Finding the iron balance
The challenge of Ironman shouldn’t be taken lightly. But how do you find that elusive balance between training hard and not waving goodbye to any semblance of social life? Ironman UK finisher Janine Doggett lets us know
01
How long before the race did you sign up to Ironman UK?
I signed up for Bolton, my first Ironman, a year before the event. I’m not one for poring over race profiles, so I decided to prepare for the 1,700m of elevation gain by throwing myself into hilly training – which included a 2,400m of climbing day out in Wales. I headed up to recce the Bolton bike course six weeks ahead of the race, which formed part of a 14.5hr peak week. Despite battling the wind that day, having first-hand knowledge of the route and elevation was a definite advantage.
02
What were your longest rides? And how did you fit these in with the rest of your life? With little knowledge of routes, I joined the local road club that meant riding mostly with men. They were bloody tough days out but brilliant training. My program prescribed a maximum 6hr bike in training, but I wanted to know how I’d handle 180km, so I bagged a couple of 200km rides, which took me far longer. To fit training in around work, I’d ride 2-3hrs on evenings and go longer on weekends. Riding solo adds another challenge for me, so I stuck with others, which also offset my Ironman-intraining lack of social life!
03
What psychological tips do you have for staying on target? To stay on track, I ticked off sessions on a wall-mounted schedule rather than keeping it tucked away in a spreadsheet. That helped keep my goals front of mind. Making plans to train with others looked after accountability, while plotting build-up events aided motivation – especially one in Lanzarote! For race day, I wrote out good-luck messages on my top-tube bag and played with mentally breaking distances down to familiar routes, so the final 40km became ‘just’ the standard post-work ride.
04
How did you become comfortable for such a long bike ride? Having learned the value of a quality bike fit the hard way, it remains my top tip for comfort at any distance – along with a decent chamois and cut-away saddle. I didn’t want to take any risk on comfort for my first Ironman, so I used bikespecific shorts and took the hit in transition, though I’ll use a tri-suit next time. Despite being well prepared, I didn’t escape wince-inducing discomfort come 150km or so!
05
How did you decide what time you’d aim for on the bike?
The goal was to finish in decent shape, so I erred on the side of caution and aimed for a generous sub-8hrs for the 180km. I planned to complete the bike leg in (heart rate) Zone 2, yet I chose the lessprecise route of Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) over a heart rate monitor. I’d entered the Immortal Half event in the lead-up hoping this might help me gauge a realistic bike time, but I learned a valuable lesson about drinking lake water that day – so that wasn’t much use! Above all, my biggest tip for managing pacing would be to get nutrition right on the bike by practising on training rides.
06
How did your menstrual cycle impact training?
I didn’t give it a lot of thought when I trained for Bolton, aside from knowing that I’d always choose to race on a period over delaying it with synthetic hormones. It’s now understood that you can see better results by scheduling endurance, effort and rest to correlate with hormonal peaks and troughs in any given month – something any good coach should be considering.
07
How did you prepare for the run leg?
I played it safe injurywise and trained up to a maximum of 20-mile run, knowing the last six on race day would be a mental game anyway. I added brick sessions from three months into training, with my longest being a 120km bike and 19km run. But, while I met the training hours, I didn’t run off the bike as much as the prescribed six months of weekly brick sessions. In hindsight, I relied too heavily on my running experience and was surprised when my legs didn’t want to play after 19km into the marathon, so I’d recommend more bricks!
“MAKING PLANS TO TRAIN WITH OTHERS LOOKED AFTER ACCOUNTABILITY, WHILE BUILD- UP EVENTS AIDED MOTIVATION”