From Zero to IRONMAN – My Klagenfurt 2025 Story

I trained for almost 2 years to complete Ironman Klagenfurt 2025 in Austria. This video tells the full story — the training, the discipline, the early mornings, and the finish line.

3.8 km swim. 180 km bike. 42.2 km run.
Shot by my brother Tim Tense.

🎥 From zero to Ironman: swim lessons, test races, intense months of training and one unforgettable day in Klagenfurt.

Thanks for watching — I hope it inspires someone to chase their own big goal.

— HP

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I’m strong. Hi everyone. Welcome to the story of how I went from drowning after 25 m crawl to finishing an iron man in the Austrian heat. Sometimes you just have to lock in. Stay locked in, bro. Just lock in, man. And when you’re done with this, it’s time to hammer some Excel spreadsheets. We’re back, [ __ ] It all started during a lunch break while working from home, just casually watching some average Rob videos. And then it hit me. This guy did an iron man. I was hooked. It looked heroic. Athletes coming out of the water, jumping on the bike, and running marathons after. They looked like gladiators. And I needed a challenge. Something crazy. Something to shake things up. So I told my physio, I want to do this. He looked at me like I was nuts. Dude, you don’t even train. But instead of laughing me out of the room, he gave me a basic schedule. That’s how it started. Swimming, total disaster. I couldn’t swim 25 m without gasping for air. I took lessons. After my second session, I asked the teacher, “Why am I still trash at this?” She just laughed. It’s your second class. Chill, dude. Reality check. Learning a completely new physical skill as an adult is weird, but I love the process. Struggling, improving, doing hard things. [Music] My biking was okay. I had some cycling background. I once biked to the south of France with an old road bike. That was 7 years ago, though. Hi, guys. We’re currently in my favorite part of Kent. Damn, that was a fly in my mouth. My running. O, I went from injury to injury. Key lesson. If you’re new to running, go slower than slow. Like, am I even moving slow? We almost did half marathon. For me, it was easy, but for Hans Peter, it was also easy. Very easy. After my first Olympic triathlon, I knew I needed help. I blew up on the run, had stomach issues from trying gels for the first time mid race. What a bad idea. And realized I had no idea how to pace. So, I got a coach. We did it. Another 24K for the books. Let’s get it. From then on, things got real. I trained six, seven days a week. did structure swim, run, and bike tests. And I worked on my actual zones, and I got better. [Music] Hi guys, my name is Focus. Pure Focus. My name is Focus. Pure Focus. [Music] These are the times I try on life. It’s a blessing. It’s not always a blessing, but at golden hour and you’re outside in nature, life is a blessing. I did a half iron man in [Music] was hard hilly course, tough pacing, but it lit the fire. I came out of it hungry. [Music] It made me realize how far I’d come and how far I still had to go. What followed was probably the hardest, most rewarding block of training I’ve ever done. 9 months of laser focus. I train it almost every day. Wake up, work, train, eat, sleep, repeat. Hey, what’s the update of the day? Crazy day today. went completely mental on the Excel spreadsheets. Hammered them. It’s time to get absolutely locked in because we’re starting out hammering Excel spreadsheets and then just eat a huge pasta during lunch. It was a very bad idea because uh I was very sleepy in the afternoon. Then the only thing I could do was lay down on the couch and tell my boss I was working while I was just chilling. That’s a joke. I worked really hard. For the first time, I truly understood what structured training meant. My numbers started to improve. My FTP climbed, my swim pace increased, and my runs got more stable. I was learning to train like an athlete, not just stay in shape. The mental part was even more powerful. It’s easy to train when you’re fresh, but when you’re tired, when it’s raining and cold, when your legs are toast, that’s when it counts. That’s when discipline shows up. Somewhere in that block, I started thinking, what if I’m actually good at this? Not just finish it kind of good, but genuinely strong. And then you start to dream. You start to wonder how far you can push. 15k done. Nine to go. [Music] sports club. Then came the half iron man in Liham. My big test race before the full iron man goal sub 5 hours. No idea why I set that goal, but I locked in on it. Absolutely lock in. Fastest swim ever. T1 was a disaster with those socks. I felt like doing surgery with boxing gloves, but the bike felt strong. The heat hit me a bit, but I held on. On the run, I stayed smart. I had time in the bank. I held it together. 4 hours 56. Goal crushed. [Music] After the half iron man in Livingham, I had three more weeks. Most people call it tapering. My coach didn’t. He squeezed every last drop out of me. a 20k run in Madrid, a 32k run in Gent, a 200k bike ride, and more. I kept asking myself, why am I doing this? But I showed up. Ready to tackle the future. I’m in a good place. Let’s get it. It wasn’t always easy to balance with my relationship either. When I met Karina, I wasn’t doing anything close to this level of sport. And suddenly, I was spending 15 hours a week in Lyra. But we talked about it and she supported me the whole way. I feel mentally strong. I’m back in my uh optimist by default mode. So feeling good, feeling strong. The iron man is in two weeks. I have a good swim. I have a good bike. I have a good run. So um yeah, I’m convinced I will do a great Iron Man. I will be very happy with the results and I’ll just give everything I have with all the training I’ve done and you know I’m I’m just ready for it. Then came Clenfort with Tim and Karina by my side. I felt ready. I had checked everything. Gear, nutrition, transition bags, all of it. I’d visualized the race dozens of times. No excuses left. Just execution. It’s just a cherry on the cake. Currently biking Kinsia. Tomorrow is the final day. Tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow is the time to go all out. [Music] So, what’s happening? I’m taking out the bike of the of the car, you know, so we can go to the transition zone and uh check my bike in, check my bags in. So, I’m ready to race for tomorrow. Um, yeah, that’s it. Stay tuned for more. Yeah, currently checking the transition zone. Been here for like I don’t know half an hour, 40 minutes maybe already. And I just keep keep checking my own bags, keep checking where my bike is, where the exits are. So when I come in tomorrow, I know exactly where I need to go. Race morning was surreal. I couldn’t even talk when Tim was filming me. I was just focused. [Applause] [Applause] If you were wondering why I was so rushed this morning, it wasn’t because I was too late. It was because I had to [ __ ] very hard. [Applause] Swim start. That lake, the Austrian mountains in the background. Pure magic. [Music] Then chaos in the canal. Elbows, feet. My goggles almost flew off, but I survived. [Music] Come on. [Applause] Why is the status [Applause] on the bike? 180ks, 1,800 m of elevation and brutal heat. But I stuck to my plan. 205 W normalized power average. [Music] I passed people on descents and flats and I stayed disciplined on the climbs. Every time I saw someone chilling in the shade, I was really tempted. But I kept going. Never once did I think of quitting. Come on. looking for. Tell him. Come on. Come on. Come on. Let’s go. [Music] Then came the marathon, the real test. Let’s go. Come on. Come on. There we go. I’ll be a little [ __ ] today. Go, go, go. [Music] The first 27k were okayish, but then my pace dropped. My heart rate dropped, too. Bad sign. I was overheating, but I kept moving one step at a time until finally the finish line. I am an iron man. You are iron man. [Music] And then a message from my coach. Dude, massive congrats. Everyone was about 45 minutes slower today. You nailed it. I felt slow during the marathon, but turns out I was top 500 out of 3,000 people and 72nd out of 300 age groupers. At the finish, I met the crazy Irish guy who had done Kona in 2022. He told me this race was tougher. I loved this in Austria, but he explained the Clagenfoot iron man is early in the season, so there’s not really much time to get adjusted to the heat. And suddenly it made sense. We suffered a lot. And maybe the craziest thing of all, 2 years before this, I wasn’t doing any consistent sports at all. And now I had just finished an iron man. not survived, competed, pushed and endured. Triton taught me so much, not just about endurance, but about mindset, about consistency, about how magical it is when you show up day after day for something that matters to you. In life, especially in business, in sales, so many things are out of your control. But in triathlon, the rules are simple. You train, you improve. It’s the purest form of accountability. That’s why I love about it. I’m beyond grateful for Karina, for my brother, for my friends, my family. I don’t know what’s next. Probably not another Iron Man ride away, but I know I’ll keep moving forward because I’ll stick to my core values. Discipline is destiny. You are number one in your universe and you are capable of way more than you think. Thanks for watching.