Episode 286: Episode Rewind - Keys to Kona: Strategies for Success at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships
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This week's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast is a flashback to last year's lead-up to the Hawaii Ironman World Championship in Kona.
We decided to Rewind to episode 234 and its wealth of information about the legendary event. Whether you've qualified for this year's IRONMAN World Championship, are a male athlete preparing for the 2024 Hawaii Ironman, or have aspirations to compete in Kona in the future, the insights shared by Matt in this episode are extremely valuable.
Whether you're planning to compete, supporting friends, or you're just an enthusiast, ironman master coach Matt Dixon invites you to follow along as he shares everything you need to know about how to achieve success in Kona.
In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Matt draws from his 15 years of experience helping athletes thrive at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships and provides a breakdown of the preparation, training, and logistical elements you need to consider before ever setting foot on the island.
Purple Patch has guided more than 750 athletes to qualification at the World Championships, has coached multiple age group world champions, and has had numerous purple patch pros in the top 10 overall, including athletes such as Chris Lieto, Rachel Joyce, and Sarah Piampiano.
Matt takes the lessons he has learned from coaching these athletes and shares a detailed walkthrough of what you can expect in Kona, from landing to leaving.
The episode is broken into two parts:
Part 1: Pre-arrival and nailing race week
Part 2: Race execution - swim-bike-run, nutrition, and mindset
In part one you will learn:
Key strategies to adopt before you travel - How to arrive fit, fresh, and ready to handle the crazy of Kona week.
(11:56) "your mission and goal is to arrive to Hawaii as systemically fresh as possible. You want to also be prepared physiologically to meet the conditions as best as you can. So you want to get there really fresh and already have some physiological adaptations in hand so that you are ready to navigate the heat. If you can achieve those two big things, then what you can do in Hawaii is start to prime for the race."
A framework of how to optimize race week - Balancing training and preparation with the Kona experience.
The hit list - answers to the most common questions athletes have around race week.
In part two you will learn:
Strategies around success in Kona - race day mindset and execution
(38:10) "if you want your best race performance, the truth is that it's never going to come from you chasing splits. Having predetermined ideas of what you want to swim, what you want to bike, and what you run or run and trying to adhere a race plan to that is a fool's errand. Instead, success is going to come about through an element of control, really smart self-management, a great amount of persistence, and continued problem solving over all of the challenges that you will meet across the whole of the day."
Key elements around race craft, fueling, and hydration.
How to navigate recovery and reflection.
So many athletes ruin their performance potential through a series of mistakes they make in their preparation or execution during race week. The goal of this episode is to provide you with details of the experience and recommendations to help you set up for your best Hawaii Ironman Race experience.
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 04:04 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
04:04 - 07:58 - Matt's News-ings
08:05 - 01:09:15 - The Meat and Potatoes: Episode 286 - Episode Rewind - Keys to Kona: Strategies for Success at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships
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Full Transcript
Matt Dixon 00:00
I'm Matt Dixon and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 00:25
Folks, today's show is brought to you by InsideTracker. And of course, I've made no secret of the fact that it is a key tool that we leverage with our athletes to help them perform across sports, health, and how they show up in life. There are a few changes that have occurred at InsideTracker, particularly around their reporting protocols. And they have radically simplified and I think made much more applicable, the results and insights that you get and how to create an action plan from it. It's very simple, it's built all around how you can show up and deliver the best focus to drive results for you. Particularly if you're focused on longevity, investing in your future self, and trying to ensure that you can create that platform of health that we talk about so much at Purple Patch. It's more accessible, it's simplified, and most importantly, it's actionable. Now, if you want help with your InsideTracker assessment, and then feel free to reach out to us, you can set up a coaching consult and we'll go through it with you and help you build your action plan from the insights that we get with InsideTracker. And when you merge the expertise of the team of scientists at InsideTracker with our perspective around the performance, lifestyle, and how to get strategic on it, well, I think you're on a little bit of a winning combination there. All you need to do is reach out to us at info@purplepatchfitness.com, we'd be delighted to set up a conversation with you. And if you just simply want to go down the route of InsideTracker, well, just order your assessment straight away. insidetracker.com/purplepatch, that's insidetracker.com/purplepatch and use this code Purple Patch Pro 20, you get 20% off everything at the store. That sounds good. Now today, we're talking about Kona, the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. Enjoy it.
Matt Dixon 02:20
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. As ever, your host, Matt Dixon, and today it's all about Kona what we're doing is a rerun of a show that we did about a year ago in the lead-up to the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. We thought that we would rerun the show because it's packed full of information about the iconic event, the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. Now this year, there's a twist because, for the first time, it is only going to be women racing. The men had their World Championship last month in Nice, it was a great event. But the jewel in the crown, the Hawaii Ironman World Championship is going to be a competition among the professional female athletes, the very best in the world. And, of course, the best amateur athletes in the world of Ironman. And I think it's going to be a tremendous experience. I hope I really hope that this goes off well, and the whole sport gets really behind this, what is going to be, a magical event. And I think that it's a great opportunity for you guys who are fans of the sport to get a close-up look at just how incredible these female professional athletes are. I tell you that some of the best racing in the sport comes out of the free female side of the sport. And these athletes are warriors. And I think that's going to be showcased in the event. And it's terrific. So today, what I thought we'd do is we would redo a Kona special in preparation. And this is going to be inspiring if you've ever had the dream to go and race Kona. And maybe you might plan to in the years ahead. But it's also going to be incredibly useful if you are qualified either in this year's edition. Or of course, if you're a male athlete getting primed for next year's Hawaii Ironman in 2024. And so we're gonna go through and rerun. It's packed full of information on how you can set yourself up for great success. Before we do that, let's just do a very quick Matt's News-ings.
Matt Dixon 04:31
Yes, Barry, thank you Matt's News-ings and hey, we know that over the last few weeks, we have spent a lot of time talking about the offseason and it is all kicking off right now. October the second and it's not too late to join us. One of the things we've heard from a lot of athletes and a lot of existing Purple Patch athletes have told us the same is that perhaps you're listening and you're inspired and excited and want to get on the journey but you've got a late season race. Maybe you're setting yourself up to do Ironman, Arizona, Indian Wells, Cozumel, one of the many races that are still going on over the calendar year. Don't fret, you don't need to miss out at all. You're not going to be left behind. The key part of this offseason is that is designed to accommodate people who are also racing later, in the autumn, or America, as you say the Fall, and if you join us, you will still get the benefits even if you're a little late to the party. All right. Now, to supercharge this, what I recommend is upon joining, you're going to be set up with a personal tutorial and guidance into your program. But you might think about adding a very simple consultation with one of the Purple Patch coaching teams. And we can help you build your approach to the offseason and integrate some of the elements that maybe you've already missed and we can ensure that you don't put a foot wrong. And so if you are inspired to join, even if you've got a race looming, feel free and reach out to us right now, at info@purplepatchfitness.com. What we'll do is we'll set up a complimentary call, and we'll strategically plan it. You can go and race, and then we will help you integrate your best path ahead. And remember, right now, just for the next couple of weeks, you get an extra 10% off of the cost of your first month by deciding to join us right now. If you're not racing, hey, now's the time, you don't want to get behind the eight ball if you don't need to. So hit the ground running and join us. It's going to be a lot of fun. The whole group of us are excited. The Purple Patch coaches are incredibly excited. And you're going to get to engage with a whole bunch of athletes that are supporting but also are going to hold each other to account and that includes you. All right, guys. That's terrific. Barry, I get to do it. We are going to talk about the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. Let's do the meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 07:01
Yes, folks, the meat and potatoes. Today we are talking about the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. Every second Saturday, in October, each year, the cannon goes off. One of the most demanding tests of endurance sports. It's fantastic. And there's no denying that it is a gruesome, horrible, nasty, challenging, very special racing event. And so I hope today that you enjoy the insights. After this week back to regular programming, we've got a lot of fun and we're going to talk next week, all about performance in the broader spectrum. We're gonna leave the triathlon behind next week, and we're going to talk about performance in work and life. That's going to be insightful, but for this week, we talk about the jewel in the crown of the part of the DNA that is always Purple Patch, and that is the triathlon. And so here we go. Let's talk Kona, it's gonna be for me here today. Back to me last year, talking about the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. I hope you enjoy it. See you next week.
Matt Dixon 08:13
Yes, folks, it is the meat and potatoes. And my mission today is to set you up with the best possible experience on the island. But on top of that, I want to help you dodge many of the pitfalls that so many athletes stumble into. As I promised today we're going to break this up into two parts. The first section of today's show is going to be all about before you arrive and race week, and then we're going to dive into race execution. And so if you think you got one dialed section and not the other, at least you know what's coming.
Matt Dixon 08:43
In part one of today's show, we're going to try and identify three big lessons for you. The first of the key strategies that you can implement right before you travel so that you arrive on the island fit but also fresh, and you're ready to handle the craziness that makes up Kona week. Also going to go around to framework to optimize your actual race week there, how you plan the appropriate training so that you can start to sharpen and optimize and get ready while also maximizing the kona experience, which, if it is your first time getting ready for the Hawaii Ironman, it is a magical week. And finally, I'm going to add a quick hit list of answers to some of the most common questions that we get from athletes around race week. Once we've passed with that, we can shake it off and we'll move on to talking about swimming, bike, and running, on the actual race day. Without further ado, part one, let's get going.
Matt Dixon 09:40
The reason that we're structuring it like this is let me be clear if you want to have a great race day in Kona, and then a successful Ironman experience begins before you even step foot on the lava. Yes, before you even travel, and I want to begin To kick off this part one of the show, I want to dispel a huge myth out there something that I hear athletes saying, or their actions that lead them to this without realizing it, which is a huge common mistake. We see a lot of athletes fall into this. And there are big performance consequences. The common mindset, when you are juggling responsibilities of work and family and everything that makes up life with, of course, the training to get ready for this thing is the common mindset of charging at work until the day of travel. I want to have a clean slate in Hawaii. And so I'm going to do everything I can to finish up and cross all of the T's and dot all of the i's at work before I go. I'm going to also cram in my last-minute training because I'm a little bit worried that I'm going to have the required fitness to navigate this beast of a race. And then what I'll do is I'll get onto the island, and I'll spend race week recovering. That's where I'm going to sleep a lot rejuvenate and freshen up. Let me start the show by saying don't do this, it is a failing proposition. When you just put your foot down on the tarmac in Hawaii, you're gonna realize that there is an amplified stress of the environment, your expectations of race week are looming, and the schedule on logistics becomes demanding. And we'll get into that in a little bit. It's an incredibly harsh environment of both heat, wind, and humidity. And so many athletes leave their race performances in their hometowns. In fact, as the antidote to this, let me establish your mission, your mission, and your goal. And this is perhaps ironically, the most important thing I'm going to say today, your mission and goal is to arrive in Hawaii as systemically fresh as possible. You want to also be prepared physiologically to meet the conditions as best as you can. So you want to get there fresh and already have some physiological adaptations in hand so that you are ready to navigate the heat. If you can achieve those two big things. And then what you can do in Hawaii is start to prime for the race. But what you don't want to get stuck in is desperately trying to rest your way out of a hole of fatigue. Now, what does this mean? This means that I would much rather you do two or three less training sessions be a few fewer miles, but arrive a little bit fresher than just tipped over the edge and be systemically overcooked. So let's get tactical on this. What can you do to apply to this? Well, let's first talk about heat preparation. As I mentioned, it's an incredibly harsh environment. And so we have a heat protocol that we love athletes to go through. I'm going to break this down a little bit as a part of the show. But if you want the specific details of our heat protocol, we'd be happy to share them with you, all you have to do is email info@purplepatchfitness.com and we'll be happy to send you the specific line by line and the protocol that our athletes leverage. But the quick headline news of this - your heat preparation begins about two weeks before your travel day, not two weeks before race day, before your travel day. And the goal of this protocol, there are several ways to implement it, and we'll go into it, but the goal of this protocol is to make you more effective at operating it heat. It's not about making the heat feel better, or diminishing how stressful and claustrophobic it is, it's going to be a little bit nasty. But we can boost physiological adaptations that are going to equip you to become a more effective cooling machine. Now the way that this protocol works is really without getting too complicated into the physiology, we're going to boost your blood volume. So if an average human has about six liters of blood, hopefully circulating in an internal system within your body, by going through a little bit of heat stimulus, we can increase the amount of blood, six and a half liter seven liters whatever it might be, and that becomes important to help you dissipate the heat that the body is generating. A second physiological adaptation that we're looking for is to increase your sweat rate. If you can increase sweat more, you become a more effective cooling machine. And that's the outcome that we're looking for. So how can you do this before you get on that plane? Well, there are two options. The first option Is what you might call the post-workout protocol. And that post-workout probe protocol is following every one of your sessions over those two weeks before you travel for about 10 to 30 minutes, you put yourself in a rather relatively harsh environment. You can sit in a sauna, you can sit in a steam room, you can do hot water immersion, where you're up to your neck in a hot bath, that is continually running hot water to ensure that that temperature stays hot. And while you are doing that, post-workout, you are not hydrating. And that's going to create a big stimulus, a little bit of stress on the kidneys. It's going to release Vasopressin, which is an anti-diuretic to help you build up more body water or plasma, therefore boosting your blood volume. Now, the important part if you're going to implement this schedule, is it's demanding, psychologically to sit in there, it's not very comfortable, and you're not hydrating, too to us to not impact negatively your training. Once you're done with this you've had a nice shower and you've refueled over the next three to four hours, you must restore your hydration status. And I would encourage you to restore your hydration status with continuous fluids that include electrolytes. Important. The other factor in this post-workout protocol is that it is systemically stressful. And so if life is really busy, sleep is disrupted, and maybe your training is feeling a little bit of fatigue, this would be thought of as the cherry on top of the overall platform of performance, readiness, and health. And you can remove that cherry and still have a lovely cake. In other words, if you are feeling a little bit overcooked, this is the very first thing to pull out with confidence from your overall protocol. So that's one way to go about a heat protocol. The second way is to integrate hot workouts into the equation. Now this is where a lot of athletes make mistakes, the only place that you should put yourself in a synthetically hot environment by either layering on more clothes - so wearing woolly sweaters, if you want to call it that - or putting yourself into a let's use an example riding on the bike trainer with no fan in a hot room, that type of simulated heat stimulus, I only would want you to do that in monkey sessions. So some of the lighter sessions that are physiologically lower stress from a training standpoint, as I said, the way that you get this is by adding close removing the fan operating in a hotter environment. But we must retain the integrity and the quality of our key interval sessions. And so we want high performance on the sessions that are looking to challenge you to drive physiological changes, high-intensity intervals, longer very challenging workouts with Ironman-specific intervals, some of the race simulation stuff, don't go making yourself underperform in key training sessions because of this stimulus, do it in the lower stress, easy workouts and just like the post-workout protocol, you remove this if you're physiologically or emotionally depleted. Important. Okay. If you do that, if you execute that protocol, over 10 days to 14 days before you travel, it's going to be a stimulus to boost your blood volume, increase your sweat rate, make you a much better cooling machine, not make the heat and humidity of Hawaii feel better, but physiologically equip you to operate better. And I think that's an important thing. A lot of folks think they're going to arrive in Hawaii and think, Oh, it feels like a cold day in Detroit in November. That's not what we're looking for here. Okay? It's just about physiological adaptations.
Matt Dixon 19:10
A second component that you think about pre-travel, so that you arrive fit and fresh is around hydration specifically pre-hydration. The heat protocol that we talk about, I want you to get systemically fresh before you get on the plane. So I would encourage you to stop that heat protocol in the final 48 to 72 hours before you get on the plane. As you remove that physiological stressor, you start to get a little bit fresh, but then we go about looking to restore our full hydration status and get vibrant and healthy. And hydration can help with that. So as you remove the heat protocol, you then add on the pre-hydration. Two to three days, 48, to 72 hours before travel, I recommend that you focus on a little bit of pre-bed and wake-up hydration. So before you go to bed have a water bottle worth of fluid. But I would also add in some electrolytes. Now middle of the bell curve here, some folks need 500 milligrams, and some salty sweaters might have a little bit more 1000 or 1500, I'm gonna label it as middle of the bell curve, 1000 milligrams of sodium, pure electrolyte, low calorie, hydration, you have a bottle an hour or two right before bed. When you first wake up in the morning, you can still have your espresso or cup of tea that you like. But you also have another to hydrate the day. 1000 milligrams either side of it, depending on what type of sweater you are, pre-hydration. Now over the day, you start to hydrate similarly to how you will in race week, with every meal, you have a glass or two of water, you don't need to have electrolytes into that because you've got electrolytes in the meal. And then maybe at lunchtime, you might have one more pre-hydration electrolyte drink. That's about the mission that you have. You don't need to turn yourself into a camel, you don't need to be strapping a bottle of Gatorade to your arm and walking around with it. Morning, evening glass of water or to with meals, you're pretty much good to go. And you are going to fully restore hydration status before you get on the plane.
Matt Dixon 21:28
All right, so we've got heat protocol, we're going to do that for the two weeks before travel stopping about 48 hours before, we've got a little bit of pre-hydration about 48 hours before as well where we're going to boost up our hydration status. And then, in addition, you've got two other key factors. Avoid any really hard training in the final 48 hours. So I'm looking to boost your systemic health. And in the last week or two before, if you can prioritize sleep. A cool, dark environment, making sure that before you get on that plane, and you're most likely going to have timezone shifts, you can get some high-quality sleep. We know that when you first get to the island, the first 24, 48 maybe up to 72 hours, you're going to have disrupted sleep. It's a new bed and new environment, harsh conditions, you've got timezone shifts, so why don't you pad up some good health and go from there?
Matt Dixon 22:30
Alright, is there anything else that we can do pre-travel? Yes, the good news there is, that you should focus on really high-quality eating: tons of vegetables, lots of proteins, and lots of good fats. As our training isn't particularly hard in the last couple of days before travel, you're probably having a good breakfast with plenty of carbohydrates. Don't shift your eating habits too much. But make sure that you're getting plenty of vitamins, minerals, good proteins, and good oils, that's going to be the backbone of a healthy diet to get going. If you can do this if you can prevent that last-minute work charge that we talked about, you can execute a heat protocol and you can get a really good platform of sleep, eating, and pre-hydration, and get onto that plane, not systemically tired, it can be race changing. It can truly be race-changing, and it's a really important high-value component. If you do this, you will have physiological adaptations to help you operate in heat better, you'll be systemically fresh but most importantly it frees up Kona week. You can move into priming and not desperation, and I think that is high value. Good. Done. What about race week? This becomes important as well. And oh the excitement of race week. You are here, you've been training for the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. Everyone around you looks like they are significantly fitter than you, that's the common emotion that everybody gets, by the way, and there becomes a real tension, a balancing act over race week. Ultimately, for most athletes who are going to Hawaii, there's a mission to maximize the Kona experience. You want to make sure that you have great fun and enjoy it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many athletes. At the same time, on the other side of the equation, you don't want to sabotage your race performance. You don't want to take action during race week, that is going to make the race day miserable and lasts much longer than you want it to do. So let's dial in the best approach for you.
Matt Dixon 24:49
The first thing and I mean this seriously is plan your week. Being a little bit anal here. And for many of the listeners, that's not too hard. I know because you're very type A, all of you Kona athletes, but it is worth having a schedule and being highly organized. Now, I should preface this that by having the plan and having the schedule, you will have to adapt, and you should be okay with adapting and managing, but with a framework to operate is going to remove a lot of the cognitive stress. Now, within this schedule, I would recommend a few things. First, your training. Typically, the vast majority of training is better done first thing in the morning. The only little shake out of that or the difference of that is some athletes love to do a little pre-dinner Shake out or an easy swim or something like that. That's great, but the majority of your training for most Kona athletes, it's better to do it when it's cooler, and a little quieter, to get the training done. That's the important part because that's your prime in your body, and then get on with the really, really rest of the day, that becomes important. Now, when you do that training, it will still feel hot. There's a high likelihood that in the training sessions, you might not feel great, or Sparky. But remember that the training isn't there in Kona week for you to chase validation, the role of it isn't to tell you that you're ready, you got ready over the last months of training. This is about getting the body and the blood moving, getting primed up, and over the coming days, getting you systemically healthy enough to have a great race performance, without you feeling as they call it in endurance terms, flat. So some work is important. But that work shouldn't be chasing validation that you're ready. That is a question that can only be answered on race day. Now, under the banner of training, a few tips that I can give you.
Matt Dixon 27:00
Firstly, the swim is very busy. If you're going to do it in town, realize there's typically a lot of traffic in the town of Kona, parking is very tough, and you want to give yourself more time, if you're going to go and do a 15-to-20-minute swim, that's an hour of your schedule mapping. You should also consider riding safely. The riding in town can be very busy, a lot of people are excited a lot of locals are maybe a little bit frustrated, it's often a good thing to get out of town a little bit, get out onto the highway, and do some of the riding where you're not in the stoplights not in the traffic coming out of the side roads etc. And I think that's valuable if you can do that. And so if you're gonna go and do an hour and a half or two hours on the bike, four or five days before the race, you want to think about that as a three-hour block of time. So at least one and a half to 2x the time that you'll be riding. That's what your schedule demands. In the run part of it, I recommend that you avoid the heat of the day. So run when it is cooler. And ensure that you avoid ego-running. So many athletes get out there get excited, test themselves, and run way too hard. Of the three disciplines, Running is the one that should be kept quite easy in race week, it becomes important. So that's the training section in race week. That's important. What about meals? Now depends on your accommodation, I'd recommend plenty of cooking at home if you can. If dining out is an option. You should think about getting reservations, the dining in Kona. It's not the best the restaurants aren't high class, this ain't New York. So I recommend getting good reservations, well ahead, making a plan, scheduling it, and eating on the earliest site. If you can eat at five o'clock 5:36 pm. I think that's going to give you a window to digest food and get to bed nice and early.
Matt Dixon 29:10
Registration: You can register almost any day leading up to the race, I would recommend doing it very early, right when you arrive that day or the next day, get it done, get it clear, dial it set it, and forget it. And that leads me to the expo and all of the other race experiences. There are so many components of race week that are fun. There's the Parade of Nations, there's the underwear run, there's the expo with everything and all of the equipment out there. There are so many things to go do look and see. But they can also deplete you from going around and around the expo standing out in the sun waiting for the Parade of Nations whatever it might be. So I just encourage you to choose carefully. Make sure you identify the ones that you think will be fun. Establish the time that you're gonna go to the expo and you should go to the expo, do a circuit talk, have a look, buy whatever you want to buy, and then forget about it. I think if you can identify one to two experiences that you go and do in that Hawaii week, and then forget about the rest, you are going to be better served systemically and you won't feel like you've spent the whole week just traipsing around Disneyland. Important. Now, for you very busy folks out there that are still going to continue to run scheduling and planning helps with you then putting in blocks of work that maybe you have to do back at home. Schedule your meetings well ahead of time, and ensure that you put you're out of the office. Make sure that you give yourself time that you can spend restoring, because if you can restore systemically get out of the heat, chill, watch movies, read, whatever it might be, it's going to help you. With this organization, I think that you can already see it's a busy, busy week over there.
Matt Dixon 31:05
So to finish up part one, let's go very quickly into the hit list. These are common questions that athletes ask us all the time. And I think that is important, some of the big tips that I can give you. The first one, the most common one, is air conditioning. Should you sleep with air conditioning? The answer to this is yes. It is your biggest weapon for systemic freshness. Now, this is important because the mission here is to try and protect the integrity of your sleep quality and duration. Any more future heat adaptation occurs during the day when you're training or walking around in the expo, heading out to lunch, or whatever it might be. And so that part of the restoration, really high-quality sleep is not the time that you want to deprive yourself of a high-quality environment. The only athletes that would not have air conditioning are those that have adverse reactions to that force there that tends to occur. But for the vast majority, air conditioning, yes, please. What about hydration? So many athletes ask us how should we hydrate. It's really important. It's important to pre-travel. And then you want to continue your protocol. But don't obsess. In the morning, drink your 20 ounces of fluid with electrolytes. Before you go to bed, drink your 20 ounces of fluid with electrolytes, glasses of water, and maybe a pinch of salt when you're in the Hawaii environment with every single meal. And then throughout the rest of the day. A few steps here and there. But you are not a camel. You don't need to obsess over hydration, it's important. Question four is carb loading. The big one? Well, carbohydrates are important. You do need to refuel, and you do need to restock but I will counter that with so is protein. Don't forget protein, particularly in your evening meals. In general, I like to make post-training breakfast in Hawaii, the biggest meal of the day. Also, a good lunch makes sure that is a combination of protein and carbohydrates. And then in the evening some carbohydrates, but a meal that is centered around a protein that's going to help you in the last 72 hours before the race you may just increase your starchy carbohydrates a little bit. But you don't need to become a Foie Gras Goose. You don't need to force-feed yourself. Just increase it a little bit remembering that your training load is light in those last 72 hours. A.M. breakfast, post-workout every time, big breakfast, and then in the last 48 hours before the actual race day encourage you to limit high-fiber foods, we want to get the GI system operating cleanly, but we don't want any runny tummies. Outside of that system stress - realize that when you're training, your pace might be slower, your heart rate might be higher and all of that stuff that can mess with your head, but don't worry about it. Have fun. Now, if some of this information is false! wow! I should mention at this point, that if you are heading to Hawaii and you want to have some individual attention, we'd be happy to set up a consultation with you. If you want to have a chat with me or a Purple Patch coach all you have to do is head to info@purplepatchfitness.com, drop us an email at info@purplepatchfitness.com and we will be delighted to help. I know that it is challenging. I know that it's stressful. There's a lot of logistics but we can get through by keeping things pretty simple for you. Globally, if you set up your week in advance you arrive fit and fresh. You manage and work the schedule and then well, you're in a place where you can step on the start line, at least cross the timing mat and get in the water, and be physically and mentally prepared to give it your very best effort on the race.
Matt Dixon 35:11
Let's move to part two - race execution. We want to talk about three main things here. The first is successful strategies for race day in Kona mindset and execution, we want to also talk a little bit about race craft. And that becomes important, how do you get whatever fitness that you have to work with you for the best outcome in Hawaii? And then finally, once we're all done, we'll wrap up the show by talking about post-race, what you should think about post-race. And so without further ado, let's get going on this.
Matt Dixon 35:44
Let's start with strategies. And I think that it's important that we commence a discussion around Hawaii Ironman race day, with our mindset and execution. What I'm going to first do is filter out some of you guys, the 5% of athletes that are really competitive, highly experienced, the pros, the very serious amateurs that are not time-starved, that are maybe chasing and have aspirations of getting on the podium winning their age group, winning overall amateur. Those types of folks, some of what I talk about here absolutely applies, but some of it equally doesn't. And I'm going to try and let you know when you do this, but the majority of what I'm talking about today is for the 95% of athletes that are participating in Hawaii, where maybe there's still a spread of experience and there's even a spread of performance level but globally, 95% of athletes are time-starved have busy lives are looking for the best personal performance within context of their life, seeking individual success, but are not defined by winning the whole thing or getting on the podium, that side of stuff. And so for that 95%, what does success look like? Let's hold hands here. And let's think about defining success, this race. I see so many athletes, spending cycles and cycles, analyzing and predicting what their splits are going to be in Hawaii. The truth is that the Hawaii Ironman, more than any other race, has the broadest variability of what the conditions can bring, and how they can imprint what makes a great performance. There are sea conditions with currents and waves and other components like that. There's wind and heat and humidity, lots of variability. Is it a still day? Is it a cloud-covered day? Is there high wind, whatever it might be on the bike? and then imprint that onto the run. And that means that a quote, fast year in the Hawaii Ironman, or a slow year, can have a huge Delta. There could be 5, 10, or 15 minutes of difference in the swim that are both equally good. There can be 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 minutes of slower bike riding, which still makes up a really good bike performance. And so if you want your best race performance, the truth is that it's never going to come from you chasing splits. Having predetermined ideas of what you want to swim, what you want to bike, and what you run or run and trying to adhere to a race plan to that is a fool's errand. Instead, success is going to come about through an element of control, really smart self-management, a great amount of persistence, and continued problem-solving over all of the challenges that you will meet across the whole day. And so I would say that a great success for the vast majority of Hawaii Ironman World Championship athletes, isn't actually about racing, in the classic sense that we think of that word. If you can be successful in the following: if you can swim without depleting your resources by swallowing vast amounts of ocean water and avoiding big fatigue then you can ride to your train potential, but complete that 180 kilometers and 112 miles with mental and physical resources left over, and you are not too dehydrated, and you have great substrate availability and then you can go on and be consistent on the run, not fast but consistent, in which you can for the majority of that marathon, maintain good running most of the time, probably with walk breaks and be on top of it all resilient mentally and physically and strong in the last 10k of the marathon, if you can do all of that, and then you have a great Kona race performance. And the reason I draw it out like that is that this is less about racing. It's much more around self-management patience, and taking consistent action, for you to preserve physical and mental readiness for that last two hours of racing. No matter how long it takes you to race you can get to your last two hours, and be physically and mentally strong. Bingo. Now reminds me of a story in 2015. I'm gonna give you some data here. This is at the pointy end of the race. This is at the world-class level. And I remember watching the female, the women's pro race in 2015. Off the bike, he was a long way back, but off the bike, Sarah Pampiano was in 23rd place. Now she's a good runner. But she came bursting out of T2. And I said to her calm, the one moment I got to say, stay calm, don't overrun it. She recovered. She got into a rhythm. 23rd place a long, long, long way back minutes and minutes and minutes behind the 10th place runner. By mile five, she was in 18th place, that's a nice steady build-up up 23rd to 18th. It's really good. At mile 10. She was ninth and she finished seventh. So she went from 18th to ninth in a 30 to 40 Win minute window in the pro race. 30 to 40 minutes she gained, she went from 23rd to 18th to 9th. BUM BUM BUM up in the world-class field that was. And the key thing is she wasn't having some magical run performance, she was just consistent. What was happening was the explosions of people's performance ahead of her.
Matt Dixon 42:07
Now this is the pro race. Now let's take that story and think about time-starved amateurs. So what is this all wrapped up? There's something that you can take away from this that I hope you can apply with confidence to your racing journey. Here's your race strategy for you. I think that you should go and train all day, train all day. I encourage you to defuse the occasion, and instead take a highly practical approach. Imagine rather than being at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, you were foolish enough to allow me to coach you. Goodness me, can you imagine the poor people that have to put up with me? But imagine I was coaching you and you told me, again another mistake, I've got all train day to train on Saturday. And on Wednesday, you get up and you look at your weekend prescribed workouts and you say Holy shit, what's he doing? Because I've prescribed on that Saturday, 2.4 miles of swimming, and then I say get out as quickly as you can get onto the bike, I want you to go and ride 112 miles and after that, I want to challenge you, you're gonna go and run 26.2 miles. And you're going to do this all while you're on holiday in Kona. It's very cruel. And the first taste action that you might take is to go and find another coach. But practically, I'm sure if you saw that and you took on the challenge, you'd be smart. You'd probably make sure that you rested up a little bit. You fueled, you hydrated, and tried to get some good sleep. And then you would probably start smoothly. And you wouldn't try and be a hero on the first part of the bike, you'd just be consistent, you'd be steady. You'd be focused on self-management, you won't have any ego about this, all you're trying to do is prove a point to your dumb coach, and any roadblocks that you might navigate such as flat tires along the way or maybe you get a little bit fuzzy, and loss of focus, you just fix them. And when the going gets tough, you're gonna lean on your pride and maybe a little bit of your ego and a point to prove to your coach to make sure that I realize that you are tougher than you think. In other words, the more simple you can make the Hawaii Ironman, the better it is going to be. The clearer, more familiar, accessible, the more you just apply a training mindset, the better your race performance will be. You don't need to ahead of this race change everything by a bunch of new gadgets evolve every piece of fueling and hydration that you typically do start guessing how long it's going to take your your splits. Just look after yourself. Stay consistent and your outcome will be the best. Go and train all day. Do this, and you will be best served. Now, before you think oh he's diminishing expectations. Realize, remember, I have personally coached multiple age group world champions, and professional Ironman champions across the whole of the world, to great success in adopting this mindset. It can be liberating but in addition, it's practical. And I promise you, that's what Kona demands. It demands that you don't race with ego, you deploy pragmatism. So let's talk about the key elements around race craft. Now this could go on all day, and I'm going to try and do a quick and dirty around Kona-specific swim, bike, and run. We'll talk about fueling and hydration a little bit, we'll go through each of the main disciplines as quickly as we can. The swim, I think there are a few points around the swim that are critically important. Let's talk about the Kohner Swim, it is warm, it is congested. It is titled, of course, it can often be very wavy, going out the way the tides work, it tends to be that you won't achieve a negative split. In other words, you tend to have to swim against the load current on the way back, it tends to take longer coming back, and it is also emotionally challenging, because it's effectively a straight line, a little cross, and a straight line, swim that way for a mile swim back a mile. That's pretty much it. Now, while it's wide, and there's a lot of space, it also is in moving water. And the beauty of the crystal clear water is you can see the bottom. And that amplifies the risk of seasickness, because you're swimming and moving, while the floor of the ocean, at least I think typically is not moving. And so we've got to think about this in this more demanding swim, You add to it, the warmth of the water, and you can have a little bit of overheating that starts and it's very salty. And with the choppy turbulence and the fact you're doing it with a couple of 1000s of your friends, even with the new wave starts, you are going to ingest some fluids in this. So in other words, ultimately, it is I hate to tell you this a tough swim. So I would recommend in the swim that you line up relative to your pace, and the vast majority of athletes benefit from lining up to the side of whatever wave you're in. Give yourself options to get out of the congestion. If you're right in the nucleus, you're gonna get hit and you're gonna get hit a lot. There is a lot of context in this amplified testosterone-fueled swim. Begin, stay calm, and the number one thing that's going to help you relative to your train to fitness is to swim in a straight line.
Matt Dixon 47:56
Now how do you navigate the mental challenge of this where it just feels like you're on assuming treadmill, it's a long out, it's a long back. The best way to approach this is to break it down into sections. Now you have buoys every 100 meters and so you can do buoy counting, that might help. But I like athletes to take a little bit more of an interval mindset to ensure that they are gathering water and accelerating water back as strong as they can, restoring and resetting mentally. So a simple pattern might be something like 100 strokes where you're focused and strong, 20 or 25 strokes where you allow yourself to reset find connection, re-find form, and have a little bit of double sighting so that you ensure you're swimming in a straight line. 100 on, 25 off, 100 on, 25 off. Suddenly you've got two and a half miles that are broken down into sections to keep you on task. Very, very good to make it a process-driven side of things. Now before we move on to the bike, a couple of other things -- sighting becomes important. The buoys are critical. On your way back, I would try and stay as close as you can to the buoy line. And the sighting ahead of you are going to be the main hotels, the King Cam hotels, those are going to be the guides for you to get home, your swim to the right side of the pier, and then you are going to exit now with the time of the swim and the turbulence of the swim. I would take your time coming out of the water. Don't be rushed, be pragmatic. Take time to rinse off, most athletes, and hydrate in T1. This is where this is one of the details. The more accomplished higher-level athletes are waiting to fuel. But for 90% of Kona athletes, it's probably a good time to get calories in you in T1. Take your time get some hydration half a bottle of fluid, then get on the bike and settle. I think it becomes really important. The last thing that I'll say about this swim is you will get zero insights into how your day is going by looking at your finish time of this swim. It will almost certainly be slower than your regular Ironman swims. And there is a huge delta depending on currents and conditions. And so don't look at it and think I'm a hero or a zero relative to the outcome of your swim. I hope that helps overall implement swim in a straight line, best of luck.
Matt Dixon 50:33
The bike course, there is no flat riding on this course. On paper, the actual terrain profile of this course is not difficult and yet it destroys athletes. And so you can overcome the distraction by being smart. Post swim going through town, lots of crowds, very busy, exciting - patience and settle calm. When you're in town, you want to think more about trying to settle in and beginning your fueling and hydration. You're going to have a lot of external stimuli, all of the crowds, all of the twists and turns, and begin your fueling. And then as you go through the sections of the course, there are a few things to point out, you've got the first section up about 35 miles going up the Queen K, the main highway. That is where you want to be very calm, very smooth. Don't get frustrated by some of the groups that might start to cluster there. Just participate, do the best you can, and don't forget to fuel and hydrate. You then have a long climb up to Harvey, they say it's 19 or 20 miles. It's not really. The climb is a time when you want to A, fuel, and hydrate. big mistakes occur people forget as you start to feel the first resistance coming up. But this is where you want to start to use the terrain, looking to achieve wheel speed on the rollers, rather than just riding at a constant power. And as, and know as you get the climb, the bottom of the climb feels very easy, you have a little bit of a tailwind pushing you as you navigate towards the turnaround, which is the town of Harvey, that's where the winds tend to start to pick up if there are winds. And the great picks up the last four or five miles becomes a little bit more of a traditional climb. That becomes important. So it's a well-managed portion of it. When you make the turn through town, fuel and hydrate. And then the descent, I think a really important part of the race, you're going to come back down that long road, the first four or five miles fast, easy. You want to think about making sure you're staying supple on the bike if there is wind, staying controlled, and allowing your leg speed to pick up and be lighter. But you can't forget to fuel and hydrate. If you have a hard time hydrating at high speed you want to make sure that at that turnaround, you've done a good job of gulping a whole bunch of calories and getting them into your system as you're coming downhill. I would say the big surprise on that downhill is folks think mistakenly that once they make the turn their next 20 Miles is just going to be fast and easy. As you get to the bottom of the last five, six, or seven miles before you finish that descent, there is plenty of work to be done. It can be very challenging sometimes. And so control your bike, don't forget to fuel and hydrate. Once you hit the bottom, you've got a nasty hot little climb for about a mile that's not very nice. And then it is the last 35 Miles heading into town. You are back on the Queen K the famous highway. And typically, you're going to be faced with a headwind. I would say this is the most emotional part of the bike course, very challenging. If you can retain good bike position and posture, maintain your fueling and hydration to keep your resources up and stay mentally strong. For the first 25 to 30 miles of that 30 mile 35 Miles section. It is hugely valuable in time gained relative to your overall splits, you having a really good bike split relative to your train potential, but also setting you up for a really good run. It reminds me of another story in 2009 at this point Chris Lieto is clearly in this race for the strongest bike rider in the whole of the field. But at this point, he's only got 35 miles to go off the 112. At that turn on to the Queen K he was give or take about 60 seconds ahead of the main group 60 seconds. That's not a big enough lead against the fleet-footed runners by the end of the bike 35 miles later, he had an 11-minute lead on the group. Now there was some wind factor in there. There was the fact that the winds were shifting, he got a little bit lucky and didn't get into some of the crosswind headwinds that came a little bit down that section of road. But the interesting thing is his power output for the last 35 Miles stayed very similar. He didn't up the effort, he just paced his bike very, very well. He ended up coming second in that race, and it was all anchored around a great patient-riding performance. If Chris can do it like that, I think it's worthwhile for you to take the same approach.
Matt Dixon 55:40
So let's dive into the run. I told you it was a robust episode today, guys, I hope you've got your pens and paper still scribbling the run is becoming an important part of your race day, isn't it? Don't expect to feel special coming off the bike. You're going to come off the bike and you're going to go through what they call hot corner and out onto Ali’i Drive. This is where you're going to have your best crowd support of the whole day until the finish line. And that means it's really important that you stay calm, that you don't have any judgment on how you feel, that you look to retain or maintain or create great posture and settle. It is really important as you run up along the coast Ali’i Drive, that you lock into a rhythm, you look after your substrate, so you're fueling your hydration, and you begin a run-walk strategy. What do I mean here, run-walk strategy? The vast majority of Hawaii Ironman athletes are going to have their best race performance by strategically implementing walking. And there are two levels to this that we need to go through. The first is to deploy any walking you do relative to the terrain that you're on. Like the bike ride, there's very little flat running, it tends to be either slightly uphill grade, or slightly downhill grade. And what that means is if you are going to walk, and I recommend that you do, if you're going to walk strategically walk when the speed penalty is low, when that's low is either in the aid stations, because you're able to do something useful there, refuel, rehydrate, or an uphill grade. Walking on an uphill grade is less of a speed penalty.
Matt Dixon 57:28
You should also begin your walk breaks before you are desperate. So don't wait until there's a physical decline. And you have to do it early. And often. That's why I talk about starting at the front part of the race course, practicing training, and then implementing. But on the flip side of implementing walking, when there is less of a speed penalty, you equally want to try and minimize walking when the speed penalty is great. And that's on downhill grades. So remember this if I'm going to walk to an appeal great. When I hear see a downhill great, I'm running period, gold. Good stuff. Now what I recommend on run walk strategies is something that gives you a management tool. So you might start and this is the middle of a bell curve. So I can't give you an individual prescription on a show like this. But let's imagine that you're going to start your run walking while we've got the train in the back of our head with somewhere around eight minutes of running and 45 to 60 seconds of walking 8-1 8-1 8-1. If you start to decline, and that eight minutes is impossible for you to hold good running form on then you should strategically move down and shorten the run. You might go to a six-minute, six one six and one six and one. And then if your legs start to crumble even more, you might move to a four-minute then a two-minute, and even if you're going minute on minute off, as you're coming home, you are still managing the run. And that is very different than running until you explode and then being forced to walk a mile at a time and that happens a lot in this race. And so it becomes important. Coming back to the course you've got you're out and back you then go up Palani Hill about 400 meters of uphill grade. Most athletes should be power walking up there. Apart from the very pointy end most are going to be power walking and then you have the daunting emotional part of the race the out and back on the Queen K. This is what you've been trying to do throughout all of the swims out of the swim the bike and the front part of the run is to deliver yourself to this part and the athletes that have under fueled under-hydrated, overworked and haven't done a good job in pacing. This is the point In the race that many crumble if you can be strong, consistent, and in a management mindset, all the way out the famous Energy Lab back your race performance is great. And so it's all about delivering yourself with patience and persistence to this point.
Matt Dixon 1:00:18
Now, let me add to finish up the show a couple of points on fueling and hydration. The simple truth is, you heard me talk about the bike. And I said hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, fuel, fuel, fuel, you can't catch up on hydration. So why, that's why I focus so much on this. You should be hydrating in this race with a high electrolyte solution that has low calories is very, very difficult to hydrate enough in the Hawaii Ironman, if you have got high calorie concentration in the bottle as well. Start early, never skip, and never miss, we want to get off the bike not too dehydrated. You're not going to maintain hydration status, but not too dehydrated. Very, very important. Okay, on the fueling, learn what works for you in advance and have a plan, it becomes really important. If you want some numbers - as a baseline, I think each of you should be riding at consuming 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour or more. Now, the way that a lot of our athletes tend to implement it is the first couple of hours, they're very sugar focused, gels, blocks, chews, that kind of type of component, in the middle of the bike ride, they may be a bit more macro focused. So energy bars may be supplemented with some gels, but a little bit of fat and protein in there as well. And then as they hit the back end of the bike through the run, they shift back to the sugars. That becomes the general rule. But you must find out what works for you.
Matt Dixon 1:01:56
All right, a couple of final snippets that become critical. And I think this is important. I hope that this last little section around race execution is the stuff that you can remember and draw on when you're in the heat of the moment. Number one, remember this how you feel at any moment, has no reflection of how you might feel for the rest of the race. And so if you are going through a dark patch, and every athlete does take action, don't judge yourself. Stay strong mentally and be patient. But take action, it becomes really important. How you feel now isn't how you have to feel for the rest of the race. So don't let your mind drive you into a pit of despair. Number two self management. Some of the action I asked you to take this is where we can get granular and practical. If you've got GI distress, your stomach feels bloated, and you're feeling a little bit burpee, keep hydrating, but don't fuel for a while, you need to get the calories passing through the system. Okay, so keep hydrating electrolytes are okay. But you want to dilute the calories that are in the stomach. That's a good general rule of thumb. On the flip side, if you're riding or running along, and you're starting to lose motivation, you get grumpy, moody, get frustrated with the person that brushed by you, you start to lose focus, maybe a little bit dizzy, you need calories. And it doesn't matter what your fueling plan is, you need sugar, Getting it in you is important. Stretches where you feel great, you feel wonderful, the legs are powerful, you're excited, this is the best experience, fuel, and hydrate. It's a great time to take on calories as it is at the top of the descent, fuel and hydrate when you feel good. And finally expect in this race to go through some serious lows. It's normal. All you have to do is work your way through them. And so as I said, as your race strategy, train all day. If you can train all day, you're going to be in a great place. Oh, and one more thing before I let you go. You are allowed to have fun, you realize that. This is a magical experience.
Matt Dixon 1:04:24
So for you guys out there who are newcomers, this is your first Hawaiian experience, and I want to do something for you. I want you to enable yourself to have fun, but there are two components in this life experience that you're going to take on. Two components are important. The first is at the start. There is nothing like the start of the Hawaii Ironman. And so give yourself plenty of time. Get checked in, get your bike sorted, pump your tires, but get into the water a little bit early and swim out, tread water, turn around and pause, and look at the sun coming up behind the mountains behind the venue that is the experience. And set a little bit of gratitude for you being there and have a smile on your face. Because you're just about to take on the biggest challenge of your life, but also one of the most special things in your life. And so set the gratitude and carry that mindset throughout the day. To bookend it, no matter what challenges you've overcome, no matter what adversity, no matter whether you've had a magical day or a day, that's full of lessons to grow for next time - Finish. Do everything you can to finish. And when you finish that last mile, that very last mile, reflect, pause, and don't let that occasion bypass you. Because it will be the only time in your life that you run that last mile of the Hawaii Ironman and go down that magical chute and immerse in the environment and the celebration. And don't let that occasion bypass you. Because it is very, very special. It is one of the most special things in sports. And so I encourage you at the start line and the finish line to cement the memories of everything that you're going to have to navigate. Enjoy it after your race, give yourself 72 hours, pause, reflect, celebrate, and eat whatever you want. But don't go into analysis. If you have a great day. Wonderful. If you have a challenging day that's full of lessons that happens. It's a growth opportunity. Give yourself 72 hours, then start moving the body. And then have an honest reflection and conversation with yourself. How did you do in preparation, an honest assessment of your training your systemic health, and how you navigated race week? What did you do well on race day? What were areas that you could improve? There is never a single reason for a great race performance. And equally, there is never a culprit, a single culprit of why things don't go well. The biggest question you can ask yourself is on that day, with everything that happened good or bad, did you try your very best? Did you do everything that you could do to deliver yourself to a great race performance? And if the answer is yes then there is opportunity for growth and learning across the board. I hope it goes well. I'll be out there all week. I hope that this helped you. And I wish you the very best of luck. Take care.
Matt Dixon 1:07:50
Guys, thanks so much for joining, and thank you for listening, I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing. Head to the Purple Patch channel on YouTube and you will find it there and you can subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you, if you will subscribe also share it with your friends. And it's really helpful if you leave a nice positive review in the comments. Now questions that you have, let me know feel free to add a comment and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. As we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com or leave it in the comments of the show on the Purple Patch page. And we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset as we like to call it. And so feel free to share with your friends. But as I said, let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're trying hard to make it a special experience. And we want to welcome you into the Purple Patch community. With that, I hope you have a great week, stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, and do whatever you do. Take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
race, athletes, swim, bit, hydrate, bike, hydration, Kona, training, Hawaii, heat, Hawaii ironman, miles, performance, feel, protocol, hours, fueling, talk, little bit