Endurance Nation | Online Triathlon Coaching & Community

My Ironman St George review has received a lot of comments, emails and posts on the net…from a lot of scared people, frankly! I’d like to take a few moments to get your mind right about this race, and about Ironman racing in general.

The Triathlon World’s Perspective/Advice on Racing:
You spend months and months building your fitness. You then apply that fitness to a 140 mile day. So, right now, you’re reading my review of IMSG, shining a mental flashlight on your legs and your fitness, and projecting that fitness on this hill, that climb, the run course, etc, and wondering “will it be enough.” Will I have enough fitness on/by race day to have a good race. In other words, the problem is the course and your primary solution to that problem is to throw fitness at it. And hopefully you’ll have enough to toss around on race day.

This is wrong.

I’ve been coaching Ironman athletes exclusively for nearly 10 years. I’m a 7 time finisher and have coached, spectated, spoke, officiated and generally observed dozens of races over the years. I ask you to hear me now and move yourself several years and wasted races up the learning curve.

Ironman racing is about the application of execution skills to the fitness you bring to the race. The course on which this happens is largely a non-issue.

In other words, fitness is not a solution to the course “problem” of IMSG…proper race execution is the solution. Trust me, on race day the course will be littered with the bodies of very, very fit boys and girls who do not know how to race. They viewed race day as a fitness problem and applied little to no attention to learning how to race.

So…how to race a tough course like IMSG?

Step 1: Understand that probably half of each run lap is climbing, from 2-6 or 7% grade. Now, wrap your head around the time-cost of failure on a course like that, particularly on the second run lap. If you screw up your day, especially on the bike, and are relegated to walking a good part of the run, you will be walking up hill for about 6 miles of the second loop. That’s a huge potential for a MASSIVE amount of lost time. Walking 18-20′ vs running 8-9′ or shuffling 10-11′ miles for SIX MILES. Do the math on that situation. And that’s assuming you still run the downhills, which isn’t at all guaranteed. Basically, if you can get your mind right about the high cost of failure in the last 2-3hrs of your day, it should put the rest of your day, particularly the bike course, into perspective.

Step 2: “I’ve spent 6-9mo building this fitness vehicle, a box. When the gun goes off, it is what it is. My job is to sit inside this vehicle and drive it the best I can. My job is not to get up this hill quickly, or play tactical masturbation games with some clown at mile 65.57 on No Name Hill. My job is to recognize the high potential for massive failure (or success) in the last 2hrs of the race and do my best to create the conditions for success for later in the day.”

Step 3: Drive the vehicle, staying inside a box that is defined by only what you can control RIGHT NOW. At mile 35 on the bike I don’t think about mile 85, or 105, or mile 8 of the run. “What do I need to do, right now, to create a successful second lap of the run?” Getting passed on a hill? It just doesn’t matter. Doode in your age group blows by you at mile 45? It just doesn’t matter. Stay in your box, apply execution skills to your fitness, and just…drive.

In the end, the right frame of mind and good race execution skills largely flatten out the most difficult courses.

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Interested in learning more?

• Visit our Free Resources page to download our Ironman Race Kit
• Stay tuned to Endurance Nation in April. We’re going to release some very cool race execution tools. We’re on a mission to teach Ironman athletes how to race because, frankly, we’re tired of watching you booger it year after year.

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photo credit: doug88888

There is only one thing can think of that’s worse than training the same way, year after year. That would be doing the same training over and over again…but hoping for different results.

Sounds simple enough, I know, yet tens of thousands of triathlete are guilty. When things don’t go right on race day, the typical answer is “train more.” But at some point “more” becomes impossible. Maybe you have maxed out your training time; maybe you just don’t want to be there anymore.

But you can always train different.

Yes, there is precious little room at the top of any mountain you seek to climb. But there is more than one way to get there. Don’t settle (again) for the status quo; go outside your personal comfort zone to identify new ways to get fit, get fast and stay motivated.
If it’s not working, more might not be the answer.

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#1: Nutrition is key. Plan, pack and prepare your foods in advance.
On your grocery days, set aside some time to wash, chop and bag fruits, veggies and prepare basic meals for the week. Chopped up veggies can become salad fixings, a healthy on the go snack or be incorporated with meat for a quick healthy meal. Marinate, grill and keep chicken ready to add to salad or pair with veggies or pasta for a quick fix dinner.

2. Retire your cape.
Outsource daily tasks such as cleaning, meal preparation or laundry when you encounter those high volume training weeks. No price can be put on your peace of mind. The only person who thinks YOU have to do it all is…you.

3. Get your zzzz’s.
Important repair work goes on at the cellular level which only happens during REM sleep. Don’t underestimate the role that adequate rest plays in your success in training. Naps are good!

4. Recovery weeks and easy workout days are there for a purpose.
Too often we “A” types can tend to go too hard, too long, too often, much to the detriment of our overall training. Give your body the rest it requires to perform. The upside is that you’ll be better off at all aspects of your life.

5. Create your own race team.
It takes a nation to get you to race day. Family, friends, training partners, coaches and health care professionals all play valuable roles in delivering you to the starting line healthy, happy and ready. Be sure to recognize and thank those who support and sacrifice for you throughout the season.

6. Schedule as far ahead as possible.
Look at your personal calendar and schedule and take as long as it takes, even up to two weeks! Time spent mulling and pondering where the open windows of time are for you to train is time well spent.

7. Ignore most advice to buy the latest-and-greatest gear.
Only buy something if 1) you truly, truly understand how it can help you be a better/faster/healthier triathlete, and 2) you feel that your training and performance is being harmed by not owning this thing.

8. Don’t be afraid to go to the group rides that might be out of your league.
Go, ride as hard as you can for as long as you can, and you will get so fit. Once you get dropped, you continue to push yourself and just meet up at the next meeting point in the ride. You’ll gain fitness, skills, confidence…a huge win across the board!

9. Be ready to workout at all times.
Sometimes life gets in the way, so be ready with workout gear in your car / at your office to take advantage of any openings. If the family is driving somewhere can you ride to it and then get a ride home with bike in the vehicle? Running a 5k? Bike to it and ride afterwards. Running a half marathon? Warm up beforehand and then run a few miles afterwards for an “easy” mental long run! Why wait for your car to be serviced for one hour?  Go out for a run or ride!  Kid at the orthodontist?  You guessed it, go running!

10. It’s about Camaraderie, not Ability.
Find like minded women and men to train with who are not trying to win the workout but who want to just work hard and build each other up through encouragement and praise.

Bonus Tip
Our women asked us to add this to the list!
You don’t “need” women-specific training tips! The tri-world tends to speak to you slowly, write in crayon, and get you to wear pink stuff! The truth is you don’t need to train and race all that differently from the boys. What you need is to surround yourself with a group of women and men who get it, get you, won’t talk down to you, and will support you regardless of your race goals or knowledge level.

Interested in learning more? Join us for a women-only Open House, March 16-19!
Go here to learn more and to request an invitation.

• Learn the secret to becoming the fastest you have ever been with the shortest (and toughest!) workouts you have ever done.
• You’ll get the secrets behind racing smart and actually running and PASSING others during the marathon.
• Meet some of the coolest, yet still normal, women in triathlon and know that you won’t need to have a knife pulled from your back later.
• See how the mothers of 4 and 5 kids find time to fit iron training into their life and why it is a lifesaver for them.
• Hear about all of the newest gadgets out there to help you train, and get real time feedback about how compatible / accurate / useful they are.
• There are no dumb questions! You will get a polite response every time!

Go here for more Women Only Open House information and to request an invitation.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Question: What are the considerations for a Half Ironman race rehearsal?

Rich Strauss: All of our long course training plans include two race rehearsal workouts, roughly at 6 and 3 weeks out from your race. These are, without a doubt, the most important individual training session in your schedule. You want to get these right, so let’s dig into them a little deeper:

Purpose of a Race Reheasal:

• Dial in/verify nutrition and gear plan: where/eat/kit out your bike just like race day. Does your setup work, anything to tweak, does my nutrition plan work, etc.
• Dial in/verify pacing plan.
• Dial in/verify bike fit. Locking yourself in aerobars for a 56 mile ride is very different from even your most tri-specific weekend ride. This is more critical with Ironman race rehearsals, as I’ve salvaged at least a couple of my races with race rehearsals where the fit I thought was going to work for 112 proved otherwise by about mile 90, locked in the bars. Swimming before a race rehearsal is a good idea, as it will fatigue your neck and shoulders, just like the race will, so you’ll get a more accurate assessment of your bike fit. However…
  • Bike course selection (below) has priority.  Don’t create a ton of artificiality or admin time by limit the bike course route to it’s proximity to a pool. The bike course has priority over swimming and any course with lots of traffic, stops, etc is time where you come off the gas, have to sit up for something…all stuff that won’t happen on race day. This WILL effect the quality of your race rehearsal, specifically your neck and back won’t get the full monty experience due to the artificial rest periods.
  • 1.2mi swim + 56mi bike is just not that big of a deal, if your bike fit is decently dialed in. In other words, I haven’t seen too many people sitting up in the last 10 miles of the HIM bike because their neck, back, shoulders are worked, post swim. This is MUCH more common in IM racing, not so much HIM.

Course Selection:
You want to pick a course that has ZERO or as few stops as possible, that will have you on the bike for almost the exact time as your predicted race time, and has you locked in the bars. This time-on-the-bike is more important than trying to replicate the hills of the course. For example, if the Oceanside bike is going to take you about 2:55 but you pick a stoopid hilly route that takes you 3:20 to get in your 56…that’s a very different bike ride. Also, that hilly route = sitting up in the bars = resting your back = very different from race day. Again, course selection (identical time as race day, locked in the bars, no stops) has priority over swimming first.

Run
45 minutes, regardless of distance, at race pace. If the run course of your race is “special,” ie, very hilly right out of the gate, like Wildflower, it would supergroovy if you could duplicate this for your race rehearsal run, choosing a very hilly run course…but not at the expense of bike course selection.

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Doing less, or nothing at all, is most often the RIGHT thing to do.

Question: If the prescribed intensity of a workout is just not happening, should I just go easy?

Rich Strauss: Rather than going easy, don’t be afraid to just pull the plug, take a day off and not do anything, especially on the bike.

We like to see our athletes get in 4-5 runs per week and we’ll _sometimes_ have them go out and “just run easy” in order to maintain that frequency. However, on the bike we like to see our athletes hit it hard on just about every ride. If it’s just not going to happen, I’d rather have that athlete bail on the ride, take a day off, regroup, and move on with the training schedule.

In our experience, there is value in running easy, for the sake of maintaining running frequency, building resilient legs, etc, but there is little value in riding easy. Feel like you need to ride easy to just get through the session? Consider bailing on the session and take a day off.

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