2017-08-30 · Facebook (in Russian)

Ironman 70.3: why do I need this

After completing the Ironman 70.3 distance (1.9 km swim, 90 km bike and 21 km run), I wrote a report, as one does. It came out in two parts. The first is general thoughts about Ironman. The second is about the race itself. The second part will most likely interest mainly those who race themselves.

Zell am See report. Part 1

Why do I need this? I don't know. Because I can. It looks cool. To wake up in the morning and think "I did it."

In fact, everyone can. Ironman is accessible to anyone. No exaggeration. Heavy people run, thin people run. Older people run too. Some do it with their wife or husband. I even saw a guy with the words "Fighting blood cancer with Ironman."

It only looks from the outside as if something impossible is going on. In reality there is nothing incredible for the human body in finishing an Ironman. In finishing the full distance in 8 hours or a 70.3 in 4, yes. Few people will manage that. But simply finishing is no problem.

Does it change your life? In some ways. My third eye didn't open. At least mine didn't. But you will have to fit in 5–6 workouts a week. And at the expense of something else. Less couch, sleep, TV, office. Replace the unimportant with the important. You use your time more efficiently.

You won't go to a bar on Friday when you have a brutal workout at 7 a.m. on Saturday. Nor on Saturday, when the workouts suddenly start happening at 7 a.m. on Sunday)

I won't say I followed my training schedule flawlessly; Alexander Anashkin will confirm. Thank you for putting up with me, coach. I'll try to try harder.

How is it different from other races?

I think that if you compare it with the Sredneuralskaya Sotnya, the mountain bike race held near Yekaterinburg, the Sotnya beats Ironman in difficulty. 100 km through the Ural mountains with 3,000 meters of climbing… You need to be made not of iron but of titanium. About that kind of 100 km I won't say that everyone can do it. It takes years of training. I don't understand how Alexander Anashkin or Nikita Shvetsov ride it.

Ironman is a very cool business. Very cool marketing. They have learned to present sport as something you want. To sell sport. But not like football on TV, where you are only a spectator. They make you a participant. That's very cool.

It's the same consumer society. But they make you consume not things but emotions and a lifestyle. And a fairly constructive lifestyle, not a destructive one. In my view, that is better than chasing a new car or a new phone model.

Although of course I do want an S-Works, an Argon or a Cervélo. They're beautiful) But when you overtake those superbikes on the course, it becomes clear that the bike isn't really what it's all about.

What's next? Well, I have to do the full distance, now that I've started

Translated from Russian. First published on Facebook on August 30, 2017.