(water splashing)
- Good morning Trainiacs.
Back at swimming after about two weeks off?
I bet that you basically thought
that I was Lucy Charles in there.
That's how good it feels, it feels really good.
But if you want the real thing,
you want tips from Lucy Charles,
we have actually partnered up with her
and she sent in her three top tips for Ironman training.
At the end of the video I'm gonna share with you a link
to how you can actually join
the Lucy Charles-Barclay race team.
Heck of a video.
(upbeat music)
- Okay so Taren has asked me to share my top three tips
for racing the long distance or the Ironman distance
with all of you, so I'm gonna run through what they are,
in no particular order, but what I consider to be
the most important factors
for successfully completing an Ironman.
Okay so my first tip is based around being organized.
So an Ironman is gonna take up a lot of your time,
so it's looking at a realistic amount of time
that you can dedicate to training, week on week,
leading into the event that you've chosen to do.
I highly recommend working with a coach
throughout this process.
It just takes a bit of pressure off of yourself
and if you have got a busy schedule,
it allows someone to work with you on that schedule
to make everything work together.
One thing that I would suggest doing with that coach,
a good coach will do this anyway,
is to look at your strengths and weaknesses on swim/bike/run
and whether that be on strength and conditioning as well,
and really work on those weaknesses.
It's really easy to train for your strengths
because it makes you feel good but actually,
to get the most out of yourself,
you need to focus on your weaknesses
and turn those into strengths before the day of your event.
Another thing around being organized is
looking at having a good kind of time scale
of how much training you can do,
working around your work, your family
and other commitments that you're gonna have,
if one has a normal life as well.
Not everyone is a pro athlete,
so you have to factor that in,
you will have to sacrifice things,
you're gonna have to take that into account,
but it will be worth it.
And you're gonna have to look at budgeting, meal prep
and all of the factors that go into training,
it's not just swim, bike, run, it is fueling yourself,
resting enough and actually giving time to your family
and your work life as well.
Okay, my next tip is based around nutrition
and this isn't just race day nutrition,
it is nutrition in your normal life as well.
Now you don't need to go out there
and do some crazy, wacky diet to complete an Ironman,
I just recommend having a healthy balanced diet.
If you're someone who's vegan or plant-based that's fine,
if that works for you then go with it
but I wouldn't recommend trying to do
some crazy new diet training for your Ironman,
just stick to what you know works for you.
If you do wanna try something new
then I recommend seeking out a nutritionist
and actually working with them to build a plan
that works for you, around your training.
I'm actually very lucky that I work with a company
that supplies my meals and I think that is available,
so it could be something that you look at.
Obviously there's a cost associated with it,
but it does take that pressure off of you
and you know that you're gonna match your calorie output
with your training,
they're just gonna supply the meals that match that.
So that just takes a bit of pressure off
but obviously that is a bit of a luxury item.
Now getting into your race day nutrition.
Obviously practice, practice, practice.
You need to practice what you're gonna do on race day
in training.
And not just once, multiple times, in different conditions
and at race intensity.
So you may find that you practice a race nutrition
and it works well on one day
but then it completely doesn't work on another.
So it's about trial and error,
doing it multiple times
and then finally finding that race day nutrition strategy
that works for you.
Now, kind of getting into when you've got that
and how that works, I find that in a race,
time moves so fast.
So I set a timer on my bike computer
that pretty much beeps every 15 minutes
and it reminds me to eat or drink
because you can kind of drift off and just be riding
and then an hour might have passed and you've not eaten.
So I find that that's like a top tip
to make sure and remind myself,
okay, now I'm gonna have a bit of a drink.
And I tend to alternate every 15 minutes
between having a bit of solid fuel and a bit of liquid fuel,
but again, that's down to personal preference.
Another thing you will need to look at is the conditions
that you're gonna go and race in.
So if it's gonna be a really, really hot climate,
you need to factor in nutrition, salts, electrolytes
so much more than if you were gonna race in a cold climate.
You can also go into really high detail on your sweat rate,
amount of salt loss for you as a individual,
which will be different to someone else.
All of these things need to be factored in around nutrition
but if you don't fuel your body correctly on the day,
it's all gonna fall apart.
So it's almost as important as the training
is making sure you fuel yourself correctly.
Okay so my final tip is based around pacing.
And this, again, is really individual to you as an athlete
and it can be so easy to get on that start line
and get sucked in to going too hard with other athletes
who are pushing the pace early on in an Ironman.
But this race is a long day,
so if it's your first ever long distance,
just get to the finish line.
That's gotta be your final aim, really, that was mine
when I did my first long distance race.
So think about what you've done in training,
set those targets before you go into the race.
So have targets split for swim, bike, run
that are realistic to you and try and stick to
that pacing throughout the race
and you will have a much more pleasant experience
and probably a more successful day
just by sticking to your own race plan.
Now, that becomes more different as you become a pro athlete
because you're racing for finish positions,
but it's still about pacing yourself on the day
and if I go too hard on the bike,
then my run's gonna suffer,
so it's always about looking at your personal pacing plan.
Another thing I always focus on is my power
and heart rate data.
So, if you've trained to power and heart rate,
it's sticking to those zones that you know are comfortable
and within a range for you.
Not letting the power spike too much on climbs,
not letting the heart rate spike too much on climbs,
and when you get on that run,
you wanna keep that heart rate nice and steady,
keep the pace fairly steady, again, on the hills,
it's not letting the heart rate climb.
You don't wanna burn too many matches throughout the race.
You wanna just keep it at that steady pace you know works
for you and is gonna get you to that finish line,
ultimately.
Pace yourself for puppies.
If it means you're gonna get a puppy at the end of the day,
then you're gonna have to dig deep at the end,
so you can get yourself one of these.
Yeah, me and Reece had a little agreement.
So if I finished first in the race, we could get two dogs,
if I came second, we could get one dog,
if I came third, no dog.
(squealing)
(laughs)
Thanks for everyone for listening to my top tips,
thanks for Taren for asking me to share my advice
with the long distance, hopefully that was useful for you.
And if you have any further questions,
then don't worry about reaching out to Taren or myself
to ask those questions.
Or Lola. (laughs)
Let me just get something out of my eye.
Pace for puppies.
Pace for puppies!
Yeah!
- Well that was good Trainiacs.
That was good, that was 30 minute swim,
I did three times 10 minutes, steady at,
I don't know,
I think this would have been going at a 145 per 100 meter
and I did the first 10 minutes with fins and a snorkel,
then second 10 minutes with pull buoy and snorkel,
and then the last 10 minutes just with snorkel.
I like snorkel in this thing
because it has a tendency to be a real strength-focused swim
'cause the current comes back
and your feet sink down a little bit,
so it really makes you work on pressing that chest
into the water, feels good.
Felt like Lucy Charles-Barclay.
So all right, Trainiacs, thank you very much
to Lucy Charles for giving us those tips.
If you want to enter to try to be on
Lucy Charles-Barclay race team coaching,
get that package to be coached by Lucy
and her husband Reece, they're phenomenal,
go to a link in the description below.
It's on teamcharlesbarclaycoaching.com
but there's a link that you've gotta go to to get to it
and apply.
So, thanks Lucy.
Go apply.
Oh, by the way, they have an awesome YouTube channel,
they're putting out some of the best content.
Here are two of my favorite videos.
So if you already have a coach
and you really just like Lucy Charles
and want more of her content,
check out these two videos from them, which are my faves.
Later Trainiacs.