---
title: "On experience"
description: "Slow starts, quick progress, and calming the fuck down"
author: "Ghaith Ayadi"
site: "Verbatim"
collection: "The mechanics"
url: "https://verbatim.ayadighaith.com/the-mechanics/on-experience"
date: 2024-05-12
updated: 2026-09-16
---
# On experience

Did my first climb with the giant today. 240m in less than 2k. The gradient was too much for me. I think I needed a lower gear. It was really tough. 

Now that I’m home, I’m on the “I’m not sure I can do this” “Oh, I got this” train. Looking into the data, ruminating…

This is another lesson from Ironman. Learning the ability to calm down. A day like today would kill a man’s motivation. But I’m able to sit here, in relative calm, with less than 5 months to go, knowing for sure that I don’t have what it takes to finish the bike leg, let alone the whole race.

I am a bit shaken. But what Ironman training did was show me that I can do much more than this in a shorter time. 

You see, when I first started, I could only swim 50m continuous. I needed to swim 76x that much for IM. it didn’t get better that fast either. 3 months later, I was at 300m. Now I needed to 12x. Today, I’m sitting at 2000 so I only need to do 2x.

What I have today that I didn’t have when I started is experience. I climbed 240 today and left like I could have done it again at least one more time. It would be difficult but within reason. that means I could already climb 480m in 70min. That’s a third of what I need to do for IM. Heck, the climb I did today is probably steeper.