What is Ironman?

With everyone's AAA race coming up over the next little while, I thought that I'd share some thoughts about the last fortnight leading into your key race of the year.

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What is Ironman? Ironman is a long steady-state aerobic workout that finishes with a 10-mile road race. Your overall pacing strategy should be designed to ensure that you run the final 10-mile race as fast as possible. If you think about your best (and most challenging) performances, then you will find that overall performance is closely tied to your final ten miles.

Race pacing -- you should have a crystal clear idea of race pacing right now. You will be very fit, you will be tempted many times to go harder/faster than planned. Stick to your plan. Deviations from plan will only cost you time over the length of the race.

Expectations -- While I want the best for you, my view of you as a person is independent of race performance. What I would like is for each of us to have excellence in race EXECUTION. Focus your goals and your efforts on simply doing your best given the changing circumstances throughout the day. Do your absolute best to finish the race to the best of your ability.

Sanity -- Please don't do anything silly in the last two weeks or on race day. Stick to the plan and what's worked in training. New supplements, greatly increased food/caffeine/hydration/intensity as well as greatly decreased food/hydration -- these will increase stress, not performance. If you make an error then make it on the conservative side.

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I believe that the above four points are the most important for you to remember.

Good luck,
g

PS -- Hold back on the bike.

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Running Hills

When many of us think about "hills" we tend to think about running up Everest or some other mountain. This isn't the goal. Tips:

  • Aim for an incline that enables you to hold good running form up AND down. If you can't run fast and smooth downhill then you need to find more moderate hills.
  • Treat the hills the same way you ride rollers. Your greatest power should be as you move across the top of the hill and accelerate back up to speed. Just like in cycling, you lose a lot of time when you ease off at the apex.
  • Use downhill segments to lift your cadence and get your speed up a bit. Keep it smooth and relaxed.
  • If you were a cyclist looking at a hilly run course then you'd probably call them gentle rollers.
  • If your HR goes through the roof then take shorter steps or find more moderate hills.
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Steady Bike Power

For those of you with access to on-the-road powermeters, the most effective way for me to guide you is for you to do the following on your key rides:

  • Track your steady power and heart rate during BTs.
  • Break long segments into one hour intervals.
  • Keep a summary for all key workouts. Note your view on AeT HR as well as the results for each hourly interval (avg HR and avg watts).
There will be workouts where your power is depressed due to fatigue. If your numbers are simply a little down then keep on rolling. If you see that your numbers are way down and RPE is elevated then you are likely best served by backing off. If you are always riding with power then you will likely be able to use it as a leading indicator of fatigue, this will enable you to ease off before your BTs and ensure the quality of your key sessions.

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When to Say When

Many of us are training at life-best levels. When you are putting in the hours, it's very important that you watch the overall quality of your sessions. Often times, it is easy to get caught in a bit of a funk, pushing from one average workout to the next. Never really recovering from the previous sessions. While frequency is important, the quality of your key sessions (long steady ride, long steady run, key swims) is paramount.

As an intelligent athlete, keep a big picture view of each week.

If the quality of your key sessions is high then you should know that it's okay to ease off when required. You are doing what it takes to improve.

If the quality of your key sessions (and life) is low then you must back off and assess how to get back on track. The answer is almost always to back off. When you back off, I'd encourage you to: stay active with low level activity, seek bright light, get close to nature and focus on excellent nutrition. These four points really help me when I need to get back on track. Nothing is more important than consistency in your training. Stack 10-12 "nothing fancy" weeks on top of each other and you are going to get a very deep fitness.

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Two Simple Stretches

Shoulders
A good stretch if you are a desk-jockey suffering from tight shoulders. Use this protocol 3x per day. It should help....

  • Draw shoulders as far back as possible -- scapula together and down
  • Keeping the scapula back, lift shoulders as high as possible
  • Continue to breathe, hold for six seconds
  • Rest six seconds
  • Repeat six times

    Feet
    A good stretch if you suffer from pain in your foot when running or cycling. Grab your toes one at a time and stretching one upwards while moving the other downwards. Do this in sequence. After each stretch, pinch the skin at the base of the gap between the toes that you just stretched -- there is a nerve there. This action will relax your whole foot and help relieve foot pain.

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    Specificity vs. Steady State Aerobic Volume

    For those of us racing IMC or IMWisco, we are now entering the specific preparation phase of our seasons. So workouts should be targeted at specific goals relating to your race. For nearly all of us, this is challenging steady state bike rides that can require 36+ hours of recovery time. These sessions are very simple (long periods of steady riding) but very challenging. The quality of these sessions is what will, ultimately, determine a critical component of your race fitness.

    If you have access to a PowerTap/SRM then be sure to track your average watts/heart rate by hour to see how you ride.

    For self-coached athletes, your focus should be shifting from an overall goal of "soaking up as much steady as possible" (General Prep Phase) towards the new goal of "challenging BT workouts that specifically address my greatest IM limiters" (Specific Prep Phase).

    With 4.5 weeks to IMC and 6.5 weeks to IMW -- consistency, recovery and nutrition are also essential. What we do outside our BT sessions will determine how fast we are able to absorb these essential workouts.

    For those headed to Kona, your specific preparation period should kick off in early September.


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