# Age Group Story - Isabelle Campbell: Balancing Career, Kids & IRONMAN | Ep 552

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 20 Aug 2025, 1 h 01 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/107007763/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-7-18%2F3de0beee-a7af-492a-3213-452d13d446bb.m4a

This week, coach Rob chats with Team Oxygenaddict athlete Isabelle, an age-group athlete who is now an IRONMAN! Isabelle shares her journey, from the initial self-doubt and rigorous training to overcoming mental and physical challenges. Despite juggling her training with two kids and a demanding job, Isabelle's dedication, mindset, and support from Team Oxygenaddict helped her find the right balance. She talks about how she found harmony between life and training and training, the importance of mental resilience, and the exhilarating experience of race day. If you're an aspiring IRONMAN wondering how on earth it's possible, or if you've previously dismissed IRONMAN as a non-starter for you, I guarantee Isabelle story will pique your interest! * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Like what you heard in this show? Join hundreds of other age group triathletes making the most of their limited training time, training with Team OxygenAddict! http://team.oxygenaddict.com - The most comprehensive triathlon coaching program for busy age groupers. Book an application call to see if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming season here: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply click this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:04] Welcome to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon podcast.
[0:06] We're brought to you every week. BIOS, Pontus, precision Fuel and
[0:09] hydration.com. You can get 15% off your first
[0:11] order with the code Oxygen Fuel 25.
[0:15] Welcome to the show everybody. I'm your host coach Rob Wilby
[0:18] from Team Oxygen Addict and everyone we bring you an episode
[0:20] of this podcast to try and help educate, motivate and inspire
[0:23] you. This week's episode we've got
[0:26] something a little bit different, a little bit old
[0:29] school. We're going to do an age group
[0:31] interview with one of our wonderful athletes, Isabel,
[0:35] who's had a fantastic year, managed to complete Iron Man
[0:38] Victoria and I want to Share your story with everybody
[0:41] because I get you probably imagine I get tonnes of emails
[0:44] Isabel in the background for people going I want to do an
[0:47] Iron Man, but I'm just not sure if I can do it.
[0:49] What does it involve? Is it realistic that I am a busy
[0:53] dad and busy mum? I've got a full time job and
[0:57] then you popped up on my e-mail box of the day and I thought
[1:00] that would be a great way to to get people to tell the story.
[1:03] So first, welcome to the show. It's lovely to have you on.
[1:06] Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.
[1:10] Right, so let's let's kick off then.
[1:12] I think, I guess the overview, let's spoil the ending of the
[1:14] interview before we even get started.
[1:16] But Iron Man, how do we pronounce this Victoria
[1:20] Gastiers? Is that correct?
[1:21] I think it's. Victoria Gastes, Gastes, there
[1:24] we go. So let's call it Vic.
[1:26] So in Spain it was a, it was a couple of months ago as we as we
[1:30] record this. So let's start at the end and
[1:34] let's talk about the afterglow. How is it?
[1:36] How is it having built up this over here and having completed
[1:39] it? I mean, I'm not wearing my medal
[1:41] just for today, but I've definitely been feeling that
[1:44] winners high. It's, it feels a bit unreal, to
[1:48] be honest, that I actually did it because I was so focused on
[1:52] it over the seven or eight months of training.
[1:54] To then have it all out the way and done feels a bit weird.
[1:57] And I do feel a little bit rudderless, I have to say now.
[2:01] Yeah, I get that. I get that a lot.
[2:03] And and the thing we could show at this point, I mean, whether
[2:06] we'll end up using the video of this or not, but can I see the
[2:09] the little Iron Man tattoo you had done?
[2:11] Oh my God, yeah, no, I had this tattoo done just last week.
[2:15] Very fine line. And I I've it's on the forum and
[2:19] I decided to go prominent. I was going to have it a bit
[2:21] more hidden then I thought no, do you know what?
[2:23] I'm so proud of what I've done. I'm just going to wear it loud
[2:27] and proud. And that is that is probably my
[2:29] overriding feeling is pride at having got it done.
[2:32] I it is something that I never thought was fossible.
[2:36] I thought last something for other people.
[2:38] So yeah, tattooed and proud. Love it.
[2:42] That's great. I guess we're going to have to
[2:44] use this on the video somewhere now so people can see that and
[2:46] we'll have to use that clippetly.
[2:48] All right, listen, let's take us back then.
[2:50] Let's go. Let's go back.
[2:51] We've spoiled the ending and people know that you had amnesty
[2:54] complete. Your eye man did it.
[2:55] Well done. So let's start back at the
[3:01] beginning of this crazy adventure.
[3:02] What was it that originally put the idea of of doing an Iron Man
[3:06] in your head? How long ago was it?
[3:08] What's the what's the journey been like?
[3:09] What's your background like? What's your family homework life
[3:12] like? That whole thing the.
[3:14] Whole thing. So I'm, I'm 41 and I've got two
[3:19] children of sort of teen and preteen kind of age and really
[3:23] super busy job that involves a lot of travel.
[3:26] So a lot of that, those contributing factors made me
[3:29] think something like a really long distance endurance event
[3:33] like this was just not for me. I've done quite a few marathons.
[3:37] I've done 7 or 8 marathons it over the last sort of 12:00-ish
[3:42] years and I thought that was pretty much the peak of it.
[3:46] Going back even further, I didn't really enjoy sport at
[3:50] school. I kind of like gymnastics and
[3:52] that kind of stuff. Hated running, got into running
[3:56] when I lived in London and saw the London Marathon go past my
[3:59] flat and I thought do you know what, if they just do that, I
[4:02] can do that. So that's kind of where the
[4:03] running thing started. I've never enjoyed swimming.
[4:08] Got taught how to swim at school in in a way that you would not
[4:12] enjoy the technique that I got taught but just found it really
[4:16] boring and in cycling again. As a kid I enjoyed cycling but
[4:20] never took it seriously. Kind of got into cycling a bit
[4:23] Rd cycling during COVID and then really loved that.
[4:28] Just loved how far you could go compared to running.
[4:31] Love the freedom of it. Did a Olympic distance try and I
[4:36] absolutely loved it. The photos of me during that
[4:39] Olympic distance try are really funny because I've just got the
[4:42] biggest smile on my face. And it was because I did this
[4:46] open water swim, which to me was just such a massive challenge,
[4:50] like swimming in open water in a wet suit, surviving.
[4:53] And so I got out of the the lake and I was just so thrilled with
[4:57] myself that I hadn't drowned, that this big smile just carried
[5:02] me around the rest of the race. But then I kind of put that to
[5:05] bed and just went, yeah, OK, I did a triathlon, but that's it.
[5:09] I do remember, though, many years ago, probably going about
[5:12] 20 years ago now, when I first started my career, meeting a
[5:15] client who somehow it came up in conversation that she'd done an
[5:19] Iron Man. And I was like, I just was in
[5:22] awe. I just thought, that is insane.
[5:24] You are an actual superhuman, especially being a woman.
[5:28] Just to me that seemed completely ridiculous.
[5:31] Then it just, I can't remember her name, I can't remember where
[5:33] she worked. I can't remember any of it, but
[5:35] I just remember her and I remember that feeling of like
[5:37] that is insane, like not even feasible.
[5:41] And it kind of niggled away at me over the years as I got into
[5:43] marathon and whatnot. And I'm a very like many of your
[5:46] dear client that I'm a very like any type, you know, high
[5:51] achievers, super high standard, always looking to be out of my
[5:55] comfort zone. And I entered a 70.3, not an
[6:00] Iron Man, but it's called Castle Race Series.
[6:04] And, and, and this was in 2018 and I started training for it
[6:09] with no plan, no clue, on a walk, bike, in the gym, in an 18
[6:13] metre swimming pool near the office.
[6:16] And I thought, yeah, I'm going to do this, but a 70.3 fell
[6:19] again, completely ridiculous. Like how?
[6:23] And unfortunately that didn't happen that year because my
[6:27] husband got very ill and we had two young kids at the time he
[6:30] had he had pneumonia and he got sepsis and was in hospital for a
[6:34] long time in a coma. And so everything stopped.
[6:37] My whole life stopped. Fast forward, happy ending to
[6:41] that, recovered out of hospital. So then again in 2020, I
[6:45] thought, I'm going to do this thing.
[6:47] We all know what happened in 2020.
[6:50] Deferred it for a year, didn't train and I think that's when I
[6:54] did the Olympic distance. Then a year after that I did the
[6:57] 70.3. Still thought Iron Man was
[7:00] completely out of reach. And then what happened?
[7:04] I probably, I know what a friend of mine sent me your podcast.
[7:07] So it's all your fault coach. Wrong.
[7:10] I get to state the blame for this, do I?
[7:12] It's for you and I didn't. I listened possibly.
[7:16] I know you love bringing people into the cult and I listened to
[7:20] one of your podcasts along the lines of, you know, anyone with
[7:24] a, you know, a fair, a fair, fair win behind them and a bit
[7:28] of training can, can do this. And I started to think, is this
[7:30] possible? And I signed up and it is
[7:34] possible. But I have said this to you
[7:36] before. I don't think I could have done
[7:38] it without Team Ox genetic and the training plan.
[7:42] Oh, bless you. Oh, honestly.
[7:45] It's like a word for my sponsors.
[7:47] That isn't it. I love that.
[7:48] That's very kind of you. I always say this when people
[7:52] say things like that. You did all the hard work, like
[7:55] we've, we've kind of worked out how to help people do it, but
[7:57] you've got to be willing. You've got to be willing to do
[7:59] it. And so all the kudos is on you
[8:02] for like. It's simple but not easy is the
[8:04] phrase, isn't it? It's so true and I have no
[8:07] problem with motivation. I'm a highly motivated
[8:11] individual and I'm really enjoy the discipline.
[8:13] So you give me a training plan and I am.
[8:15] That just speaks right to my personality and all my core
[8:18] value. But what's different, and you
[8:21] know this because we've met and spent time together in in
[8:24] Majorca, I struggle with confidence.
[8:27] So it's not something that anyone would think when they
[8:28] meet me, but I struggle with self-confidence.
[8:31] And I have those like mental demons that shout really loud.
[8:35] You can't do this, you can't do this.
[8:37] And I also have a very sort of buff call white approach to that
[8:41] discipline, which is it's on the plan.
[8:43] Therefore you must do it. And having an actual human or
[8:47] humans in you and, and in Chris able to be the sort of the other
[8:50] end of the, the zoom or the, you know, the the other end of the
[8:55] training plan. Really, as opposed to just
[8:56] printing something off of ChatGPT enabled me to kind of
[9:00] go, OK, I'm not feeling great today or this hasn't gone very
[9:02] well or I'm travelling for work. What do I do?
[9:06] Whereas if left to my own devices, it would have been
[9:08] right. Well, you've missed a key
[9:09] session, so you're obviously going to fail.
[9:11] You're not going to fail to do this etcetera, etcetera,
[9:13] etcetera. Do you think, do you think
[9:17] everybody struggles with that inner voice to some, to some
[9:21] extent? Yes I do and I particularly
[9:25] think very high achieving people do more so which by our nature I
[9:29] am Iron Man, Iron Man's Iron men and women struggling with that a
[9:33] bit. I I think iron people.
[9:36] I know people who are saying to me, does it bother you?
[9:38] And I'm like, no, not really. Yeah.
[9:41] So, so people that do long distance triathlon, I think by
[9:43] their nature are high achievers, right.
[9:45] Or just mad bit of both, probably.
[9:48] So yes, I absolutely, I am not alone in that.
[9:52] But I have, I do find that my mind is particularly loud, well
[9:57] managed, but loud. And for me, having people who
[10:04] know what they're doing that I could put my trust in to help
[10:08] with that was just I just needed it a tick got closer to race day
[10:13] when the demons really. I remember having a call with
[10:17] Chris and just saying to him, you know, I'm, I think we were
[10:20] four weeks out and I was like, Chris, my my mind is telling me
[10:26] to just do more. Like I haven't done enough.
[10:28] I haven't done enough training. I've done it literally almost
[10:31] every single session that you set me, but I obviously haven't
[10:34] done enough. I've got to do more.
[10:36] And so Chris is like, right, OK, well, let's not do that at.
[10:39] So I need to be talked down sometimes.
[10:42] Yes, and you know, I think that's a lot more common than
[10:46] than people realise. It's it's very often not our job
[10:52] to kind of be the boot up the backside of people.
[10:54] It's to say to people actually, you know, you have done enough.
[10:57] Let's look at what you've done and, and the type A personality
[11:00] is often a mismatcher. And we'll look at a training
[11:03] plan and go, OK, there were, you know, whatever, 10 sessions on
[11:07] the plan and nine of them are green, but one's red and they'll
[11:10] mismatch onto the red and go. But it's like the, it's like the
[11:13] P under the mattress, isn't it that that keeps driving you
[11:16] forward? And I think it's it in some ways
[11:20] it's a, it's a blessing and a curse to have a personality like
[11:23] this. The drive to to prove yourself
[11:26] is a thing that allows you to achieve things, but that
[11:31] unmoderated drive to achieve that, there's something that's
[11:34] never enough about it. And sometimes we need an extra
[11:37] voice to say, do you know what? You've done a really good job
[11:40] here that's, you know, 80% done is 100% done kind of thing.
[11:45] That's right. And I think also we are in a bit
[11:48] of an echo chamber as athletes because I remember this from
[11:51] when I, you know, was marathon training years ago.
[11:55] And I remember seeing a friend in the office, also an avid
[11:58] runner, and she said, oh, hi. How was your weekend?
[12:00] I was hi. Yeah.
[12:00] It's great to actually went for a 15 mile run.
[12:02] And she was like, oh, awesome. I did a half marathon and
[12:04] someone was walking past us and they were like, you.
[12:07] You did what? Like what?
[12:09] And I always remember that. And it's the same with us,
[12:11] right? We're in this echo Chamber of
[12:13] people that go on 100 mile bike rides for a laugh and, like,
[12:16] think that's a good day out and it's not normal.
[12:20] Yeah, but you, of course, you surround yourself.
[12:22] And I particularly give him, you know, like I said, busy life,
[12:25] job, kids. One thing that has suffered,
[12:28] although it doesn't feel like a hardship to me, is my social
[12:30] life. And so it does mean that I'm
[12:33] surrounding myself socially with people who get it, people who
[12:36] want to come on a big bike ride with me, who want to come for a
[12:38] run, who understand. But I'm not coming out because
[12:41] the lake's only open at 8:00 on a Friday night, you know, So you
[12:46] are sometimes a victim of that. Yeah.
[12:50] And you don't realise that what you're doing is, is super high
[12:53] achieving in the general population.
[12:55] And it's easy to forget that. I remember a good friend of mine
[13:00] who was a runner that I used to train running with, talking to
[13:03] him about about Iron Man. And he said the completely
[13:07] insane thing about it to outsiders is if you talk to
[13:10] runners and they're going to do the London Marathon, that
[13:12] becomes the entire focus of six months of training to them.
[13:16] And it's, it's the pinnacle of a runner's achievement to to go
[13:19] and do a marathon or to do London.
[13:22] And he said, and you triathletes treat the London Marathon as the
[13:24] thing you're going to do in the spring, as a warm up, as a
[13:27] catered long run on the way to do.
[13:30] And it's completely insane by you.
[13:32] You're already in a kind of 3% of the population when you go to
[13:37] a running club for people who are running every day, and it's
[13:40] an extra 97% above that almost, isn't it?
[13:44] So getting that balance right, I think it can be really hard.
[13:47] I, I find it hard to talk about it sometimes as well.
[13:50] And it's funny that you say that about the catered long run
[13:52] because I remember when I signed up with you and I said, you
[13:55] said, oh, you know, what's your A race?
[13:56] And it was Victoria and have you got any B races?
[13:58] And I was, I said to you all, I'm doing the Brighton Marathon
[14:00] and then I'm doing an ultra marathon.
[14:02] And you were like, and how about we don't do those?
[14:05] And I thought, no, no, no, I'm going to do them.
[14:06] And you said exactly that. OK, we'll treat it as a catered
[14:09] long run then. But when I sort of, you know,
[14:11] might go back to the office on on Monday.
[14:13] So what did you do this? We went, I did an ultra
[14:15] marathon. Pardon.
[14:16] And I mean, I, I actually don't really talk about it that much
[14:20] because I'm aware how ridiculous it sounds.
[14:22] And it's not like it was the pinnacle.
[14:23] Oh my goodness, I've done an ultra marathon.
[14:25] It was like, but I'm doing an Ironman in nine weeks time.
[14:29] So actually I had to take it really steady and be a bit
[14:31] careful. I worry that and I'm in a
[14:35] leadership position at work as well and I have a reasonably
[14:38] sized team and I, I sometimes worry about sounding
[14:40] intimidating or just a bit ridiculous.
[14:46] You know my close friend, my close circle know, and you know
[14:49] everyone in my run running club and the people I ride with
[14:51] obviously know. But I am aware that it's just
[14:55] not normal behaviour profanely. All right.
[14:59] Well, listen, you've, you've established then.
[15:02] Busy, busy family life, two kids, busy demanding job, big
[15:07] team to manage. What was the sort of the biggest
[15:10] challenge that you think you faced in training before you
[15:13] came to us, or the biggest or the biggest thing that you were
[15:17] expecting to face in training before you came to us?
[15:20] It was it was honestly mindset. I I believe that almost anything
[15:26] is physically possible if you are as lucky as I am to have a
[15:31] body that allows you, you know, and I do have to remember to be
[15:33] grateful for that all the time. You know, we get into the nitty
[15:37] gritty of, you know, the weight of our wheels and the
[15:41] temperature of the water and all of that.
[15:43] But I have legs and a body that allows me to do this.
[15:46] So with that as a, you know, not guaranteed, but a fact for me
[15:50] for now, I believe that it was physically possible, but I
[15:54] wasn't sure it was mentally possible.
[15:58] And so before we, before I came to you, I think I'd already
[16:02] signed up and a friend was doing Victoria and she kind of, I
[16:05] always tell her she bullies me into these things.
[16:07] But as she tells me, I don't take much persuading.
[16:11] Currently we're debating what the next challenge is, but we
[16:13] can talk about that. And so I thought, I don't need a
[16:19] coach, I don't need a coach. I've done a 70.3 is just double
[16:22] that. The training is probably not
[16:24] that different. And she said to me, no, I really
[16:27] would she she has a different coach, but she said, you know, I
[16:29] really would think about it. And then when I met you, I just
[16:32] thought, oh, I feel like you really get me.
[16:34] And I remember you saying that thing of like, basically, I'm
[16:37] here to tell you, no, I'm not here to tell you, come on,
[16:39] you've got to do your sessions. I'm more likely to be telling
[16:41] you just chill out, calm down. And that really spokes me
[16:44] because that is exactly me like more, more, more.
[16:46] Surely if I put more in, I will get more results.
[16:50] And actually more is not always more, especially with long
[16:53] distance training. So that was it really, that
[16:56] structure, the mindset, the I can't do this, which you've
[17:00] heard me say, you've heard me say I can't do this about my 4K
[17:03] swim. You've heard me say it about my,
[17:05] you know, 30 * 100 swim. You've heard me say it about
[17:09] climbing a mountain in Majorca. You've heard me say it many
[17:11] times. I can't do this.
[17:12] I say it all the time in my head and I have to reframe.
[17:15] So that was the challenge I think that I brought into into
[17:18] coaching, into the coaching relationship that we we had when
[17:21] I signed up. Yeah, OK.
[17:24] And I'm going to go a bit off track with this next question,
[17:27] but have you had a chance to reflect and think about things
[17:32] that have changed since doing the Iron Man?
[17:36] You know, if you've got one thing I reflected, and as you
[17:38] said, that was with a mindset that says surely I should be
[17:41] doing more, The challenge with that is there's always more,
[17:45] right? There's always more.
[17:46] I mean, you can get to the point where you never sleep and you're
[17:49] awake. You know the Noel Gallagher
[17:50] thing? We'll just be awake all the time
[17:52] and do more. Yeah.
[17:55] Constantly going through the cycle of I don't think I can do
[17:57] this. Oh, I'm doing this.
[17:59] Oh, I've done this. What Have you learned anything
[18:02] about your mindset? Yeah, yes and no, yes and no.
[18:06] So when I mentioned when my husband was was in hospital, I
[18:10] have the word strength tattooed on my ribs, which is a reminder
[18:14] to me that I can go through hard things and come out the other
[18:17] side said that experience showed me a strength that I never knew
[18:20] I had. If you told me I would be in
[18:22] that position, I would say no, I'll just lie down on the floor
[18:24] and just give up. I can't do it.
[18:26] So I do have that, but it is often overridden with that
[18:30] really intense in a voice that says no, you can't.
[18:34] And I failed to remind myself of this day in, day out.
[18:40] But it's interesting because ironically, as well as my
[18:43] corporate job, I work as an executive coach and, and a
[18:45] speaker and a trainer in, in aspects of well-being.
[18:48] So I work with people, particularly women on exactly
[18:51] this self-confidence, resilience, not in the sport
[18:54] arena, but obviously there's loads of, of overlaps.
[18:56] And I know all the techniques. I have all the techniques and I
[19:00] do use them, which allows me to overcome a lot of the time.
[19:05] I think I, what is different, I think for me this time is on the
[19:11] one hand, yes, overcome hard things, celebrate the
[19:14] achievement and then go on to the next thing.
[19:17] So this is the danger, right? As you say, it's like, OK,
[19:19] you've done an Iron Man. So now what is it?
[19:23] But I'm genuinely proud of this achievement.
[19:26] Like genuinely, there's no part of me that's going, oh, but it
[19:30] took me this long. Oh, yeah.
[19:32] But I walked a bit longer than I wanted in the marathon.
[19:34] Oh, but there's a part of me that goes interesting.
[19:37] I wonder where I can improve, but I'm so proud not I mean,
[19:42] yes, of the physical achievement, but more of that
[19:45] exactly. You say that overcoming and I
[19:48] feel like you it's a long day out as we know and you you are
[19:53] there with just you and your mind really, and you have to
[19:56] overcome that negative voice and the one that just tells you no,
[20:01] just it's time to stop now. You have to keep meeting that
[20:04] over and over and over again and saying.
[20:08] Thanks, I hear you, but not right now.
[20:10] You know, we've got a finish line to get to.
[20:12] So I think I will always remind myself of that when I approach
[20:16] hard things, be it in sport or in.
[20:18] Life and and I think that's what will make you so good at your
[20:23] executive coaching with people. It's I, I often you see the, I
[20:28] don't know the Tony Robbins's of the world who, who just kind of
[20:31] appear on the cover of a book fully formed and they're doing
[20:34] big seminars and kind of appear as though there are no problems
[20:39] and they've got a solution for everything.
[20:41] And I think the reality is they've probably got more
[20:43] problems and have found more ways to overcome it.
[20:47] I don't know how much this sort of overly large American
[20:52] personality translates to a, to a British audience.
[20:55] I think we we tend to be a little bit more, oh, well, that
[20:59] that person's overcome that. And, and I think it works when
[21:01] people hear that you've had these challenges and you've done
[21:03] things to overcome them. Like everything that I do in
[21:05] coaching directly comes from mistakes that I made when I was
[21:09] racing that it's all I I had exactly the same thing that more
[21:13] must be better and trained myself into hospital.
[21:16] So it's like, well, let's not do that.
[21:18] Let's not have athletes do that. Let's stage this side of that.
[21:21] And there's always the voice going well, such and such is
[21:25] doing this session. So you can also.
[21:27] Yeah. Paris an absolute disaster, I
[21:30] think. Yeah, I mean, what you're
[21:31] talking about there is vulnerability, really.
[21:33] And I think vulnerability just has such a huge power.
[21:35] I I don't know, I mean, not in competitive sport maybe, but it
[21:38] as a human, as a leader in the workplace, as a parent, I think
[21:42] sharing vulnerability is not something I'm ever afraid of.
[21:45] And I think it holds huge power because it allows other people
[21:47] to be vulnerable too, which is just a relief.
[21:49] And then we can all help each other out, right?
[21:51] Like it's it's comforting for another athlete that you look at
[21:54] and think, wow, you've got this sorted to go.
[21:57] Yeah. But you know, when I started
[21:59] that climb or when I got into that water, I was absolutely
[22:02] breaking it. Yeah, You know, I had all these
[22:04] demons, but I overcame them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[22:08] Oh, it's so good that you say this.
[22:09] I think because I think so many people feel like this.
[22:13] So many people try to project an image of themselves that don't
[22:16] feel like this. And we're always going to be in
[22:18] that cycle. But I really hope there are
[22:20] people listening who are stuck in that like I could, I could
[22:23] never do that and then go actually maybe, maybe I could
[22:28] do. That yeah, it's.
[22:29] Maybe I could do that that we wouldn't get to, isn't it?
[22:32] That maybe I could. You can definitely do it if I
[22:34] can do it. I am no natural athlete
[22:37] whatsoever and I've got busy life.
[22:40] And if you think you're interested and maybe you could
[22:43] do it, I'm telling you, you can. But you've got to get coach Rob
[22:46] will be. Put you on Commission.
[22:50] Love it. All right, let's talk about how
[22:53] you balanced work life, family, training.
[22:56] Well, there were some 4:00 AM alarms.
[23:00] For sure. I so like I say, motivation is
[23:03] not an issue for me and the discipline, the structure really
[23:06] helps. So having that training plan,
[23:08] having the flexibility to move it around a bit as well, because
[23:11] you know, you'll deliver a training plan and it will have,
[23:14] you know, this session Monday and blah, blah, blah.
[23:15] And the ability to flex that around is helpful.
[23:19] And it just it that that sort of structure meant that if I'd, OK,
[23:24] I'd got to put, you know, half five, say to get to the pool at
[23:26] six. And I'd done a session and I'd
[23:28] gone to work and then there's a run on the plan.
[23:31] Without knowing that I've got that structure plan and there's
[23:34] a human the other end of it, I could easily persuade myself,
[23:37] oh, it's only 1/2 an hour round. Like what difference it's going
[23:39] to make that pushed me out the door will go through the
[23:42] motivation. I have to say, and this is
[23:45] probably not that helpful to people, but I just loved the
[23:48] training. There were hardly any sessions
[23:51] that I really, really didn't want to do.
[23:53] There was the 24K lake swims that I tried to get out of that
[23:57] you and Chris didn't let me. And there one maybe a couple of
[24:03] long, long rides when I was, you know, travelling.
[24:06] I I. Was in New York.
[24:07] For work at one point and I hired a bike and I cycled to New
[24:10] Jersey and nearly got run over by a, you know, monster truck.
[24:14] And that was kind of scary but kind of cool.
[24:17] And because I had that that discipline, it just pushed me to
[24:22] do the sessions. But honestly, I just I loved it
[24:26] and because I loved it, it felt like a privilege and a pleasure
[24:29] to fit it in. I I've already said more than
[24:33] once socialising is just is out the window for me really.
[24:36] But that's not I don't know if it's an age or stage thing but
[24:39] like that doesn't feel like a massive hardship to me right
[24:41] now. I prioritise sleep.
[24:44] So I'm one of those people that goes to bed at 8:30.
[24:46] Sorry I don't really exist after 8:00 PM so don't ask me out for
[24:49] dinner. If you want to go for breakfast
[24:51] at like 6 AMI am ready for that. I have a fairly flexible ish
[24:59] work situation. I mean, I work a standard
[25:02] corporate job, but I work home a couple of days.
[25:06] We have a very output based culture.
[25:09] So if you know, if the stuff is getting done, that's fine.
[25:13] I have an enormously supportive husband, which is again, not a
[25:18] given, and a massive privilege that, you know, that sort of
[25:23] enables me to disappear off for seven hours on a Saturday for a
[25:27] ride. I buy a run.
[25:31] Yeah. I just.
[25:32] I really enjoyed it. I really, really did.
[25:35] So it's a question of kind of putting aside a block of time
[25:38] from your life and saying right, for this, for this block of
[25:40] time, it's my project going to prioritise the prioritise the
[25:44] time to do it. I'm assuming there was a fair,
[25:48] well, I know there was, there was.
[25:50] It's really important, I think, isn't it with your your husband,
[25:53] your partner to kind of lay out ahead of time what this is going
[25:57] to involve. And I really think the way you
[25:59] did it was good. I'm going to sit down.
[26:01] I'm going to discuss what this is going to involve.
[26:04] Are you in or not? I think it's a much better way
[26:07] than doing it than I've entered this Iron Man, by the way, And
[26:11] now I'm going to have to train for.
[26:13] It well he's quite used to me you know, he's quite used to
[26:15] right what is it now? What now I did about five years
[26:19] ago, I trained to be a yoga teacher.
[26:21] So that involved, you know, long weekends where I would disappear
[26:25] off to do my teacher training and some non compulsory yoga
[26:29] treats and mutual places in the world.
[26:31] But he's kind of used to my and you're travelling where now and
[26:34] what now? So, you know, I that is I, I
[26:37] know that is extremely, I'm extremely lucky for that.
[26:40] But yeah, you're right. Expectation setting an
[26:43] expectation setting for yourself as well.
[26:45] And you've got a number of podcasts where it you kind of
[26:48] set out, you know, this is roughly what we're talking about
[26:50] here. We're roughly talking about a
[26:51] Max 3 hour run a few times and we're roughly talking about a
[26:54] Max 6 or 7 hour bike ride or whatever it is.
[26:57] And it's 3 swim sessions a week and you know that kind of thing.
[27:01] So I knew what I was letting myself in for.
[27:04] I think you can't, you can't just look at the Iron Man as the
[27:07] race and the medal and the tattoo and go, yeah, I'm going
[27:09] to do that. You've got to be realistic about
[27:12] what that means for you and your lifestyle.
[27:14] And also I think, you know, the easiest bit is pressing pay.
[27:18] Kind of expensive, but the easy. Yeah, yeah.
[27:20] That's. Right.
[27:20] Is pressing Pay, pay on the Iron Man website.
[27:23] And people would say to me, you know, oh, come on, like, can't
[27:26] you just miss the session? Or, you know, I did say no to a
[27:28] lot of stuff I have to say. There was like weekends in
[27:31] Ibiza. There was some work travel.
[27:33] There was, you know, social things that I did say no to.
[27:39] And I did have people kind of going, oh, come on, can you not?
[27:41] And I'm like, this is my goal. So no, I can't, sorry.
[27:47] And people don't always get that.
[27:48] And that is challenging. But you know, yeah, the, the
[27:51] hard bit is the 4:00 AM alarm. It's the missing social events.
[27:57] It's the missing time at home that is what's hard.
[28:00] And I think I can't remember because you or Chris said, you
[28:03] know, when you get to the start of that Iron Man, you know that
[28:06] the hardest bit is done. And you look around you at
[28:09] everyone else in their wetsuits and you all know what it's taken
[28:11] to get there. And it's not nothing.
[28:14] Yeah, Yeah. Let's, let's talk a little bit
[28:17] about the New York thing because I have not had a chance to to
[28:20] talk and ask you about this because I was blown away.
[28:22] I was having nosy in your training picks and I knew you'd
[28:25] gone to New York for a week's worth of work.
[28:28] And it was was it 3 weeks out from race day from memory?
[28:31] It was a bit. It was a bit 5 weeks ago.
[28:33] I had my. I did my race.
[28:35] SIM It was your first race SIM at 5 weeks out was it?
[28:38] That's right, five weeks. I did my first race SIM and I
[28:40] literally booked my flight to New York, to New York to allow
[28:43] myself to fit the race SIM in Thursday night, Friday, Saturday
[28:46] morning, flew Saturday afternoon.
[28:48] So I've done my first race SIM. So yeah, it was 5 weeks out,
[28:51] yeah. And you and you literally you're
[28:55] in the centre of New York City and you rented a bike and your
[28:58] ride pretty much looked like you rode N for 56 miles in the
[29:03] straight line. I was looking at this and
[29:04] zooming in on the map and going. Looks like you've ridden past
[29:07] Central Park and like once. I did, yeah.
[29:11] I mean, you've got to get out of Manhattan pretty quick.
[29:14] It was mad. It was mad.
[29:16] So I crossed the the George Washington Bridge, which is on
[29:19] the on the West side of Manhattan, so into New Jersey.
[29:23] But, and I'm cycling along on this.
[29:25] It's pretty nice road bike to be fair that I that I rented just
[29:29] thinking, I mean, it felt surreal cycling down these
[29:33] massive highways with these huge trucks going.
[29:37] But I mean, it wasn't the nicest ride actually.
[29:38] And what I ended up doing was just going on Strava and kind of
[29:42] searching for routes and finding someone that looked like they
[29:44] were a fairly sensible cyclist and just taking one of their
[29:47] routes. And it was a bit of a slog and
[29:51] it was a little bit scary. But when I came back into
[29:53] Manhattan, you know, whatever, 150K in or whatever it was doing
[29:59] that far, actually, I did feel like, wow, I am like Pat on the
[30:04] back for me. Like well done me, because it
[30:06] would have been. What an escapade.
[30:08] Yeah, it was. It was an adventure.
[30:09] It was an adventure. Not that we're endorsing rides
[30:13] through the centre of Manhattan on a road bike at midday on a
[30:16] Saturday, but, you know, well done for surviving it.
[30:19] There is a there is a cycle path actually that runs up all almost
[30:23] of of that side of Manhattan in a way that's almost scarier
[30:28] because it's got, you know, dogs, people, roller bladers,
[30:32] kids. It was actually better.
[30:34] I got off that. But yes, thank you first always.
[30:37] But it was it was kind of hairy, like I was pointing and clinging
[30:40] it a little bit sometimes. But it's, you know, it's, it's
[30:46] kind of, you know, I wanted to go to New York.
[30:48] I love New York and, and the opportunity was there and it
[30:50] was, you know, it was a work thing and I wanted to go and I
[30:52] just and I guess that's it. When you ask how you fit it in,
[30:56] it's like, what can you do? So, you know, I had AI had a
[30:59] full rest day on the day that I travelled after the race SIM.
[31:03] And then on the Monday morning I had to be at the office and I
[31:07] also had a three hour run to do. So the arm went off at 3:45 and
[31:12] the banana and the oats I'd snaffled from somewhere the day
[31:15] before got eaten and out I went in the dark and I ran for three
[31:19] hours and I showered and I went to the office and I looked my
[31:22] colleagues in the eye who'd sort of, you know, gone, oh God, you
[31:25] know, a bit tired this morning. And I thought.
[31:30] You know, and I'm loving the memories this is bringing back
[31:33] for me from doing similar things back in the day.
[31:38] And just like just enjoy it. This is to you, not the
[31:43] listeners, but enjoy and cherish that because I think I didn't
[31:46] realise at the time how few of those was going to be, it felt
[31:50] when I was in the maelstrom of it.
[31:51] I'll be doing stuff like this forever.
[31:54] And it turns out as you get the other side of, you know,
[31:57] whatever. 4550, even older. It turns out that it doesn't go
[32:02] on forever and those escapades will perhaps change over time,
[32:05] but I look back on that and think I'm glad I did that back
[32:08] when I back when I needed to do it.
[32:10] The three hour pre work run. Yeah, I think you make a really
[32:15] good point because it's easy to look at these things as a chore,
[32:20] but it's such a privilege. And I on the one hand, I've had
[32:24] to say no to a lot of things and I've also been called boring by
[32:27] people, friends, inverted commas, friends and been told,
[32:33] you know, that I need to to live a little.
[32:35] But if this if that isn't living, I don't know what it is.
[32:38] You know, it's just it's just grabbing.
[32:41] It's just grabbing everything, isn't it?
[32:43] Every opportunity and it feels, you know, I I finished that
[32:46] three hour dawn right and run and I finished it in Central
[32:51] Park and I'm walked back to my hotel and I did think I just
[32:54] felt bloody great. And that feeling carries with me
[32:58] into the rest of, you know, into the rest of my day or the rest
[33:01] of my week. And there's nothing like it.
[33:03] Nothing like it. Brilliant, right?
[33:07] Let's go to race day. We've talked about, we've talked
[33:09] training, talk us through the race.
[33:10] For anyone who's not not been out or heard of, say it again
[33:15] for me, Vic. Gas days, I hope I'm saying it
[33:18] right to the to this any Spanish people listening Yeah.
[33:22] So it's in northern Spain and the reason I chose that one was
[33:26] because it was a lake swim so I don't know I mean, you've been
[33:29] in the sea with me, Robin. You know it's not my favourite
[33:31] thing to do I just. Yeah, I'd love to one day
[33:35] conquer a big sea swim, but no, the lake swim was important and
[33:38] then it's a rolling bike, which felt sensible, and then a
[33:41] completely flat marathon, which definitely sensible and on your.
[33:46] Transition. Is that right?
[33:48] Is it? Yes, it's a split transition.
[33:50] You've got your bike racked with your bike stuff next to the
[33:56] lake, and then you've got a whole separate area where you're
[33:59] going to drop off your bike and you'll run stuff.
[34:01] So that was interesting. Admins, So much admins, so much
[34:04] logistics, which I can talk about.
[34:08] That was something, you know, control the controllable and all
[34:10] that. Yeah.
[34:14] And the Iron Man website says that the average temperature in
[34:18] northern Spain at that time of the year is 23°.
[34:20] So it was in July and I thought, OK, cool, all of that was not
[34:25] 23°. And again, Coach Chris got the
[34:30] got the panics cool for me going, Oh my God, it's going to
[34:34] be 32°. I can't do it.
[34:37] Did a bit of heat acclamation training, which some teamwork's
[34:40] genetic podcasts are available on what that entails.
[34:44] And that felt like a big panic in the, in the, we're cleaning
[34:46] up, you know, we had this heat wave across Europe.
[34:48] And I thought, no, this is, this is not going to be good.
[34:52] But it was great. You know, the, the registration,
[34:55] we gave ourselves plenty of time.
[34:57] So we got there on the Friday, had Friday afternoon to
[34:59] register, had all day Saturday, which felt like a lot.
[35:02] But actually, particularly given split transition and admin, it
[35:05] was about right. And we went and swam in the
[35:07] lake, just, you know, had a little 10 minutes of
[35:10] breaststroke on the Saturday morning, which was lovely.
[35:13] And again, able to then visualise, you know, what it
[35:15] would feel like in the water and always giving me goosebumps
[35:19] thinking about it. And, and we drove a bit of the
[35:23] bike course as well, which of course, you know, is absolutely
[35:25] not open to it, you know, available for everyone.
[35:27] But we did do that and that was good.
[35:29] Again, just to have a bit of visualisation.
[35:31] It's a 2 1/2 lap bike course and the run is mad.
[35:36] It's just in and out and up and down all the streets around the
[35:38] city and for Lapa. So you'd never be able to recce
[35:41] that out. So I did, I took my bike over,
[35:44] but I had it delivered by, by by team Truck, who are a company
[35:49] that will pick it up from a service station and deliver it
[35:51] in one piece for you because I couldn't deal with bike boxes
[35:54] and mechanics and all that. So yeah, lots of setting up.
[35:59] Registration was great. It's I have to say, I mean, I
[36:02] thought, you know, Iron Man, it's just a brand, you know, why
[36:05] is everyone so, so mad on doing that?
[36:07] But the organisation is second to none.
[36:09] I mean, so slick. So registration was great.
[36:14] And then yeah, a lot of list. So you provide a race day
[36:20] checklist, which I started filling in about a month before
[36:25] and I refined and refined to refined.
[36:27] And I mean, probably no one's race day checklist is as long as
[36:31] mine was and it was printed out and it was, you know, not quite
[36:35] eliminated. But basically this is my A type
[36:38] personality coming out knowing that I was so anxious about
[36:42] executing the actual yes, I was controlling to the NTH degree.
[36:45] Folder colour coded whole deal. Yeah, well, if that's what you
[36:50] need, it's what you need. It's better to to talk the mind
[36:53] down and let it run rings around you, I suppose.
[36:56] It just kept me calm and I had lists upon list.
[36:59] So I was with a friend and we were sharing her rooms again and
[37:00] I think she on the one hand appreciated me standing there
[37:03] going right. So now we're going to pack our
[37:04] tea one bag and have we got bite socks and we were ticking off
[37:09] the things. But on the other hand, I think
[37:10] when I got out the list on the morning which said put deodorant
[37:15] on, brush teeth, apply sun cream, put Tri suit on and she
[37:19] was like, wow, OK, we're on that level of eat banana, you know, I
[37:24] mean, and this is what kept me calm.
[37:27] It just did. It kept me calm.
[37:29] So I felt pretty sort of high levels of not anxiety, but
[37:32] excitement sort of the day before.
[37:35] But actually, funnily enough, on race morning, I felt completely
[37:38] calm, completely calm. The earth least like Paddy I had
[37:43] was that we got there with the leg at the time.
[37:45] So they'd bust you out of the city to the lake and we'd
[37:48] wrecked the bikes the day before.
[37:49] And then you can go in and add your nutrition onto the bike and
[37:52] check your stuff and blah, blah, blah.
[37:53] And then of course you join the, the queue for the Portillo when
[37:56] you're putting your wetsuit on. And, and I was wearing, I'd
[37:59] bought some of those expensive recovery flip flops and, and I
[38:06] was, what had those on my feet. And they give you 2 swim caps if
[38:10] you are, if it's the first time. So this is like a, you know,
[38:12] just like a cute little thing that they do.
[38:14] So it was the green swim cap and everyone has to wear an Iron Man
[38:17] swim caps to swim. And then there was a purple one
[38:19] for first timers. And it says something like I
[38:21] will become or something like that, said you can choose which
[38:23] one. So I had to show them my purple
[38:24] one. And I'd packed my green one away
[38:26] in my suitcase at the hotel. And I don't speak Spanish, but
[38:30] the friend knows who does. And as I came out the Portugal,
[38:32] she went now nothing to worry about.
[38:35] But they've just said over the tanoi that you're not allowed to
[38:37] wear the purple cat. So we need to get you a green
[38:39] cat. She was like, no worries.
[38:40] And I was like, no, how are we going to do that?
[38:43] Don't know, but just cheer what's fine?
[38:45] And so we found a Marshall and they're like, no, no, no, the
[38:47] tanoi was wrong. You're fine.
[38:48] Purple swimming caps fine. OK cool and chill to hand in my
[38:52] final bag which had my post race clothes in it and I handed it in
[38:56] and I ran off still in a bit of a panic.
[38:58] The heart rate spiked a bit and I was still wearing my expensive
[39:01] slider and I was like. No, I.
[39:04] Put my bag in. But again, that testament to the
[39:06] amazing I man volunteers who are throwing these identical bags
[39:10] into the back of a truck a pile. I just showed him my race number
[39:14] and two of them made it their mission to find my bag and take
[39:18] my side of me and put them in. So that was my own little moment
[39:22] of kind of like, you know, disorganisation.
[39:25] But it shows you how it is that important to keep the mind as
[39:29] calm as possible because you instantly, well for me anyway, I
[39:32] instantly just lost it when something suddenly didn't seem
[39:35] to go to go right. So that was, yeah, that was the
[39:40] kind of pre, pre race, you know, before I'd even got in the
[39:43] water. OK, excitement.
[39:47] I think that happens more than people realise.
[39:49] I think people forget things. I remember coming home from my
[39:52] first 70.3 and a week later thinking I'll go for a swim in
[39:55] the sea and realising I had no wet suit.
[39:57] I was thinking Oh my wet suit's back in Lambaris and the phone
[40:02] in the organisers and they were like yeah we've got like 47 bags
[40:07] here still with what's the address?
[40:09] So I think it's quite, quite common that they get people
[40:11] forget things. So how was your swim?
[40:14] So the so just pre swim when you're in the pesos self seed
[40:19] here. And so I put myself in the 1:30
[40:24] one hour 30 thinking I might swim about 1:35-ish.
[40:28] And I'm standing there and they do the whole, you know, the
[40:31] music's playing and they've got you know, they're doing the
[40:33] clapping and everything. And I was crying already.
[40:36] I'd gone and lots of people crying around around me as well.
[40:40] So that felt amazing. And then it's a rolling start,
[40:42] which is just the best. I've done one Master before and
[40:46] it was horror. I hated it.
[40:48] Everyone come thrashing over each other.
[40:50] So they do it, you know, there's like 5 tunnels and you just go
[40:52] up and they let 5 people in at a time, few seconds.
[40:55] They took five more people. So that was brilliant.
[40:57] So I got in and I just kept thinking, Oh my God, this is it.
[41:01] I'm tearing an eye of man. I'm in the water.
[41:03] I'm swimming. And I said this to you before,
[41:07] to you before, Rob, but you and and Chris particularly were in
[41:10] my head the whole way. Honestly.
[41:15] Really. Yeah.
[41:16] Like I just. I can only apologise.
[41:20] Yeah, I mean, after 14 hours it got a bit old.
[41:22] But no, I just kept thinking just stay calm.
[41:24] Just stay calm. Keep the heart rate low, stay
[41:27] chilled like you've got plan. All you've got to do is execute
[41:30] it. Now you're here, you're in your
[41:31] wet suit, you're swimming, you've just got to keep going.
[41:33] So it was fine. I don't love swimming.
[41:36] It's not my best thing. My technique probably still
[41:38] needs some help. I've never really swum on feet
[41:42] before as I tried a bit of that. It was quite fun.
[41:45] It was a lot. It's a, it's a horseshoe shape,
[41:49] so it's a great and the mortar is amazing.
[41:52] And it was pretty calm and it was overcast.
[41:54] Oh yeah. So the weather, it was like 27°
[41:56] and overcast. So it was actually OK.
[41:58] And yeah, I just got it done. I just got it done.
[42:01] I, I allowed myself to have a few pauses and do a bit of
[42:04] breast stroke just to chill. And I came in at about 1:39, but
[42:08] I'd really taken it slow and steady.
[42:09] So whilst I know I could have, I could probably have pushed to
[42:12] 130 actually. That was the that was the right
[42:15] way to do it for me and I got out the mortar and it was like
[42:18] right tick. And as I was doing my last sort
[42:20] of 200 metres ish coming in, I started to visualise his
[42:23] theotype Actionist again. I started to visualise T1.
[42:29] I think that's a really good idea.
[42:30] That's a really good tip for people, yeah.
[42:32] As you're approaching the show to start to picture what it is
[42:35] that you need to do. Great point.
[42:37] Literally like kick the kick fast, you know, stand up, start
[42:41] to unzip the wetsuit, put the goggles on my forehead.
[42:43] You know, it was really meticulous and what are each of
[42:47] the things and I I told myself for each transition, everything
[42:52] in your transition bag is there for a reason.
[42:54] Everything you've put in there is there for a reason.
[42:56] It's not because, oh, I might transcend this or I might want
[42:59] that. So I just kind of had this mind
[43:00] of like, right, why is there sun cream there?
[43:03] Slap it on. Why is there, you know, whatever
[43:06] and just kind of tipped it all out and just went through each
[43:09] thing and I wasn't rushing like I was never I'm not there to
[43:12] qualify for Conan. I'm there to execute, you know,
[43:16] within the time. And so I just kind of took my
[43:20] time a bit, ate a whole cross bun.
[43:21] It's my secret weapon and I got myself together.
[43:25] I did have a little when I ran out into the I probably didn't
[43:29] run. I was probably sauntering.
[43:30] But when I went out to get my bike, I did kind of look around
[43:33] at this like, you know, to where previously there had been 2000
[43:37] bikes and think, oh wow, we are quite far back here.
[43:39] There's not a lot of bikes left here.
[43:42] But but rolling star. Rolling star.
[43:45] Yeah, true. That's the other thing, you just
[43:48] agree. Yeah, yeah, true.
[43:50] So, yeah. So I got on my bike and I, I got
[43:52] on my way again just thinking, Oh my goodness, I am doing an
[43:55] Iron Man. And it was like, OK, tick,
[43:57] you've done the swim and you've done T1, right.
[44:00] What happens next? And again, it was about so I
[44:03] just, I said, I said to one of my friends, like my word
[44:07] throughout all of this was calm. Just stay calm.
[44:11] So I got on the bike as I right run bike and we haven't we have
[44:14] a nutrition plan and we know what that nutrition plan is.
[44:17] And I knew in my head it was every 20 minutes and it was
[44:20] going to be PF and H2, PF and H gel 1/3 of a stacker bar repeat.
[44:28] And I knew what fluid I wanted and what I had and that was it.
[44:32] That's what I'm going to do. And I had the cut off times.
[44:34] They're actually still on this on my bike.
[44:36] Celotex to my bike because the cut off times inventory are a
[44:39] bit of use a bit mean. Yeah, they're quite tight only
[44:42] there. So I just wanted to have that in
[44:45] my head and I like to do maths when I, you know, whilst I'm
[44:47] going. So I just kept like thinking OK.
[44:50] And then I had my power metre and I was just relentlessly
[44:53] looking at the watts, hearing your voice and knowing exactly
[44:57] what what's I needed to be doing 60 to 70% of my FTP.
[45:01] And I just kept looking at it. I'm not looking at the speed,
[45:04] I'm looking at the watts and I'm just sticking to it and that is
[45:06] it. And I, I mean, I literally, I
[45:09] had a plan and I executed it and it was that simple really.
[45:12] And I know in the run up to it you'd had some concerns about
[45:15] the cut off and bike pace and stuff.
[45:17] How did it? How did it play out on race day?
[45:19] It was fine. I mean it wasn't, I wasn't miles
[45:24] of space in between. I can't remember them now.
[45:26] The swim cut off is like the standard 2 hours 20.
[45:29] So I obviously came in well within that.
[45:30] And then there's I think 3 cut offs within, within the bike and
[45:35] I knew exactly where they were and what, you know, what comes
[45:39] as they were where they were clicked on the map.
[45:42] Of course I had. And you know, and then I was
[45:44] just doing maths and I'm thinking, OK, well, if I'm
[45:46] keeping these watts, this is translating to this speed, which
[45:49] means I think I had, I think I was like within sort of 50
[45:53] minutes of the first cut off and then probably within an hour of
[45:57] the second cut off and overall. And once I got on the run, I
[46:01] knew I was fine because the run and cut offs become more
[46:03] generous, if you know what I mean.
[46:05] Yeah, but overall I was within an hour and 15 only if the full
[46:09] cut off. So it wasn't, you know, it
[46:11] wasn't a given. Yeah, but it was more than I
[46:14] think you thought you were going to have, wasn't it?
[46:16] At one point there's I remember one year we coached a lady who
[46:20] had a catastrophic tyre and puncture failure at the start of
[46:24] IMO Wales and ended up being the very last person on the course
[46:28] riding in front of the broom waggon, the hallway, like
[46:31] chasing the to within 30 seconds of each cut off, like drilling
[46:35] it to get through each cut off. And yeah, so I think it's good
[46:39] for for listeners to reflect your mind can play tricks on you
[46:43] along the way. And I think while that that can
[46:45] be a good thing to get you out of the door to get the training
[46:48] done, the difference in reality to having an hour 15, an hour 30
[46:54] to beat the cut off and and how it may be felt six weeks out,
[46:57] which was might not make the bike cut off.
[47:00] It ended up being quite a lot of latitude, doesn't it?
[47:03] Yeah. That said, you know, I didn't
[47:06] have a mechanical and well, I say that I meticulously planned
[47:11] everything I can control. The one thing that I really must
[47:14] get on top of this year going into next season is that I do
[47:17] not know how to change a tyre. Yeah.
[47:20] I, I don't and. I think that's super, super
[47:23] common. Yeah, super, super gun.
[47:25] So anyone who's listening, you get online right now and you buy
[47:27] a pair of yellow Pedro's tyre levers.
[47:30] I got them. I did get but that's it.
[47:33] I'm confident you could have worked out how to use those to
[47:35] get a tyre off. Can you get it off?
[47:38] I'm not sure. I get it back on again.
[47:40] And, and, and I think my, the mental thing would have kicked
[47:44] in and I just would have gone right.
[47:45] That's it. We're off.
[47:46] I'm I'm done. Come.
[47:48] Over it's what probably would have happened so it's kind of
[47:50] ironic that I say I prep and plan and plan and plan and plan
[47:53] but I completely buried my head in the sand that I thought well
[47:56] I ride tubeless I've never again I shouldn't say this but I've
[48:00] never had a puncture on a ride ever.
[48:04] So I. Think it's really common.
[48:06] A lot of people, a lot of people approach it that way.
[48:09] So there you go. There's your homework before
[48:10] next season you get I'm going to send you a little Christmas gift
[48:13] and it's just going to say inside it, go and change your
[48:16] tyre, change it before you need to.
[48:18] Yeah, that's there. That's the thing.
[48:20] Yeah. But honestly, for anyone
[48:21] listening, those yellow actually be sponsored by them.
[48:23] Yellow Pedros, bike levers. They're so they're so strong
[48:27] that they could pretty much take a car tyre off a car.
[48:29] And I think some of the free ones you get with, I'm not
[48:33] mentioning any names here, Continental, some of the free
[48:36] ones you get within a tube. So they're like chewing gum, you
[48:39] know, hopeless. So we're through the bike leg.
[48:43] Yes, we did it. We did it, we ticked it off.
[48:46] We're onto the marathon. Yes, at this point you, I mean,
[48:50] there's a long way to go, but. So I think I've always felt like
[48:54] running is my thing. So I'm not saying my marathon,
[48:57] it's like 350. I'm not, it's actually 352.
[49:00] I shouldn't say I shouldn't rely on a podcast, should I?
[49:03] So I'm not super fast. It's not that, but I just feel
[49:07] like I know how to do it. My body knows how to run 42
[49:09] kilometres. And in my mind, I thought once I
[49:12] get off that bike, I we've got this.
[49:16] But that's foolish really. Because, and again, there you
[49:20] are in my head the whole way. The way you perform on the bike
[49:23] is to protect your marathon. So I had a bit of a so that the
[49:27] weather was still kind to me on the bike.
[49:29] I had about 3 hours of sunshine, which, you know, was pretty hard
[49:32] going. And then we had a storm, which
[49:34] is obviously not ideal when you're riding soaking wet roads.
[49:38] But what it meant was that I cooled down and I was soaking
[49:41] soaked through. But it also meant I speed up.
[49:45] I just forgot I abandoned watts and speed and just pedalled hard
[49:49] for the last like 45 minutes because I was worried because
[49:52] there's lightning and everything.
[49:53] I was really worried they were going to pull me off the course
[49:56] and I just, that would have oh God.
[49:58] So, so I'd peddled pretty hard in and I just, I felt great.
[50:02] I had a big smile on my face and I just thought this is it.
[50:05] We've got this and it's cool at Victoria because you feel like a
[50:08] rock star because you get off the bike.
[50:10] I sort of the dismount line came to me before I realised it was
[50:12] coming. And I mean, I managed to get off
[50:14] before, but I sort of jumped off and these volunteers just come
[50:17] and they grab your bike off you and it's like you're a rock
[50:19] star. It's really cool.
[50:21] So then I pulled off my bike shoes and I ran along the, the
[50:24] wet cobbles down to T2 just thinking, Oh my God, who would?
[50:30] And the crowds had thinned out a bit because of the, because of
[50:32] the weather, obviously. But again, it's like calm in T2.
[50:35] Everything's in your bag for a reason.
[50:37] And I had a bit of a decision around sunglasses and sun hat
[50:39] and I decided to leave them because it was the sun had gone
[50:43] and it's kind of mostly in the shade anyway.
[50:46] So I did all that, got my shoes on, walked up the ramp
[50:50] purposefully not spiking the heart rate, and I got going and
[50:54] it's a fall after, which I thought would be awful
[50:58] psychologically, but because it's such a mad course, like I
[51:00] said, in and out and in and out, you really know where you are.
[51:05] What can I say about the marathon?
[51:07] I mean, I kept thinking surely a dark hole in coming at some
[51:12] point and it didn't really. I.
[51:17] Did my 91 my my run 9 minutes walk one minute religiously,
[51:24] which is great and it just I just think it's incredible.
[51:28] So for anyone listening that hasn't tried this method before,
[51:30] I think I just think it's amazing.
[51:32] I mean, the, the physiological benefits and to somehow that one
[51:36] minute just enables you to keep going.
[51:39] And then so that was great. And again, my, my nutrition was,
[51:43] well, I have my plan with the nutrition and I did kind of let
[51:46] it go a little bit throughout the marathon because I'd had
[51:51] however many gels and chews that I'd had and I knew I needed to
[51:54] keep feeling. I knew I did.
[51:56] And I knew I was really well hydrated already, but I just at
[52:00] the aid stations I kind of just grabbed what I fancied and I
[52:04] had. And obviously we shouldn't do
[52:06] this. Never do this, never do
[52:07] something on race that you haven't done in training.
[52:09] But I did the full fat coke thing and it's just deliciously
[52:14] cold. It's so good.
[52:16] I don't know how they do it, but like they're just amazing
[52:19] cobbled coke. It was just.
[52:21] Very good. Never had cold coke in a race
[52:24] because you have you have the opposite experience.
[52:26] If you race like I'm a niece, you get a cup of, let's call it
[52:31] lukewarm at best, Coke. Yeah, I mean it was boiling hot
[52:35] and but they just obviously were refrigerating it, so.
[52:38] That's amazing. So I did my 91 and I kept that
[52:42] going and it felt pretty good. I would say the first two laps,
[52:45] so kind of 20 K. So about to the halfway point, I
[52:48] felt good. I was in my within my pace and
[52:51] then on the third lap a lady, a lady sort of came up to my left
[52:55] shoulder and said, do you speak English?
[52:56] I said yes. She said, are you English?
[52:57] I said yes. She said, do you want to chat?
[53:00] And I was like, sure. And she was on her 4th lap and
[53:02] struggling. So we kind of talked to each
[53:04] other around my third and her 4th lap she went off to the
[53:06] finish line and that's The funny thing.
[53:09] So you, you pass the finish line three times before you get to
[53:12] cross the go down the red carpet.
[53:13] So each time I past it, I burst into this because I'm just, you
[53:17] know, I've been crying all day. So, you know, and I'm just
[53:20] waiting. I can hear people, you know, you
[53:21] are, and I'm crossing the finish line.
[53:23] I'm thinking it's coming for me. I'm I've just got to get there.
[53:26] And so towards the end of my third and into my 4th up, I, I,
[53:30] the wheels came off a bit. I started to get a bit of a
[53:33] tummy ache and to feel a bit dodgy and like, I think I need
[53:35] to be the Portillo. Anyway, not too much detail, all
[53:39] fine. Did what I needed to do, carried
[53:42] on by this point, it's kind of starting to get dark and
[53:47] earlier. I don't really exist in the
[53:48] evenings. And I'm thinking, hang on a
[53:49] minute, it's like 9:00 PM and I've been going since whatever
[53:53] time this morning. And I just felt tired.
[53:55] I felt like I want to sit down now, please.
[53:58] Like quite let's close my eyes actually, if you don't mind.
[54:01] So I was a little bit fed up at that point, but it was fine.
[54:04] And yeah, once I was within kind of five Ki, just, I was just
[54:09] desperate, just desperate to finish.
[54:12] And yeah, running down that red carpet and ringing the bell and
[54:15] crossing the finish line was, I mean, I the photo, the finish
[54:19] voters are funny because I'm bawling my eyes out just through
[54:24] pride. I was so proud.
[54:26] Just yeah, it was amazing. Bet Yeah, yeah.
[54:29] Well done. Thank you.
[54:30] Well done. I did it.
[54:34] Yeah. Yeah.
[54:35] And I, I actually watched you finish on the little the Iron
[54:38] Man app did you? I had said they have like A and
[54:42] it isn't, it isn't actually real time.
[54:44] You don't have GPS drive, but they have a little dot that
[54:46] represents it. And I happen to be scanning
[54:47] through as I often do on a, a Saturday or a Sunday when the
[54:50] races are on. And I was like, oh, look at
[54:52] this. There's the bells coming in to
[54:53] the finish. So we kind of, I was kind of
[54:56] there in spirit. I can't believe everyone but.
[54:59] As I said, you're in my head for pretty well 14 hours.
[55:02] Thank you. What advice would you give to
[55:07] somebody who who's in the same position you were a year ago,
[55:11] two years ago, and maybe they're thinking about entering the
[55:13] first Iron Man, maybe they're not sure they can do it or not.
[55:16] Having learnt what you've learnt what, what advice would you give
[55:18] them? Well, on the one hand, I would
[55:20] say just do it. But I would say that with the
[55:22] caveat of that which we've already discussed, which is just
[55:26] do it, but do it knowing what you're getting into.
[55:29] So think, you know, have a look at, you know, listen to some of
[55:33] these podcasts and just get a, a sense of what the training is
[55:36] like. But if the, you know, if you
[55:39] think you can fit in around your lifestyle, if you think you can
[55:42] dedicate the hours, you know, it's, it's not a huge amount of
[55:44] hours per week. I mean, it, it is a lot of
[55:47] volume, but it's not insane. And if you think you can do it
[55:51] logistically and the thing that's holding you back is your
[55:54] mindset, then I would say absolutely take that challenge
[55:57] on and and, and do it because you can.
[56:00] But you, you absolutely can. Yeah.
[56:04] And sign up the team Oxygen, Alex.
[56:05] Obviously. Honestly not, honestly not
[56:09] looking for, you know, free membership or anything like
[56:11] that, but you know, when something it is great.
[56:15] I will chat about it. And you know, I, as I've said to
[56:18] you before, I just, it, it works and it, it worked for me and I,
[56:23] it just, I had a plan and I, I went and carried out the plan.
[56:28] And, you know, that is, yeah, you could probably figure out a
[56:32] plan by yourself on the Internet.
[56:35] But there is just something about having that wealth of
[56:38] experience and that human at the end of the, you know, behind the
[56:42] training plan that can help you adapt, that can give you the
[56:45] advice, that can just give you the little light.
[56:48] Come on, you've got this. Let's go.
[56:51] That was just invaluable to me. Oh.
[56:54] I appreciate you saying that it's very candy and I'm I'm
[56:56] really genuinely glad that that it worked for you.
[57:00] Last question, what's what have you learned about yourself
[57:04] through this Iron Man journey that may be you weren't
[57:08] expecting to learn? I think I knew I would.
[57:18] I knew I would dedicate and give my all to the training.
[57:21] So it's not that I sort of look at the sessions that I did over
[57:26] the time and think, you know, wow, I did that because I kind
[57:28] of knew that I would because that's sort of who I am.
[57:32] But I think what I've learned is that you can go quite far into
[57:40] some deep dark holes. And like I said, it wasn't so
[57:43] much on actual race day. And you can overcome that with
[57:48] the strength, you know, with the mental, mental strength and
[57:51] resilience. And I think I've also learned
[57:56] that how to put this eloquently, I'm not quite sure what I mean
[58:01] when I say this. I'll give an example, but I had
[58:04] one training session where I did this 4K lake swim and I just
[58:08] hated it so much. And I think it was, it was
[58:11] either you or or Chris that kind of got the the download of that.
[58:14] Like it was awful. I hated it.
[58:15] There's no way I could get on a bike at the end of it.
[58:17] You know, this is just can't happen.
[58:18] Well, this is stupid. I hate it.
[58:19] Why am I doing? And then not long after, you
[58:23] know, two or three weeks later, I came to do the same thing
[58:25] again and it was great. And I got out the water
[58:29] thinking, yeah, get me on a bike.
[58:30] We've got this. And so I think it's a good
[58:33] lesson for life, which is what is true one day will not
[58:37] necessarily be true the next. And I actually said to Chris
[58:42] before I did my last race SIM, so what's that 3, two or three
[58:45] weeks out from race day? I said to him, I've this has got
[58:49] to go well, you know, race SIM weekend has to go well.
[58:52] And he was like, oh, how about it doesn't have to go well
[58:55] because you'll learn some stuff. And I was like, I do was kind of
[59:00] going you have to have a really good race him because that's the
[59:03] only way you can enter taper feeling confident.
[59:07] But he gave me a complete different perspective, which is
[59:09] like, you can have an awful race him doesn't mean you're not
[59:12] going to execute on race day. It just means you've got some
[59:14] stuff to learn. Luckily, I had a really good
[59:17] race him, but it was a very interesting reframe of that kind
[59:20] of all or nothing thinking that I contended to do.
[59:24] That is what I've learned. Yeah, nice.
[59:28] Hey, we'll listen on on behalf of of us like well done before,
[59:33] but Pat on the back, it's a massive achievement to complete
[59:36] an Iron Man and it represents an awful lot of early mornings,
[59:41] hard work, dedication, but also overcoming that voice that's
[59:44] continually telling you, you know what, you can't do this.
[59:48] So there's probably 10,000 negotiations have gone on along
[59:51] the way, maybe more. So well done for, well done for
[59:55] continuing to win those negotiations.
[59:57] Thank you so much. Thank you.
[1:00:00] All right, we'll wrap this up here then.
[1:00:02] Thank you so much for joining us, Isabel.
[1:00:04] I hope listeners you've enjoyed hearing her story.
[1:00:07] Just to wrap up today's episode, here are some discount codes and
[1:00:10] deals for you. Precision fuel and hydration.
[1:00:13] We've we've mentioned those and heard how great they were for
[1:00:16] Isabel during her journey. You can use the code Oxygen Fuel
[1:00:19] 25 for 15% of your first electrolyte order there and over
[1:00:23] team oxygen addicts. If you're interested in coaching
[1:00:25] for 70.3 or Iron Man for this season or coming season, please
[1:00:29] get in touch. There's a link in the show
[1:00:30] notes. We'll have a chat with you on a
[1:00:32] membership call and see if you'd be a good fit for joining the
[1:00:34] team. And who knows, you might manage
[1:00:36] to end up on a training camp next to Isabel next year.
[1:00:40] Oh wait. Oh, wait.
[1:00:42] So remember, there's links in the show notes so you don't have
[1:00:44] to remember them. Until next week.
[1:00:46] Have a great safe training and racing week.
[1:00:48] I'm coach Rob will be. And you've been listening to the
[1:00:50] Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.

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