For Ironman and Epic nutrition, learning to burn fat is a key strategy to reduce gastric issues and optimise performance.
The body can sustain the absorption of around 1100 kilojoules per hour. At higher rates you gastric system is highly likely to fail, usually around 7 hours of racing. The usual signs are the dreaded bonk, bloating and cramps.
In an Ironman you will burn between 3000 and 3800 Kilojoules per hour, 60% of the fuel you rely on will be your own body fat.
Ironman athletes commonly train up to seven hours on a sugar intensive fuels, never going to the stage where our gastric system starts to fail. Read More
Training to pace, power and heart rate has huge benefits and is now the norm for the bike and run. Swim pacing is not so easy with no heart rate monitoring or pace feedback available during a set or in an open water swim. Even more frustrating is that a GPS does not work underwater so that any loop course swum is generally out significantly as the 1 second reading on arm recovery leads to a estimation rather than a accurate reading. In general a loop swim in a lake will show …a incorrect faster pace as the GPS over estimates the distance.
Tip 1: Disclaimer, there is a risk of loosing your Garmin if you don’t take care! Use a good quality swim cap and place your Garmin inside at the back of your head so it remains above the surface. This will give you an accurate distance reading and an accurate actual pace for the open water swim.
Tip 2: To monitor open water swim pace in training and in a race, set the Garmin lap time to a distance (e.g. 400m) and set it to vibrate at end of each lap. Use a Finis tempo timer on mode 2 set to your 400m pace time (e.g. 6min 20sec). Place inside swim cap near your ear. At each 400m the GPS will vibrate, if the tempo timer beeps first you are swimming to fast, if after, too slow.. For most swimmers we go out too hard so this is a really good way of practicing proper pacing.
So who is stiff and hurting after that big race on the weekend?
The day after a hard race is a good time to assess you primary muscle conditioning for strength training in your next block. I go through the following groups of muscles, and those that are effected by the DOMS (delayed onset muscle strain) will be prioritised and targeted in the gym or in strength training sessions. Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves, Biceps, Triceps, Deltoids, Latissimus Dorsi. Essentially the muscles impacted by DOMS would have been limiters in the back end of the discipline they where powering, Knowing what to target for a better result next race is gold.
So your next Ironman or 70.3 is upon you and hopefully you have all tested our nutrition plan in training.
If you are new to longer distances or have had nutrition issues in prior races, here is a simple way of validating the essentials, preferred products aside.
In a basic nutrition plan I focus on the essentials for the distance and push preferences aside for validation. Flavour, minerals, and consistency are preferences, the 1%ers which make things palatable, but don’t effect performance significantly once consumed. For validation, I ignore these. Read More
Explanation
Small/15 (S15) = Small chain ring, 15 rear cluster (middle)
Small/21 (S21) = Small chain ring, 21 rear cluster (one down from easiest)
Large/15 (L15) = Large chain ring, 15 rear cluster (middle)
Large/12 (L12) = Large chain ring, 12 rear cluster (Smallest)
Explanation
Small/15 (S15) = Small chain ring, 15 rear cluster (middle)
Small/21 (S21) = Small chain ring, 21 rear cluster (one down from easiest)
Large/15 (L15) = Large chain ring, 15 rear cluster (middle) Read More
Lactate threshold Heart Rate test conducted on a wind trainer.
Explanation
Small 15 (S15) = Small chain ring, 15 rear cluster (middle)
Small 21 (S21) = Small chain ring, 21 rear cluster (one down from easiest)
Large 15 (L15) = Large chain ring, 15 rear cluster (middle)
During 20 Minute test effort use gear selection of choice with cadence of 85-95. Try build in first 2 minutes then apply sustainable effort through to end, re-assess sustainability every 5 minutes. Read More
