Triathlon Training

Worlds Toughest Lesson

by Brad Kearns

The phone calls were coming in one after the other: mostly family, friends or local media interviews. Exhausted, I finally told my friends to hold my calls so I could take a nap. Earlier that day, I had won the World's Toughest Triathlon in Lake Tahoe, CA - my first attempt at an ultra-distance race. The big-time race that thrived in the 80's featured a 2-mile swim in frigid 60-degree water, a 100-mile bike ride in the Sierra Nevada mountains that featured three mountain passes exceeding 7,700 feet elevation, and finally an 18.6 mile trail run that included a 1,000' in a single mile to a fire lookout. All the above took place at over 6,000 feet elevation, making the race indeed one of the most challenging in the world.

I had few problems with the elements or the competition. Off the bike I had a 15-minute lead and held the same margin through the run to smash the course record. With family and friends watching me the entire day, I couldn't have been happier. Then my friends decided to awaken me from my well-deserved nap for another phone call. This one was from the race director, informing me that I had been disqualified for running a stop sign on the bike course.

The course was not closed to traffic so cyclists were to obey all traffic laws. As the leader of the race, my police escort led me through an intersection or two where I failed to stop. This formed the basis of my case that I did obey all traffic laws, I just happened to be hanging with a cop whose siren superseded the red sign in the ground. My case didn't even go to Judge Judy; I was out. Disqualified from an 8 1/2-hour race for an infraction that saved me four seconds.

Eleven years later, all I remember about that day in Lake Tahoe was the pleasure of a peak performance, of sharing it with my friends, of completing a beautiful and extremely challenging course. I remember breaking the tape and embracing my wife Tracy, getting interviewed by the television cameras, newspapers and magazine writers. I remember excitedly rehashing the entire race with my training partner Andrew MacNaughton, who had flatted and dropped out early in the day.

It doesn't matter now that I was disqualified. I suffer no ill effects today from the few thousand dollars I lost (unless I had the foresight to put it all into 1987 Microsoft stock or something). The memory of that wonderful experience is not altered one bit by my disqualification. Back then it devastated me. I was so angry I trained like a maniac beginning the day after the race. I lasted two weeks and then was exhausted for the rest of the season.

The lesson was the most powerful example I've ever had about understanding my true purpose as an athlete. It took a while to get over it, to see the error of my ways and my unhealthy motivations of being overly attached to the outcome. This problem is epidemic among triathletes. I am sharing my story because I want you to consider your motivations and priorities as a triathlete. Triathlon is a sport so extreme that your perspective can easily get twisted away from healthy.

If you stroll along Alii Drive the week before the Ironman you will see hundreds of rock-hard, tanned, fit bodies, all primed for one of the greatest challenges in sports. This is not what you would consider an unhealthy population, but in some ways they are. Training for and completing an Ironman can be considered harmful to your physical health. Greg LeMond, the great Tour de France cyclist, once said that his job was terribly unhealthy. Although he was one of the fittest people in the world, he said his cycling career was actually chopping years off his life because it was so physically and mentally stressful. Jogging is healthy. Weekend bike rides are healthy. Running a few 10k's a year and doing a couple Olympic distance triathlons a year can be healthy. Going beyond into the ultra distances and squeezing extreme training regimens into your busy life can easily become unhealthy, both physically and mentally.

Highly motivated, goal-oriented athletes are naturally quite concerned about their time and their finishing place. Incredibly, after finishing such an awesome challenge many are upset because the digits on the finish line clock do not match their expectations. I know of many triathletes whose attachment to the outcome is so powerful that it overwhelms their enjoyment of the entire experience. "Hey dude, how was Hawaii?" "Ugh, it was bogus man. My goggles got knocked off, there were all these packs drafting, my chain came off, my back cramped up, I bonked at 18 miles, didn't even break 10 hours."

It doesn't have to be that way. As a competitive triathlete, you can pull yourself out of this trap at any time and adopt a new perspective. Remember, NOBODY cares what your time is in the Ironman, not even your wife or husband or children. If you don't finish, it doesn't mean you are a failure, it means you didn't finish a race.

Like the license plate frame should say, 'He who dies with the most toys.dies with the most toys." Your dog will still be happy to see you when you get home and the sun will still come up in the morning. Folks who don't possess the arms or legs or other physical abilities required to even attempt a race like the Ironman will marvel at you whether you finish in 11 hours or 14 hours or don't even finish.

If you are a triathlete, you are among the most fortunate people in the world, simply because you can afford a bicycle, because you are capable of reading these words and because you have the physical ability to exercise. Looking back on my racing career, I realize that the results and what I accomplished aren't as important as the experiences I had - whether I enjoyed them and learned from them. Results are fleeting and superficial. So is being in shape. For fifteen years as a competitive endurance athlete, the overwhelming focus of my life was to build and maintain a high fitness level. Yet in three weeks of inactivity you lose most of your fitness. It's not important to accumulate fitness, it's important to enjoy fitness. The same is true with results or making money.

Accept this so that you can reduce the influence of your ego and reduce your obsession with the results of your exercise. Your purpose as an athlete should be to have fun, to learn and grow as a person through your athletic challenges, and to influence others in a positive manner. None of these are dependent on races times or places.