It’s not easy to break 10 hours in an Ironman. But with these ten tips from the Rock Star Triathlete Academy, you’ll learn how speedy Ironman triathletes can cross the finish line with single digits of hours on the clock, and how you can too.
1. Get skinny
Stand at the finish line of an Ironman between 9 and 10 o’clock. How many thick legs do you see? How many solid necks? Muscular or muscular guys and girls? Whether it’s muscle bulk or fat bulk, very little exists for fast Ironman finishers. Muscle requires a significant amount of energy to cool down and transport, and fat, while a fantastic energy source, greatly reduces economy of movement. To break 10 hours in Ironman, you have to be willing to lose fat, cannibalize muscle, give up your nice arms, and put up with family members telling you you look “too skinny.” This will require a variety of strategies, from intermittent fasting to diet-free cardio sessions, frequent desserts, and skipping alcohol.
2. race
Subconsciously, you have to be on cruise control to break 10 hours in Ironman. This means you need to be able to execute a near-perfect nutrition protocol, pacing strategy, transition from swimming to cycling and cycling to running, and you need to be able to do so under stressful race conditions. Most triathletes who break 10 hours in Ironman have run long enough to avoid making small mistakes like over-inflating tires, forgetting salt tablets, letting pride dictate the pace, eating too much, drinking too little or swim off course. Seasoning preparation for an Ironman with a strategically planned series of sprint, Olympic and half-Ironman events creates a smart, stress-free triathlete who doesn’t make the small Ironman racing mistakes that add up to dozens of minutes.
3. Map
To break 10 hours in an Ironman, you need to know the course. A generic approach just won’t work. Several weeks before the Ironman you should sit down and consider the design of the swimming course. Where will you stand on the beach? When will you see? When will you pick up the pace? You need to break the bike down into key parts and create a mental, pacing and fuel strategy for each one. Where can you attack? Where can you write legally? At which points will you refuel? Finally, you must know every curve and slope on the race course, because an unfamiliar course can play tricks on your confidence and pace. Hitting the 18 mile mark and having 5 key milestones that will see you through to the finish gives you a much better pace than hitting the 18 mile mark and having 8 miles of pure unknowns.
4. Periodize.
Early in the year, several months before your Ironman, you should be ready to get your butt kicked at swim clubs, track sessions, or group rides. He just can’t maintain peak Ironman fitness year-round and expect to have perfectly fresh legs for 10 hours or less on race day. Whether you’re focusing on volume early in the year and intensity as Ironman approaches, or vice versa (both approaches can work), you must refuse to do the same training intensity and volume week after week, for all year. By periodizing or clearly identifying the periods of the training year during which you will focus on specific skills or fitness parameters, you will gradually improve until you reach your peak on Ironman race day, rather than just getting stuck in a mean pace year . round.
5.Recover
Training consistency is crucial to being able to break 10 hours in Ironman. Fast Ironman triathletes can come back day after day for every training session and miss very few key sessions throughout the year, and a big part of that is recovery. If constant injuries and immune system crashes are sabotaging the training plan, it can mean a loss of 20 minutes to 2 hours in Ironman fitness. Proper recovery requires the implementation and frequent use of ice and ice baths, compression gear, massage therapy, foam rollers, amino acids and other nutritional recovery supplements, easy leg rinse exercises after hard days or races, and an open mind to physical therapy and rehabilitation. such as ultrasound, electrostimulation, infrared, vibration or magnets if an injury modality actually occurs. Adequate recovery also means being able to identify when you are not recovered, by monitoring your resting heart rate, pain, sleep and, when necessary, biological parameters such as hormone ratios.
So those are the first five steps of how to break 10 hours in an Ironman triathlon. The next five steps are revealed in How to Break 10 Hours in Ironman: Part II, instantly available within the Rock Star Triathlete Academy. Join us at the academy for just one dollar by visiting http://www.rockstartriathleteacademy.com.