By Coach Brendon

Once the legs are shaven, you've got your GI number 2 haircut (ladies this may be a touch extreme!!), carbo loaded to the brim, have a log full of impressive workouts, done a good taper… all that's left is execution of your solid game plan!

Ironman (or any longer triathlon for that matter) comes down to how prepared you are. It's bloody difficult to be fully prepared and cover all the bases for such long days, so I think it's critical that prior to competing, athletes start working on their game plan. However, it shouldn't be left to the night before as a well designed race plan comes, at least in part, from trial and error done during training.

For Ironman there are two things to consider, firstly physical performance POTENTIAL. That is if everything went well on the day what would you be capable of? The dream day, no wind, yadda yadda yadda… only it's not like that. REALITY says that it won't be a perfect day, REALITY says something will make the day a CHALLENGE. Which is cool because if it were as simple as turning up with the best log book of training, then we wouldn't need the race and finishing wouldn't be the uplifting experience that most finishers get. I always go and watch the last few coming in at the end because it's been an amazing journey for them and I get energy to burn for the next 12 months just from being there. Anyway I think too many people in our sport are too focused on physical preparation, they are the ones that fill their logs with time spent in zones and include no detail about what parts of their race plan they have covered in their week. Fatal mistake.

So you need a Race Plan and you need to TRIAL the race plan in training… Simulate, Simulate, Simulate. Indeed that's the name of the game in the last month. Now obviously unlike the shorter triathlons you can't just go out and trial everything in training at the same time (even a ½ Ironman doesn't cover everything, but it's good idea to include one) and that's the advantage that experienced Ironman athletes carry into the day. In addition you need to Simulate in all likely conditions (Cold all day, Cold then Hot, Hot all day, rain, hail, wind, very windy etc). One day the wind will blow down the lake and the swim is going to be really tough.

In addition, your body's not a stable piece of machinery and it won't react the same way every time you go out there. This means you will probably need 4 long sessions trialing anything to be confident it will work. That's the value of experience, which you can't buy.

That's one of the reasons why it is so critical to use ALL the longer sessions you have to test parts of your game plan, especially first timers and especially the big bike and runs in the last 6 weeks. They represent the best opportunity to find out what will limit YOUR potential performance. When you look hard at most athlete's training plans, there are not a lot of long runs, bikes and long open water swims to trial things in, especially the Race Nutrition. It's just not physically possible to fit 100 long runs into your plan. So here we are 4 or so weeks out from Ironman, for most athletes there are really only 4 or so long swims, 3 or so long rides, 2 or so long runs and one or 2 Bike-run workouts left. My advice, think about what you need to practice in addition to being physically ready and make sure that you work on all aspects with what's left.

There are two key areas that need special attention. Race Nutrition and Race Pacing. It's one of the reasons that I've been pushing and asking all my athletes to report back on exactly what they have been eating and drinking in their longer sessions to date. Of course this has the added benefit of improving recovery, as your energy deficit post-session is also way better. It's also one of the reasons that I ask my athletes to weigh themselves before and after sessions, get them to record exactly what they eat and drink, and in addition to this, at our Ironman Boot Camps I take glucose samples at all the longer sessions.

For first timers looking to simply complete the day, race pacing is about holding back over the initial 40km on the bike and the initial 10km of the run (you are NOT Cameron Brown and your goal is to finish). Actually that reminds me to say that it's another fatal mistake to change race plans in the first 40km of the bike or the first 10km of the run and go harder because you feel good! This happens more often than people admit!

For those looking to go a bit faster, some time spent at Race Pace and looking at Heart Rates and Speed/Watts is time very well spent. Indeed this is something that's best done in the last 6 weeks and really needs to be done in consultation with someone with experience in this area. But essentially the long TT bike simulations will help you set correct pace and check that you are being efficient and consistent. As a general guide what you can hold for 100-120km TTing in training (and still run 70-90min comfortably) will be about the pace you can step up to on the day. Of course average pace doesn't tell the full story either. You want tight variance on HR and avoid peaks of Heart Rate - these are efforts that chew through your limited carbohydrate stores.

Anyway to assist you in checking where you are. Here is a short list of some of the critical points to check you've covered. You can go back, check your log and work out where you are in each area, any holes in your Race Plan prep can then be fixed before race start. Good luck and see you on the course!!

A Check list for Ironman Planning

(probably not complete so feel free to add more yourself)

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