Profile of an Ironman – Training

For the end of year blog series, we're looking at two of our athletes, James Martin and Mike Galante. In the prior post, we reviewed their bios and in the upcoming series, we'll be looking at their Ironman performances in detail.

James Martin

What was your initial goal, and did it stay the same through training?

My initial goal was to improve upon my 2012 finish placement (11th). If conditions permitted, I wanted to improve on my time as well (9:54). As training progressed, it became apparent that I had a shot at 9:20 and I always thought that 9:20 would get me into Kona, so that became a semi goal. I wouldn't call it a true goal because so much goes into KQ that is totally beyond the individual's control.

What was your training plan for this race?

I set my Ironman Training on Run Volume, Bike Power, and enough swimming to feel confident. For me that meant in the 20 weeks leading up to IMFL 2013 that I wanted to average more than 40 miles per week running with several peak weeks over 60 and I wanted to get my Functional Threshold Power up over 240 watts on the bike (and be comfortable holding 75% of that for 5 hours). I also wanted to swim 4000 yards 3 times per week for most weeks, but I allowed some slippage in there for family time and travel and what not.

On the run, I managed to average over 43, I measured my FTP at 239, and I ended up swimming around 11,000 yards on average. I was very close to my training goals.

How many hours per week do you train?

Early in the IM Build, between 12 and 16, during the last month before the taper, up around 19; that is only the time swimming, biking, and running. That leaves out driving to and from the pool, washing the copious training laundry, doing hip strength training to keep ITBS at bay, logging workouts, reviewing data, etc.

What was your pre-race routine?

We stayed very close to the race site, so there was no race day travel, just walking to the site. I got to bed pretty early the night before the race, about 8:00, and I woke up very early because it had rained the night before and I wanted all the extra time I would need to clean up my gear that spent the evening in transition. So I was up at 3:00 and in transition by 4:30. I ate a couple of PBJs and a gatorade before heading down, I also slammed a couple gels once down at the swim start.

How did you feel the day before the race?

I felt great, I was a little worried because all our gear was going to get rained on, but I was healthy and fit and going to be at the start line with the chance to make all the training pay off, so I was over all very happy. I have had the misfortune of showing up at a big race injured and not knowing what awaits. It is not a fun feeling.

How did you feel immediately before the race?

I had some minor nerves, but I had been in huge mass starts before, so I wasn't too worried. The seas were prety rough, so I figured it would be a bit interesting, but I wasn't too concerned. I knew what the day had in store, I knew that I had trained properly, I knew that if I controlled what I could control and left the rest out, that I would get to the run course with the chance to test my legs.

Mike Galante

What was your initial goal, and did it stay the same through training?

My original goal with Ironman Arizona was simply to finish, which I knew was the smart, realistic thing to do. However, several months into training, I looked at my training paces and began to piece together individual sport goals for each event. I then added those up and figured I could aim for a 12-hour finish time. From then on I used that as my real goal and based my training around it.

What was the training plan for this race?

In retrospect, maybe not the best idea, but I simply googled "Ironman training plan" and compared a few before settling on one. My plan I used can be found here. One fear I had was that the training plan I chose wouldn't be enough. Thankfully that wasn't the case.

How many hours per week did you schedule for training?

The plan I used was scheduled to peak at 19 hours in a week. Mostly I was probably closer to 13 hours in the earlier months and 16 hours in the later months. However, I've come to realize that those times are only my "moving" time with my Garmin running. It didn't count time to/from the pool, setting up my bike, or any other training prep. I'd say for each week I could add another 50% of the time to account for the non-active training time.

What was your pre-race routine? (food, sleep, morning, exercise/activity, travel)

We drove from Austin to Phoenix. I never really focused on having a strict routine during training, so I didn't have one for the race. My only "must do" is my pre-race dinner, which is Thai food, so that was my top priority Saturday night. Otherwise I took it easy in the days leading up to the race.

How did you feel the day before the race?

Surprisingly calm. It didn't set in that I was going to do an Ironman until... right before going to bed. That led to a VERY fitful night of sleep, maybe a total of 2 hours. For the most part I treated it like any other day leading up to race day, and I think that worked well in terms of keeping my nerves pretty well subdued.

How did you feel immediately before the race?

There was enough going on in terms of prepping my bike in transition and dropping off my Special Needs bags that I didn't get that "oh shit" feeling until just about jumping into the water. It's a deep-water start, so once in the water I just focused on finding a clear area to avoid getting beaten up. From that point on I did what I could to preoccupy my mind with picturing how the swim would go and not panic.

What was your nutrition plan?

Out of the water I ate a gel while in T1. From then on I planned on eating two Bonk Breaker bars, four Honey Stinger Waffles, and I had Skratch in one water bottle and Hammer Perpetuem in another. I ended up getting pretty nauseated by all of the sweetness around Mile 70, so I mainly lived off of the liquids and couldn't eat any more solid food. On the run my plan had been to use Honey Stinger gels as needed while picking up anything that sounded good offered at the water stations. That devolved into only eating potato chips at the water stations because I was craving salt.

Next

We're going to be breaking down their individual performances next, with separate review of their swim, bike, and run.