James Lawrence, American Ironman, very famous for his record to have done 50 Ironmans in 50 days in 50 States.
You look like that kind of sport man that work harder and harder to reach some special results. Do you have some special way to train?
We definitely have a formula. We manage intensity versus volume and monitor everything very closely. We want to be in a 15 to 20% ratio of high intensity to 85 to 80% low intensity recovery work. Our formula is SOAR: Stress Optimize Adapt and Recover.
Do you think this formula is right for you or is it adaptable to anybody?
SOAR has very important scientific bases and can be adapted to anybody. You have to work hard the right times, and you have to allow your body to Recover and Adapt. A lot of times people miss out on the recover process because they believe that you have to push harder and harder but the truth is that you have to do the opposite. That type of mentality is going to lead to overuse injury and fatigue. You have to manage your effort with a continuous monitoring.
Looking at your achievement it seems that you look to go beyond yourself and your “natural” limit. Do you agree with that?
I think that you want to set a goal that is beyond your limit, but you must give the preparation a ‘timeframe’, that means that you must have an intelligent approach to the big goal. In order to achieve it you have to respect, even in years, the SOAR approach.
Even in this perspective these results sound as unreachable to normal people. Do you really think that any person can reach any goal?
We should go back to the way of setting the big goal. Setting my 50 Ironman I did it with the time respect to get ready for. You could do 50 Ironman in 50 days if you set it in a proper time, managing stressing and recover time, that means about 10 years of training to achieve that. I say that I believe that everybody is capable in doing it, but you have to ask yourself how much time you have to dedicate to that and what I want to sacrifice.
You look happy doing your activity, can you indicate me what you mean for sacrifice?
Yes, I’m really happy in what I do. For sacrifices I mean time, money, energy, effort to dedicate to your goal. To reach your aim you have to give something that becomes not available to something else. I think that everybody have the same opportunities: 10% of life is what happens to us, 90% is how we choose to react to it.
How old are you? How many years did you dedicate to arrive at this level?
I’m 41 and I’m training to arrive at this level from 10 years, and not just physically, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually, including all the experiences I had did before, even considering attempting the things that I have done.
What are your next projects or records you are planning?
I’m setting now how could I do new records. I already have had several hard challenges this year. I rode on Kilimangiaro in Africa, I ran for 235 miglia on the Criss and I have done what I consider the extreme Ironmans in the world: the Celtman man in Scotland, the Swissman in Switzerland, the Alaskaman in Alaska, and last weekend I finished which I consider the hardest Ironman, the Norseman in Norway. I am the first Ironman to make the all four in the same year.
Between now and the middle of the next year I will travel in 20 countries to go speaking and sharing my message, with the hope of empowering people to take their life and take it to another level, and help them understand what the mind and the body can truly achieve when you do the right things.
http://www.ironcowboy.com/
New book : Redefine Impossible
