10 critical moments in an IronMan

Our collaborator Miguel Ángel Rabanal, talks about some of the moments committed when participating in an IronMan

 

 

In a few days, the Long Distance World Championship in Hawaii and one of my pupils will attend this event with the hope of doing it as well as possible. They have been many years of preparation to get there, and although he will take it with a prize for his commitment and perseverance, he knows there will be times when he will suffer and that he will have to face to reach the finishing line.

That is why below we do a quick review of those delicate moments in which a long distance triathlete really has a hard time, since not everything is to sew and sing in this of running an IronMan no matter how good the preparation has been.

 

Critical moment 1:

Sometimes it is not easy to get a place for a certain IronMan given the many requests and the few seats, as in the case of the triathlon mecca, Hawaii, where you will have to get a place having previously done well in one of the different qualifying Ironmans.

 

Critical moment 2:

Once the registration is formalized, it is important to consider how to train and what to plan to follow. Here the most successful thing would be to hire the services of a personal trainer so that you can focus on the really important thing that is to train, but if it is not your case, you will have to invent them every day to think what you have to do and this sometimes gets to overwhelm the triathletes, no matter how much experience they have.

 

Critical moment 3:

The days before arise the nerves that collapse not only the mind but the body, making sleep less refreshing, go more times to the bathroom and make digestion worse. A cocktail of stress, fear and uncertainty to what awaits you.

 

Critical moment 4:

At the time of departure it seems that you are going to the slaughterhouse and do not know exactly what the race will bring you that day, you have not very good feelings and you will wonder who the hell would send you to these berenjenales, but they are only moments of anxiety and nothing else that you take pace of breathing and breathing, you forget all the bad and you would focus on swimming in a relaxed way so as not to waste energy that surely will not be left over at the end of the race.

 

Critical moments in an Ironman

 

Critical moment 5:

Maybe halfway through swimming in one of the buoys someone kicks you inadvertently and removes your glasses, so the style of swimming will break, your breathing will be altered and you will suffer to return to normal.

 

Critical moment 6:

You come out of the water and you ride the bike, and not only think about what you have left but notes that your legs weaken you in the first bars of the bike and your breathing is triggered until the cardiovascular and muscular system adapts to the new Situation of effort, arising the doubt if you have not arrived sufficiently rested legs but little by little you will find a rhythm of comfortable pedaling that will make you forget that initial uncomfortable situation.

 

Critical moment 7:

At some point of the bike, you will experience a downturn that can be mental because of the burden of carrying so many kilometers pedaling and thinking about what remains, or even worse, the physical decline due to the depletion of glycogen stores because you did not eat it. enough the previous days and in race, or to have gone too fast, noticing how the engine goes from going with gasoline to moving only with diesel. It is one of the most delicate moments of the race because if you do not choose to slow down and eat something, you run the risk of having to leave later due to the risk of falling.

 

Critical moment 8:

Muscle cramps may begin to appear in the last few steps of the bike, due to muscle fatigue and lack of salts that prevent the muscles from yielding to the maximum and that makes you feel powerless in wanting to go faster and not able, are moments To slow down, stretch a little and drink beverages with mineral salts.

 

Critical moments in an Ironman

 

 

Critical moment 9:

You finish the bike and the world is coming on you when you start running and you think that you still have 42 km, you come again and again to the thoughts that you will not endure 10 km, but fortunately at the moment that the legs are they are accustomed to the eccentric muscular work typical of the race, it seems that this crisis is overcome without problems.

 

Critical moment 10:

In the second part of the marathon, there will be moments when you have a horrendous desire to stop walking through all the accumulated fatigue and hours of effort, every kilometer crashes as if they were five and you do not see the time to reach the goal , other times stopping to walk a little causes the legs to lose pace and cost you a world to jog again because it hurts to your jaw with each impact against the asphalt.

 

But after these 10 critical moments comes the time to enjoy the triumphant entry to the goal of an IronMan, something within the reach only of privileged ones like you, and it's time to completely forget about the critical moments and that you stay alone with the good sensations of the race, something that you will remember to the satiety and will make the long distance triathlon like living a mystical experience that will hook you for life.

Miguel Ángel Rabanal San Román

www.intelligentrunning.es

facebook.com/ENTRENAMIENTOINTELIGENTE

Photo: Getty Images

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