Fitness influencer and bodybuilder Matt Morsia, or MattDoesFitness as he’s better known, isn’t one to shirk a challenge. However, even he had to admit he may have bitten off more than he can chew by attempting to complete a sprint triathlon with no practice for his latest YouTube video. “I’m actually terrified. This could end quite badly for me,” he said.
The challenge Morsia set himself was to complete a 750m swim, followed by a 20km bike ride and a 5km run. In isolation, each of those efforts may not have been so hard, but put together and with Morsia, admittedly, having the “cardio of a 90-year-old lawn bowls player,” this challenge certainly wasn’t going to be easy.
Still, the day starts simply enough, with Morsia and his mentor for the day, hybrid athlete Fergus Crawley, having a pre-challenge meal – a bowl of Coco Pops – but from there it’s on to the swim section of the triathlon, and it’s fair to say this is the point where the day goes south.
Morsia admits that he can’t front crawl for longer than 30 seconds without struggling to breathe, but not one to let a little detail like that stop him, he does manage to complete the swim and because of the choppy waters even does an extra 238m. “At one point I was swimming, and I was pretty sure I was going backwards,” Morsia said.
Next up is the cycle, which is difficult enough, but as Crawley points out they’re cycling into “as bad a head wind as I have experienced in my entire life”. Still, he makes it though, even if it is at the cost of his quads, which he claims are “absolutely wrecked”.
With only a 5km run to go, Morsia’s legs are failing, but with a little encouragement from Crawley he still manages to complete the 5k in just over 27 minutes. Letting out a cry of “QUADS” as he collapses on the finish line, Morsia is done.
Crawley says he’ll be back to help him complete an Olympic and Ironman triathlon, and we have to say, we’d love to see it.
Daniel Davies
Daniel Davies is a staff writer at Men’s Health UK who has been reporting on sports science, fitness and culture for various publications for the past five years.
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