Set your goals

Training for an Ironman will become a major part of your lifestyle, so you’ll need to lay the groundwork for 226km success. Here’s legendary athlete and coach Spencer Smith’s winning advice

SET REALISTIC GOALS

After deciding what event you want to enter, start to build your framework around that race. Give yourself enough time to prepare properly and calmly. Use shorter races along the way to judge or improve your form. Let the training and racing decide what your realistic goals should be. Don’t get too obsessed with specific numbers, paces and time splits. Let the body decide what you’re realistically capable of doing, not what you think the body should achieve.

BE FLEXIBLE

Many triathletes have ‘Type A’ personalities, which is great until they need to compromise. I was obsessed with keeping everything on track in my training no matter what. That was a big mistake. Things happen that are sometimes out of our control. I agree with having an overall plan, but it’s okay – if not essential – to adjust and tweak. You’re not being soft if you adapt; you’re being smart!

THE DISCLAIMER

Before you commence your Ironman journey, forewarn family members, wives/ husbands, partners, work colleagues and pretty much anybody that you come into contact with on a regular basis that you may not always be the happiest, most energetic person in the room. If you’re having one of those days, gather your thoughts and evaluate if the crankiness is traininginduced or not.

GET IT DONE

As the volume creeps up, a lot of sessions will be about just ‘getting it done’! Many times during my training I started the day very flat, but as the session progressed the body slowly came around. There’s a fine line between fatigue and exhaustion during Ironman training and it’s not always easy to distinguish between the two. Be prepared to finish most sessions satisfied rather than euphoric.

AVOID THE GREY AREA

Having one great training day only to then find you have put yourself in a massive hole for several days after isn’t the way to go. You don’t need to test yourself every time you go out training, so make sure that you’ve the right balance of hard/key days with recovery. A common mistake is to train in the grey area of zone 2 (not super-hard, but not easy enough to recover). By training in this manner, when it’s time to go hard or be very specific for key sessions, you’ll be too fatigued to get the job done.

HAVE PATIENCE

‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ sums up long-distance training and racing in a nutshell. Let the body slowly adapt to the training and be prepared for the ups and downs it throws at you, both physically and mentally. Remember, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it!