Week IM – 16: Crossing the “He’s Crazy” Line

Sometimes when talking to people that aren’t hugely into sport (or whatever you want to call endurance racing), they’ll ask about distances or training regimes. As you begin to talk, it’s often possible to observe an interesting set of stages in their reaction.

“I usually swim in the mornings before work”

-“So you’re a swimmer? That’s good. You must be tired in the evenings”

“I go running some evenings also. I do most training at the weekend”

-“Oh.. And how long is this race?”

“Fairly long – 3.9km swim, 182km cycle and a marathon”

“Oh…kaaayy”

At this point, the empathy at the start of the conversation is gone. At first they appreciated what you’re doing. A bit of a challenge perhaps. Then they hear a bit more and think they’d certainly have no wish to do such a thing.. Then they ask the distance of the IM race. At this point, there is an obvious transition. This is the point at which they think to themselves “Yeah. He’s as mad as a bag of spiders”. And that’s usually the end of the conversation.

I know this because I used to think it myself while reading a similar blog by an Irish female training for Ironman Hawaii. She was getting up between 5 and 6 am to run, before swimming before work. I thought it unbelievable at the time.

The reason I noticed this a lot this week is because of a cycle on Saturday. I was staying in a hotel for the weekend with a buffet breakfast. It seemed like the correct course of action to go in hungry. I got up at 6:45am and met Vinny down on the coast road near Dublin city. We cycled through Dun Laoghaire and along the coast road through Killiney, Dalkey, Shankhill, Shanghana and Bray. It wasn’t windy and there were no cars on the road at all. It was the perfect time to cycle..

It was somewhat of an experiment but it worked out very well. You can take my word for it!

I did a lot of swimming this week. I did three sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday covering 5.45Km.

On Friday, I headed up to Tibradden and Three Rock mountain to run. I’d forgotten how much fun mountain running is. The top is still covered in snow, which made for some fun stepping-stone running through it in runners. There’s a great view from the top. The Wicklow mountains still look like they’re stuck in an ice age and there’s a view across the whole of Dublin and Dublin Bay.

4 Months to Switzerland.