ironguides

A few days ago I was coaching at an Ironman race, and saw a very typical scene, a professional triathlete, who has ITU world cup podiums and Olympics in this athlete background, but just couldn’t delivery the same top result in a relatively weak field. This athlete was by far, the fittest athlete of the field, but that doesn’t mean ironman fitness, which is not only physical related, but also has many aspects around it.

Obviously, the priority of the workouts are different, what limits your performance is usually specific muscle endurance and strength, and not your aerobic engine or tolerance, but fitness is usually only half of the long distance race equation, other aspects just as important.

Nutrition:

For the sprint or Olympic Distance triathlons, all you need is one or two bottles with water and sports drinks, and maybe a couple of gels (depending on distance and athlete’s level). This simplicity ends when you start planning your Ironman nutrition strategy, suddenly, you are forced to eat a lot of calories an hour, which is something new for you and there is also the worry about getting the right ratio of electrolytes, liquids, and what time of the race you should eat what.

Pacing:

A fit athlete in a sprint or Olympic distance event, can race at a fairly high perceived effort, we would describe it as “hard”, with a few moments of “moderate” or “all out”. This same athlete doing his first Ironman race, shouldn’t be feeling he is going “hard” before the last third of the marathon. If that happens is very likely that your pacing is wrong and you will end up walking/shuffling the last kilometers of the ironman. Remember, every workout is an opportunity to practice (and improve) your pacing skills.

Logistics:

You have so many bags to deal with, so many gels to carry, do math and see how many calories on each bottle, each lap, each bit of the course you need to take. It might take as long as a full morning to get all your bags ready. While for the short course races, all you need is a couple of water bottles and the race number.

Technique:

Bike Fit -- For long course races, and considering the average age grouper, aerodynamics plays a lesser important role since you will be riding much slower than your usual short course pace. Comfort is priority, followed by power. One other very small details that is often forgotten, is that on race day, you want to be riding on your aerobars for as long as possible, and there is no better time to strengthen your specific core muscles than ride your bike on the same position that you plan to do your race on.

For example, if you do a lot of riding indoors, you will see that naturally, you tend to hold on the dropbars and not aerobars, DON’T, pay attention to that and if you start to get aches on your lower back, shoulders or neck, you either need to change your bike fit, or spend more time on that position as it could be a case of lack of specific strength. 

Equipment:

Once again, the simple fact that you will be spending a lot of hours doing the same particular movement for hours, also applies for the equipment you use. Ride the same bike you plan to race at, run on the same shoes, do a few swims in the wetsuit if you plan to race with it, and use your aero helmet in training if you are racing with one. Every detail counts when you are out there for 8-17 hours, there are so many things that can go wrong that you want to minimize the controllable.