What I Wish I Knew 6 Years Ago

Sam Doolittle

In a little under two months, I will be competing in my 7th Ironman Canada. I plan on taking a break this year meaning I won’t be signing up for next year the day after the event. It is not that I don’t enjoy this any more. Quite the contrary. I still love the training and seeing its effects on my body. However, I have found that six years of giving up (and, more importantly, my family giving up) things because of choices I have to make about my schedule has gotten to the point where I need to take a break. This is actually a little scary to me. Preparing for and making my annual trek to Penticton has become part of what defines me as an individual. Giving that up is scary. The specter of an Ironman each year has kept me in great shape. Will I get soft? I think I’ve escaped a lot of aging from 31 to 38 years old. Will I catch up now? Will I ever do another Ironman again?

I think I probably will. In the meantime, I was reflecting on what I would tell myself if I could go back in time seven years – when I had signed up for my first Ironman in Canada.

Like Curly from City Slickers, the secret to successfully training for an Ironman takes just one thing. Except here, I am going to tell you that one thing.

Train as much as you can consistently train.

That’s it. Before you stop reading and think that I am just pointing out the obvious, let me provide some examples. Now, I am a pretty smart guy, but I didn’t always get this right. Here are just a few of the ways:

• I inserted huge training days that I wasn’t ready for. I was very proud that I got through them but then I’d miss subsequent workouts.
  
  
• I ate poorly. This made me tired and I skipped workouts.
  
  
• I didn’t get enough rest. This includes scheduled recovery.
  
  
• I didn’t eat and hydrate properly before/during/after training. This ran me down and I missed workouts. It also made my workouts stink and lowered my moral. Nothing like a little dehydration to help convince me that I can’t ride a bike worth crap!
  
  
• I didn’t get my family on board with my plan. They weren’t happy. I would skip workouts to spend more time with them.
  
  
• I was too optimistic about my availability and thought I could train more than I could. This led to missed workouts. It’s a lot easier to miss a workout if you’ve already missed some.
  
  
• I went too hard on workouts, ignoring all my expensive gadgets, and most of all myself. This would lead to missed workouts.
  
  
• I’d get sick from any and all of the factors above and miss workouts.

In fact, pretty much every training mistake I made was a result of forgetting that my primary goal was to train as much as I could consistently train.

So, how do you know how much you can consistently train? Well, to be honest, I am seven years into IM training, and I still don’t know for sure. The downside of my optimistic tendencies is that I still think I can do more than I can. What would I tell myself? Make the easiest plan you can think of. Execute it flawlessly for 12 weeks. Then, re-evaluate your training log and take something out of the basic week for each missed workout. Go another 12 weeks and repeat.

I will tell you this, though. The key to the question of how much you can consistently train is to be able to answer it yourself. I see a lot of folks seeking the answer on the internet and it’s just not there. Even with coaching, unless you see your coach face to face at least weekly, you need to be able to answer this question for yourself. And really, isn’t the reason we do Ironman to see how far we can really take ourselves? Then why do we keep asking other people?

How about race day execution? Well, call it “training” day execution and you have your answer. Race your Ironman like your long training days – why should you do anything different?

Mark Twain once wrote an essay about the origins of man. It was meant to poke fun at a contemporary of his who posited that all prior species were here to serve the coming of man. At any rate, Twain pointed out that if the timeline of the universe was the height of the Eiffel Tower, man’s existence is represented by the skin of the paint on top of the ball on top of the tower.

I will go so far as to say that for the overwhelming majority of Ironman athletes, anything regarding training that is not encompassed in Train as much as you can consistently train represents the paint on top of the Eiffel Tower. This includes:

• Powercranks
  
• Newton Shoes
  
• Altitude tents
  
• Snorkels, fins, paddles, bands, water wings and endless pools
  
• Differences between training protocols
  
• Most everything to do with bike equipment
  
• Etc, etc

Happy training,

Sam

++++

Sam was asked about Power Meters. His take...

I considered them and decided to exclude them from the list. Here's is my take on power meters. To over generalize, power meters have two main uses:

1) to provide feedback during training on level of effort

2) to provide information for past-training analysis (trends over time, improvement, etc)

Item #2, above, would go on the list I put together in the article.

Now, I do happen to think the use of a power meter can be important when used as item #1. Different people have different limiters. Some folks seem to be able to instinctively know how to set their pacing. Others (like me) have to learn this skill. A power meter can be very helpful in working this out in two main areas: early bike pacing when you feel great and avoiding power spikes. I've had plenty of workouts where I shelled myself by focusing on outcomes (chasing speed, time, etc) instead of focusing on the effort (power) I was creating. As a result, I've cut workouts short or missed workouts. In this vein, I think a power meter can be helpful in developing consistency.

One final note, using a power meter to set effort is a skill in itself. I wrote something up on this for Gordo that he may be putting in AP. It compares using a power meter and hrm with the instruments a pilot uses to fly a plane.