How I Trained for 135 Miles in 5 Weeks
Here’s the story:
I consider myself a very healthy person, but in the middle of 2021 I got slammed with coronavirus. I was in bed for the first five days and just turning in bed took every ounce of strength I had - just breathing was hard.
When I was done with my quarantine, I started to walk but even on a one-mile walk I’d have to stop to rest. As an athlete, that was incredibly humbling. But the harder part was the brain fog for the next two months where I never really felt like I was me.
This story isn’t about COVID, but it is, in effect, about wiping the slate clean and in some ways, starting fresh. Not that I “lost” fitness in those two months, but I did have to let go of a lot of beliefs about what it means to serve, endure and be strong.
When the fog finally lifted in early July, I was ecstatic just to celebrate the freedom of my body again - and it sparked an idea to circumnavigate the island of Oahu. I wanted to encompass many of the ways I knew how to enjoy the island - swim, run, paddle, hike and bike. I wanted to learn about endurance at the deepest level. Until that moment, I had never done a half marathon, marathon or a triathlon of any sort, let alone an Ironman and certainly nothing like the 135-mile route I planned. In fact the route I planned was bound to be a personal record in every single regard of distance to each modality - I had never swam 2 miles, near ran 13 miles, never paddled 14 miles, never rucked 11 miles and never biked 95 miles, either.
I had estimated it would take me between 20-24 hours, but I realized that without having experiential knowledge that it might take 30 or more - all I really knew was that once I started I wasn’t going to quit and that seemed like what “endurance” is about.
So as people reach out to ask for past records of this event, so far there’s only one. It took me 23 hours and 43 minutes to complete the original “Oahu Pentathlon” with the support of 29 friends and strangers. I look forward to seeing what others are capable of to complete this challenge, whether tackling it solo or as a team.
My friends and family would say that I am an anomaly when it comes to tackling physical challenges and I certainly wouldn’t recommend that someone takes on their first ever ultra-endurance event with only 5 weeks of preparation. But in case anything I did was right at all or might be helpful to those wanting to endure the challenge, here’s the 7 things that were most helpful to me…
I put my spiritual health #1. For me, that was my “why.” The physical component of this experience was and is, to me, simply the outward manifestation of the inner heart. Prayerfully seeking and meditating on what God wanted to teach me through the pursuit of “endurance” was the focus.
I didn’t abandon my responsibilities or relationships. I want to pursue strength and endurance as a frame of mind about life, not just for physical outcome, so for me it was important that I prioritized my nonprofit work and friendship. That meant waking up earlier than I normally would to train and if someone was willing/able to train with me, but at a slower pace, I met them where they were at and focused on gratitude over outcome.
None of my distance sessions were what I would consider “intense” - in fact, I purposefully intended to stay away from that stimulus. The goal was to learn to recognize the pace and energy expenditure that I could afford in each modality under varying levels of fatigue. I maintained nasal breathing only.
I knew that I needed to slowly increase my miles week to week and I knew what mileage that I’d have to feel relatively confident about, but I didn’t get married to a precise way I had to do it. I trained according to feel, not a program. Each day I evaluated how my body and energy levels felt and decided what to do from there. If it felt like I needed to rest, I did, and didn’t feel guilty about it.
I kept lifting weights. My competitive experience as a collegiate, CrossFit Games and Jiu-Jitsu athlete means that fitness has more or less always been a part of my life… and I’m a health and fitness coach, too. I trained to maintain a functional level of strength and explosive power and focused on exercises that kept me balanced in other modalities aside from “endurance” training.
I’m notoriously bad at hydration habits unless I have a training goal in mind. During my training for this event and especially in the days leading up to it, I drank a LOT of water and a LOT of electrolytes. Shoutout to Gnarly Nutrition for keeping me fueled with something I actually enjoy the taste of!
I kept track of my macronutrient intake to make sure that I was eating enough carbohydrates, protein and fats to properly fuel my training and recovery. I didn’t shy away from calories and erred on the side of eating more, rather than less. I consumed what I needed, not what I wanted.
I continue to learn more today about the lesson of endurance that started with the idea of this event and most, if not all, of these principles apply to the daily habits of living and relationships as much as they did then to the physical aspects of training for an ultra-endurance event. I hope that for the athletes preparing for this event in 2022 and beyond, that these tips are helpful!
Have questions? Feel free to email me at sarah@oahupentathlon.com
