No one cares about you

No one cares.

Literally.

No one.

No one is paying attention to you.

You may think they are.

You may think everyone’s eyes are on you.

They’re not.

People have short attention spans.

Even shorter now.

Thank you social media oligarchs.

You’ve ruined society’s ability to pay attention.

But it’s not just recent.

It’s been like that forever.

Human beings are inherently selfish.

Go read the Stoics if you don’t believe me.

They had a better grasp of human nature than we do today.

They said - all humans are inherently selfish.

People care about themselves.

Some people care about more.

But most people are selfish.

They’re only paying attention to themselves.

Why does everyone look at themselves on a Zoom call?

Don’t lie.

We all do it.

Why do people rewatch their Instagram story?

We want the attention.

We want to be convinced that people are paying attention to us.

That people care.

Newsflash.

They don’t.

They care for a second.

Then they move on.

They’ll forget about whatever you posted as soon as they’ve flipped past it.

And yet, we hold ourselves back so much because of this.

We let other people choose what we do.

Where we travel.

What we show the world.

Because of this idea that we’re being watched.

Being followed.

That people care about what we’re doing in our lives.

They don’t.

Their phones are just distracting them by using your life as content.

That’s all it is.

Saw this YouTube video a while back with a successful old guy.

He said you spend your 20s thinking everyone is watching you.

You spend your 30s stopping to care about other people’s opinions.

You spend your 40s realizing no one was paying attention to you in the first place.

They don’t care.

No one does.

They think of you for a moment

Then poof.

Back to their own life.

Their own story.

Their own reality.

You can’t live life waiting for other people to watch you.

For them to care about you.

For them to tell you you’re doing great.

That will never come.

Life is a single-player game.

It’s you against you.

Everyone else is just a pawn in your matrix.

So you have to decide.

What do you want to do?

What do you want out of life?

What do you want your life story to be?

Do you want it to be exciting?

Or boring?

Because the choice is yours.

You can just decide to do things.

To try something new.

To pick up a new hobby.

To put yourself out there like you haven’t before.

That’s what this Ironman journey is.

At the beginning of this year, I had never ridden a bike more than 10k.

I had never swum more than 20 laps in a pool.

I barely knew what a triathlon was.

Yet here I am.

5 weeks away from a full Ironman.

3.8k swim.

180k bike.

42k run.

Why?

Because.

Why not.

Like I said, you can just do things.

You can just decide you want to complete something and go do it.

Here’s the secret.

Everyone starts as a beginner.

Starts at the bottom.

Everyone.

They just stay with it.

Just keep trying.

Just keep getting up after they fall down.

Eventually they start to get the hang of it.

They start to see improvements.

Then they keep going.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Even when no one was cheering them on.

When no one was there.

When no one cared.

They just keep pushing.

Why?

Because they just decided.

This is the life I want to live.

These are the actions I want to take.

This is the adventure I want to embark on.

That’s what this journey is.

An adventure.

An adventure that started at the bottom.

And now we’re here.

5 weeks away from an Iromnan.

Full swim distance completed once.

A couple of marathons.

Few 100k+ rides.

I’m getting there.

I’m almost there.

Almost at the finish line of this crazy and unbelievable journey.

The thing I realized is that people are paying attention.

People do care.

People are following along.

When you choose a life of adventure and challenge, people are inspired.

Heard that multiple times at a party I went to recently.

Who knew.

Apparently, people are paying attention.

Even though at the end of the day, no one cares.

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This week in training - Last rest week - (Follow me on Strava here):

Swimming - 4.8k. Lighter sessions this week. One I cut short as I wasn’t feeling it and the pool was closing. Did wake up for my longer swim at 5:45 am on Sunday so glad I got that done. Still not as fast as I would like but that’s ok. Going to start doing more open water swims soon.

Biking - 119k - decent biking week. Did 2 outdoor rides. 1 was a slow hour through the neighbourhood. Other was another 100k ride, my 3rd straight weekend in a row. Hard to believe how far I’ve come in such a short time. Legs feel good. Speed is decent but nothing crazy. If I continue that on race day, my legs should be good for the marathon.

Running - 31k - decent run week. Few BRIC runs but legs felt good. Pace is slowly getting better but also want to make sure I’m not overdoing it on race day. No lingering injuries, everything feels good.

Notes from Week 26 of training:

• Good rest week with an extra day off, even though I still did some pretty big volumes, including a 100k bike ride.
• Nutrition was solid this week. Bike ride felt good. Decent on the sunday with a 6 am wake up, 2.5k swim then 16.5k run. Fueled my body properly and had no drop-offs, even with the heat. Body feels good going into the last big build sessions and will be locking in on nutrition.
• Swimming was ok this week. Not swimming my fastest but know the pool and open water are very different. Excited to get more into open water soon and see how I do.
• Good bike week. Another 100k ride. Felt good throughout. Nutrition was on point.
• Solid run week. No lingering issues. Good consistent pace around 6:30/km so looking forward to keep that up race day. Did run a few kilometres under 6 minutes which I had never done so do have more in me. Starting to think of maybe trying for a sub 4 hour marathon next year and training properly for that starting in Jan.
• Movies - watched the F1 movie (incredible movie experience that has to be seen in theatres. We went to Dbox where the seats move and it was fantastic, felt like a 3 hour thrill ride). Finished ‘Tires’ (really funny, reminds me of old school sitcoms) and caught up with ‘Stick’ (decent show with Owen Wilson, trying to be like a Ted Lasso in golf but not as good).
• Good last rest week before the last big build blocks. Have to start being less hard on myself considering how far I’ve come and what feels normal now. Woke up at 6 am both days on the weekend with a 100k bike ride Saturday then a 2.5k swim and 16.5k run on Sunday. AND THIS IS MY REST WEEK. Last big build blocks to come including the longest bike rides before the big day. 5 weeks left. LFG!!!

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