What it means to prepare an IRONMAN not as a professional but as a common lover of sport and personal challenges, live according to the training before and after a day of work because you do not earn anything from training, you do not earn money but you pay, pay and pay !!
… run, run, run … a lot … 50 – 70 km a week, pedaling, pedaling, pedaling … always a lot … 250 -300 km a week, not always on the road where more and more you risks your life, but alienated from the white wall in front of you and the noise of the rollers. swim, swim, swim … a little less … but always a lot ….. smell of chlorine … which you do not mind but who is near does not like !!
Strive to find new ways to run, strive to find new ways to ride, try to swim in the usual pool and dream of the free waters, run and pedal with fucking shit weather conditions to respect the program, realize that the program is “thicker” than ever, the program is crazy, get up early in the morning and the first usually becomes quickly unusual, sleep the night before usual, go to bed before your 12 year old daughter, eat more than ever and hear “you are becoming a bloody cost for the family” !!!! Eat a lot, eat too much, eat many times a day, eat in the strangest hours of the day, eat in secret, always be hungry, always have bad feet, tendons that cry day and ight, have a bad leg, knees pain, have a new pain every day, live with the cursed pains, being tired at any time of day and not being able to use fatigue as an excuse, have little social life, forget about being a “social being”, do not find the motivation to justify your non-presence everywhere, know that those who observe you do not understand and judge you, count the days that are missing to the next race, organize everything for the race, think about the result of the race, think also about the FINISH LINE, think about after the race, think about the races to do after the race and always find yourself raising the bar, think about the holidays after the race, think that the days of vacation are few, tink about how to explain these things to normal people, find a valid excuse for these non-normal things and be able to involve those close to you, hope that those close to you understand and understand your isolation, hope that others understand, not caring if they do not understand, accept the fact that they do not understand !
Doing all this makes me feel already… an IRONMAN
This writing is a nothing ….. only characters on white sheets !!! As ink at the first drop it fades and disappears unlike the new limits that you will conquer ….. those remain indelible in the heart, soul and mind of a man.