Ironman Texas Tips
Ironman Texas is as local as it gets for us in North Texas for a full Ironman. Much like Ironman 70.3 Texas in Galveston early in April, the course itself is not particularly challenging but the heat, humidity, and wind present particular challenges. As a coach who helped numerous athletes prepare for this race, here are my top tips for race day.
Practice Bike Handling. Like in Galveston earlier in the month, you can almost always assume that heat, humidity, and wind will impact your race. In 2024, the strong winds caused a few crashes. Avoid doing most of your bike training on the trainer. Make sure you are comfortable riding in the aero position in a variety of weather conditions so you are confident on race day. In addition, practicing riding with one hand, braking quickly, and bottle grabs so you aren’t surprised on race day.
Heat Training. Except for the few years there has been consistent rain on race day, you can assume that heat and humidity will impact your day especially on the run. Doing some heat training will help. About 4-6 weeks before race day start do the following 2-3 times a week on easy training days: 1) Do a 30-60 minute easy ride on the trainer with extra layers and no fan or a 30 minute easy run on a treadmill with extra layers to increase your core body temperature. Hydrate appropriately during and after your session; Or 2) after completing a workout spend time in a sauna, hot tub, or hot bath. If you use a hot tub or bath, be submerged up to your neck. Gradually build up your time to 30 minutes. For each of these sessions, weigh yourself naked immediately before and after to gauge fluid loss. Then replace that loss with 1.5x water plus electrolytes after the session.
Keep your nutrition and hydration simple and systematic. If you end up walking for long stretches of the run, then most likely something was off with your nutrition and hydration. If you want to avoid walking the marathon, you need to start practicing your race day nutrition & hydration early and often before race day. For nutrition: women shoot to consume approximately 70-100 grams of carbohydrates per hour on the bike and 40-70 grams of carbs per hour on the run. Men shoot to consume 90-120 grams of carbs per hour on the bike and 60-90 grams of carbs on the run. For hydration, start with consuming 1 water bottle per hour with approximately 500 mg of sodium. Weigh yourself naked immediately before and after your training session and aim to lose less than 2% body weight. If you lose more than 2%, you are too dehydrated so adjust the amount of sodium and/or water you drink the next time. If you want to eliminate some of this guess work, then schedule an Advanced Sweat Test at Playtri Dallas to learn how much sodium you lose in your sweat.
Know your zones and stick to them. With the environmental factors that can impact your race day, it is important to know how hard you can go. If you don’t know your heart rate and power zones, then scheduling blood lactate tests at Playtri Dallas is the way to go. Blood lactate testing is the most accurate way to determine your HR zones for bike and run and with over 20 years of doing these tests with countless athletes we know how affective they are.
Stop your watch after the finish line. The finish line is something to celebrate. Slow down in the finishing chute. Smile as you cross the finish line and take in the atmosphere. You’ve accomplished something that only a small fraction of people have ever done. Stop your watch after your cross the finish line. And celebrate the accomplishment!
If you have any questions about preparing for Galveston 70.3, performance testing, or coaching, please contact me at jim.rowe@playtri.com. Happy training and racing this year!
Jim Rowe is a Playtri Level 5 Coach and Coach Education Lead, a USAT LI Certified Coach, an NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and an Ironman and 70.3 World Championship Qualifier who works with adult athletes from beginners to IRONMAN World Championship qualifiers. Learn more about Jim at www.playtri.com/jim-rowe