James Lawrence aka The Iron Cowboy

Great, so I’m joined by James Lawrence, aka the Iron Cowboy, and I’m really privileged to be working with you, and even more so to have you take time out to answer some questions for our readers about your journey to becoming Iron Cowboy, which was obviously remarkable, and just to find out what initially inspired you to pursue such an extreme challenge, and keeps you going back for more.

One of the things I like to say from stage is that every journey has a humble beginning. And this was never my intent to get to this point 20 years later. But it simply started with me getting off the couch and doing a simple four mile fun run with my wife. Over Thanksgiving holidays here in the United States and from there, it led to a marathon, which led us to the triathlon community, which we both dove in headfirst and had an amazing time experiencing and racing through the sprints, the Olympics eventually graduating to that the half distance and then taking on the triathlon.

Our full iron distance in 2008 in California. So, once you’ve done that, you obviously then decided to do all 50 states in 50 days, how did you prepare yourself mentally and physically for that?

The mental lead the physical for you? Yeah. I grew up a wrestler in Canada and have a good foundation of athletics both physically and mentally. I think wrestling is one of the most demanding physical & mental sports on the planet, any combat is and from that first Ironman Just started to push myself mentally and physically ended up breaking the world record for the most half Ironmans in 2010, all official events.

Then in 2012 broke the world record for the most Ironman official events did 30 Ironmans through 11 countries. Then that led us to the 50 days through 50 states. And all of that over the course of those five or six years, we’re training physically, mentally for that challenge.

I think when you do something physical, it also trains the mental side of things. And so, they very much so go hand in hand. You can’t perform at the highest levels with just being physically tough. You can’t perform at the highest levels just being mentally tough. You have to have both, and they complement each other, and by having both, now you have a chance to do some very spectacular things.

DH: I agree. Obviously you’ve got a very supportive family. I guess that’s been key to your success as well. And in having that kind of network directly around you as well?

JL: Yeah, we’ve got five children, four daughters and a son & my wife have all very supportive, been very engaged the entire time. It’s interesting. We get somewhat heavily criticized for being out of balance, especially family life balance during these campaigns. But what people don’t understand is that the family has been involved the entire way and that they have had a lot of fun.

In fact, my oldest daughter now runs my entire company and business and brand. And so it’s it’s just been remarkable. If you were to ask any of my children, they cherish the time that we’ve spent doing these campaigns and challenges together. In fact, I attribute my five unbelievable children to having a front row seat to the suffering, to the problem solver solving, to the challenges, it’s turned them into really gritty really focused goal driven compassionate individuals that are going to make an impact on the world.

DH: I guess that’s part of the legacy that you’re leaving as well, is the fact that you’ve passed on this kind of mental fortitude to your children who are now obviously carrying the mantle probably in different ways and maybe may exceed you in some capacity.

JL: Yeah. For the lack of or for the without the desire to be cancelled in this moment I think we live in a soft generation. And we’re seeing a lot of entitlement and we’re seeing a lot of people choose the path of least resistance, wanting the next hand up. And that’s the opposite of who we are, what we believe in.

And we believe you, you get what you earn and you go out and you work hard and you make sacrifices and you create the life that you want to create. And if I’m comparing my children without bragging, they’re head and shoulders above. They’re their colleagues at the moment, and I don’t have any worries or concerns about their ability to navigate the next part of their lives.

DH: In terms of your focus, your motivation, you’re doing particularly gruelling events. The training sessions are probably even tougher because it’s just monotonous and continuous and there’s no break from it. What is the thing that helps you stay focused and motivated?

Is it the family? Is it the goal itself? Is it, you? Versus you and saying, James, you’ve got to make this happen?

JL: It’s repetitive. It’s monotonous. And it’s long and it’s long, but I love the community side of it. I love getting together and doing group rides and runs. I love race weekends. And I do that terrible monotonous, real gritty work when nobody’s paying attention so that I can have fun on race day so that I can showcase what sacrifice when nobody’s looking looks like.

And so really that, that’s what it’s about. It’s about enjoying the outdoors with other people who are like minded and being in a physical mental state that when life happens to, have a skillset to be able to go and attack it and being able to handle monotonous tasks man, that’s an underrated superpower.

DH: I agree. Particularly in business where, people often talk about this, the iceberg analogy where, in your case, you’re doing the 50, then the 100, and the Netflix documentary, and people don’t necessarily appreciate all the hard work and sacrifice that has gone on in order to achieve those things.

JL: We live in a world of taglines and headlines. And anybody that’s been successful or has achieved success in anything, business, family, relationships, fitness, sporting, whatever it is those individuals know that it, What’s behind the headline and what was able to create that headline that the length of time it took for that headline to appear, the sacrifices it took for that headline to appear those that know, yeah and do as well.

DH: Your story, has inspired other people to pick up challenges and hopefully push their limits and pursue their dreams. Some of them sporting, some of them not. What advice do you have for people who aspire to undertake, different challenges, somebody from zero to 5k can seem as big to somebody who’s not run to, what you’ve done.

What would you say is the thing for any athletic challenge or even business one? What advice would you give someone when they’re, launching on their kind of adventure, as it were?

JL: be motivated and inspired by others, but don’t compare yourself to others because we’re all on our own unique journey. And everybody’s heart is different & everybody’s starting point is different. And I challenge anybody to have the courage to have that humble beginning and be okay. sucking when you start and surround yourself with people that have done it before you that can give you great advice put yourself with mentors and coaches.

Most things have been done. And so you’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, just put your own flavour onto it and then just keep showing up. The only way to fail in anything is to stop showing up. 100%.

DH: So nutrition and recovery are crucial to your training what has been your approach to fuelling your body?

And how do you get adequate recovery between events or the day, obviously the 50 events back to back and then a hundred, what did recovery look like for you? And how important was nutrition both running up to the event and during to help make that happen?

JL: Yeah, recovery and nutrition are very different inside the 50 and 100 than they are in regular racing and regular life and training. We have a high emphasis on sleep recovery our training philosophy is how high can we soar, S O A R, stress optimized, adapt and recover being the most important thing there.

And in training, you have to stress your body in an optimal environment so that it can adapt through recovery. And so we prioritize. It’s clean food and nutrition. We try to minimize processed foods. If you look at every single diet across the board, every fad that’s out there, the commonality between all of them is portion control, eliminate processed and refined sugars, drink a lot of water, and get clean.

Get your protein in, and source real good fuelling carbohydrates. And so for me I generally follow a macro style diet and try to eat the best I can with and still remain as social and a human being.

DH: What are your guilty pleasures?

JL: Houston’s hot chicken & cookies, I preach moderation in things and I also preach that you can enjoy the good things in life. And so, I’m also a big entrepreneur and business individual and I love cookies and cake come birthdays and celebration time, and saw a really good opportunity to open some franchise stores in my hometown of Calgary, Canada.

DH: What do you think is the key for you to achieving balance? Is it the fact that your family are joining you both mentally and physically in your pursuit, or is it the fact that you’re also being able to carve out, make it into a family event?

JL: Yeah, we try to meet our kids. Where they’re at and where their interest levels lie.

And if they want to participate in the journey, then we find a spot for them to allow them to join in. And if not, I intentionally carve out some time to do something that they’re interested in and to find that balance. This topic is super interesting to me. There’s no such thing as balance.

There’s going to be times in your life where sacrifice is higher and there’s going to be times when enjoyment is higher. And as long as you communicate those with your team and your family you’re always going to come in and out of balance. The problem is if you stay out of balance for too long of a period of time.

Yeah, it’s about, I guess the overall level. So if you look back on a period of time, it’s a bit like training. You have good days and bad days. But if you’re moving in the right direction, generally, overall, you’re going to achieve what you set out to do, yeah. We call this just try to achieve a B plus average in all things.

DH: So you have got notoriety in the States for your accomplishments, and worldwide, you’ve had a lot of attention. How have you dealt with that kind of pressure and the expectations of being a public figure in such, where a lot of people are looking at you and benchmarking against you or maybe even, criticizing you. I’m sure there’s critics as much as there are lovers as there are in most things. What’s been the most, pressure that has been put on you from the community and how have you dealt with that, or have you not found that’s become an issue for you?

JL: Yeah, I think they say you haven’t arrived unless you have critics. And so, to have those, I guess it says something but it’s been a lot of fun. It’s the right amount of notoriety in a very small niche. And so, I can very much go out in public and few people recognize me, but those that do recognize me it’s a fun moment for both me and them.

And I don’t feel any pressure. It’s fun to to be the Iron Cowboy when I’m the Iron Cowboy. And it’s also fun to be me. I really enjoy getting on stages. I’ve now spoken in over 50 countries around the world. And our mission now is just to help people start and continue to win the conversations in their head and to accomplish whatever their version of what we did is.

DH: So looking ahead, I know you’ve got some challenges planned, which are top secret. Is there anything that you can share with us or how you envision, your future in the world of endurance sports?

JL: Yeah, I just had an unbelievable career of 20 years. I’m very satisfied in what I’ve been able to accomplish but it remains a passion of mine.

And so I will, I’ll be selective with my intentional suffering.I’m still going to remain very active. Health is my number one priority. I’m trying to tap into longevity. And I don’t want to be 80 and not be able to do anything. I’d like to be a hundred and still active.

DH: Yeah. I like this phrase. I’d rather be the oldest person in the gym than the youngest person in the care home.

DH: now for some fun questions, obviously cheat meal, we know it’s cookies and chicken. If you if could train with anybody, anywhere past or present who would that be?

JL: Yeah, I think it would be incredible to get to meet and train with George St. Pierre. He’s an MMA fighter out of Canada. To me, he embodies discipline, respect sacrifice, hard work, and has some fun along the way. For me, he’d be my number one guy. Okay.

DH: Would that be training in an octagon, or would that be you taking him out on the bike and for a swim?

JL: I think it’d be fun to do a combination of both. And then obviously a dream scenario would be to play nine or 18 holes with Tiger Woods.

DH: If you could have a superpower, what would that be?

JL: Okay. Oh man, superpower. Oh, great question. I don’t know, man. So many to choose from, right? Yeah unlimited strength. I think that’d be a cool one. So, it’d be like the Hulk without the temper.

DH: You’ve got your film coming out. Who would you like from Hollywood to play you in your film?

JL: Let’s go with Zach Efron, or Ryan Gosling

DH: A little knowledge bomb you’d like to drop at the end here, just to inspire people to make it happen.

JL: Yeah that really the biggest gift that I could impart on anybody is to not care what anybody else thinks. I think it’s limiting society. It’s allowing us to operate in a state of fear and criticism and that never serves anybody. So really just. Do you and stop comparing yourself to others and not really care what anybody else thinks of what you’re doing.

If you’re showing up with honesty and integrity, brilliant.

by James Lawrence

The Iron Cowboy & Guinness world record breaker