Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 1 March 2015 | Page 20

M e m b e r Pe r s p e c t i v e

by Andrea Kay

Iron Forged

4. S#*! happens. Adapt.

5 Lessons Ironman Training has Taught Me

F

or some crazy
reason, I decided
to do something I
said I wouldn't do. I
signed up to compete
in another Ironman
race (swim 2.4, bike
112, run 26.2) in 2015.
The first time I trained
for this distance, it was
new and exciting and I was
able to be consistent (mostly fear
based) for the entire training season.
Two years later, as I sit here looking out
on the piles of snow outside; it's cold and
cloudy and well, just cold, I'm trying to
remind myself that this was a good idea.
Excitement has been replaced with
determination and newness with
experience.

Andrea Kay

On the plus side, having trained and
raced this distance before, I'm going into
it having learned a thing or two. The
things I have learned are universal. They
aren't triathlon training specific, and I
don't only apply them to my training but
to other areas of my life as well, and my
hope is that you can too.

1. Pennies in the bank.
I'm not sure when I starting thinking of
my training in terms of each workout
being a penny in the bank, but whenever
it was, it has stayed with me, and I apply
it to both diet and exercise. It's easy to
fall prey to prioritizing workouts. “Oh,
it's just a 45 minute run, no big deal. I
have my long run this weekend so I'll just
tack it on to that one.” You can't
balance your training like a checkbook.
The piggy bank only takes pennies.
Trying to swap a penny today for a nickel
tomorrow is only going to shortchange
yourself on race day. You need all of the
pennies. Every time I do a workout, I
mentally think of the penny going into
the bank. Ka-ching! One step closer to
the goal.

2. Your mind will give up before your
body will.
You know those motivational quotes that
people send to you over the interwebs?
Something equivalent to the fuzzy little
adorable kitten hanging onto a rope and
the caption reads something like, “Just
hang in there, baby?” If you're anything

20

isn't a sign of weakness or selfishness. If
you have people that are eager to help
out with things while you are getting
your workouts in, let them and pay it
forward in the future.

like me, you'll first 'aww' at the
adorableness of it and then promise
the kitten that you will hang in there.
You will fight through the pain and
hang in there for the kitten! It's race
day and your mind is whispering at you
to give up, and you remember the
kitten and the promise you made to
hang in there, and you do. (Mental
high five to the kitten.) This goes on a
few more times and then there is a
point when the kitten let's you off the
hook and tells you that you did 'hang in
there, baby,' and now it's time to let
go. Wait, what?! The kitten is telling

I smacked my head right
into a tree that had fallen
into the path right at my
head level. It took me to
the ground and knocked
the wind out of me...But
I was able to finish the run
me to let go and quit?!? What I've
learned is that the mind wanting to
quit doesn't stop, and denying it
doesn't make things better. It's going
to disguise itself in hundreds of ways
(even as a kitten) and every time you
need to know that your body won't quit
as long as you keep moving forward.

3. You cannot do it alone
When I first started training, I tried to
fit it all in around my other obligations
of work and family. It meant a lot of
early mornings and late nights of
training. I would often times be at
soccer games still wearing my bike
shorts. Whenever someone would ask
me if I needed help with the kids, I
would politely decline. It felt selfish
to me to ask someone else for help so I
could exercise. There are other
people that get their training in that
are far busier that I am, I would think
to myself. At a certain point, one of
my friends insisted. She said she
genuinely wanted to help. She wanted
to feel like she was part of the journey
with me. It really did make such a
huge difference. Relying on others
Spring 2015 FIT to Print

Things happen. Injury, sick kids, rain,
snow…. There will be an infinite number
of things that come up that can be used
as an excuse to give up, but it's our