Ludhiana’s First Ironman, Mukul Nagpaul, Spills The Beans On What It Takes To Become An Ironman

As one of the few people in the country and the first man from Ludhiana to complete the Ironman, Mukul accredits his athletic mindset to his background of being an ardent athlete as a youngster. He always knew he had to have career pursuing in an athletic endeavour of sorts.

He also developed a passion to help people that was even stronger than his passion to pursue a sport as a career. His passion spurred him into taking up fitness instructing as a part-time vocation during his college days itself. He then went on to further open his own business that goes by the name PMF training, later on. 

While he took to strength training when he began his journey into working out, running became the missing link in his fitness journey. He soon realized that he took to running like a fish took a water and it became an activity that was meditative in nature for him. This was also a precursor to his interest in becoming a triathlete in time to come. 

Mukul Nagpaul

Nagpaul realised that he was able to maintain muscle mass (not really increase it) with proper a training and nutrition plan. 

Not just becoming a triathlete but completing the Ironman soon became one of his goals, out an aspirational list of 100 goals he set out accomplish in his lifetime. He decided he needed to prove it to himself and to others that it is indeed possible and a good goal if you’re looking to becomes your fittest best. “If you have the mindset to participate in all the three formats of the Ironman this format could be the Holy Grail to your fitness,” says Nagpaul. 

Mukul Nagpaul

One of Nagpaul inspirations to become a triathlete came from a YouTube video (Team Hoyt) that involved a real of story of a father and his son suffering from cerebral palsy, who complete the Ironman together. 

“Just the fact that he made this effort to give his son the confidence he needed to tackle the hurdles in life was inspirational. They both ended up finishing several Ironman’s together thereafter.” If they could beat the odds despite the hurdles that they faced, anyone can do it. From then on nothing could prevent Nagpaul from completing the Ironman at least once in his life. 

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Nagpaul followed role models while training to be triathlete. These were Kris Gethin (a bodybuilder and celebrity trainer), Ashley Horner (a hybrid athlete), Alex Vadia (her coach) and Nagpaul’s coach Gaurav Makkar (the first man from India to finish the Ultraman World Championship). 

You should ideally look for a role model if you’re looking to compete complete an Ironman to push & motivate you when the chips are down and to learn from throughout your journey. “My inspiration apart from Kris Gethin, Ashely Horner and her coach Alex Vadia throughout my journey was my coach, through an entire year and half, Gaurav Makkar,” states Nagpaul. 

Mukul Nagpaul

Although he loved running and had some experience with cycling in college, he soon realized swimming was his weakness.

Swimming is not only the first sport in a triathlon it was also the first one I started practicing, because it was the one I was the least accustomed to. “As a skill-based sport, which becomes more challenging with age and as a slow learner, learning swimming was a challenging. Especially because of the limited shoulder mobility due to extensive time I spent weight training,” says Nagpaul. 

“It took 3-4 months just to increase the mobility of my shoulders in order to swim the distance I needed to complete an Ironman,” says Nagpaul. 

Mukul Nagpaul

“It took me 2 months just to learn how to breathe appropriately in the water while swimming and to complete 25 meters in the swimming pool,” says Nagpaul. 

Some days were reserved for a long-distance swim, a few days were reserved for drills to improve my technique (for instance my swimming stroke) and once a week was reserved for interval training to improve my speed. The parameters for each activity would change every few weeks to avoid stagnation and continue my progress. 

It took me 8 months of swim training in a pool before we graduated to open water swimming in an open water body in Faridabad. “You have to learn how to navigate and swim in straight line by learning how to sight (you cannot really see while you’re swimming). You can do this by placing objects in the water to know if your’re straying or are moving in a line,” says Nagpaul. 

Mukul Nagpaul

“The biggest challenge while cycling is to stay constantly fixated on the saddle for long-durations of time,” says Nagpaul. 

“We started adding intervals into my cycling routine, to increase my anaerobic power to be able to overtake others during a race. I cycle, twice or thrice a week and do a long workout over the weekend, which ranges anywhere from 4-7 hours,” says Nagpaul.

He also performs a workout called the brick workout. “Suppose I am cycling for a couple of hours I then get off the bike to immediately start running. I do this to get prepare my legs to run after a grueling and extended cycling session.” Since you need to run immediately after cycling, your legs need to prepare for that action. 

Mukul Nagpaul

“Once a week I run for 16-37 kilometers and I’ll perform intervals for running to improve my speed,” states Nagpaul.

“I would include a couple of strength training sessions during the week because you need muscular endurance, especially while training for longer distances. You need to strengthen your upper, lower and specifically your core for completing an Ironman,” says Nagpaul. 

“You need also need a ton of strength in your glutes to run and finish the race effectively and efficiently,” adds Nagpaul. 

Mukul Nagpaul

“After three months we reduced the intensity of training for about 15% or so for a couple weeks,” says Nagpaul. 

The first week could involve 10 hours of training, followed by 11 hours in the second week and 12 hours in the third week. The training intensity can vary if you’re planning to partake in other runs in between. 

We call this periodisation training; done to avoid injury by overtraining and continue to make progress in your gains. “Keep changing the intensity according to how you feel and how your body is responding,” says Nagpaul. 

Mukul Nagpaul

12 hours a week, for 12 to 16 weeks, is the minimum you should look to train if you’re serious about competing in a triathlon, especially if you’re just starting out.

The biggest challenge remains scheduling all your sessions through the day. Planning your swimming, cycling, running and weight training sessions through the week (with some of these falling on the same day), keeping in mind solid sleep everyday is quite a stretch. 

Mukul Nagpaul

“Completing an Ironman is 70% mental and 30% physical. So, you require more mental than physical strength in actuality,” says Nagpaul. 

“I faced a lot of difficulty while swimming, even sacrificing the time that I could spend on socializing training for the Ironman. Balancing your life with your training is probably one of the biggest challenges you will face throughout your journey.”

Completing an Ironman has to appeal to you first before diving deep to partake into it. You need to make sure you can handle the mental toughness and physical tenacity to compete in an Ironman. If you’re sure about completing it then all you need is self-belief to go through with it. 

Mukul Nagpaul

The triathlon community is very excited for the Ironman being held in Goa and it’s bound to draw in a huge number of people from outside of it as well.

You save on all the cost and logistics of going somewhere outside of your own country and competing in a triathlon. “I’ve noticed that more than 50 percent of the crowd is from the local community, wherever the Ironman is held. As a result, their family, friends and other groups rally around to cheer them on.” This is bound to happen in India as will and will surely boost the popularity of the sport in the country. 

There is no better spot in India than Goa to hold an Ironman. “Not only are the people sporty here, the outdoor culture, the open waters and overall conditions suits the nature of a triathlon event,” affirms Nagpaul. 

Mukul Nagpaul

The Ironman as an event is bound to help curb the rampant drug use in cities like Punjab. 

“One of the top athletes in the history Ironman, Lionel Sanders, used to be a drug addict. He initially stared running to come out of it, he soon got hooked to training to become a triathlete. And now he is one of top Ironman athletes,” states Nagpaul. There are several other such stories in the Ironman circuit, who used training for a triathlon to come out of their habit of drug addiction. Stories as such as these should inspire people to join the bandwagon.