Beginners Guide To Ironman

By Coach Brendon

Over the years I've seen so many fit people arrive at the start of an Ironman event more than ready to complete the huge challenge, yet they then come to grief on Ironman day - mostly because of silly errors that could have been avoided. Ironman performance is built on three key pillars. Fitness is obvious; you need to be able to cover the distance physically. Arriving at the race, healthy, injury free and fresh is difficult but by and large people are doing a better job of this than ever. What they fail to do is MAXIMISE their potential performance on the day.

So that brings me to the two biggies of Ironman Race Strategy, which are race nutrition and race pacing/efficiency.

I think a huge number of first timers get this completely wrong and this costs them a lot of pain and suffering, slowing them down or worse still, stopping them completely.

Watching Lance Armstrong win his 7th Tour this year reminded me about the level of detail that professionals put into this stuff. It's not about the 1000+ km they do each week leading up to the tour but what they do and experience DURING this.

Let me give you an example of this… it's the final TT of this years Tour and Lance Armstrong is not using a disk wheel, he's using a deep section carbon rim on the back, why? Because he has ridden the TT in training on his race bike so many times before the Tour started that he knew that it was faster and safer to do that. Not only that but he knew how to dose his effort over the whole ride. In my mind he shouldn't have won that stage, there was at least one ride physically stronger, but the smartest rider won.

Now it's not possible for weekend warriors to get to that sort of detail BUT the two biggies of race day need to be checked thoroughly.

So what I thought would be helpful was a run though of some of the key strategies the beginner can employ at Ironman (and ½ Ironman) events to help maximise their potential.

WARM-UP OR NOT TO WARM UP

If you are racing in cold water (say <18C or 60f) you need to consider how cold you will get vs. ensuring that your body is ready. A lot depends on how fast you are likely to be. Faster than 70min then you should do some sort of a warm up, even if it's just 200m. If you're likely to be slower than 70min then you could either do a short warm up or use the first part of the swim as a warm up. Ease into the swim after the rush of the fast swimmers has passed. If you can walk out a bit first then do that. If it's a wetsuit swim, make sure you have submerged yourself fully into the water before the start, ensured the inside of your wetsuit is completely wet and then come fully out of the water. This will 'suck' your wetsuit onto your body, which will keep you warmer in the swim.

SWIM PACING/EFFICIENCY

The Start

For first timers the key here is being comfortable and getting out of the water in good shape and that means avoiding being knocked around - so start position is critical. I was down at the waters edge at race start for the 2005 NZ Ironman, what surprised me was how many people where still not in the start area with 2min to go. Indeed it's completely crazy, because with modern wetsuits they need to get wet before they sit correctly on your body and getting them wet and draining the water from the suit (by getting completely out of the water) will improve your speed.

IMNZ swim start - 2min to go	IMNZ swim start - Just before the gun

Let's take a look at Ironman NZ and see what goes on at the start line.

Let's look at the photo above, on the right.

Pros all start out deep against the shortest inside track line. If you are sub 50min you need to be there and on the front or right behind the big guns.

So something that I think is worth doing is checking the past race videos and pay attention to what happens in the start. Notice where there seems to be lots of people and try and work out where to start. It's worth spending some time on this (again see the example picture from IMNZ).

Sub 60min swimmers I think need to be right in behind the lead group or on the beach side of the start near the front. If you are comfortable with swimming with others then starting right in behind will get you sucked along in the wake of the pack.

The key thing for sub 60min swimmers is the advantage of drafting, mostly people are going to swim straight and the water is clear, so with a little bit of practice you should be able to draft and get up to 8% advantage.

Try and start in some space unless you are a sub 70min swimmer, swim as straight as possible - many swimmers will wiggle over the course. Make sure you sight often and check that you are swimming straight, you will want to have practiced this in training so that your neck, shoulders and arms are used to this effort and also so that you can find an efficient way to do it.

I think if you are slower than 80min, getting clear water and avoiding being swum over are the major priorities for the start. You can see in the above pictures that with 2min to go most of the field have still not actually gotten into the water. One athlete I helped last year was always going to be 2hours or so. He actually started in ankle deep water right at the front and waded down the course for 50m before starting swimming. Thus he avoided being hit early and was able to start swimming with almost the whole field on his right side.

Efficiency

Something that happens to a lot of first timers is that they are very tense in the swim. They then use a lot of additional energy. So I think open water swimming in groups is part of the answer, but also it's worth practicing trying to relax while swimming, it's a simple thing to work on, give yourself the cue of "relaxed and efficient"

Try and relax in the swim, work on being efficient and calm just thinking about this will make a big big difference). As you approach the turns check to see the position of other swimmers, if it's crowded see if you can find a way to avoid being hit, if you are on the outside of a group turning, turn wide and stay on the outside, losing a little bit here but avoiding being kicked or hit is of more value.

Navigation and Sighting

While I was in Canada in 2004 I was able to kayak during a lot of our pre Olympic Training Sessions. The difference that 4 or 5 open water swims made to professional triathletes was quite noticeable. One good group session will make a big big difference but do try and schedule in several sessions over summer. Its' not just about swimming straight but also being more efficient when sighting. The more you can learn to lift your head the least amount needed to check direction, the less you need to lift and the less you slow down while doing that and the more energy that can be directed into going forward.

Energy Intake (Eating and Drinking)

OK think about how long you will be in the swim. If it's 60min then if you eat 30min before the start and it takes you around 5min from swim exit to being in the change tent then it's a minimum of 95min between food. That's a long time. So if you are a 2hr swimmer it could be over 2.5hours without food or fluid, that's a long time at the start of a long day.

So I think it's worth practicing eating and drinking right before the swim, faster Pro's won't but then they are going to sprint the first 400m, if you are a first time athlete or just aiming to finish then I think eating 10min from the start is worth practicing.

TRANSITIONS

The key thing is not to hurry and stuff it up - be quick but do everything. It's also the first time to eat since the start of your race, so I think it's also a good idea to eat something at least. Many participants find it hard to eat in the early part of the ride, being nervous and at many of the races it can be a bit colder and it's common to not feel like eating

BIKE STRATEGY

4 Key things: Cadence, Efficiency, Heart Rate (Effort) and Nutrition

The hard thing with the bike is holding back enough on the hills especially in the first hour. It can also be easy not to eat in the first hour. Given how long the day is and how hard it is to catch up on food intake on the run, the key thing is not falling behind in the first place.

Cadence

I think it's also worth working on cadence. If you want to be comfortable riding uphill at 80 rpm, then you'd better practice it (and a lot). Ditto 90+ on the flat, if your typical training cadence is 80 how do you expect to be able to ride 180km/112miles at 90+? A cadence meter is very helpful for people training for Ironman. I'd go so far as to say that a cadence meter is of more value than a Heart Rate Monitor (both is ideal though).

Up-hills are interesting. I think you want to go a bit harder up the hills than on the flat (because completing Ironman is about getting to the finish line and not just about conserving your energy). So I think 10% more effort is about right (or about 10 beats per minute).

Efficiency

Be as efficient as possible. It's easy for a lot of people to ride at their race pace (Say 30km/hr or 19mi/hr), but it's hard for these people to do it for 180km/112miles. So in training work on riding at the pace you want but doing it as efficiently as possible (ie use the least amount of energy at your chosen pace). Standing early and often can also help later. So watch that you don't tuck yourself down on your bike for the first 2 hours only to find yourself with a sore back for the last 90min. Taking regular position changes early when you don't absolutely need them can help a lot later. The key here is working on your technique while at race pace in training and then monitoring and holding this good form in the actual event.

Heart Rate

If you are 'racing' Ironman (Sub 10:30) then you should be riding at around 20-25 beats per minute below your Anerobic Threshold Heart Rate(AT). AT is about your 40km TT pace or average HR on the bike in a Sprint Tri. You can also get that tested by a Physiology Lab. You can and should check that this pace vs HR is right in training. As a rule of thumb if you can't ride 90km at this HR in training (say around 4 weeks out) then it's not right.

Also be warned in the first hour of the bike in Ironman your heart rate will be much higher at what is your best pace (probably 10-15 beats depending on how nervous you are and how hard you swum). Therefore TT in training, get the feel of that pace and effort and use this as a guide in this period. HR is great but it's just information and you need lots of practice to get this right.

Nutrition

Practice Practice Practice. Trial and error is extremely valuable here.

A good place to start is 1g CHO per KG per hour, about ½ should be food and ½ in a sports drink.

As for Fluids this will depend on the temperature and may change over the ride (Early Morning at the start, mid after noon at the finish). But a good guide is 10mls per kg body weight (so approx 700mls) per hour.

Start there and modify. Remember if you are working full time and fitting in one long ride per weekend you may only have 10 or 12 opportunities to check this out in an Ironman build-up. You need to make them all count.

You can also check this by weighing yourself before and after rides. I have also taken blood glucose measurements during our Ironman camps to help people look at how they are doing with the CHO intake.

For more on this check these other articles:

http://www.endurancecoach.com/Articles.htm#Nutrition
http://www.endurancecoach.com/Drinking_for_Cycling.htm
http://www.endurancecoach.com/Endurance%20Racing%20Event%20Nutrition.htm

THE RUN

Pacing

It is just too easy to run too hard in the first 10km. It's a bloody long way and after getting off the bike it's easy to want to get stuck into the run. Well the thing is if you are a first timer and your goal is to finish Ironman, just running is probably going to be plenty fast enough. There are very few people who actually run the whole way in Ironman. Indeed many Pro's walk part of the way.

Then there is the fact that you probably have been training for this goal event for some time and really want to achieve it. Next you have your supporters who will encourage you to run fast and finally you might have a rival or two who you would love to beat. Don't get sucked into going out hard and trying to hang in there. Have a plan, get on your pace early and stay there. If your goal is to run a 3 hour time, seek out an experienced runner who is also aiming for this, you will find that in such a situation there will be a group who are aiming to do this.

Remember - Every 1 min too fast in the first half translates to 2minutes or more slower in the second.

Efficiency

Again as with the Swim and bike be as efficient as possible. Being tired makes it easy to NOT do this, yet being tired makes it even more important. Oh and stay away from cambered and rough sections and don't push your intensity up while running uphill.

Leg Strength

A key training method for marathon is to work your legs to develop muscle endurance, you want your legs to be able to still drive hard late in the race. On race day the opposite is true you want to conserve your legs, that is make your muscle endurance last. To do this you need to 'sneak' up hills. To practice this in some training you might try and shuffle up a hill by keeping your leg turnover high. Obviously that's worth working on in the last 4 weeks or so.

Down Hill Running

Many athletes suffer in the final 10km because the down hill sections have hammered their legs. Make sure when you do your long runs that you do include some undulating hill running, especially towards the end. You do need to be careful about when you do this, as there is a greater risk of injury, but make sure you have some hard downhill running. Also on the day you may want to think twice about hammering down the steep sections.

Eating and Drinking

Plenty of people run out of gas around the 22/25km mark and it is not just because they have gone too hard early in the race or because they haven't done enough training. It can be because they are dehydrated and or have run out of fuel. It's not easy to eat and/or drink and run. It is really important to know where the aid stations are and to be familiar with the sports drink available. You need a plan and you need to test the plan in the last weeks of your training. Don't let race day be the first time you have tried eating banana's and running. As a guide look to get some energy into you by using a sports drink, I'd be aiming to have some drink at every aid station. If you are going to be out there over 4 hours then you need to also have some solid food and you will need to have a little more at each aid station as the time between drinks is longer.

Note that in Ironman you may find you run up to an aid station and can't get what you want because of congestion (two lap run courses make this more likely), you need to be calm and if you have to slow a fraction to ensure you get what you need do it.

More on this here: http://www.endurancecoach.com/Drinking_for_Marathon.htm

In closing, what's my point? You've done the work, you're at the start line - now MAXIMISE your potential on the day!

The Sport Factory • 1750 Founders Parkway, Suite 130, Alpharetta, GA USA 30004-7600 (770) 602-5154
The Sport Factory. All Rights Reserved.