This week's episode is all about what you should be thinking about (and what life will look like) if you decide to sign up for a big endurance challenge like an Ironman. We highlight four key things to ask yourself before you bite the bullet, cover the top practical items you will need to support your endurance journey, and outline the progression of training for big events like these. We also share some coaching and training insights on workout modifications and the ebb and flow of life and training, answer a bunch of listener questions, introduce a new segment (Challenge of the Week) and share our favorite gear picks. This is a fun one, so check it out!
Main Topic:
First thing first: Ironman has a big cultural influence; it’s marketed as the hardest one day challenge. But it is not. There are many ways to have a big day such as running a 50 or 100 mile ultra, a huge day in the mountains or a mega bike ride. Or you may be just starting your endurance journey and finishing a Half Ironman or a bike around your town is a big day. We are here for all of it and support you with whatever big challenge you want to tackle. Ironman is a huge accomplishment but it’s not the arbiter of physical and mental toughness.
And if Ironman is not your thing, you can still apply these same principles, strategies and tactics to your big endurance day.
Four Key Points
1) Develop and articulate the reasons why you want to race. Ironman training is very physically and mentally challenging. It requires an unusually high level of commitment over a long period of time - 9 months at the minimum and usually 2 - 5 years to build up the endurance. You will experience many deep highs and lows during training and racing. Ironman training is lonely, it is long days in the saddle, there are no crowds cheering you on on Sunday morning as you struggle out of bed to do another 2 hour run.
During the lows, you will want to return to why you have chosen to race. When you have arranged your, and your families, entire life around this event, the importance of your why is utmost and fundamental to the process. The more your “why” is defined, the clearer and successful your training and racing. Your mental game will need to be as strong as your physical one.
Conversely, some examples of invalid “why” to race are cool Strava titles, attention seeking from peers and family, revenge racing and Instagram moments. Your why must be deep, meaningful and honest.
Katie example -- talk through “why” for IM Lake Placid this year (feeling like I wanted to see what I could do, display my fitness after challenging St. George, try new workouts and push limits, see what a healthier body could produce)
2) Get buy-in from your family and friends. Long distance triathlon training is extremely taxing on your time and resources. It is critical that you build buy-in, acceptance and support of your goals from your family, friends and colleagues. You are embarking on a very selfish (but healthy) journey. The time required to properly train for a long distance race should not be underestimated. You will be absent for large portions of weekends. Make sure you accurately portray the time demands to those you are closest to. In other words, if you’re going to ditch your wife with the kids for 10 - 20 weekend mornings you better make a sustainable, win/win bargain with them! You cannot do this alone. It takes a village to train a triathlete.
3) Do you have time to properly train for the race? You will need between 10 - 20 hours, depending on your goals. You will need to spend many weekends doing 5 - 6 hour rides, a 4K swim and log hours running. It is a full on lifestyle.
4) Do you have the budget for an Ironman?
Ironmans are very expensive. The average cost for an Ironman entry is $750 but some races can be a lot more.
Include housing, travel and gear expenses and an Ironman is easily a $5,000 - $10,000 commitment. Maybe even more if you buy a bunch of fancy gear!
Even things like nutrition and hydration products are really expensive here!
We want to emphasize that you need to square away the above four key points before you pull the trigger on an Ironman (or any big event/race).
Top practical items you will need:
A bike and a bike fit. You will spend literally hundreds of hours on the bike. It must fit properly. If you are riding a road bike, you will want to put aero bars on it and practice in aero during the Specific Prep phase. If you are riding a tri bike, you will do most of your last 12 weeks of training on it. A smart trainer and Zwift/Rouvy will make bike training a ton easier.
Proper run shoes and run mechanics. You will run hundreds of miles. You need running shoes that are appropriate for you and that distance. And you should ensure your run mechanics are sound (see PT episode).
Regular access to a pool. Think 3X per week. You will need to regularly swim 3K and at least 1X 4K swim per week during the Specific Preparation phase (the last 12 weeks). You will need to do a number of 4K open water swims before your race. Ideally, you would swim 5 - 10 times in open water before your race.
Nearly everyone will need access to a local body care network. A PT familiar with endurance training is a good start. You will experience niggles and possibly injury. Be prepared to have a network in place so you can prevent and/or respond to what arises.
A tri kit or some active gear that you can spend 10 - 16 hours in. You must test this gear on all your Race Simulation weekends. You don’t want to find out on race day it causes chafing!
Training Plan outline:
12/8/4 weeks out Race Sim Weekends:
An example of 8 weeks out Ironman Race Sim Weekend is a 4K Friday swim, a 100 mile bike on Saturday morning into a one hour run off the bike followed by a 90’ run on Sunday morning.
For every Race Sim we plan and practice your race hydration, nutrition and perform at specific IM watts / run paces.
Ideally, these race simulations are done on terrain similar to your race course. If possible, do the 4 week out race simulation on the actual course if you are able to travel there.
These three key weekends are the primary drivers of your race day readiness. After the three weekends, we will have determined the key fundamental and small, critical details for your race day.
Ideally, do a long distance training camp for one of your race day simulation weekends.
4 - 8 weeks out:
Plan and practice your race day hydration and nutrition on the bike and run. Ask your coach about our race plan nutrition and hydration Google Sheet. The gut is a trainable muscle; the more you practice training with race-day nutrition, the better. Nailing race day nutrition is a dynamic and iterative process.
Correlate your performance with a heat and humidity index. The three biggest factors of race day success are fitness, hydration/nutrition and heat/humidity. During your longer rides, runs and Race Sim weekends, begin to track the heat and humidity conditions to understand where you may begin to struggle and have a need for more hydration. For example, your long ride may start at 7am in the morning at 70F with 80% humidity. I use a simple 70 + 80 = 150 “heat index” value. As you progress through the ride, the day heats up and humidity may rise or fall. If it’s a long ride, you may experience many levels along the heat index. This index is exponential, not linear. A heat index of 160 will feel way hotter than 150. Note when you start to feel hot, sweat profusely and/or develop a sheen of sweat on your forearms, indicating you are not evaporating heat away from your body. At this point, you are probably experiencing some level of heat degradation. The best way to combat this is internal cooling by taking in more hydration. If you have ice available to put down your tri kit and in your water bottles, even better. The main point is to start to understand under which heat and humidity conditions you begin to struggle. Under normal weather conditions, usually one water bottle per hour on the bike is sufficient. The higher the heat index, the more we want to drink, cooling our insides. Under heat stress, we recommend moving to 1.5 bottles per hour. Use your longer training days to dial in what level of hydration allows you to express your fitness, using a simple heat index calculation to guide your hydration and cooling plan. Everyone's a little different so use this time to understand how your body responds under what conditions.
Research which gels and hydration solution will be offered on course. You may consider practicing with those specific products during one of your Race Sim weekends. Currently Ironman is offering Maurten on course which, in my opinion, is a high quality gel with minimal risk of GI distress; however, they also offer Gatorade as a hydration option which can be very heavy on the stomach. If you use Gatorade, practice cutting it with water and see how it affects your stomach during a race-like situation.
Plan and practice your race day bike watts and run paces. Your race plan should include a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C. Plan A is if everything goes perfectly (realistically this happens 5% of the time), Plan B is the likely, realistic scenario and should be your main focus, and Plan C is to cross the finish line. Your race bike watts and run paces will be indicated in your TrainingPeaks account under key workouts. Make sure you are in alignment with your coach on what is an appropriate race pace (or more importantly what is not!). Our goal is no surprises on race day. Everything will have been practiced and refined during your Race Sim Weekends.
Identify race day controllable and uncontrollable variables. For the uncontrollable factors, consider potential solutions if something goes awry. For example, the weather is uncontrollable, but you may be able to execute the race simulations or long rides/run on days with similar weather (whether that is hot or cold). You can’t control whether you get a flat tire, but you can learn how to efficiently change your innertube. Your race may include a lot of fast competitors and peers. You can’t control who signs up but you can control how fit and race ready you are. Most variables are uncontrollable, but you can prepare solutions to mitigate the impacts on your race. The list of what we truly control is short but critical: breath, pace, effort, attitude, ingestion, gear and knowledge.
Use social media cautiously. Social Media, particularly Facebook Race Pages, are a curse and a blessing. You can learn a lot from the locals and past participants from these pages. There are many insights into the course, the weather, best gear choices, best times to train on the course (if an option for you), local peculiarities, etc. But these pages are also full of athletes who are anxious and often not well prepared for the rigors of the course. They display their anxiety by posting how tough the course is, how much they have, or have not, been training and often doing big workouts right up until nearly race day. While we are tapering, these athletes will be doing their biggest rides and runs two weeks out from the race. It will take discipline and judgment to sort through the relevant, helpful information and posts that should be ignored. The closer to race day, anxiety posts rise and less actionable information is provided. Two to three weeks prior to race day is a good time to not engage with these pages.
Sauna Protocol. If you have access to a sauna, we can employ a sauna protocol before your 4 week Race Sim weekend, typically starting 10 days before this weekend. We will then use this same, or adjusted, protocol for your race day preparation. Adapting to the extreme heat has become a major challenge at most summer races.
2-3 weeks out:
Make a list of all the race gear and nutrition needed and order it. Always look for ways to reduce stress before race week. Ideally, all of your race hydration and nutrition products have been tested during the Race Simulation weekends. If any adjustments are required, use the rides and runs 2-3 weeks prior to the race to finalize your products.
Open water swim in your wetsuit. If your race is wetsuit legal, you should be swimming in open water with your wetsuit at least once a week. Swim enough in your wetsuit that you are comfortable putting it on and taking it off efficiently (see swim/T1 below for details). The first 2 - 3 sessions in the wetsuit may feel uncomfortable on your shoulders, but you will adapt quickly.
Listener questions:
Why do we use paddles in swimming? To build swim specific strength. Also a good way to get in low HR, more swim volume and aerobic conditioning. Think of it like low cadene work on the bike.
What is the structure of your swim workouts and how do I best use my time?
Our swim workouts are a guide and not meant to always be executed to the exact detail.
Warmup: Yards will always vary because your warmup should be specific to you. Your warmup should be between 500 - 1000 yards and include focus areas that activate your swimming body and brain. Warmups are very individualized so keep playing with focus areas and find the ones that seem to give you the best result when you move into the main set.
Main Set: Do this to the best of your ability. This is the meat of the workout. Do it with your best intention. Remember the focus is mostly on swimming well, not necessarily swimming fast especially this time of year.
Cool down: If you have time, 50 - 200 yards. Don’t overthink it. Get your HR down, take a few easy strokes and move on with the rest of your day.
Challenge of the Week:
Jim: At least once a day, be bored. Don’t check your phone when you have a free moment; just relax and breathe. Work on your mental durability.
Katie: Be kind to yourself. Cut yourself some slack!
Gear Pick of Week:
