Why am I doing this
Week 2/31: Reasons why I'm doing this and notes from the first week of training
Jan 12, 2025
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Why?
Why are you doing this?
I’ve gotten this question multiple times over the last few months.
Why would you put yourself through this?
Are you crazy?
Why not do a half?
Why?
Lots of reasons.
Here they are.
Since leaving medicine in 2018, I’ve decided to accomplish something every year.
It’s gone from reading to blogging to working out and everything in between.
My last physical goal was finishing a marathon.
Signed up Jan 1, 2023 and 5 months later, I finished my first marathon.
That experience showed me what was possible.
What I was able to do if I was consistent, stay disciplined, listened to my body, challenged myself and showed up every day.
Since finishing that, haven’t had another physical challenge.
Was in and out of the gym, workout classes and walking around golf courses the last few years but needed another physical goal.
So why not an Ironman?
People had said ‘why not start with a half?’
‘Or shorter triathalon?’
Nah.
I don’t do half of anything.
I’m either all-in or I’m not.
For this, I needed to be all-in.
As I head into my 30th year, couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than a challenging goal that’ll get me in the best shape of my life.
The Ironman has come up several times in my life over the last decade.
It started back in university with a friend of mine.
He was in the year above and even though he partied hard, he was always in great shape.
One day we were chatting at the end of a night and he said ‘I want to finish an Ironman.’
My ignorant self had no idea what that was.
When he told me, I knew it was something I would love to do at least once in my life.
Fast forward a few years and that’s when I watched Matt from Yes Theory do it.
Finish an Ironman in under 12 hours.
Was one of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever seen (watch it here).
Still go back to it every so often and watched it several times before I signed up.
Even when I watched it the first time in 2019, I knew I wanted to do it one day.
Sometimes you just know.
You just feel it.
I’m not getting any younger.
Soon enough I’ll have a family and kids and more responsibilities than I do now.
Right now, it’s just me.
Might as well maximize the time I have.
When I looked up Ironman triathlons in the middle of last year, there were only 2 in Canada.
One in BC.
And the other in Ottawa.
I grew up going to Ottawa every year and given it’s only a drive from Toronto, transporting equipment and getting family/friends to come wouldn’t be so difficult.
Knew it made sense.
The main reason I’m doing all of this.
Sachit.
My cousin who sadly passed away in 2021 after a multi-year battle with leukemia.
I didn’t have an older brother growing up.
He was that for me.
He was my role model.
He was the person I looked up to my whole life.
Always innovating.
Always thinking about the future.
Always planning for success.
He was into Bitcoin in 2013 when barely anyone knew what it was.
He was traveling the world and eating at fancy food places, something I love to do now.
He told me about how to become an adult before I left for university, specifically about how to drink and act at parties (not sure I’ve fully learned that lesson yet, but that’s for another day…)
He was who I modeled my life after.
He also co-founded a start-up in the life sciences space, Flosonics Medical.
When he was starting the company, he used to always come to me for advice.
Saw him grow that company with his co-founders to now where I have friends in NYC who are using Flosonics’ device in their hospital ICU departments.
He was always ahead of the game.
Thought he was going to live for a long time, then one day it all changed.
The last memory I have of him healthy was in 2019.
Went to visit him and his new baby in September 2019.
Was living in Montreal at the time and came back to Toronto in October for an ecosystem event put on by one of the local VC firms.
Showed up and saw him out of nowhere.
Had a few drinks, partied hard and enjoyed each other’s company.
Here’s a photo from that night.
2 weeks later, he called me out of the blue.
‘Anish, I need to talk to you.
I just got diagnosed with leukemia.’
Talk about a life-changing call.
One moment, you’re stuck thinking about how much you have to do in your own life.
The next, everything changes.
Over the next few years, he fought cancer hard.
Went through several remissions but it always came back.
2 years later, he was gone.
At 32.
The age I’m going to be in a few years.
His death changed everything for me.
My whole life.
We think we’ll live forever on this earth.
We won’t.
Our lives can change in a moment.
Some of us may live for 50 years.
Others may be gone tomorrow.
We’re all going to die one day.
So why are you wasting your life not living the one you want?
Might as well maximize the time you have.
My goal is to maximize my time on this earth as much possible and experience the best life I can.
Why not make an Ironman part of that experience?
Plus if I can raise money on behalf of him, what better motivation do I need?
This week in training:
Swimming - 6000 m - felt pretty good in the pool. 3 x 2000m swims. Know there’s still room for improvement (shoutout to Daniel, the random guy at the pool, who told me about my form) but happy where I am.
Biking - 101.9 km - good biking sessions. Did 55k on my long ride so feeling pretty good about that. BRIC workouts (bike right into run) are BRUTAL and know they’ll only get harder. One day at a time.
Running - 17 km - didn’t run at all since I finished the marathon so happy with my progress so far. Trying not to overdo it at this stage and feel pretty confident I can get back to the marathon since I’ve done it before. Not worth pushing too hard as running has the highest injury risk.
Notes from Week 1 of training:
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