Ironman Wales

How do I stop myself riding too hard on hills when there are crowds and there's a race atmosphere getting me really excited? So this is a question...

that has come directly from an athlete that raced Ironman Wales and ended up with a TSS score higher than the ideally wanted at Ironman Wales.

And the challenge here is basically the crowd support at Ironman Wales was too good, was too exciting.

Every time they came to a hill, there was a big crowd there cheering them on and they got all psyched up and they got out of their saddle and off they went.

I think it's going to be the same in any of the big races.

But they mentioned like all the events that had been taken away that were like after August.

So they mentioned like Ironman Wales, Cozumel, Florida, like, but all the, all the races that are like, they haven't actually said if they're on or not yet.

Um,

So

Pretty much.

It looked like they asked.

I was hoping that Ironman Wales might be back on.

Yeah.

There are some events which are very hilly.

You know, you've got the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon, you've got Ironman Nice, you've got Ironman Wales.

You have some really hilly courses out there.

And having a lighter bike there, it may save you a few minutes.

Um, and it was easier to commute and drive.

And then I was actually cycling with a guy who was training for Ironman Estonia, so Talon.

And I was like, oh, I quite like the idea of like putting the three disciplines together.

And he was like, oh, it takes like years to train for these things.

And I was like, oh, you kind of said that to the wrong person.

So I went home and then signed up for a half Ironman, which I did September last year.

And then again, just went into it with complete like curiosity and see what I could do.

And I just kind of fell in love with it really.

Absolutely.

I think I have to go back a bit and explain that like I grew up watching the Wales Ironman because that's where I grew up and I would see them like come past the door.

I'd like to see the build up to it.

I'd see a lot of like... sort of older like friends who have done it and be like oh wow I think I could do that without really understanding what it was and what it would entail I knew it was a long distance I knew it was like massive and I was like quietly like I want to be able to say that I've done that I want to be able to do that I've always been more of a long distance whenever I swam competitively I was always the long distance swimmer And I just found endurance better.

was always going to

be

Wales Ironman.

You know, deep down, that's always been what I've wanted.

It was...

Because you signed up, it was at Ironman Wales that you signed up for then in...

Well, 2009, around John Wistland's end.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And every day I just kept doing that and I didn't want to stop.

And I was like, well, maybe I got something here.

And I think that's when I did John Goose Land's End, signed it for Ironman Wales and Ironman Bolton.

And I enjoyed, I just enjoyed doing that Jordan stuff.

Triathlon came, uh...

So in 2017 I did Ironman Wales, but it was-

And you went straight into that, did you? Or-

Pretty, pretty much.

Um, yeah.

Whether, you know, w-we, we market ourselves a bit, so Finn as a coach from 10B, he's done 10B five or six times.

If you wanna do Ironman Wales-

Pick someone who's done it five or six times