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Some sessions are stars and some sessions are stones, but in the end they are all rocks and we build upon them.
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Chrissie Wellington (A Life Without Limits: A World Champion's Journey)
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It's been said that the Ironman marathon is the place where you meet yourself - inner voices that never existed before suddenly roar, weaknesses neglected in training become painfully clear, and new reserves of strength manifest in awe-inspiring ways. I met myself at mile 10. And let me tell you: I'm a real asshole.
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Susan Lacke (Life's Too Short to Go So F*cking Slow: Lessons from an Epic Friendship That Went the Distance)
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A compulsory safety briefing. Did the organizers know something I didn't? Was it really that unsafe that they had to warn us? Would there be a solicitor present checking that my will was up to date? Was triathlon secretly a government scheme to reduce the population by having those of a less than full mental capacity willing go to their depths in mass suicide disguised as a sporting challenge?
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Andy Holgate (Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run: From Common Man to Ironman)
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I love the care and mutual aid we give each other in queer, trans, sick and disabled and working class and queer and trans Black, Indigenous, and people of color (QTBIPOC) communities. As a sick and disabled, working-class, brown femme, I wouldn’t be alive without communities of care, and neither would most people I love. Some of my fiercest love is reserved for how femmes and sick and disabled queers show up for each other when every able-bodied person “forgets” about us. Sick and disabled folks will get up from where we’ve been projectile vomiting for the past eight hours to drive a spare Effexor to their friend’s house who just ran out. We do this because we love each other, and because we often have a sacred trust not to forget about each other. Able-bodied people who think we are “weak” have no idea; every day of our disabled lives is like an Ironman triathlon. Disabled, sick, poor, working-class, sex-working and Black and brown femmes are some of the toughest and most resilient folks I know. You have to develop complex strengths to survive this world as us.
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Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice)
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The magnitude of the satisfaction that a triathlete experiences upon crossing a finish line is directly proportional to the amount of suffering he has overcome to to get there. This reward knows no ability. Even the slowest of the slow can push themselves beyond existing limits and finish with tremendous satisfaction. But winning often demands and inspires the greatest suffering and thus confers the greatest sense of pride. Often, because of the nature of competition, it is precisely he who has the most guts who is the fastest and experiences the most intense fulfillment at the finish line.
Theoretically, then, the most deeply satisfying experience a triathlete could have in the sport (and among the best in life) would occur at the finish line of a race in which he has overcome as much suffering as he could possibly ever endure, and knows it.
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Matt Fitzgerald (Iron War: Dave Scott, Mark Allen, and the Greatest Race Ever Run)
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Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier.
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Jacques Steinberg (You Are an Ironman: How Six Weekend Warriors Chased Their Dream of Finishing the World's Toughest Triathlon)
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At the riding pace I would need to maintain for my double-transcontinental feat, physiologist calculated the effort being equivalent to doing a full Ironman Triathlon every day. ...it would be similar to climbing 102 flights of stairs to the top of the Empire State Building 40 times per day.
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Lon Haldeman (PROOF: Cycling Pioneer: A Record-Setting Ride from New York City to Los Angeles and Back)
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If I was ever going to win Ironman, I was going to have to beat the man who rinsed his cottage cheese
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Matt Fitzgerald
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Now that everyone can afford status items like designer jeans, conspicuous consumption gives way to conspicuous exertion. Sheer exhilarating length becomes a value in itself. And the triathlon comes to represent, to quote a winner of the Hawaiian Ironman race, "the ultimate expression of the Southern California life-style."
Which is why, outside a cluster of easeful lands, the recreational ordeal is not wildly popular. In America, people run for fun. In Beirut, they run for their lives. People there listen not for the starter's gun, but for the sniper's. In some parts of the world, when a man runs 26 miles it's because he's come from Marathon and he's strictly on business.
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Charles Krauthammer (Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics)
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remember that an Ironman-distance triathlon involves a lot more “waiting” than “pushing.” Successful long-course athletes practice a combination of patience and fortitude.
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Joe Friel (Going Long: Training for Triathlon's Ultimate Challenge, 2nd Edition (Ultrafit Multisport Training Series))
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I promised myself I would never do the Ironman Shuffle.’ ‘It’s the walk of kings,’ I said. ‘Ok,
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George Mahood (Operation Ironman: One Man's Four Month Journey from Hospital Bed to Ironman Triathlon)
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The history includes a life built together travelling, touring, competing in Ironman triathlons and marathons, seeing friends and new places. Most of all, it has been time enjoying each other’s company.
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John Wragg and Elizabeth Model (Go: A Multisport Journey through Seven Continents)
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The night before the first long-distance triathlon in my life, I stood with my mother on the deck of a sprawling, seven-million-dollar beach house in Kona watching the moonlight play on the water. Most people know Kona, a gorgeous town on the west coast of the island of Hawaii, and triathlons in general, thanks to the Ironman World Championships.
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David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
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Just because you went to a seminar about how to be a more efficient swimmer, your swim stroke won’t improve without practice. Likewise, a bike-riding video can’t improve your balance until you practice. And you certainly can’t wake up tomorrow and do an Ironman Triathlon if you haven’t been training.
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Darcy Luoma (Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success)
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In reviewing massive data sets of hundreds of thousands of 70.3 and IRONMAN finish times, I found that fast bike times were very strongly correlated with fast overall times, run times were just slightly less correlated with overall triathlon times, and swim times were significantly less correlated with overall triathlon finish times.
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Taren Gesell (Triathlon Swimming Foundations: A Straightforward System for Making Beginner Triathletes Comfortable and Confident in the Water (Triathlon Foundations Book 1))
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the harbour was being
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George Mahood (Operation Ironman: One Man's Four Month Journey from Hospital Bed to Ironman Triathlon)
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Evan looked tired and miserable, his shoulders slumped in the chair, his eyes sullen and searching for the ground. “I regret inviting him to my house. I regret spending that time with him at my house. I regret giving him so many chances. He exploited my attempts at generosity … the generosity was giving Reggie an opportunity to work on something like this … for experience that he didn’t have.” “Do you regret Reggie sharing his idea with you?” There was no pause this time. “No.” These depositions did significant damage to Snapchat, both in the case and in the court of public opinion. Someone leaked videos of the depositions to Business Insider, making Evan and Bobby look bad for cutting Reggie out of the company and initially lying in response to deposition questions about Reggie’s level of involvement. After these disastrous depositions, Evan and Bobby replaced Cooley with David Quinn and the team at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the same firm where Lee and his partners got their start. It was also the firm that represented the Winklevoss twins in their infamous suit against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. David Quinn was tenacious in and out of the courtroom, running Ironman triathlons in his free time. Evan and Bobby were convinced Quinn Emanuel could use their experience from the most infamous startup lawsuit of all time to help them defeat Reggie. Quinn Emmanuel was much more aggressive than Cooley had been. They filed a sea of requests for documents, depositions, and subpoenas. They tried to dismiss the case and remove it to federal court, and they sought contempt sanctions and a restraining order against Reggie and Lee Tran & Liang.
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Billy Gallagher (How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story)
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Like most of us, Shane Niemeyer likes to test his limits. THE HURT ARTIST gave me an entirely different perspective on just how far he fell before becoming an Ironman. His life story deserves to be told and demonstrates what perseverance can do for anyone no matter how hopeless they may feel their situation is. You may never compete in an Ironman Triathlon, but Shane shows how anyone can overcome any obstacle and pursue their dream with passion.
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Craig Alexander (As the Crow Flies: My Journey to Ironman World Champion)
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The same drive that makes someone want to run a company can also make them want to complete an Ironman triathlon. But all that exercise on top of a stressful job will drive up your cortisol levels. This causes weight gain, muscle loss, a decline in testosterone, and burnout.
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Dave Asprey (The Bulletproof Diet: Lose Up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, Upgrade Your Life)
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In a hilly, long-course race, your focus must be on “smoothing” the course. The power on uphills must be restricted by gearing down and keeping your power output below your functional threshold power (FTP) (or even lower on longer climbs). The typical newcomer to Ironman-distance racing pushes far too hard on hills, especially early in the race, and pays the price later as high fatigue sets in. • For short climbs of up to 5 min. duration, athletes should consider an effort ceiling of 90–100 percent of FTP. • For longer climbs, consider an effort ceiling of 80–90 percent of FTP. • For all climbs, it is very important to “save some watts” for cresting the apex of the climb. Novices tend to have their highest watts at the base of a climb. The intelligent athlete will have his or her highest watts over the top of a climb and accelerate down the backside. Experienced power users know that higher lactate levels can be cleared during the descent and after the rider has returned to cruising speed. • On the downhill side, stop pedaling and coast in the aero position when your pedaling cadence becomes so high that you begin to breathe more heavily. If in doubt, coast the downhills so long as your speed is well above your average for the race.
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Joe Friel (Going Long: Training for Triathlon's Ultimate Challenge, 2nd Edition (Ultrafit Multisport Training Series))