I think I got my first post wrong

T–251 WEEKS: What am I actually training for?

First post didn’t seem to really capture what is motivating me, so here’s another go - first time right, so all good?

My first post was called Why Ironman? Reading it again, I think I got a little too caught up in the Ironman blah blah blah.

The spectacle. The ridiculous distance. The finish line waiting five years from now.

There’s certainly something about the enormity of Ironman that draws me in. But it’s not really why I’m doing this.

What I actually want is much simpler.

I want to be strong, healthy and fit enough that the everyday physical parts of life don’t feel like limitations.

If my kids want to play tennis, I want to play tennis. Soccer? I’m in. A long hike, a bike ride, a day spent doing something active—I don’t want to have to wonder whether I’m fit enough to do it. I can do those things today and I want to make sure I always can.

And then there are the not-so-everyday things.

I’ve always wanted to backpack from Yosemite to Tahoe. I want to take a long bike trip through Europe. I want to keep finding adventures that sound exciting before I start wondering whether they sound too hard.

But there’s something else I’m chasing too.

I’ve felt it before.

I remember the feeling after my first sprint triathlon. The high after a half marathon. Those periods when training is going well and you don’t just know you’re fit because a watch tells you so—you feel fit.

There’s a happiness in that for me.

And that’s probably the part I didn’t explain very well in my first post.

I don’t want to spend the next five years forcing myself through workouts because a training plan says I need to hold a certain pace, hit a certain number, or suffer enough to earn some distant finish line.

I want to feel good while I’m doing this.

Not every minute, obviously. Some workouts will suck. Some days I’ll be tired. Sometimes getting fitter requires doing things that aren’t particularly comfortable.

But I want the overall experience of training to add something to my life rather than consume it.

That’s where By Feel really comes in.

I want to see what happens if I let my body help determine how I train. Go harder when harder feels right. Back off when it doesn’t. Pay attention to energy, breathing, fatigue, discomfort—and also to something training plans don’t measure very well: am I enjoying this?

I’ll still collect the numbers. I’ll still look at them afterward. I’m curious about what they’ll tell me.

I just don’t want them deciding what a good workout felt like.

So what am I training for?

Yes, there’s an Ironman way out there.

But I’m really training to play tennis with my kids. To hike from Yosemite to Tahoe. To experience that wonderful feeling of being really fit again. To be ready when somebody suggests doing something interesting. And yeah, experience the finish line of an Ironman. Epic.

And to enjoy a whole lot of ordinary days along the way.

What does being fit actually allow you to do that matters to you?

Feel good.