# IRONMAN & 70.3 Race-Sim Weekend: How to Nail Your Pacing, Fuel & Race Strategy | Ep 555

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 10 Sep 2025, 27 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/108079651/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-8-9%2F5d948f64-2a14-a745-8c5c-5332de7a6192.m4a

In this week's episode we're talking you through exactly how to perform your "Race Sim" weekend - i.e. your last big training weekend before Ironman or 70.3, as well as the most critical aspects of your race planning and strategy. Including: Swim pacing targets; Bike power guidance - targets and caps relative to your ability; Planning your run pacing; The importance of the run/walk strategy; How to practise & refine your nutrition strategy; Managing your taper the taper so you feel great on race day; What to do if a niggle appears during your final few weeks. * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Thinking about your first Ironman or 70.3 in 2026? September is the perfect time to start. At Team Oxygenaddict, we specialise in helping busy professionals fit high-quality training around demanding jobs and family life. We’ve just reopened for new athletes with only a handful of September slots available. Join before the end of September to lock in 2025 pricing before our October increase. Book an application call today to find out if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming season here: 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 click 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 Triathlon Podcast.
[0:07] We're brought to you every week by Ausponsus, Precision Fuel and
[0:10] hydration.com. You can get 15% off your first
[0:13] order with the code Oxygen Fuel 25.
[0:16] Welcome to the show everybody. I'm your host coach Rob Wilby
[0:19] from Team Oxygen Addict Triathlon Coaching, and every
[0:21] week I bring you an episode of this podcast to help educate,
[0:25] motivate and inspire you. On this week's episode, I'm
[0:28] going to be answering questions from athletes regarding your
[0:31] race simulation weekend and then questions on race day execution
[0:36] and basically how to get the best out of the fitness that
[0:39] you've built. So before we kick off with those
[0:41] questions, I really think are going to help a lot of people.
[0:44] There's two quick things you could do to help us.
[0:46] Please, if you enjoy this episode, please consider
[0:48] following us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
[0:51] Really helps the growth of the show, really helps us get seen
[0:54] by new people. And secondly, if you're looking
[0:56] for help training for your first Iron Man or 70.3, check out the
[1:00] coaching memberships over at teamoxygenaddict.com.
[1:03] I think we've got the most comprehensive triathlon coaching
[1:05] programme that's specifically designed for busy age groupers.
[1:09] And honestly, if you if you like the advice and the kind of style
[1:12] that I've got doing this podcast, it'd be really great to
[1:15] have a conversation with you and see if you'd be a good fit for
[1:17] coaching with the team. This September is usually the
[1:20] traditional time when we have changeover of athletes, athletes
[1:23] coming to the end of their annual coaching membership.
[1:25] So we've got limited spaces available.
[1:28] We're going to have in the region.
[1:29] It looks like if three or four more spaces available this
[1:32] September. And we've had quite high renewal
[1:34] rate this year with athletes who are continuing with us into
[1:37] 2026, which is wonderful. It's great to have that
[1:40] continuity in the team, but it doesn't mean we've got a bit
[1:42] more limited space than usual. So if you've been one of these
[1:45] people who's messaged me over the last few months and you're
[1:48] still interested in getting coaching for next year, then
[1:50] please get in touch. As an added bonus, if you get in
[1:53] before the end of September, you're going to manage to lock
[1:55] in the 2025 season prices before our prices go up on the 1st of
[2:00] October. So again, if you're interested,
[2:02] there's a link in the show notes to book a membership call with
[2:05] us and we'll see if you're a good fit for joining the team
[2:07] when we have a chat. OK, first question, how do I
[2:10] pace the swim, the bike and the run in my racing weekend?
[2:13] OK, so to kick this question off, let's go over what the
[2:16] racing weekend is. What we're going to have you do
[2:19] is essentially over a weekend, over about a 48 hour period from
[2:23] Friday evening to Sunday morning.
[2:25] We're going to have you do a training weekend that roughly
[2:28] mirrors the demands of the event you're going to face on race
[2:31] day. So if you're doing an Iron Man,
[2:32] you're going to essentially do a broken Iron Man with a slightly
[2:35] shorter run. If you're doing a 70.3, you're
[2:37] going to do a broken 70.3, again with a slightly shorter run.
[2:41] And this typically breaks down as long swim on the Friday
[2:45] evening or possibly the Saturday morning.
[2:47] Saturday you're then going to do a long ride with a run off the
[2:50] bike, and on Sunday, very first thing in the morning you're
[2:53] going to do a long run. So for Iron Man distance, we're
[2:57] typically looking here at 4K swim and then 180 K ride with a
[3:03] 45 minute run off the bike. And then Sunday morning we're
[3:06] going to go with a 2 hour run for 70.3 distance.
[3:09] We'll do a 2K swim on the Friday, we'll then do a 90K ride
[3:13] again with a 45 minute run off the bike, and then you're going
[3:16] to have a 60 to 75 minute run first thing Sunday morning.
[3:19] So the idea here is it's one of the few times you'll hear me
[3:23] promote the idea of running the day after you're fatigued from a
[3:28] long ride, or in this case a long brick.
[3:30] I'll usually avoid that. I'll usually split the long run
[3:33] into the week and the long ride at the weekend or vice versa.
[3:37] But at this point, two weeks out before race day, frankly, you're
[3:40] as fit as you're ever going to be.
[3:42] This is your chance to put this all together in training.
[3:45] And after this, we're going to taper down.
[3:48] You're going to just get fresh. You're going to recover from
[3:50] this last big couple of weeks of training and this big weekend of
[3:53] training. And hopefully what you're going
[3:55] to see happen there is you'll feel really tired for a while,
[3:58] then you'll freshen up. And then a few days before race
[4:01] day, you'll start to feel absolutely fantastic.
[4:03] But this is only going to happen if we get the racing weekend
[4:07] right. So let's go over pacing for the
[4:09] swim, the bike and the run. Essentially, to keep this really
[4:12] simple, you're looking for pacing about the same that
[4:15] you're going to do on your race day.
[4:17] There should be no surprises on the race day.
[4:20] This is the chance for you to practise what a reasonable race
[4:23] pace is going to be. So the Iron Man distance
[4:26] athletes we're going to be looking at for the swim, CSS
[4:30] pace +8 to plus 12 seconds per 170.3 athletes at CSS pace +4 to
[4:38] plus 8 seconds. Different athletes going to be
[4:40] different, but you're going to be somewhere in that range.
[4:42] And the idea is you want to be swimming feeling relaxed.
[4:46] That swim is just setting up for the ride.
[4:48] The ride is setting you up for the run.
[4:50] So if you find yourself 400 metres into your swim feeling
[4:55] completely gassed, that's great, you've made the mistake in
[4:59] training and you don't have to make that mistake on race day.
[5:02] You're going to have to back off and then when you finish the
[5:05] swim you look at the paces, you look at how that's come out.
[5:07] It's quite hard to do this actually while you're swimming
[5:10] and it's the last chance for you to adjust that pacing.
[5:13] Really we want you swimming feeling really cruisy and really
[5:16] relaxed for everybody except the very, very front of pack.
[5:21] Athletes who are looking to win the rage group shouldn't be
[5:24] racing the swim and should feel really controlled onto the bike,
[5:28] then pacing on the bike. What we're going to be looking
[5:31] for here I'm going to put some really rough numbers on.
[5:33] If you just by heart rate, you're going to be riding in
[5:36] lower to mid zone 2 via Iron Man, or you're going to be
[5:39] riding upper zone 2 to lower zone 3 for your 70.3 distance.
[5:44] If you're riding with a power metre, we're going to be looking
[5:47] at somewhere in the region of 65 to 75% of FTP for Iron Man and
[5:52] somewhere from 75 to 85% of FTP for 70.3 distance athletes.
[5:58] Faster athletes at the higher end of that range, slower
[6:01] athletes at the lower end of that range.
[6:03] Why do we give that advice out? Well the reason is if you're a
[6:07] faster athlete, you're going to be riding the bike for less
[6:10] time, so you can afford to go a little bit harder.
[6:13] If you're a slower athlete, you're going to be on the bike
[6:15] for a little bit more time, so consequently you're going to be
[6:18] on the bike for a little bit longer and you need to go a
[6:20] little bit easier. The idea is 2 athletes who are
[6:24] riding different paces, it's still going to accumulate about
[6:28] the same training stress score regardless of whether the bike
[6:31] leg takes 8 hours or 4 1/2 hours.
[6:34] So obviously if you're out there for longer, you are going to
[6:36] have to ride easier so that you've still got the energy and
[6:39] appropriate fitness to deliver your run really well when you go
[6:42] into the run. What we're ideally looking at
[6:44] here is, and before we even talk about paces, you want to be
[6:48] running so the second-half of your run feels really strong.
[6:51] I want to be able to run the second-half of the run rather
[6:55] than being forced to walk or rather than being forced for the
[6:58] pace to tail off. So if you think of it that way,
[7:02] that gives you a good lead for how you're going to pace.
[7:03] It wants to be feeling relatively easy to steady over
[7:06] the first half. But then let's put some numbers
[7:09] on this. The 70.3 athletes, everything
[7:12] goes perfectly about the best case scenario you're going to
[7:15] see is you're going to deliver a full run averaging Jack Daniels
[7:20] M pace. The I man athletes best case
[7:24] scenario is you're going to deliver a run averaging Jack
[7:27] Daniels top of E pace. Now on paper, that might not
[7:31] look very fast and often it's a question I get, I get sent
[7:35] through from athletes is I'm sure I can run faster than this.
[7:38] I can only tell you what I've seen from hundreds, in fact at
[7:40] this point thousands of athletes, they are about the
[7:43] best case scenarios. So if you're a 70.3 athlete and
[7:48] you're looking at the end pace and I don't know, the end pace
[7:50] is 4 minutes, thirty kilometre for you and you're thinking,
[7:53] well, I'm not aiming to run 4 minutes a kilometre.
[7:56] My advice to you is probably going out a bit hot and you'd
[7:59] benefit from backing off certainly for the first half of
[8:02] the run. And again, this advice is for
[8:03] everybody apart from our very, very top end age group is who
[8:07] are looking to win their age group.
[8:09] And then we're going to be involved in racing for the vast
[8:11] majority of age groupers. The only person you're racing
[8:14] against here is your best self. So that's the pacing advice I'm
[8:18] going to give to you. OK, for the racing weekend,
[8:20] should I do my race SIM swim set in open water or should I do it
[8:25] in the pool? In a perfect world, I'm going to
[8:27] have you do your racing swim in open water.
[8:30] If you're wearing a wet suit to race and wear the wet suit.
[8:32] If not, do it without the wet suit.
[8:34] If you possibly can make it as much like race day as you're
[8:36] going to wear the same sort of clothing that you're going to.
[8:39] So if on race day you're going to be wearing swimming costume
[8:42] or trunks, do that. If you're going to be wearing a
[8:44] Tri suit, do that. If you're going to be in a wet
[8:47] suit, do that. Try and make it as specific as
[8:49] you can in preparation for the event you're going to do.
[8:52] But listen, I recognise not everyone's going to be able to
[8:55] get to a safe open water venue on a Friday evening or even on a
[8:58] Saturday morning, but that's the ideal.
[9:00] Do it in the kind of venue if you possibly can that you're
[9:05] going to swim in. If it's freshwater, swim in
[9:07] freshwater from. Vice versa.
[9:08] If it's saltwater, see if you can do that as long as that's
[9:12] reasonable. But if it's not, don't worry.
[9:15] Do the best that you can. It's absolutely fine to go and
[9:18] do this in the pool. Again, if you can do it wearing
[9:21] the outfit you're going to be wearing, then great.
[9:23] Obviously you're not going to be able to wear your wet suit in
[9:25] the pool, but you could wear your your Tri suit if it's going
[9:28] to be an open water swim where you're not wearing a wet suit.
[9:30] Otherwise, don't worry about it. Make it a continuous swim as you
[9:35] possibly can. Take little breaks if you need
[9:38] to, but try and make this continuous.
[9:40] And if you do it Friday evening or very first thing Saturday
[9:43] morning, both of those options are absolutely fine.
[9:46] OK, next question, how much should I try and copy my actual
[9:50] race nutrition plan during the race weekend?
[9:53] Again, try and do as much as you possibly can on the race
[9:57] weekend, race SIM weekend. It's going to mirror what you're
[9:59] going to do on race day weekend, so try and have the same things
[10:04] for breakfast as you will have relative to the start time of
[10:07] the swim so you know that you can tolerate it.
[10:10] Try and take the same product in as you're going to take on the
[10:13] bike and on the run. The same kind of gels, the same
[10:15] kind of drink mix is the same. Electrolytes make everything as
[10:18] much as you possibly can the same, so there's no surprises on
[10:22] race day. Now for athletes I coach, we go
[10:25] through this for every long ride and run for the 12 weeks leading
[10:28] up to race day. If you're not coached by us, I
[10:31] recognise that this might be a bit late in the day thrift
[10:34] advice, but try and use the products you're going to use on
[10:38] race day. Make sure you've trialled out
[10:41] what is going to be available at the aid stations because then
[10:43] you've got the option to not have to carry everything that
[10:46] you possibly need with you. That's great if you know you can
[10:50] tolerate those foods. Brilliant.
[10:51] And if you find out you can't tolerate very well, you've got a
[10:54] chance to change what you plan to do to get it right in order
[10:57] for race day. OK, so make as much as you
[11:00] possibly can the nutrition and mirror of what you're going to
[11:04] do on race day. OK, next question.
[11:06] How long should the run be after the long bike in my race
[11:09] simulation? Should it be a really long run?
[11:12] And again, this is a super, super common question, not just
[11:16] from coached athletes, but I get them from e-mail and DMS on
[11:19] Instagram and all kinds of things.
[11:20] There's a guy at my club who's doing a 2 hour run off the bike.
[11:23] Should I be doing that because it's not what you advise?
[11:26] Well, look, I can only give you the advice that's worked for all
[11:28] the athletes I've coached. I don't think you need to run
[11:32] ever for more than 45 minutes off the bike for either Iron Man
[11:36] or 70.3 distance. You've done all of your long run
[11:40] training separately. This race simulation is just
[11:44] about it's a slightly longer run off the bike than usually
[11:47] actually, but the main purpose of it is so that mentally you
[11:51] start the run, you're going to feel pretty tired.
[11:53] Your legs are going to have that brick run Jelly feeling.
[11:56] Most probably after 5 or 10 minutes that goes away and you
[11:59] start to feel normal again. It's your last chance to have a
[12:05] confidence boosting run off the bike.
[12:07] So no, it doesn't need to be really, really long even for the
[12:10] iron distance athletes. We're going to follow up the
[12:13] next morning with a long run. Then there's a specific reason
[12:16] for doing that to do a different kinds of fatigue.
[12:19] So you don't need to do that really long run off the bike in
[12:22] the race simulation. OK, And last question about
[12:25] this. If I'm struggling with niggles
[12:27] or injuries, should I push through and get the race
[12:30] simulation weekend done anyway? Because I'm aware it's like the
[12:33] last big weekend of training? I've had this question from
[12:36] three separate athletes we coached this week.
[12:39] My advice is always, I would rather you get to race day pain
[12:42] free and a little undertrained than having tried to do extra
[12:47] training and that niggle's blown up to an injury and you either
[12:50] can't start the race, can't finish the race because of the
[12:53] injury that you've got. So if you're dealing with the
[12:55] injuries and niggles at this point, I would either A shorten
[12:59] the race in weekend or B cut out entirely, go and get treatment
[13:03] and try and rest up so that that injury or niggle starts to heal.
[13:07] For lots of athletes, they're dealing with some kind of leg
[13:11] pain, hand pain, quad pain, calf pain, Achilles pain is really
[13:14] common at this point. So what we want to try and do is
[13:17] not inflamed that by having a really big weekend, 2 weekends
[13:22] out. If at this point you're not
[13:24] capable of doing the racing weekend, frankly it puts the
[13:28] race day in question anyway. So this weekend isn't about
[13:32] whether you can do it or not, it's about giving you confidence
[13:35] that you can do it for race day. If you've got niggles and
[13:38] they're going to blow up during the race SIM, you're much better
[13:41] off not doing it, or at least not running during the racing
[13:45] weekend and saving it so that come race day you've at least
[13:49] got that freshness and given the body chance to recover from
[13:52] what's usually run niggles for most athletes.
[13:56] OK, now this is a great point for a shout out to our sponsors
[13:59] Precision Fuel and hydration.com.
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[14:11] fluid needs and be brilliant to get this done ahead of your
[14:14] racing weekend if you haven't done already.
[14:16] So you've got a really good idea for how much of each of those
[14:19] three you're going to need to have for racing and start
[14:22] getting that strategy really dialled in.
[14:25] If you haven't, you can also book a free one to one video
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[14:31] Can't recommend precision Fuel and hydration enough through an
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[14:41] hydration, fueling and getting your electrolytes correct on
[14:45] race day is as big a part of your success as actually getting
[14:48] the training right. So don't blow it on race day by
[14:51] getting these things wrong when it's really simple to fix by
[14:54] going to their website and learning about this stuff.
[14:57] How should I paste the run in an Iron Man or a 70.3?
[15:02] So you'll have heard me talk previously about different paces
[15:06] that we'll aim for. And before we talk about putting
[15:08] numbers on the paces, it's really, really important to
[15:10] reiterate this and stress it. Again, the actual pace doesn't
[15:14] matter. What matters is how you feel on
[15:16] the run and specifically on the second-half of the run.
[15:20] So all of your day should be set up so that the second-half of
[15:24] your run feels really strong. We want to avoid the second-half
[15:28] of the run tailing off in terms of pace, or worse, you being
[15:31] forced to walk because you're just so tired that you can't run
[15:34] anymore. So everything that you do,
[15:37] thinking about how to pace your run on race day is also thinking
[15:42] about how you pace your bike and how you pace your swim and how
[15:45] you've approached the whole day. Now that being said, it is
[15:48] possible for us to put some numbers on this.
[15:51] So if you go up to Jack Daniels run pace calculator, what I've
[15:55] generally seen is the top end of E pace is what's the best case
[16:00] scenario for most athletes on race day for the Iron Man, and
[16:04] the top end of M pace is what's the best case scenario for most
[16:08] athletes for racing the 70.3 distance.
[16:12] As I've previously said, it might be that those numbers on
[16:15] paper don't look that fast. But what you've got to remember
[16:17] is the run on race day is very, very different to the run in
[16:21] training. It's much, much more like the
[16:23] run on racing weekend. And that's why the racing
[16:26] weekend is so important. It gives you a really good feel
[16:29] for whether the pace that you're hoping to run at is realistic
[16:33] for what's actually going to happen on race day.
[16:36] And for some people it is, for other people it's not.
[16:38] For some people, they're going to be really, really strong or
[16:40] through the run. For some people, just getting to
[16:43] the finish line is going to be the success there.
[16:47] Either camp that you're in, the advice I'm going to give you is
[16:51] you can really affect the second-half of your run by how
[16:54] you approach the first half of your run and your bike pacing
[16:57] and reminding yourself, essentially what you're doing
[17:00] here is you're setting up the back half of a marathon or
[17:03] you're setting up the back half of 1/2 marathon with a really
[17:06] long swimming bike ride. It doesn't need to be any more
[17:09] complicated than that. Give yourself the best chance of
[17:13] running well by thinking about this all the way through you
[17:15] swim and your bike and if you were ever any doubt whether
[17:18] you're going too hard, my advice is just to back off a little bit
[17:22] there on race day. What I'm going to advise you do
[17:24] is you use walk breaks really cleverly in order to be at your
[17:29] best benefit in training. I'll have athletes do the 91 run
[17:33] walk method with a minute's walk every 10 minutes on race day.
[17:37] It doesn't have to be that exact ratio, but change where you're
[17:41] taking that walk break. So you have a minute's walk
[17:43] through the aid station at Iron Man distance.
[17:47] I would break that down to 30 seconds walk at the 70.3
[17:50] distance just because you're not running quite as far.
[17:53] Certainly the more competitive you want to be, you can you can
[17:55] afford to shorten that walk break.
[17:58] But the key thing to stress is anyone who's tried to run and
[18:01] drink at the same time, especially from an open Cup,
[18:04] knows that it isn't easy. What you want to try and avoid
[18:07] is splashing sticky liquid coke, whatever it is, all over your
[18:11] face, all over your hands, all over your body.
[18:13] That's going to be really irritating, especially if you
[18:15] end up with wet shoes. So the walk break can be really
[18:19] good for those two purposes. It stops you getting covered in
[18:22] sticky carb drink and also it gives you legs that break.
[18:25] That means you can then continue to run with a good runner's
[18:29] gate. It also breaks the run up and
[18:31] means you're not thinking about running a whole marathon, you're
[18:33] thinking about running, you know, whatever it is, 1825,
[18:37] thirty runs of 9 minutes. So I'm a really big fan of that,
[18:42] that walk break. When you get to the halfway
[18:46] point you can then make a decision, especially at 70.3
[18:49] distance. You can push on for the finish
[18:51] at that point if you're feeling good and you will make up tonnes
[18:54] of time compared to competitors and the you that went out that
[18:59] went out too hard and is now slowing down.
[19:02] There's loads of time there left to make up time.
[19:06] But crucially you will be running really well when the
[19:09] rest of the race goes really slow.
[19:11] You'd be passing a lot of people.
[19:13] That leads you into a really positive place.
[19:16] Can only be good for how you feel over the second-half of the
[19:19] marathon. OK, next question.
[19:21] How should I pace the bike on race day to avoid blowing up on
[19:24] the run? This is a really great question
[19:26] because it gets to the heart of it.
[19:28] Whether you blow up on the run or not is usually not down to
[19:31] your run fitness. It's usually down to how well
[19:33] you've paced your bike relative to your bike fitness. 2 parts of
[19:37] advice here. The simple advice and more
[19:39] complex advice. The simple part of the advice is
[19:42] again, I'm on distance 65 to 75% of FTP, slower athletes at the
[19:48] lower end, faster athletes at the higher end.
[19:51] At 70.3 distance we're looking at 75 to 85% of FTP and again,
[19:56] slower athletes at the lower end, faster athletes at the
[19:59] higher end. If you want to get more in depth
[20:02] on this, you can go and use the software package Best Bike Split
[20:05] free account. It's nothing to do with me and
[20:07] my company, but it's a brilliant piece of software.
[20:10] It'll take tonnes of data points about you, you can even analyse
[20:14] previous rides and it will give you a really good idea for your
[20:18] aerodynamic drag numbers, what kind of speed you're currently
[20:22] getting for your power relative to FTP and your body weight.
[20:25] You can then upload the race day course into it and it will give
[20:29] you a really good accurate guide for how fast you can expect to
[20:33] go for the correct amount of training stress score.
[20:37] So it totally does away with this question of I don't know
[20:40] how fast I'm going to go on the bike, I don't know how fast it's
[20:43] reasonable to go. I don't know whether I'm going
[20:44] to meet the cut off. It'll answer all those questions
[20:46] for you. Really great piece of software.
[20:49] Highly recommend you go and have a play with it.
[20:51] Next question, how much water, electrolyte and carbs should I
[20:55] actually consume during an Iron Man or a 70.3?
[20:59] OK, so by the time you get to race day, you should know all
[21:02] your numbers. You should have rehearsed this
[21:04] in training, but we'll put some numbers on it for you now just
[21:07] to give you a ballpark. First up, head up to the
[21:10] Precision Fuel and Hydration website.
[21:12] They've got tonne of information there that will give you
[21:15] personalised information if you've not done this already.
[21:17] Secondly, somewhere between 500 to 1000 millilitres of fluid per
[21:23] hour is a good guideline. Now that's a big range.
[21:26] You're going to need more if it's hot, but again, trust what
[21:29] you've done in training in similar situations.
[21:32] In terms of electrolytes, going to advise everyone to have a
[21:36] minimum of 1000 milligrammes of sodium per thousand millilitres
[21:40] of fluid. For some of you who are very
[21:43] heavy or very salty sweaters, you're going to need even more
[21:46] than that. So PFH make 1000 milligramme
[21:49] sachets and 1500 milligramme sachets.
[21:52] There, got everybody covered. And in terms of carbs, again,
[21:56] you're going to have to practise this in training, but you're
[21:58] going to be somewhere in the region of 50 to 100 grammes of
[22:03] carbs per hour. Now it's going to be very
[22:05] individual. If you practise this in training
[22:07] in the lead up, you can gradually increase the number of
[22:10] grammes of carbs per hour you take in.
[22:12] Somewhere in that 40 to 60 grammes an hour is a good
[22:15] starting point and then gradually increased by 5 grammes
[22:19] of carbohydrate per hour. And so if you start off at, I
[22:22] don't know, say you start off at 60 grammes an hour, you go
[22:25] 65707580. What you're looking for is how
[22:28] you feel and how it affects you in training essentially.
[22:32] So you don't ever want to get to the point where you feel as
[22:35] though you've got GI distress, you need the toilet, you need to
[22:40] be sick, that's a sign you're taking too much and then you
[22:42] need to back it right off. But somewhere in that range
[22:45] there you're going to find a number that works for you.
[22:48] Next up, should I carry everything with me or should I
[22:51] use aid stations? So again, we've had questions
[22:54] here from athletes saying I'm going to try and put 4 bottle
[22:56] cages on my bike so that I can carry 4 litres of fluid with me.
[23:00] You don't need to do that. You don't need any more than two
[23:03] bottle cages on a bike because there's going to be aid stations
[23:06] every 30 K on the bike and most races.
[23:09] So my advice to hear is 1 bottle to carry fluid and electrolytes,
[23:14] 1 bottle to carry liquid calories, and then you can
[23:17] replace those as you go along from the aid stations.
[23:21] If you're racing any of the major European 870.3 or Iron Man
[23:25] events, PFH is actually on course now, you can get premixed
[23:28] bottles there, so that's fantastic for you.
[23:31] If not, you need to carry your own electrolytes and just get
[23:33] water then. That way you've got control over
[23:36] it and then you've got another bottle that's separate with your
[23:38] liquid calories. In that way, again, you can top
[23:41] up from aid stations, but you don't need to carry everything
[23:44] with you. There's no need to have 4 kilos
[23:46] extra fluid on your bike at the start of an event.
[23:50] So use the aid stations really sensibly.
[23:53] Last question, how do I mentally cope with the inevitable low
[23:57] points during such a long day? OK so the first tip here is
[24:01] expect them. You are going to have at least
[24:04] one and probably several flat spots where anywhere from you
[24:08] just feel a bit average to you completely questioning why you
[24:12] ever did this event, why you ever signed up for it.
[24:15] You're going to stop when you get to T2 and not even do the
[24:17] run. That's really really normal.
[24:19] Everyone goes through the ups and downs, even the
[24:21] professionals. But bear in mind, often as your
[24:25] mood toward the race changes, that's a sign that your blood
[24:29] sugar is changing. And an old coach of mine used to
[24:32] say, if you're feeling bad on the bike, slow down and eat.
[24:36] If you're feeling good on the bike, slow down and eat.
[24:39] And what the coach was trying to point out here was that if you
[24:42] feel bad, it's usually because of low blood sugar.
[24:44] If you're feeling good, it's probably a better opportunity to
[24:48] ease up on the power and get extra calories in ahead of time
[24:52] rather than trying to push on potentially putting yourself
[24:55] into a fatigue hole later on in the event.
[24:58] So you've got to mentally cope firstly by expecting those low
[25:03] points to come. And then my next piece of advice
[25:05] is always have a reason to finish this event that's bigger
[25:11] than whatever reason might get kicked up in the moment to stop
[25:14] the event. So always have the thoughts of
[25:18] what the bigger picture is that you're doing this event for.
[25:21] Maybe it's to prove something to yourself, maybe it's to inspire
[25:25] your family members or your children, or to prove something
[25:28] to somebody. Whatever that reason is, only
[25:31] you can answer that, but I would advise you to spend some time
[25:33] ahead of time working out what that reason is if you're not
[25:37] really clear on it already. And have that answer ready when
[25:42] you inevitably have periods where he has 40K to go on the
[25:46] bike and you feel really exhausted and there's a headwind
[25:48] and it's raining and you're cold and everything's saying quit,
[25:51] have the answer then. Because in the middle of an Iron
[25:55] Man isn't a time to be negotiating with your own brain
[25:59] as to whether you continue or not.
[26:01] So expect flat spots. Expect low spots, have ways
[26:06] ready to deal with them ahead of time.
[26:08] OK, so to wrap today's episode up, here are some discount codes
[26:11] and deals for you over at Precision Fuel and
[26:13] hydration.com. Use the code Oxygen Fuel 25 for
[26:16] 15% off your first order. And if you want a big saving on
[26:19] coaching going into the 2026 season, you get in for coaching
[26:23] with us by the 30th of September and you'll make a big saving by
[26:27] getting our 2025 pricing. I think we're the most
[26:30] comprehensive triathlon coaching programme that's specifically
[26:33] designed for busy age groups at teamoxygenaddict.com.
[26:36] And I'm not just saying that I genuinely mean it.
[26:38] That's why I've designed the programme the way I have.
[26:40] So if you're looking for coaching for Iron Man at 70.3
[26:44] for this season or next season, please get in touch.
[26:47] There's a link in the show notes to book a membership call with
[26:49] us and we'll see if you'd be a good fit for joining the team.
[26:52] So remember the links when the show notes.
[26:54] You don't have to remember them. And until next week, have a
[26:57] great safe training and racing week.
[26:59] I'm coach Rob Wilby and you've been listening to the Oxygen
[27:02] Addict Triathlon Podcast.

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