# IRONMAN Wales Q&A: Race Week Questions Answered! | Ep 507

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 18 Sep 2024, 28 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/91795392/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-8-16%2F386486930-44100-2-f4f552228dbf6.mp3

This week we're answering some of the common and most useful questions that we've been asked ahead of IRONMAN Wales. Including: * The best way to get through the long, 1km run from the swim exit to T1... * What is / isn't allowed in transition in terms of full changes of clothes, nudity rules etc... * The importance of flushing your wetsuit with water once you get in the sea... * Avoiding wetsuit rub on your neck, which is often a lot more painful in a sea swim... * Essential but non-obvious race-day kit that you may not have on your checklist... * Sensible clothing choices for various weather possibilities... * What to do (and not do!) during your final taper week... * Final raceday tips & advice Many of the topcis we cover are relevant to all IRONMAN races, not just Wales specifically. But if you're racing IRONMAN Wales this coming weekend, this is an episode you won't want to miss! * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Like what you heard in this episode? Join hundreds of other age group triathletes making the most of their limited training time, training with Team Oxygenaddict - The most comprehensive triathlon coaching program for busy age groupers. Read more about becoming a Team Oxygenaddict athlete: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/ Join us by the end of September 2024 and receive a £200 discount on our annual membership! Book an application call to see if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming 12 months, and if successful redeem your £200 discount - valid until the end of September 2024. https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply use this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:04] Hello, and welcome to the Oxygen Addict podcast.
[0:06] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors, Precision Fuel
[0:09] and hydration.com. You can personalise your fueling
[0:12] and hydration strategy so you perform at your best with 15%
[0:16] off your first order of electrolytes and carbohydrate
[0:18] fuel with the code Oxygen 24 at precisionfuelandhydration.com.
[0:24] Welcome to the show, everybody. I'm your host, coach Rob Willby,
[0:27] and every week I bring you an episode of this podcast to help
[0:30] motivate and inspire you. Before we get started, there's a
[0:33] couple of things you can do for us.
[0:34] Please #1 if you like and enjoy this episode, please consider
[0:38] following us on Spotify or on the podcast player of your
[0:41] choice. Helps the growth of the show
[0:44] more than you can possibly imagine.
[0:46] And secondly, if you're looking for help and advice with your
[0:48] triathlon training, we've got a special offer running through to
[0:51] the end of September 2024. We've got £200 off the cost of
[0:56] an annual coaching package with Team Oxygen Addict.
[0:59] I think we've got the most comprehensive triathlon coaching
[1:02] programme for busy age groupers. And it's a £200 off offer
[1:06] running all the way to the end of September 2024, taking the
[1:09] price from 17197 lbs down to 15197 lbs.
[1:15] And remember, you get to lock in that price for as long as you're
[1:18] a continuous member of Team Oxygen Addicts.
[1:20] So the price won't go up on you in the future.
[1:23] So if you're looking for that £200 discount, you can find the
[1:27] details in the show notes. Please go through and book a
[1:29] call with me or one of our team and we'll have a chat with you
[1:32] and find out whether you'd be a good fit for coaching with Team
[1:35] Oxygen Addicts. You can grab one of those 200 LB
[1:38] special offers and hopefully that's a a nice, very tasty
[1:41] saving to help you out as you go into 2025.
[1:44] That's actually those rolling the price back two years.
[1:47] So cost of living crisis and all of that.
[1:49] Hopefully it'll help you guys out.
[1:52] OK. On this episode of the podcast,
[1:54] we're going to be going through questions that we've had from
[1:57] athletes, questions we've had over Facebook, things that have
[2:00] come up in our private athlete group, loads of questions people
[2:04] have ahead of an Iron Man. And a lot of these are specific
[2:07] to Iron Man whales. Iron Man Wales, as I record is
[2:10] at the end of this week. So it's natural there's loads of
[2:13] questions come up for people. Some of these questions will be
[2:16] just specific to Iron Man Wales because there's a, you know,
[2:19] you'll, you'll hear there's some specific idiosyncrasies of that
[2:22] course, but almost all of this is applicable to any Iron Man no
[2:26] matter what you do. So if you race an Iron Man
[2:29] Wales, first up, best of luck to you.
[2:31] We'll go through these questions athletes have and hopefully it's
[2:35] going to help set your mind at rest and help you just order
[2:38] some of the thought patterns. Again, none of this is really
[2:40] complicated, but a lot of it won't make sense if you've not
[2:44] been through it before. So first up, the question that
[2:47] is specific to I'm on Wales is I have to wear an old pair of
[2:52] running shoes to run to T1 from the beach.
[2:56] What's going on with that? Why?
[2:57] Why do I need a separate pair of shoes?
[2:59] So for people who've never been or seen, I'm on Wales, it's an
[3:03] incredible venue. The swim happens in the sea and
[3:07] the transition is about a kilometre away, but the, the
[3:10] cliffs overlook the, the swim venue.
[3:13] So it's an amazing venue for spectators to be there.
[3:16] And if you've never been and you go in this year, it's, it's
[3:18] going to be amazing. But you're going to have to run
[3:22] up a series of zig zag paths up these cliffs.
[3:26] It's probably, I don't know, 50 metres or so higher than the
[3:30] actual sea itself. And then it's about a kilometre
[3:34] run through the town of Tenby to get to Transition 1.
[3:37] So get given a separate bag. You're told to put a separate
[3:42] pair of shoes in there so that you can run to T1.
[3:44] So yes, it is necessary to have an old pair of shoes and we
[3:49] would really strongly advise that it's a different pair of
[3:52] shoes to the ones that you want to run the marathon in.
[3:55] So sticking all pair of trainers in there, you're only going to
[3:57] be wearing them for four or five minutes.
[4:00] So again, some people have recommended sticking a bottle of
[4:03] water in there to rinse the sand off your feet and a little cloth
[4:06] to dry feet. If I personally don't think you
[4:08] need to go as far as that, you're only going to be running
[4:11] for sort of a kilometre. If that's the kind of thing that
[4:13] bothers you, you know, probably not the worst idea in the world
[4:17] to have that in there as well. The choice of whether to run
[4:20] from the sea with the wetsuit roll down around your waist or
[4:25] whether to take the wetsuit off and carry it again is personal
[4:28] preference. I would advise running with the
[4:30] wetsuit roll down around your waist.
[4:33] Then you'd have to worry about carrying it with you.
[4:35] Some people prefer to take it off and carry it again, personal
[4:39] preference. I'd always go with leaving it on
[4:41] down around the waist. The argument for carrying it is
[4:44] it's easier to get off when you get out of the water because it
[4:47] might dry out a little bit before you actually get to T1.
[4:50] Personally, I don't think it's going to dry out that much in
[4:53] the, you know, in the, the four or five minutes of running that
[4:56] you're going to have, but it is personal preference.
[4:59] So definitely have that old pair of shoes with you.
[5:02] That way you know that the run shoes that you're going to be
[5:05] wearing for the marathon are going to be clean.
[5:07] They're going to be dry. They're not going to be full of
[5:08] sand. And you know, you can deal with
[5:11] all of that later. You don't have to worry about
[5:13] moving the shoes into a separate bag.
[5:15] That would be my advice to you. Second question about coming out
[5:19] of the sea. Am I OK to wear swim bottoms and
[5:23] a sports bra and run from the sea to transition with my
[5:27] wetsuit rolled down? I've read about the nudity
[5:30] rules. I know there's no nudity.
[5:32] Is that going to be OK? So it is going to be OK.
[5:35] It's fine if you've got gentlemen, if you've got nothing
[5:37] on underneath and you want to run bare chested, you're not
[5:39] going to cross any nudity laws there.
[5:42] The the nudity laws in transition are around not
[5:45] wanting people to completely strip off.
[5:47] Now within the transition, one area itself, there's change
[5:52] tents. Within the change tent there's
[5:54] an area you can go into to get completely changed if you want
[5:57] to. The reason there's a no nudity
[5:59] law is essentially because the the the volunteers are going to
[6:03] be both male and female. So if you're a man and the lady
[6:07] is helping you get changed or vice versa, it's just to help
[6:10] avoid any embarrassment and any potential challenges that might
[6:13] be there. So if you do want to get
[6:15] completely changed and strip off, that's fine.
[6:18] There is a separate section for that within the transition tent
[6:21] itself where you can go to. But you're absolutely fine to
[6:24] swim with swim bottoms and a bikini top or a sports bra
[6:28] underneath your wet suit. Gentlemen, you're fine to just
[6:32] wear swim trunks or cycle shorts or Tri shorts or whatever and be
[6:36] able to run with your wet suit roll down from the sea all the
[6:40] way to transition one. That's totally, totally fine.
[6:43] The next question directly addresses that as well.
[6:46] So getting changed in transition one, do I need to take a towel
[6:49] with me to wrap around me or will there be a tent?
[6:52] There is a separate tent within the tent where you can go into
[6:54] to get completely changed. It's right there.
[6:58] You're not going to lose any time.
[7:00] It is there and available to everybody.
[7:02] If you want to take a towel to wrap around you and have it in
[7:04] your bag, again, that's completely fine.
[7:06] You can do that, but just be aware of there are some athletes
[7:11] for whom every, every minute, every second is going to count
[7:15] in trying to beat the in trying to beat the cut off at the end
[7:19] of the bike and at the end of the run in some cases as well.
[7:22] So be aware of the timings. If you're well within this, if
[7:25] you're a good swimmer and you've got a whole hour left before the
[7:27] swim cut off, then it's no drama at all.
[7:30] But if you're one of those athletes who is going to be
[7:32] chasing the cut off, just be aware.
[7:34] It is going to be worth trying to plan to get through
[7:37] transition as quickly as possible and on that it's it's
[7:41] worth saying you can burn a lot of time in transition.
[7:45] You can be in and out of that tent in a minute or you can be
[7:49] in there for 10 minutes. You can be sitting down and
[7:51] thinking about all the different things to do.
[7:53] I would advise everybody to practise this at home in your
[7:56] bedroom and that the lead up to the race practise, right.
[8:00] I've come out of the sperm wearing this.
[8:02] I'm going to leave onto the bike wearing those.
[8:05] How do I get changed as quickly as possible and actually
[8:08] practise doing it? You might find you can cut 23468
[8:13] minutes off your transition time just by doing that.
[8:16] And again, if you're up against the cut off that could make all
[8:19] the difference. Question four.
[8:22] I've read about having a bottle of water to pour down your Tri
[8:25] suit in order to have some water inside your suit before you go
[8:29] into the water. Is that a good idea?
[8:31] So I'd say absolutely, you might be able to get into the water in
[8:37] various different events. Again, every event has its own
[8:40] rules regarding this. The reason it's so important to
[8:43] have water inside your wet suit is that the suit fits so much
[8:47] better if the neoprene is wet on the inside.
[8:50] So if you can get into the water before the event and the
[8:52] specific event allows that, then great, you can get in.
[8:56] You can pull the neck of your wet suit out.
[8:58] You can bend down and let water in and stand up.
[9:01] You can then squeegee water all the way down the front of the
[9:04] suit, go back in and let some down, let it down one arm and
[9:08] down the other. And then once the water's inside
[9:10] the suit, firstly, your suit will fit so much better.
[9:14] And secondly, that layer of water that's trapped in there is
[9:17] going to start to warm up and you will get warm and stay warm.
[9:20] Whereas if you get into, especially in colder water, if
[9:24] you get in in a dry wet suit, water's going to gradually leak
[9:28] in through the neck, through some of the seams and you'll get
[9:30] a nasty cold shock as that goes in.
[9:32] So even if the water isn't particularly cold, I'd advise
[9:36] you to have with you A2 bottle of water and then when you wet
[9:39] suits on, you can pour it down the neck.
[9:41] You can try and let some go down each arm.
[9:42] And then you'll feel once that neoprene's on you and it's wet,
[9:46] it'll slide around and you can you can kind of roll up on the
[9:50] legs and pull it up into your crotch.
[9:52] You can roll it up into the armpits and make sure it fits
[9:55] really well. The wetter that is ahead of
[9:58] time, the better for you and the more comfortable it's going to
[10:01] be. So I'd absolutely advise you
[10:04] having that for the really cold races, I think it's not a bad
[10:07] idea to have a thermos flask with warm water in and then that
[10:10] way, you know, absolutely freezing just before you get
[10:12] into the water. So that's something to consider.
[10:15] And then find an appropriate place to dispose of that.
[10:18] There'll be a volunteer or a bin or something down there or a
[10:21] spectator you can give it to. Just make sure that you don't
[10:24] just dump it on the beach. OK, Question 5, When do I put on
[10:30] body glides or or Lube for the wet suit and where do I put it?
[10:34] So, so that's a great question. And often people don't even
[10:38] consider body glide or or wet suit Lube.
[10:41] Something that is going to massively affect how comfortable
[10:45] you are, especially if you're swimming in salt water, is
[10:48] whether you put on and how much that's of of some kind of
[10:51] lubrication you put on around your wet suit, cuffs, seams,
[10:55] neck and ankles, especially around the neck and around the
[10:59] back of the neck. There's something in salt water
[11:02] that that feels abrasive. It can it can rub against your
[11:05] skin and it can end up really sore, especially over an Iron
[11:08] Man distance. Obviously the salt in the water
[11:11] and that is in itself, it feels abrasive against your skin.
[11:14] And it's not unusual to see people who've not swum in the
[11:17] sea before come out of the water with red welts around the neck
[11:21] just because they haven't put any any loop on.
[11:23] You might not need it in freshwater.
[11:25] Definitely worth having it for salt water.
[11:29] So the brands of body glide or hoob Lube or some people have
[11:34] even used baby oil. Third, people use Vaseline but
[11:38] that's not recommended because it perishes.
[11:39] The rubber won't happen if you just do it once.
[11:42] But the body glide I've used personally I think is is one of
[11:45] the best products out there. Loads of it around your neck
[11:49] around the seam of where your wet suit is going to be,
[11:51] especially at the back where the the the zipper part meets.
[11:55] And be extra careful that there isn't part of the rough part of
[11:59] the Velcro closure rubbing against your neck.
[12:03] Just make sure that that isn't something that's going to happen
[12:06] because again, that's something that can get irritated really,
[12:08] really quickly. So get tonnes of it around your
[12:11] neck. Also get it around the the cuffs
[12:15] around your wrists and around your ankles and it just means
[12:18] that the suit will come off so much easier.
[12:20] So if you haven't got any at the moment, get onto an online
[12:24] shopping thing, get onto Amazon and get yourself some ready for
[12:27] race day because it will make a really big difference,
[12:29] especially if you're swimming in salt water.
[12:31] So for those people who are going to, I'm on Wales,
[12:34] especially if you haven't swimmed in salt water before,
[12:37] some kind of lubrication around the neck, the cuffs that the
[12:40] ankles is going to be really beneficial and give you loads
[12:42] more comfort during the rest of the day.
[12:45] Question 6. Should I be wearing socks and
[12:48] flip flops to the beach as we go down to weight?
[12:51] So absolutely. This is a tip that I give to
[12:53] people. Whether you wear flip flops or
[12:55] not, that might be overkill. I definitely advise you to take
[12:58] with you an old pair of socks. Your feet can get surprisingly
[13:02] cold in the probably 30 to 45 minutes that you're going to be
[13:06] standing around on the beach beforehand if you've got some
[13:09] old socks on. Or you can wear old socks and
[13:11] old flip flops as well. That can make a really big
[13:14] difference to your feet being comfortable when you get in the
[13:17] water or that sensation of having really cold feet before
[13:21] you get in the water. Again, you'll have to plan for
[13:23] how you're going to get rid of them, whether there's a a
[13:26] volunteer you can give them to or a bin you can put them in
[13:28] just down before you go into the the water in the swim start.
[13:31] Ideally, don't be leaving litter everywhere.
[13:34] Don't be dumping stuff on the beach.
[13:35] Very bad karma, I'll take care of that, but having the warm
[13:39] feet as you're waiting around, especially if you're someone who
[13:42] struggles a little bit with the temperatures, can make a
[13:44] massive, massive difference. OK, question 7.
[13:48] I'm going to be at the back of the pack.
[13:50] Am I going to need a head torch on the run if I'm running in the
[13:53] dark? So first up in relation to Iron
[13:57] Man Whales itself, I don't think you're going to need a head
[14:00] torch on on the run. The majority of the run is
[14:03] through Tenby itself, the section where you go out of the
[14:05] town and up the main roads, big wide roads.
[14:08] They put floodlights out there and lighter parts of the road as
[14:11] well. Personally, I don't think that
[14:13] you're going to need it. Now, that being said, if we're
[14:16] applying this to every Iron Man that's out there, some of these
[14:19] courses do get dark when it goes dark through a big stretches.
[14:23] I know Iron Man Hawaii is, you know, is really, really dark out
[14:27] for hours after the sunset and again, you might be racing in
[14:30] the middle of summer and the sun doesn't set till 93010 o'clock
[14:33] in the evening. This time of year, as we're in
[14:36] mid-september at the moment in Tenby, the sun's going to be
[14:39] setting around 7:30. So there's the potential there
[14:41] for three or four hours worth people being out in the dark.
[14:45] It's not a terrible idea to have that in your bag.
[14:48] You are going to have to carry it with you the whole way round.
[14:50] That's the thing to be aware of. But if you get yourself a really
[14:53] small lightweight Petzel head torch like rock climbers wear,
[14:57] it's a really good thing to have on.
[14:59] But again, nothing new on race day.
[15:01] Make sure you've trialled it in training in advance.
[15:04] OK, so question #8 have you got any tips for punctures on race
[15:10] day? So the athlete in question here
[15:12] actually punctured this weekend and she was out on a race SIM
[15:16] ride and punctured and first time changing a puncture out in,
[15:21] you know, in the heat of a, a timed training session and found
[15:25] it was really difficult. And one of the things she found
[15:27] was she got absolutely covered in oil.
[15:29] As anyone finds, if you're changing a rear wheel, a wheel
[15:33] punch was very, very hard to take the wheel off and put the
[15:36] wheel back on again without getting any oil on your fingers.
[15:39] So the first tip is to have a pair of latex gloves stuffed in
[15:43] your saddlebag. I'd advise you carry these round
[15:45] with you all the time because you're a total lifesaver.
[15:48] You don't end up with oil all over your hands for the rest of
[15:50] your ride. And on race day in an Iron Man,
[15:52] you don't end up with oil all over your hands for the rest of
[15:56] the event. You know, it's potentially going
[15:57] to be really, really irritating for you.
[16:00] And you'll find that those little things that were a bit
[16:02] annoying at the time can be really annoying when you're
[16:05] tired. So oil on your hands, getting
[16:08] coke on your hands and it going sticky, they can be really
[16:10] irritating. So latex gloves in your
[16:13] saddlebag. Obviously make sure you're
[16:15] carrying your own spares and you know how to change it.
[16:18] Make sure you know how to use CO2 canister if you've got one
[16:21] and you've used it before. Make sure you know how your pump
[16:24] works. If you're using a pump.
[16:26] Lots of times people, especially if they're beginners, they'll
[16:29] have been out with friends or partners and if they've had an
[16:32] incident, the friend or partner who might be more experienced
[16:35] might take over and change that for you, thinking they're doing
[16:38] you a favour. But actually what's happening is
[16:41] that person's never learned to do it for themselves.
[16:43] So practise during this taper week, that's a great time to use
[16:47] some of your sort of stored up energy if you like to learn how
[16:51] to do these things. My last tip for you here is have
[16:55] a really good strong set of tyre leavers.
[16:58] I'm not sponsored by this company, but I think they're
[17:00] fantastic. There's a tyre leaver company
[17:02] called Pedro's. They make yellow, thick yellow
[17:06] tyre leavers. They fit together, they're
[17:08] fantastic. They're not the cheapest they're
[17:11] but they're not expensive. They're maybe 5 lbs a pair, but
[17:14] they're super, super strong. And some of the ones that you
[17:17] get, like the little free ones you get with a Continental and a
[17:19] tube, sometimes the next are useless.
[17:22] They completely bend. The yellow pedrose ones are
[17:25] really, really hard and you can leave your tyre back on as well.
[17:29] So again, you might find you managed to get the tyre off and
[17:32] then it's really difficult to get the tyre back on again.
[17:35] Those really strong pedrose tyre leaves are fantastic, allowing
[17:40] you to kind of chunk the tyre on a little bit at a time and
[17:44] allowing you to actually get that tyre back on.
[17:46] So please make sure you've tried this yourself in the lead up to
[17:49] the race. Hope is not a strategy.
[17:52] Take your wheel off when you're watching TV one night.
[17:55] Practise doing it, learn to do it, get someone who knows how to
[17:59] do it to show you the tips and the tricks of how to do it.
[18:02] And if you find that the tyre is really hard to get on and off,
[18:07] take it on and off again a few times.
[18:09] The bead around the tyre sometimes stretches and allows
[18:12] the tyre to go on a little bit easier after you've done it a
[18:15] few times. So well worth doing ahead of
[18:17] time. OK, question 9.
[18:20] What clothing should I plan for for different kinds of weather?
[18:25] So this is a really interesting question that a lot of people
[18:29] don't think about as they're going to race an Iron Man.
[18:32] I myself have been guilty of this.
[18:33] I went and raced Iron Man France 10 years ago.
[18:36] In my head Iron Man France was going to be beautiful and sunny
[18:40] and warm and I was worried about being too hot and I didn't for a
[18:44] second consider that the weather might be anything than that.
[18:47] I woke up on race day morning and looked out the window of my
[18:49] hotel. There were thick black clouds
[18:51] over the mountains and I thought to myself, all I've got with me
[18:55] is a Tri suit. If it rains and it's cold on
[18:57] race day, what am I going to do? It was a really amateur piece of
[19:01] poor preparation. So I'd always take with you your
[19:05] rain jacket so that if it does get really cold and wet and
[19:08] rainy on race day, you've got it with you.
[19:10] If you travel into the race, plan for all eventualities.
[19:13] So you've got a skull cap, you've got arm warmers, you've
[19:16] got toe warmers for your shoes, you've got a proper rain jacket,
[19:20] you've got a gilet, you've even got a bin bag with you.
[19:23] And with all those things packed with you, you'd then have the
[19:26] choice, if it looks like it's going to be inclement on race
[19:29] day, of what to wear. What you're actually going to
[19:33] choose is largely going to depend on how competitive you
[19:36] want to be and how bad the weather is actually going to be.
[19:39] So if the weather's really bad, just remember that you're going
[19:43] out to do 180 kilometre bike ride.
[19:45] Even our best riders are going to be out there 4 1/2 hours.
[19:48] Most age groupers are going to be out there 6 to 8 hours.
[19:52] Would you go out for a 6 to 8 hour ride at home just wearing a
[19:55] thin Tri suit and the kind of weather you see outside or the
[19:58] kind of weather that's been forecast?
[20:00] And if the answer's no. Give yourself an option that
[20:03] means you're not going to you're not going to not finish because
[20:07] of being too cold and too wet. OK, so if you want to be really
[20:11] competitive, having anything over the top of your Tri suit is
[20:16] going to slow you down. So a tip I picked up from Tim
[20:19] Dunn at a race was he raced on a cold, wet day.
[20:23] And as he came into transition two, he actually had a bin bag
[20:27] down the front of his Tri suit. And he had, he'd cut it into
[20:30] just a, a torso shaped piece of plastic.
[20:33] And he had one down the front and one down the back.
[20:36] And as he came in and racked his bike, he undid his Tri suit.
[20:39] He pulled this piece of plastic out of the front.
[20:41] He pulled this one out over the back and left it in transition.
[20:45] And off he went. And speaking to him afterwards,
[20:48] that was a tip that he'd used for years as a race where it's
[20:51] like something plastic is a total wind and rain barrier and
[20:55] can keep you really surprisingly warm.
[20:57] So if you're at the very pointy end of the field, that is
[20:59] certainly better than nothing. Your other options are the the
[21:04] tighter fitting the item of clothing, the better.
[21:07] So if you've got a really nice Castelli Gabba range relay and
[21:11] it's it's tightly fitting, you're probably not giving more
[21:13] than 10 watts away. If you've got a big flappy rain
[21:16] jacket on, well you definitely are giving 2030 watts away, but
[21:22] if you're not trying to go for the win, that's probably worth
[21:25] it for you. The people who are most
[21:27] concerned about here are the people who are going to be up
[21:29] against the cut off and it's those people who we are going to
[21:33] probably be out for the longest but also are going to be the
[21:36] most punished by having big flappy clothing on.
[21:38] So try and play that the best way you can for the situation
[21:42] that suits you, giving you a whole bunch of options there.
[21:45] Choose the one that suits you. And the last question here,
[21:49] question 10. I've picked this up from 1 of
[21:51] the Iron Man Wales Facebook groups.
[21:52] Someone's written is anyone struggling in their taper.
[21:56] I've I've done 12 to 14 hours a week consistently for a year and
[22:00] now I'm in the taper. I feel like I've not done enough
[22:03] and that that comment really made me giggle because inherent
[22:06] in that is the athlete doesn't see they've, they've done 12 to
[22:09] 14 hours of training a week consistently for a year.
[22:13] Our bodies just remember how we feel right here, right now.
[22:16] And obviously that's a whole tonne of training and an
[22:18] athlete's going to be fine. But it's really common during
[22:22] taper week that our mind plays tricks on us, tells us that
[22:25] we're not ready, tells us we've not done enough, tells us we
[22:28] should do more when actually what we need is is the rest and
[22:32] recovery so we can get freshened up and be really fit and really
[22:36] fresh on race day. You don't want to be doing a
[22:38] tonne of training in the week before race day.
[22:40] So just know that it's totally normal during tape a week to
[22:45] think that you haven't done enough to be really worried, you
[22:48] haven't done enough to feel awful, to feel like you're
[22:52] coming down with a cold, to feel really flat, to feel fed up, to
[22:56] feel out of sorts. All of those things are really
[22:59] normal because you've kind of taken away the drug that your
[23:02] body's used to. You've taken away the regular
[23:04] aerobic training and replaced it with a lot of sitting around and
[23:08] thinking time. It's not a good combination, but
[23:11] you just have to wait it out. You have to sit it out and wait
[23:13] it out and know that by Wednesday, Thursday of race
[23:16] week, you're going to start feeling fresh and you're going
[23:19] to the little sessions that you do.
[23:21] You'll feel fantastic. By Thursday, Friday, Saturday of
[23:24] race week, you're going to feel absolutely wonderful and ready
[23:27] to go. So don't make the mistake of
[23:29] doing one last hard session or one last big session.
[23:33] You've done the training back yourself.
[23:36] Let the taper do its job, but know that the taper doing its
[23:40] job isn't particularly going to feel very nice unfortunately.
[23:44] So just know that you've got to get through it.
[23:47] So listen, that brings us to the end of this episode about
[23:52] questions about Iron Man Wales and question about race because
[23:55] I hope it's really helped you out if you're going to be racing
[23:57] Iron Man Wales this week. I know we've got a tonne of
[24:00] athletes that we've helped out. We did some some coaching
[24:03] partnership work this year with the Iron Man Wales team.
[24:05] So all the way from last September, we've been running
[24:08] webinars and we've been answering questions over e-mail
[24:11] and putting training plans and coaching plans in place for
[24:14] athletes. All of you guys have worked
[24:16] exceptionally hard for this. No one's training goes smoothly
[24:21] or hardly ever does anyone's training go smoothly.
[24:24] Almost everyone on the start line is sitting there thinking,
[24:27] haven't done enough. Things didn't go well.
[24:30] My memory is is just telling me of the sessions that I've
[24:33] missed. But back yourself, you've done
[24:36] the training to the best of your ability at this point.
[24:39] Go out there on race day, really enjoy.
[24:41] I'm on Wales, it's one of the most spectacular races on the
[24:44] circuit. The setting of Tenby, the
[24:46] countryside around the area is absolutely beautiful.
[24:49] So take in the beauty of nature and let it give you extra power
[24:52] come race day. I wish you all the best in the
[24:55] world. I'd love to know how you get on.
[24:58] Obviously the athletes we coach I'll hear from, but if you've
[25:01] been on our webinars or if you've been following a training
[25:03] plan or advice we've given out, please let us know.
[25:05] Afterwards. Drop us a line to
[25:06] help@oxygenedit.com. We love hearing about successful
[25:11] Iron Man campaigns and Iron Man is always a journey.
[25:14] It's always about the training that you put in.
[25:16] Much more about race day and I think you'll find this after
[25:19] race day you realise that all the hard work you did along the
[25:22] way was actually the reward in itself, rather than race day
[25:26] being that you'll be changed because of it.
[25:28] You've put an awful lot of hard work in and you know that you
[25:31] can reap the rewards of training really hard and really
[25:34] consistently and applying yourself to a long term goal.
[25:38] So I hope it goes really well for you.
[25:40] Fingers crossed for race day for some decent weather.
[25:42] Get out there and and do your very best.
[25:45] OK, that brings us to the end of this week's episode.
[25:48] Before we finish, here are some discount codes and deals for you
[25:52] if you're looking for coaching for the end of the season and
[25:55] into 2025 and beyond. Over at teamoxygenaddict.com I
[25:59] think we've got the most comprehensive triathlon coaching
[26:02] programme for busy age groupers. And through the end of September
[26:05] 2024 we're running a special discount of £200 off an annual
[26:10] coaching package, taking the price from 1797 down to 1597 for
[26:16] 12 months worth of coaching. If you're looking for high
[26:19] quality, proven coaching for Imano 70.3, I honestly don't
[26:23] think that you're going to find a better solution for busy age
[26:26] groupers. If you're interested, there's a
[26:28] link in the show notes. You can book a membership call
[26:30] with me or a member of our team. We can have a good chat through
[26:33] whether you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygen Addict and our
[26:36] coaching and see how we can best help you out.
[26:39] And remember that £200 discount only applies to annual
[26:43] memberships and it's limited to the end of September 2024, so
[26:47] please get in quickly. If you're listening to a
[26:50] historical episode then you'll have missed this discount
[26:53] unfortunately. But please feel free to get in
[26:55] touch anyway and we'll see what we can do to help you out.
[26:58] Also remember you can go over to precisionfuelandhydration.com
[27:02] and use the code Oxygen 24 for 15% off your first electrolyte
[27:06] order. You can use that free fuel and
[27:08] hydration planning tool to receive a personalised strategy
[27:11] for your next race. It'll help you understand your
[27:13] own carbohydrate, electrolyte and fluid needs so you can
[27:17] refine your strategy during training.
[27:19] And don't forget, there's also the availability of a free 1 to
[27:22] one video consultation with their athletes support team and
[27:25] they'll be happy to help you nail your nutrition plan and
[27:28] help you perform at your best on race day.
[27:31] So remember, there's links in the show notes so you don't have
[27:34] to remember them. And if you're after £200 off
[27:37] your coaching, you can get a massive deal by booking in
[27:41] before the end of September 2024.
[27:43] Until next week, have a great safe training and racing week.
[27:47] I'm coach Rob Wilby, and you've been listening to the Oxygen
[27:50] Addict podcast.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.