The Ironman Effect

After all the training and suffering are over; after you've doubted, struggled, persevered, and ultimately prevailed; after you've endured the grueling effort that is Ironman, you come home to the rest of your life. Your career and personal life are on autopilot, your house is trashed, your non-tri friends are feeling abandoned, and your dog doesn't like you anymore.You eat your way through the holidays, making sure you get plenty of rest.

The new year rolls around and you figure it's time for some goals. This being the Year of Fun, you decide to sign up for a half marathon, a 4 mile bay swim, a half Ironman, a couple of mud runs and assorted other races, for starters. You're seriously pondering the Pikes Peak Marathon and a 50 mile ultra trail run. And, since it's all about fun, you decide to throw CompuWTF classes into the mix.  No worries, you think, I'm an Ironman. This is all child's play. 


What isn't quite registering just yet is the realization that you're under the spell of The Ironman Effect. That's both good and bad news for you. The Ironman Effect manifests itself in several ways, some obvious, some surprising. It's a condition that often extends beyond the world of training and racing.  Let's take a look:

Hey, Stupid
The forecast calls for temps in the 20's and a wind chill of about 10 degrees. You decide that this is the perfect day to start running again. It's been awhile, but you're just going to whip out a quick 10 miles before your 2.8 mile swim.You haven't been hydrating or eating right.You forget your GU, your extra water, and your body glide. You wear too many layers. A few miles into the run your legs are dead and you're wondering when your runners' high is going to kick in. A couple miles later you decide to call it quits and drag yourself back to the car. You think, that was stupid.

You're suffering from The Ironman Stupid Effect. This condition causes the sufferer to take things for granted, disregard the obvious, and otherwise make stupid decisions. Since nothing is as hard as Ironman, you underestimate difficulty and overestimate your preparedness for it.

Fortunately, the prognosis for this condition is good. Those who suffer The Ironman Stupid Effect tend to realize fairly quickly that they're being stupid and need to snap out of it.

They're All Wimps
Your coworker twists her ankle on the job. When your boss mentions the coworker is taking the day off you quip, "Really? For a sprained ankle?"  You're thinking,  What a wimp. When I broke my arm I drove myself to the hospital, got the cast put on, and was barely late for work! Why can't she handle a sprained ankle? Typical civilian.

Your level of tolerance for people who can't tolerate a certain level of pain or stress has been greatly diminished. You find yourself wondering why people outside your little world of triathlon can't just man up and deal.

These are classic symptoms of The Ironman Limited Tolerance Effect.This condition is likely to linger until the sufferer gets sick or injured and realizes she isn't invincible.

Bring On The Dishes!
Of course, there is an upside to The Ironman Effect:  When you're trying to cope with the everyday, mundane things that get on your nerves, The Ironman Effect can come in handy.

It may be the boring meeting you're enduring at work, the annoying traffic jam on the way home, the dreaded task of unloading the dishwasher (yes, even that!)--these things have nothing to do with becoming an Ironman, but because of Ironman they seem trivial to stress about, or they're at least much easier to cope with, compared with what you've been through. The Ironman Effect puts things in perspective.

But The Ironman Effect is most useful when you truly need to call upon your mental reserves of toughness to get through a legitimately tough situation. Yes, it's the expected, almost cliche result of becoming an Ironman, but it's also the most valuable. It's that vote of confidence you give yourself when facing a steep hill on the bike, thousands of yards in the pool, or a long run in the cold. When you're training or racing, struggling, hurting, or ready to give in, The Ironman Effect is the voice inside that says, if I can do an Ironman, I can handle this.

It's just too bad that it takes becoming an Ironman to figure out how to summon the mental toughness needed to unload the dishwasher.