Yes, I've not written much on here in quite a long while. No, I didn't even write an Ironman Louisville re-cap. I promise to get to that, but I wanted to re-start this blog with something I often get asked about. How do you do it? I want to try an Ironman (and trust me, anyone can do it if I can do it), but where do I start? Trust me, this advice isn't for someone who is out to qualify for Kona. But it has worked for someone who's initial goal was to finish with a smile.
Before I begin, I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014.
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
I'll start with what NOT to do. You don't need a $10,000 tri bike. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on other gear. You do need a bike, running shoes, a helmet, etc. but that's it. I've seen people on basic roads bikes finish iron distance events and in some cases, in hilly terrain, a road bike might even be better suited for the task.
So where do you start? What does a typical week look like? I think it's best to start from the end. I can't remember the source, but when I first signed up for Ironman, I scoured training books and websites for information and something that really stuck with me was that at first you are doing the entire distance over say a month or six weeks, then over two weeks, then over a week, then over a weekend, finally doing it all in a single day.
I try to schedule a big weekend about three weeks before the event. Over this weekend, I like to swim the full 2.4 miles on Friday, ride a full 112 miles on Saturday (with a short brick run after), and then my longest run on Sunday. The Sunday run for me is usually 16-18 miles.
The big Saturday ride gives me a chance to give a final test to my nutrition plan and pacing. Now you might be thinking, what nutrition do you use? Each person is different, with a different palette and a different stomach sensitivity, so I hate to say that it depends, but it does.
For me personally, I shoot for about 300-325 calories per hour on the bike, along with about 20-24 ounces of hydration per hour. Don't forget to include the calories in your liquid as part of the total. I am one of the few that has no problem with a drink called Ironman Perform, which the official Ironman race serves on race day. That has about 160 calories per bottle so I try to get another 150-175 calories per hour from another source. I use Bonk Breaker bars, Clif Shot Blocks, Honey Stinger Waffles, etc. depending on what sounds good. I also set my watch to yell at me about every fifteen minutes to remind me to eat and drink. At the top of each hour, I also pop any supplements I'll be using such as additional electrolyte tablets. As you might expect, it's hard to keep track of all this so I keep my extra supplements in these little bags. They fit perfectly in a jersey pocket or in your bike's top tube bag.
The Sunday run has many of the same goals. I test nutrition, hydration, pacing etc. I usually carry a hand bottle and take a good long drink of sports drink after each mile. I also try to get some nutrition about every two miles. Nothing huge, but start eating a little bit each time. I'll talk more about my actual race day nutrition in a later post.
So that covers the last pre-taper weekend. You'll still be doing some training in the last 3 weeks but it really lessens in volume as you want to reach the big day refreshed.
In my next post, I'll cover what I do leading up to that last big weekend and what a typical week looks like for me.
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