Five Ironman Week Mistakes

My Coach posted this over on our forum.... ( come on over and join us no matter where you are from) which I think is brilliant advice!

OK Ironman season is here again. Here are five things I see that people do during the week leading up to an ironman that potentially sabotages their chances for a good race. A lot of the examples are from Lake Placid but they apply to all races. They’re in no particular order and I’m sure there’s a lot more that I missed. Feel free to add or debunk.

Too Much Swimming

Ok it’s ironman week. You’re in Lake Placid four or five days before the race with really nothing to do but taper. So what do you do? Swim a lot. You go down and swim one lap (2000 meters) of the course every morning. If you’re there five days before that’s around 8K meters plus the 4K for the race which makes it 12K meters for the week. For most age group triathletes that’s their biggest swim week of the year! You have to taper the swim as well.

Treating it like a Family Vacation

I know you have used up lots of emotional capital with the spouse and kids in your lead up to the big race. So you try to make the “down” time spent in town before the race more of a family vacation. You walk up and down Main Street shopping all day in 85 degree heat. You climb up Whiteface Mountain or the ski jumps. Spend too much time at the athlete’s expo shopping. Coupled with the 8-10K of swimming you’re pretty much spent by the time race day comes around. The best thing to do before race day, when you’re not eating or doing a workout, is to sit at the hotel/condo with your feet up (even better lying down). Show up as close to race day as possible and promise the spouse and kids that the vacation will start after the race. You might be a little sore, but. You won’t be as stressed. You’ll be able to eat and do anything, which will allow you to truly enjoy the family vacation.

Not Putting on New Tires

$500 Registration, $5000 bike, $2000 wheels, $2500 for lodging but you’re going to race on tires you have raced on for the last one or two years? Ok I don’t have the stats for this one. It might just be my own silly superstition. But why not mount some new tires during race week. Ride them a couple of times to ensure there aren’t any problems. Race day flat insurance.

Listening to Race Week Experts

It doesn’t matter what your expected finishing time is going to be. It will seem that everyone you to talk during race week is planning to finish several hours ahead of you. They’ll have great advice and opinions on pacing, nutrition and equipment. You will be tempted based on this advice to tweak your race day plan. The race plan that you have been perfecting (hopefully) for the better part of ever. Don’t do it! The fact of the matter is most people are winging it on race day. Don’t change your race strategy based on a conversation you had with a person while wading into Mirror Lake for your 2K swim.

Forgetting to Have Fun

The winners are only going to get $10K for 26 weeks of training. You can make that on unemployment. Relax.
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