 Well, Ironman Triathlon Tips is going to be on hold for a bit. H and T will be starting their full time effort in the sport of long course triathlon and driving south to California. We’ll get going on the Internet connection as soon as possible and get back on the daily tips right away. A few minor details to work out but it should be good. If you sign up for the email feed you’ll start getting emails again once the tips start coming. We’re hoping to incorporate a video section as well.
On that note – today’s tip is about driving to your race.
With the cost of air travel – plus the need to pack your bike, driving to a race can be a great option. If you need to power-drive be sure to get in plenty of rest stops. And not just a quick ‘out of the car and pee’ rest stop either, take the time for a good 10-15 minute jog every few hours. Playing hacky sack is another great way to get the muscles and joints moving. Hacky Sack will loosen up the tight driving muscles. Hip flexors in particular. Kick a soccer ball or lie on the grass and stretch. Anything to shake out the legs every few hours.
And we’re off…check back soon or sign up for email/RSS notification to let you know when we’re back in action. Plenty of old tips to browse through as well.
Continue reading Driving to a race
The next time you’re out riding or running, play a little game and try to guess your heart rate every 15 minutes or so. Pay attention to how your legs feel, how hard you’re breathing, and what kind of terrain you’re in. The more you do this the better [...]
This will take some experimenting and I can almost guarantee your eyes will betray your stomach. Those pieces of pizza look oh so good, but they’ll make you keel over 30 minutes later. Perhaps not, your stomach may be made of iron and you can handle such things, but [...]
Don’t plan a day off, take it when you need it.
Like we’ve mentioned in several tips, consistency is your best friend when it comes to improvement in triathlon. A great way to ensure consistent training is to avoid planning a regular day off. Let your motivation and fatigue [...]
For this tip we’ re going to send you over to Gordo Byrn. It’s a great tip and worth reading the whole thing. Here’s an excerpt to wet your appetite – pun intended.
Your fastest race weight will always be slightly higher than you think optimal. When you are [...]
 Most of us can benefit from going to the weight room at least once a week, especially during the winter months when you may be backing off the longer rides. I say ‘most’ because some people are naturally strong and time in the weight room would simply bulk them up more than a triathlete would want. It has also been reported that once you get into your late 30′s you can start to lose 1 pound of muscle per year for the rest of your life. To us that seems like a lot, we certainly don’t have any basis to argue that, but pumping some iron can’t hurt!
Building muscle can also help burn your fat stores. More muscle = more energy use = more potential for fat consumption. That extra muscle, which should be sport specific, will also help propel you forward that much faster (and seeing as you’ll have less fat you’ll be even speedier). A great recommendation is to do your lower body weight room work with one leg at a time to help even out any imbalances.
When you’re first getting back into the gym, take it VERY easy so that you can train properly the next day. Very light weight and only 2 sets of a given workout. After a couple weeks you can start putting on some heavier weight, but still keep the reps high – between 12 and 15 for us endurance folk. 1 set for warm up, 2 where you hit that last rep with a good burn.
Continue reading Use the weight room
This is probably old news, but if nothing else take it as a reminder for the next time you travel to your race. Putting all that time in for Ironman race day only to catch a silly bug druing race week happens all the time. Hard training suppresses your [...]
 As race season rolls around, getting time out training in the open water is a great way to mix it up and give yourself a break from the black line. However, it is very easy to fall into a leisurely pace that won’t benefit your race day goals. To get around this you need to keep in mind that it is still a training workout and some effort is required. It is also very easy to fall into a similar routine swim after swim.
-Two times around the big island.
-To the far beach and back.
-5th dock around the point.
We all have our own lake swim turnaround points. Be adventurous if safety allows and switch it up. You also can’t forget about the harder efforts you would normally do while in the pool:
- Practice your beach starts and exits.
- Swim flat out to the rock or big tree.
- Change draft positions with your swim partner every 5 minutes.
- Long steady is great, but not every time you go out.
Continue reading Open water swimming
 There are different approaches to the last couple days of a taper before a full Ironman event (in most cases, a 70.3 event requires a slightly different approach than a full Ironman). You’ve probably read about some athletes putting in a fairly hardy dose of training on race week. Even within the last couple days before the race. This doesn’t work for everybody, but you always hear about the people that do it because it’s outside the norm (Belinda Granger -to name a name off the top of my head). Then they go and win Ironman events and you start thinking that that is what you should be doing too. Not the case. Keep in mind, the people doing this have been training incredibly hard for a long time (we all have – but relatively speaking not as hard as a full time athlete). A 3 hour ride two days out from the race may seem like peanuts to them. Unless you’re training full time and can test that type of situation I would steer away from it. We’ve found that our best races always happened after we thought we had NOT done enough during race week. Assuming the race was on Sunday, we started getting really antsy on Saturday or even Friday. For most athletes starting an Ironman this is a good thing. It means you’re rested, your body wants to go exert itself, you’re ready. Even the feeling of being somewhat sleepy is not altogether a bad thing for an Ironman (you’re welcome to disagree). It’s a long day and using the first 20 kms to shake out some sleepiness can lead to a very strong finish.
So, assuming your Ironman is on a Sunday:
Continue reading Last couple days before an Ironman
I was looking at this picture the other night of the Ironman Coeur D’Alene start line. Heather is in the blue cap, front and center (Click to enlarge). That stance shows that she is thinking about one thing, and that is how quickly she’s going to get herself to [...]
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About this site:
These triathlon and endurance sport related tips have been compiled by Heather and Trevor Wurtele over the years of their progression from working age-groupers to full time professional triathletes. Heather is now a 4 time Ironman Champion and top 10 World Championship finisher. Trevor has an Ironman PR of 8:22 and a 2:51 Ironman marathon.
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Well, Ironman Triathlon Tips is going to be on hold for a bit. H and T will be starting their full time effort in the sport of long course triathlon and driving south to California. We’ll get going on the Internet connection as soon as possible and get back on the daily tips right away. A few minor details to work out but it should be good. If you sign up for the email feed you’ll start getting emails again once the tips start coming. We’re hoping to incorporate a video section as well.
