You either win, or you learn: Kyle's Ironman 70.3 experience
A letter to: Anyone who has ever set a major goal, and felt the crushing sense of defeat when they didn’t meet their expectations.
Coach Kyle Williams at Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells - December 2018
Coach Kyle has a story for you.
Despite minimal training, I had lofty goals for this race.
My thinking was that the California climate would be good for me and the area that I needed the most training - the swim - was something that I had been working on.
My Canadian weather optimism was quickly kiboshed when I heard the water was a chilly 10 degrees Celsius. This led to a swim time that was even worse than my last race!
The bike is where I usually make up ground, and I did. The major learning I took from the bike was actually not concerning the bike at all - I need to swim faster, so that there are less people in front of me who need to be passed. I also learned that I need to consume more calories in order to be in good shape for the run. More calories means a bigger fire to burn!
This specific run was agonizing and although it was a beautiful track I was too busy hurting to take much of it in. A nagging injury and very minimal run training in the months leading up to the race led to a showing that was not my best.
I truly believe that the smartest athletes take circumstances like this in stride and learn as much as they can from them. There is a saying “you either win, or you learn” and I believe that even big victories have lessons to teach us. With my goal of eventually becoming a professional; I need to take these lessons and use them to create progress. I say it in my classes all the time - “keep moving forward” - I believe that is what Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells was. A small step forward.