The Race Plan

The starting point for a successful Ironman performance, aside from the months and months of training, is a well thought out race plan.

For me, an athlete should always have a race plan.

An athlete should know how they plan to execute the race. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start thinking about your race and making sure you have it well planned.

Here are a few prompts to get you thinking and start planning your race.

Race week

Think about things you need to do this week to prepare for race day. Some examples include:

• Is your bike ok?
• Tyres in good condition?
• Power meter battery charged?
• Do your goggles need anti-fog?
• Elastic laces in shoes?
• Do you know what kit you are wearing in each portion of the race?
• What if it rains or is cold, do you have contingency plans?
• Have you sorted your data screens on your Garmin?

Race Day

Do you have all of your logistics planned so you arrive at the start line in good time, ready to go?

Think about timings.

• What time are you up? What are you having for breakfast?
• What time are you leaving the house?
• Where are you parking when you get there?
• What time can you enter transition?

Think about your warm up prior to the race.

• Can you get in the water prior to swim start?
• If yes, do you know what your warm up looks like?
• If not, what are you going to do instead?

Swim

Some questions to get you thinking about swim strategy include:

• Where are you positioning yourself at the start?
• What is your swim strategy?
• Do you plan to be aggressive at the start and then settle into a pace? Or are you keeping the pace steady? Maybe trying to build pace through the swim?
• Are you looking to draft off other swimmers or are you aiming for clear water?
• Will you have any mantras or cues in the swim to keep your mind focused? Something like “smooth is fast”? Or more of a technical cue – “reach, catch, pull”?

Transition 1

• How are you laying things out?
• Are you taking essential items only – or some “just in case” items such as arm warmers or a gilet?
• Do you have an order of putting things on? Work from the feet up? Or the head down?
• Shoes on the bike or putting them on and then jumping on your bike?

Bike

• What is pacing going to look like? Steady all the way? Building into the race?
• Are you breaking the course up into sections?
• Are you going to manage your effort using a powermeter? Average speed? Heart rate? RPE? A mix? Do your Garmin screens reflect this?
• What about eating and drinking on the bike? Do you know what you will use and when?

Transition 2

• Again, what does this look like? A full kit change – or staying as you are?
• What order are you going to change?
• Fresh socks for the run?
• Suncream necessary?

Run

• Do you know what pace you are aiming to run at? Is that realistic?
• How are you managing your run – based on pace, HR, RPE?
• What is your nutrition plan for the run?
• What is your run-walk strategy?
• Any mantras to use to keep you going?
• What are you going to do when things get tough?

It’s Your Plan

There are no right answers here. It’s your race and there are many ways to approach it. The above questions are to get you thinking about your race and the finer details.

I can advise on some of the above – just message me.

I always find it useful to put a race plan together – and write it down.

Does this help? Has it got you thinking? Go and write your plan using the pointers above and find out