Being an overtrained-ironman is so common that most first-time ironmen often leave their best effort out on their bike or run course back home. In some case they even leave much of their energy on parts of the Ironman course just days before the race is to take place.

An overtrained-ironman is usually in for a long day out on the course when Ironman day arrives. Usually about half or three-quarters of the way into the bike the first signs of an energy crash or “bonk” begin to surface. Once the energy drain begins, it’s pretty well impossible to get it back. Normally that means the marathon will be a death march.

However, lets take a step back and see what line of thinking causes so many triathletes, or any athletes for that matter, to end up over-trained.

It reminds me of when I decided I wanted to be a marathoner over 35 years ago. The running craze that swept North America was still about 6 years away from really taking off. The very first Ironman race had just evolved from being a topic of conversation between John Collins and his buddies to a race around Oahu that involved less than 10 people.I started running and never wanted to stop. I thought that every time I took a day off from running, I would lose all that I had gained. One year I ran 364 days, but was married at the time and my wife said I had to take Christmas day off. Against my better judgment I did, but felt sure I would be back to square one in my training. How screwed up is that line of thinking? I simply didn’t know any better. I was one of the first athletes in the country to have an arthroscope procedure on my knee. A few years later I had the other one done. Talk about over-training.

It carried over to my first run at the Ironman in Kona in 1984. The Wednesday before the race I was out running ten miles on the “hotter than Hell” king K. highway. Talk about being an over-trained ironman. There I was burning up energy and getting dehydrated at the worst possible time.

I certainly wasn’t the only one who didn’t know any better. There were actually many people who were entered in the Ironman that year who took part in a 100 mile bike race in Kona one week before the Ironman. They thought it would be a good tune-up for the real thing.Right.

We were not the only ones who went in way over-trained. There were around 100 Japanese entered in that same race and every day right up until Ironman weekend huge packs of them would head out on the King K. Highway for a 60 or 70 mile ride in the heat of the afternoon.

Much has been learned about the importance of resting and tapering in the quarter of a century since that Ironman in Kona. Now there are coaches, books, and many experienced Ironmen to fall back on for advice and direction. Back then the Ironman was so new there was nowhere to turn for help.

Still, I can guarantee you that you can go to any Ironman race in the world and drive out on the bike and run courses in the last few days leading up to the Ironman and see people putting in a last 100 km bike ride or 10 mile run. There will even be people out there plowing through the entire swim course just days before the race. It never fails.

There are many reasons why this always happens. First of all, many people train all on their own and really have nobody to guide them as far as how to train and how and when to rest. Others do it because they have not been training as much in the past month or so and actually start feeling really good, so they figure it won’t hurt to pound out one last bike ride. In reality what they end up doing is ruining the taper effect and becoming an over-trained ironman.

Some do it because they simply can’t sit still and relax and have to find a way to get rid of all the excess energy. Actually, there is no excess energy. You will need all that you have for race-day and the more that can be saved, the better you will perform.

The ideal lead-in to the Ironman seems to be at least a four-week taper. The last of your big training weeks should be all done in the final month leading up to the four-week taper. From that point on, it seems to work best if training is cut down by 15%-20% every week until Ironman week arrives. It doesn’t mean your usual training intensity has to be lowered, but the time actually spent training should be less each week.

By the time the final week before Ironman day roles around rest should be your best friend. Try out the water where the race will be taking place, but there is no need to swim every single day of Ironman week or to swim the entire course. Maybe on Wednesday take your bike out on an easy 20 or 25 km spin and make sure everything is mechanically sound. That same day, or Thursday at the latest, you could perhaps go out on an easy 6-7 km run early in the morning before the heat of the day begins. Basically, that should be it until race day except for Saturday morning if the race is on Sunday.

Pretty well all the rest of Thursday and all of Friday should be for rest. Dave Scott was a great believer in doing a little bit on the day before the race just to keep lose for the race and get rid of any excess fluid from all that hydrating you should have been doing for the days leading up to the race.

All you need is a 10-15 minute swim and an easy 10-15 minute run. Most likely your bike will be checked in or else you could do a short 15 minute bike as well. Do 6-8 15-20 second sprints at faster than your normal training pace. Take 2 minutes in between each short sprint and swim, bike, or run easily in between each one and that will be it. Mark Allen calls them “Pick-ups,” and strongly believes in doing this the day before any race. I started to do pick-ups before 10km races, marathons, and Ironman races for the last 10 years that I raced and it worked great.

Before I learned better, I would always take the day before any race off completely. The main benefit of doing those very short sprints the day before the race is to remind your body what will be expected of it the next day. If you are “completely” inactive for days leading up to the race your body may tend to stiffen up. So there is a happy medium between over-training and being properly prepared.

It’s important to keep in mind that in the last month leading up to an Ironman there is very little you can do to make your endurance better. That is something you will not get in the last month if you do not already have it. It is simply too late. Endurance is built up over months and years, not weeks. If you can keep this in mind it will go a long way toward preventing you from becoming an over-trained ironman.

Perhaps you’ve recently finished your triathlon and you’re unhappy with your Ironman results. Perhaps you just signed up for an Ironman and you want better results. No matter what your level of triathlon experience is, these three crucial keys for the swim, the bike and the run will surely get you better results.

Get Ironman Results for the Swim: Swim With Attitude

Let’s face it – the emotions and experiences you have during the Ironman swim can significantly dictate your mental performance for the remainder of the entire race. If you put yourself into a swim position that allows you to become frustrated, you could set-up a damaging cascade of decisions that stays with you during the bike and the run. It may seem illogical, but you can find yourself riding above your goal bike pace by 1-2 miles per hour and destroying your ability to run off the bike simply because you swam 100m off course on the swim and you’re attempting to “make up time”.

So not only do you have to have an attitude during the swim that allows you to shrug off any frustrating experiences that come your way – such as getting kicked in the face, elbowed in the goggles or drafting off course – but you also need to make sure that you position yourself in the swim to decrease the chances of these events occurring. For example, you can swim to the inside of the marker buoys (most people swim to the outside), sight off stationary landmarks on shore (most people try to sight off buoys, which is much more difficult), and draft on the hips of the swimmer in front of you rather than their feet.

Make the proper swim decisions, and you’ll drastically affect your Ironman results for the rest of the race.

Get Ironman Results for the Bike: Gearing & Cadence

There’s nothing like mashing gears for 112 miles to leave your legs feeling like J-E-L-L-O for the run. But at an average Ironman event, 90% of the competitors are spinning at 60-70RPM or lower as they climb the hills. This is either the result of not knowing how to use the bike gears, not having the mental awareness to use the bike gears, or not having the correct bike gears. Don’t fool yourself – you may be able to do a sprint triathlon with a chain ring the size of Kansas and the cassette of a Tour contender, but that might come back to bite you 80 or 90 miles into the Ironman bike ride.

So in your practice rides leading up to the Ironman, attempt to ride a course that simulates your race course, and bring a cyclocomputer. Watch your cadence. It doesn’t matter whether you’re training based on heart rate, power, or “feel” – your cadence should be at least above 80RPM, and preferably 85-95RPM, even on the hills.

Get Ironman Results for the Run: Nutrition

If you’ve done Ironman before, then you know the feeling. About 6 miles into the run, each aid station becomes a blur of cookies, Coke, soup and gels – and you can’t remember what you already grabbed, why you grabbed it, how much you stuffed into your mouth, what time it is, or where your pace is at.

The truth is this: during the Ironman run you have to *own your calories*. This means that every bite of fuel that goes into your mouth is coolly calculated and stored in your mental computer that tells you exactly how much fuel you’ve consumed. There’s nothing like being doubled over with gut pain halfway through a marathon and not knowing whether it was because you ate too much, ate too little, mixed the wrong foods, or somehow grabbed a cheeseburger while you weren’t paying attention.

During your long runs, practice adding total calories consumed and maintaining a running tally of your fuel – the mind can be trained to do math during exercise, and if you do this step, your Ironman results will
rock.

With a proper swim attitude, smart bike gearing and cadence, and attentive run nutrition, you’re guaranteed to get better Ironman results.

The author, Ben Greenfield, is also the author of the highly successful Ironman training program, Ironman Triathlon Dominator.  You can click here for more information about Ben and his Ironman Triathlon Dominator Package.