How to wreck your next Ironman PB

If your last race was a disaster you probably blamed your programme or your coach or both. I’m not talking about mechanical failures here just about a failure to live up to the performance your training results had you believe was possible.

The plain simple fact is that your poor result might have absolutely nothing to do with your training. It is perfectly possible that your race day performance could be directly linked with what you did in the 7 days before the event.

Outlined below are 5 things you can do to really wreck your chances on the big day. Imagine if each of the 5 scenarios’s outlined below added 2% to your finishing time. If you were expecting a 10hr Ironman that is 12 minutes for each one, or an hour if you commit all 5!!

1. Too much stress
Because you are traveling on the Wednesday or Thursday you try to fit a weeks worth of work & chores into 2 or 3 days. By the time you leave for the race you feel like you normally do on a Friday night.

Solution – Plan your work at least 2 weeks in advance and leave the final 3 days for tidying up loose ends. Better still take the whole week off.


2. Traveling too close to the event
If you fly to a European Ironman on the Friday before a Sunday race, you are just asking for trouble. Come to think of it leaving any travel this late is silly. You leave yourself no margin for error in case of problems. What if your bags are delayed or your bike needs some attention when you get to the venue.

Solution – For an Ironman event, aim to arrive in town, at least, 4-5 days before race day. After all, you have spent 6 months training for it so why not soak up the whole atmosphere.


3. Too much training
One of the problems with getting to the race venue too early is that you can get too caught up in the hype. You see all the athletes out training and start to panic thinking that you should do a bit more. The truth is that most of them probably aren’t racing anyway

Solution - However much you think you should have done, any time in the last 7-10 days is too late. Your body won’t adapt to any of the training in time but it may feel more fatigued.


4. Spending too much time on your feet
This can start with queuing up to check in at the airport & is compounded by lots of walking around the race village and visiting the expo every day (it happens!!)

Solution – Prepare a timetable, before you leave home, of all the jobs you must do when you get to the race. Then stick to it no matter what. Spend the rest of the time with your feet up.


5. Dehydration
Most Ironman races that take place outside of the UK are usually a good deal hotter than you will be used to, especially early season races (S Africa, Lanzarote). It takes approximately 10-14 days for your body to adapt to very humid conditions and heat.

Solution - Make sure you drink plenty of water & take in the electrolytes as well. You will get dehydrated during the course of your event so it’s best not to start the race already under the cosh.


What I have written above might seem a bit dramatic but they all come from real life examples. If you have spent many months preparing for your big event and probably invested a fair bit of money too, wouldn’t it be a sensible idea to make sure that you don’t throw it all away in the last 7 days.

See you out there.

About the author of this blog post
Article reproduced courtesy of Simon Ward, founder and head coach of Thetriathloncoach.com. Since he started coaching in 1995 Simon has helped over 100 triathletes complete Ironman events including several Hawaii qualifiers (& finishers). In addition he has experience of working with elite and age group athletes who race at the standard distance.
Thetriathloncoach.com offers tailor made training programs to help athletes of all abilities reach their goals. IronmanPB.com
provides athletes with the tools to set a new personal best and share their knowledge in an online community.

© Thetriathloncoach.com