my bike down and then racking it up my break my front brake it came loose which is the brake I use the most demonstration of the brake brake so pull up the front brake in there closes but you can still keep going and it's like we're good when you're going 20 miles an hour around a corner and at one point I tried to use my front brake when coming too fast into a corner obviously it didn't do anything and I just went into a bush which was quite funny for the old people that were in the village cheering me on and then kind of laughing as I fell over into the bush but other than that the bike was fairly uneventful it took me around four and a half hours or 3:24 altogether so again just about on my target sixteen point six mile per hour which is quite fast for me normally on average about 15 so I think my training had obviously paid off on the bike I drank and ate quite a lot which I think kind of worked against me a few points I had too many gels and they were giving out bottles with energy in them so I had already two on my bike I down with them fairly quickly when I knew I could get another one and took one of those and it's that to blow my stuff I got a few points on the bike but I got through it and ate a couple flapjacks as well on there and then we got to the run it's a very nice burn on the way with seafront and you basically just do three and a half laps up and down the weimar seafront I wasn't feeling great like I said my stomach had been playing up but as soon as I got off the bike my knee started to hurt I think that was I don't know how this how of my knee hurt because my whole time in my training my knee and never hurt it hurt before and I just ran training for my marathon before but in my old trainings up my knee haven't hurt when I was running and it was really painful it really slowed me down at a few points on the run so my average pace dropped down quite a bit so the first couple miles we were talking about seven under eight minute pace where my knee wasn't too bad then it was eight thirty per mile eight more than nine minute mile and that was where my knee really start to play up in a few points I thought I was honestly gonna have to stop but I knew I had enough time even if I had to stop burning I had plenty of time in the bank to not get hit by the car and I could just walk through the rest of the event if I had to but just what I think I'll just keep running as long as I can I'll run until I can't run anymore and you know before I know what I was looking at my watch I was like okay now we're at 6 miles an hour at 7 mile I'm over halfway through it I can probably keep running the rest of the way I kept going kept pushing myself the support along the beach was great and they had people cheering me on I saw Nicole a couple times who was there filming me keeping there all day for me and she cheered me on and it really spurred me on it really kept me going and before a newer I made it to the finish line and I finally got to the finish line I could see that red carpet in front of me that I've been visualizing for so long and have half a banana in my hand that I just got from the last aid station I have no idea what to do months and most of training of learning how to swim of learning how to swim bike and ruin in a row without cramping up but has it paid off and I finally got to finish line I had no idea what to do so I just put my hands up in the air and I cross the finish line and all of a sudden my whole body hurt because I'd finally finished the event it's like my body knew that it didn't have you anymore but that wasn't even more problem than doing the Milton Keynes marathon I think just because of the sheer time paren I managed to go in under my target by a few minutes I think I finished it like six twenty seven or something like that and I got my my medal placed around my head and that was it the mumps and mocks our training it paid off and I finished my first half ironman so that's the story so if you watched this video just to see my story if you watch this because your interest is doing an Ironman yourself a Half Ironman all I can say is sign up for it do it you're not going to regret it's gonna be one of the most amazing experiences you have and you know all the hard work all the pain is worth it in the end because now you got this cool medal you can just look at and we've got your Strava page which is you know you have a fireman excited so thank you for watching and I guess I'll see you when it's time for the big one [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: John Langley - Part Time Triathlete

Views: 112,821

Keywords: iron man weymouth 70.3, vegan iron man, vegan, veganism, diary, challenge, London, food, meals, workouts, haul, uk, recipe, veggie, meal, prep, free, diet, life, health, recipes, gains, vegetarian, how, to, be, ironman, iron, man, ironman 70.3, half iron man, training, journey, what to eat, what iron men eat, triathlon, weymouth, vegan iron man, vegan ironman diet, vegan ironman, vegan ironman oatmeal, john joseph, triathlon training, ironman triathlon, Ironman training, half ironman, triathlon for beginners

Id: UocZnwWRvJ4

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2018