Ready or Not: Coach Nick's Ironman Florida Prep

Well, it's another hot one here in Florida where I'm currently getting ready for this weekend's upcoming Ironman.

It's been just under 1 year since Ironman Cozumel, with its cancelled swim & hot, sticky, sweaty run. And I'm here to put my body through another day of the same grueling thing.

As we are all aware, I spend very little time training for the swim, and so it comes as no surprise that with the windy conditions and light swell forecasted for the morning of (1.5-2.5ft swell), I am in the "I hope the swim gets cancelled" camp, and will be one of the few athletes on the beach with shouts of joy instead of frustration should my dreams come to fruition. If not, all well. I'll suffer a 3.8km 2 loop course in the pleasantly warm and honestly very enticing water of the Gulf of Mexico.

I had the opportunity to try my FORM goggles new Open Water swim compass function at the Cultus Lake triathlon in September, and I'm actually pretty excited to use it again. I have my goggle set up so I have a live HUD of my Heart Rate (which I'll be targeting ~138-146bpm average) as well as a compass to keep me from swimming off-course. It's a really great tool to have in the box, and I think really increased the value of the otherwise over-priced techno-toy. My game plan going into this race is pretty simple: suffer the swim, enjoy the ride, and survive the run. A beautiful race plan if I've ever seen one. Simple, succinct, and I actually have no real time-goal here. My expected ranges though, for the curious, will be ~1:20 on the swim, <5:40 on the bike, and somewhere around 4:30 for the run. All in for a respectable but not anywhere near competitive time of 11:00-12:00 hours.

I did have a great time at training camp with the boys earlier this month in Flagstaff, and I saw some pretty significant fitness improvements there. At the Victoria marathon I was on track for my 3:00 finish time until my soft skin decided more blisters were a good idea, and my brain decided to conserve the feet for Ironman instead of suffer through another 8km to achieve my run goal. I do feel as though my cardiovascular fitness is in a good position to achieve the goals on the Bike + Run, but as always with Ironman, there will be plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong, and sometimes even catastrophically so.

The bike I'm currently riding is a 2015 Cannondale Slice Black Inc. HiMod frame with 11spd UltegraDi2 and a pair of 2015 Shimano DuraAce 35mm aluminum tracked carbon wheels. I've got my super fun MORPH Aerobars, which always look cool, and as long as I can hold a good position I'll be able to carry some solid speed (34-36kmh) without too much effort (~180-200W to be exact). All of the riding and testing under conditions have shown Cycling Calculator to be pretty close. I'll be taking my usual dates & course nutrition throughout this one, with a bit of F2C Glycodurance + Electrodurance to keep the electrolytes up and calories varied.

I fully expect the run to be an absolute grind. Each of the runs I've done since getting here have reaffirmed to me just how difficult running in heat & humidity is for someone acclimated to moderate heat & cool breezes to keep the core temperature down. I'll be doing my best to keep my core temperature down, and hopefully be taking advantage of a later finishing time to run with some of the heat already dissipating. Since the blister debacle at the Vic Marathon, I picked up a new pair of my Tempo Trainers, Brooks Hyperion, as they served me well all week in Flagstaff. The Cielo's didn't play well with my ankle brace, but the Hyperion's wider profile and less aggressive foot-bed should mitigate that issue *fingers crossed!

All in all, I'm excited for the opportunity to put in a big day of work again! The friends I'm staying with have been non-stop fun in the evenings and I'll have to focus on getting extra sleep to catch up on all the late nights I've had since arriving! Nate & Ali are absolute gems, and I'm so thankful to know them and have such a wonderful & supportive couple to be here with. It makes the experience so much more enjoyable! Hopefully I'll be posting later this weekend with an update on how the race went, and at least a modicum of enthusiasm for how it went! Live updates will be on the Ironman Tracker app should you be so inclined, and I will see you all on the otherside!