Ironman Triathlon - Tips for Your First Season Part 2

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Paul_Weinreich]Paul Weinreich
Following on from the Part 1, where I looked at Coaching, Training and Bike Fitness, here are some more of my top tips for getting through you first season of Ironman.
BRICK SESSIONS
A brick is when you finish a bike ride and follow it by a run, immediately. The distance of the bike ride is not hugely important but you will find this most beneficial after your longer rides and the longest ride before the race. You use different muscles in your legs when cycling and running. I find in the first 10 minutes off the bike my legs are on autopilot. It is a strange sensation when the blood starts travelling to the different parts of your muscles. It is always good when possible to replicate a race scenario and this is one of the easiest to do. Make sure you take no longer then 5 minutes to get out on the run after the bike. The time running does not have to be long, you should aim for 20 to 30 minutes, throwing a longer run in with a shorter ride.
SWIMMING IN GROUP/OPEN WATER
Your race swim will be either in the sea, lake or in a river. There are two things that you'll want to do before you race - swim in open water and swim in or around a group of people. Of my 3 races, the swim at IM Austria was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I've had to do. It was a mass start with 2800 people and I constantly had people around me, in front of me, behind, from the side and it was very rare to have any open water. You will receive knocks to the head and can be constantly in contact with other swimmers. It is quite normal for people to panic and have trouble breathing even at a slow pace and swimming in open water is very different to being in the pool. Try to enter some open water swim events, get your wetsuit on and swim with people around you, get bashed a bit and just get used to that feeling. If you are not a confident swimmer, start at the back of the pack and swim your own race. Just because you start at the back does not mean you'll be out of the water last, you'll pick off the stragglers one by one and you'll have a more pleasant experience.
NUTRITION
Finding nutrition that works for you can be a long arduous process and taking on calories during the race can be hard. I can get sick of the nutrition I use and don't want to eat it whilst on the bike. You must or you'll bonk and there is nothing worse than bonking. I use Banana Malt Loaf, which I chop up into slices then press down on them until they are quite small and fit in my bento box. I also use PowerBar ride shots, cola are my favourite flavour. I take a few shots on the half hour and take a slice of malt loaf on the hour. Some competitors use Carb Gels - A friend of mine empties nearly 20 gels into a water bottle and that is his whole nutrition for the bike. Personally I need to have food in my stomach and gels don't agree with me. You will have your personal preference but never try anything new in the race, always try during training.
IF THINGS DON'T GO TO PLAN
The third and final race of my season was at Henley and despite the experience of two IM races, I still made some whopping mistakes, which made it a very hard day. Firstly, getting distracted in T1 before the race, I forgot to put my bento box on my bike and this left me without any nutrition. Secondly, as the previous 2 races had been warm weather and Henley in September is not, I had decided to put my socks on in T1 instead of T2 - But then forgot to actually put my socks on! The third and final mistake was crashing into a curb 200m out of T1 throwing me into the pavement, cutting my arm and leg.
When I fell off my bike, I wanted to give in right there and then - and it took me a minute to pull myself together and realise what was at stake. The journey has been long, how many hours of training, sweat, blood and tears have you put into this? Thinking of this and the thought of having to tell people I didn't finish a race because I fell off the bike was unbearable. I picked up the bike, checked it out and it was fine - so I jumped back on and off I went. It did take me nearly 45 minutes to get over it and the ride was hard because of this. Having forgotten to put my bento box on, I didn't nearly get enough calories in - all I ate were bananas and gels from the aid stations. I did nearly bonk, but luckily I had a Snickers Bar which saved the day and the blister I got because I had no socks on was pretty impressive!
You will be very lucky if nothing goes wrong, but if it does, deal with it, adapt and don't let anything stop you from finishing that race.
So these are some of my top tips having survived my first year in Ironman. I am hoping that these tips will help you on the way to a successful first season in Ironman.
I am Paul Weinreich owner of Titan Personal Training based in North London. I specialise in Strength & Conditioning for athletes in variety of sports, find out how I can help you increase your performance visit my website: [http://www.titanpersonaltraining.com/]http://www.titanpersonaltraining.com/.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Ironman-Triathlon---Tips-for-Your-First-Season-Part-2&id=6716508] Ironman Triathlon - Tips for Your First Season Part 2