129: Ironman Prep Season 3: What, How, and Why

30:55Nick Bare:Six years later, the team that we have, the operations that we have, it's just a completely different business. but when I got back to Texas, two weeks after my mom passed away, I jumped right back, or I jumped right into Ironman prep.

31:16Nick Bare:And now that I have some time or I've had some time to reflect, I believe one of the reasons I jumped into Ironman prep was to distract myself from what I was feeling after my mom passed away. It was a way to emotionally and mentally remove myself away from the situation and put all my energy and time and resources into this one thing that could distract me from losing my mom to ovarian cancer. And it worked. I mean, it was a massive distraction to my feelings and it allowed me to funnel that energy into something positive and also honor my mom through the process. But I vividly remember being on some long training runs in that prep.

32:12Nick Bare:And I had this playlist that I would play out loud on my phone and some of those songs were worship songs. and I would just break down crying on those runs in the middle of nowhere. Just thinking about my mom and her life and losing her just weeks prior to jumping into this prep. But that was kind of where I was at in my life in my first Ironman prep ever in 2019. And I finished that Ironman in 11 hours, 28 minutes. I want to take a quick break in this episode to talk to you guys about our newest product, and that is called G1M Sport Plus. G1M Sport Plus is the pre-workout for endurance athletes.

33:03Nick Bare:And in my honest opinion, a great option did not exist up until this point. Now, it is built off of the foundation of one of our best-selling products, and that is G1M Sport. G1M Sport is fuel and it is hydration. Fuel from carbohydrates, 20 grams of fast digesting carbohydrates in the form of cluster dextrin per serving, and 350 milligrams of sodium. G1M Sport Plus has added energy and focus. Energy from 150 milligrams of caffeine and focus from nootropics such as alpha GPC and N-acetyl L-tyrosine. This is the pre-workout option, the pre-workout source for endurance athletes. And these ingredients work very synergistically together from carbohydrates, electrolytes, energy, and mental focus.

34:06So now you can not only prime your body, but prime your body and your mind

34:12Nick Bare:for the toughest workouts and the hardest training sessions. And once you try G1M Sport Plus, you will realize just how powerful these ingredients and this product is. It is truly a game changer. So elevate your training, elevate your workouts with the future of endurance. the newest pre-workout for endurance athletes, G1M Sport Plus. Now, back to the episode. Nat prep was just so different because I had no real education around triathlon training. I was newer to running, so I still was trying to learn how to be a faster runner. This was before I ever ran a sub three-hour marathon. It was actually after that Ironman that I decided I wanted to pursue a sub three-hour marathon.

35:08Nick Bare:And that's when I went into that prep. But for this first Ironman prep in 2019, between June and November 2019, there wasn't a lot of specificity to training. I didn't have many structured workouts. looking back now it was a lot of volume and distance but there wasn't a lot of specific structured training so i would run in the morning you know if i if i can think back i might have ran anywhere from five to seven miles in the morning and then I would go swim and I would just get reps in. I didn't have any structured training and I didn't have a swim coach or instructor. And then I'd hop on the bike.

36:02I went to a local bike shop, got a felt bike, got that bike fitted. I did a lot of my workouts in my garage. I'd take the bike out on the road occasionally. But even doing workouts in my garage, I didn't have a smart trainer. I had a manual trainer. And when I was getting on the bike in the garage, I wasn't working towards any intervals or power. I mean, I didn't measure any power.

36:29Nick Bare:I didn't know what my FTP, functional training power was. I didn't know what watts were. I wasn't measuring any power. Even when I was on the bike during the race at Ironman Florida, I didn't have a bike computer. I wasn't measuring anything except for distance on my watch. I've learned a lot since then, but I had this manual trainer that I, like I said, I had my garage and you put your bike on this manual trainer and you would crank down the back. And it was this wheel that would press up against your back tire. And that wheel against your tire would create resistance. And that's how that manual trainer worked.

37:18You know, now these smart trainers, for example, I use a Wahoo Kicker. It's a smart trainer. It can go into what's called ERG mode. And then it connects via Bluetooth to your computer and you can run a software program like Zwift, which has workouts. And the workouts will adjust your trainer based off the intervals that are programmed being a percentage of your FTP or functional training power. It is a great tool. It is a great resource. It's an investment for sure,

37:51Nick Bare:but it can do wonders for your training. I didn't do any of this in my first Ironman prep. And it was hard. It was challenging. It was super fun to train for. And I was learning how to fuel properly for the first time ever. it was more training volume than I ever put myself through ever before, but finished in 11 hours, 28 minutes. And I remember finishing that Ironman and I was trashed after that first Ironman. It was, it was a blast. And I believe I ran my marathon in four hours and four minutes. And the day after that Ironman was finished, I vividly recall going over my numbers and thinking to myself, wow, I ran a four-hour and four-minute marathon after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles.

38:51Nick Bare:I can definitely run a sub-three-hour marathon. And that's when and where I decided I was going to pursue the sub-three-hour marathon, which I thought was going to be much easier than it actually was. For many of you, you know the story. I trained for a sub three hour marathon. I missed it by 24 minutes. I ran three hours and 24 minutes at the Austin marathon that next year. And then I committed a whole nother year of training and I ended up running at 256,

39:23256.27, I believe, which was my first sub three hour marathon. But it took a lot more work and a lot more time

39:33Nick Bare:than I thought it was going to. but that was the moment I decided to pursue that. That goal was realizing that I ran a four-hour, four-minute marathon after being on the bike and swimming for multiple hours prior to.

39:53Nick Bare:And then after that sub three-hour marathon, I went back into Ironman prep. This time, I hired a coach. I learned a lot. I learned a whole lot in that prep about proper fueling strategies and techniques, about more training specificity and workout structure around swimming, swim form and efficiency, utilizing different workouts on a smart trainer, on a bike, learning how to incorporate different types of run programming and tempo workouts and track workouts and critical velocity and really harnessing the power of RPE, rate of perceived exertion or effort and heart rate, lots of heart rate training to make sure I was training in the appropriate zone.

40:53And that second Ironman prep, I learned so much. I mean, that was foundational and truly instrumental to me just having a understanding and grasp around how endurance

41:10Nick Bare:training works and the systems of the body and the power of the mind that are applied to endurance training. I mean, it was like drinking a significant amount of knowledge and science and content and understanding through a fire hose. And it all just started to make sense in terms of like, oh, this is why we do these workouts. And this is why we spend this much time in zone two. And this is how to incorporate brick workouts and a brick workout is when you go from a bike right into a run and big gear sessions and VO2 max and it all started making sense. In my opinion, that is some of the best way of learning by doing.

42:06Nick Bare:There's theory and there's practice. You can read all the books on a style of training. You can read all the published articles. you can watch all the videos, but until you go and do it and practice it and put yourself in the driver's seat, I think you're missing a very important component to learning and understanding and truly implementing. It is the practice. Theory has its place. Study has its place. Practice is where it all comes together. And the second Ironman prep that I did, 2020, 2021, all of it started to come together. All of it started to make sense. And my love and passion for endurance training grew and grew and grew.

43:07Nick Bare:However, what happened during the second Ironman prep is that we got hit with a pandemic and I was signed up for Ironman Texas. Ironman Texas got canceled. I pivoted my race plan to multiple other full distance Ironmans. They all got canceled that year. we ended up having to pivot to a 70.3 in Cancun, Mexico, which wasn't actually an Ironman race. It was a challenge series race. It was called Challenge Cancun. It was a 70.3 because we were kind of out of options due to the lockdown, the pandemic for races. so we pivoted to that race and then as soon as that race was over i went into my ultra prep for leadville 100 because in the middle of that iron man training series in that preparation i entered the lottery for leadville my my lottery ticket got pulled i got selected to run leadville and decided that after i was going to finish this triathlon which was supposed to be an Ironman, ended up being challenged Kent Kuhn 70.3.

44:24I went into ultra prep, trained for and completed the Leadville 100 trail race, which was such an amazing experience. So from 2018 to 2021, I mean, between those three years, it was jumping into the marathon and then going into the Ironman triathlon distance, going after the sub three hour marathon goal and running my first ultra, 100 mile ultra in the Rocky Mountains of Leadville, Colorado. I mean, it was the craziest three years of my life just from prep to prep to prep to prep. And I learned so much in that time just through theory, practice, great coaches, amazing mentors, and just putting myself in the arena.

45:20And now here we are. Here we are six years. Six years after that first Ironman prep, we're back for season three.

45:36Nick Bare:18 weeks away from Ironman Arizona. So I want to talk about the how. I'm not using a coach for this prep, actually. And I want to explain why. I'm a huge advocate for coaches and mentors and guides to help you accomplish your goals. I mean, I'm all for it. I have hired and worked with many coaches in the past for many of my fitness goals in business, in my professional career, my personal life. And I thought about hiring a coach for this prep and I decided not to for a few reasons. One, I'm by no means an expert, especially in the triathlon space. but I want to put what I know and what I've learned to the test.

46:45Nick Bare:I believe I have an understanding, a very strong understanding, at least for run programming, for the multiple marathons that I've done with a marathon PR of 239 and working with Jeff Cunningham for many years. And for a lot of my programming for the run portion of this prep over these next 18 weeks, I will be referencing a lot of the workouts I've done with Jeff previously and historically in marathon preps. And then when it comes to cycling, I have a foundational understanding of the type of workouts and the volume that's going to be required, the key workouts over these next 18 weeks. I don't have a coach that I'm gonna be working with one-on-one, but there are a lot of people in my circle and in the space that I will be reaching out to and bouncing ideas off of and getting advice from.

47:47I by no means am doing this prep alone, but I will not have a one-on-one dedicated coach. I will be programming my own workouts and weeks over these next 18 weeks leading into Ironman Arizona. And one of the ways that I am coached and mentored and guided when I go into a fitness prep, like this last High Rocks prep that I did for High Rocks Dallas is a pretty good example. I didn't have a coach for High Rocks Dallas. I did all my own programming and created my own workouts.

48:28Nick Bare:But when I was in High Rocks prep from June until November of 2024, all the content I was consuming was High Rocks content. The podcast I was listening to, the YouTube videos I was watching, the books I was reading was all about the style of training, the theory of training, the practice of training. Every morning on my morning run, I was listening to the RMR, podcast. And that was where I was just gaining insight and knowledge into the sport of high rocks. The same thing is applied to this Ironman prep. All the content I'm consuming right now, podcasts, books, YouTube videos, are triathlon and Ironman specific training and content.

49:23like on my runs recently, I've been listening to some cycling podcasts. On my bike yesterday, my 90 minute bike, I was watching all of Lionel Sanders, who's a pro triathlete. I was watching all of his YouTube videos and just consuming content from these experts and these professionals. So even though I'm not being coached one-on-one, I'm still consuming a lot of content by trusted individuals and professionals in this space to guide the way I'm structuring my training and my recovery and my race plan come November 16th. But I'm not having a dedicated coach for this prep. All my workouts will be created by myself over these next 18 weeks.

50:21So I'm using these next two weeks, the first two weeks of this prep as a reintroduction to triathlon training.

50:32Nick Bare:So volume is a little bit lower. Nothing crazy over these next two weeks. A lot of it is going to be getting back on the saddle, if you will, literally and figuratively, the saddle of the bike, getting back in the water, seeing where I'm at, kind of assessing my fitness on the bike, my fitness when it comes to swimming, my form. I haven't swam since my last Ironman prep. So I haven't swam since 2000 and this was 21. I mean Four years ago I haven't swam for four years So my first swim is tomorrow We'll see what it looks and feels like To be honest, i'm not too confident in it I might have to bring on a coach But i'm also going to be going to the pool with luke hopkins bpn athlete amazing triathlete So i'm going to be spending a lot of time with luke In this ironman prep training with him But then also just picking his brain and having him watch my form and getting some advice and guidance from Luke.

51:41I'll be leaning on Luke heavily. But these next two weeks, I'm treating as a reintroduction back into training that will leave 16 weeks left of prep, which I will probably break down into four week training blocks. So I will program four weeks at a time. During these next two weeks, I'll identify my weaknesses and what I believe I need to work on. And that will then guide the first four-week training block that I program. But right now, initially, the way I have my weekly structure broke down, which I'm going to be very flexible with and adaptable. But initially, the way I have my week broke up, I'll explain.

52:28Right now, I'm training 16 hours a week. and that will definitely increase. I mean, I will be training over 20 hours a week, certainly at some point, but right now it's 16 hours a week of training. So Monday in the morning is an eight mile easy run. And then the afternoon I have core work, core and strength work, and then a 90 minute endurance bike. Tuesday, eight mile easy run in the morning. In the afternoon, core and strength work and a 90 minute sweet spot bike. This is also where I will place when I start doing them, my long bike sessions. So it'll get up towards two hours and three hours and four hours and five hours and a six hour bike ride.

53:28And I'll place these Tuesdays, Tuesday afternoons. Wednesday in the morning is my speed work. So right now it's 10 miles total volume. And this will rotate every other week between critical velocity on the track and then tempo. So this week, for example, the first week is on the track. Next week, I already have programmed It's one mile repeats. And in the afternoon, I have a swim session. Thursday, AM, swim session, PM. It's a brick workout. So it's a bike session into a run. So initially, it's gonna be a 90-minute bike session. This is either VO2 max focused or strength focused on the bike with a six mile runoff.

54:22So a brick workout is when you go from a bike session directly into a run. So it's called a runoff. Friday in the morning, nine mile easy run, afternoon core and strength work and a swim session. Saturday is my long run. And then Sunday is core and strength work and a 60 minute, 45 to 60 minute recovery spin on the bike. So this is a very easy spin, just get blood flowing, not overtaxing at all, but just help with recovery and feeling fresh going into the following day being Monday. Now, key workouts. When you're training at this much volume, it is absolutely critical and essential that you're making sure that your easy days are easy so that your hard days can be hard.

55:22When there's key workouts that require effort and intensity, the only way you can show up with effort and intensity is if you truly take your easy days easy. And this is why it's so important to wear a heart rate monitor so you can have objective data that's telling you if you are going easy enough. Heart rate is a great tool and data point to reinforce, hey, this is an appropriate level of effort to hold. So it's not overtaxing the body and you're working the aerobic system at the right capacity to improve and increase mitochondrial density till you build that aerobic base, making sure you're in the right zone.

56:05So key workouts for running, I'll have my easy runs. It's just accumulating volume. below my max aerobic heart rate. I have my tempo workouts. I have my critical velocity workouts, like I said, that are on the track. And then there's these key marathon-paced workouts that I learned how to incorporate from my running coach, Jeff Cunningham. There's an 18-mile workout, a 20-mile workout, a 21-mile workout, and a 22-mile workout that I already have placed within my program. I don't believe any of these key workouts start until August. And that 22 mile workout is finished, I think like three or four weeks before the race.

56:54But these workouts are done to hit specific paces and structured very specifically to build confidence and let you know where you're at in terms of a marathon build, or in this case, the running portion of an Ironman build. So those are kind of the key components of running. I'll be running between 50 and 65 miles a week. I might touch 70 miles a week at the peak when I'm doing some of these like 22 mile workouts, for example. in terms of the bike. So there's a few different bike sessions I'll be doing. There's an endurance session, sweet spot workouts, VO2 max workouts, and then big gear and strength work.

57:47So all these workouts are based off of percentages of your FTP. FTP on your bike is your functional training power. You can determine your functional training power. There's two tests you can do. One is the ramp test and the other one is I believe a 20 minute FTP test. I've always done the ramp test. Right now I'm working off of my previous FTP, which is 300 Watts. I'll be doing a new ramp test in the next couple of weeks to reassess and reestablish where I'm at.

58:23Nick Bare:but an endurance bike session is about 55 to 75 % of your FTP. Sweet spot workout is 85 to 95 % of your FTP and VO2 max workouts are shorter intervals above your FTP. And then big gear strength work is when you go into literally a big gear, the biggest gear on your bike, you're working at a lower cadence, there's high resistance, and it feels like a strength workout. Your leg should be on fire and just building a lot of muscular endurance and fatigue. It's strength work. It feels like you're going in and you're hitting leg extensions and barbell squats and walking lunges. So those are the key workouts on the bike.

59:08And then initially on the swim, it will be all form and efficiency focused. and then we'll start doing intervals and then some testing for like the 500 meter, for example. But I'll start incorporating these after I go through my kind of reintroduction to swimming because it's been literally years since I've swam last. So that's going to require, I believe the most amount of time to get back into the swing of things.

59:41Nick Bare:Now with all of this training, it's a massive energy demand. There's a lot of energy expenditure in terms of calories. Nutrition and fueling is just as important as the training. like you cannot and will not recover from all the training demands if you're not fueling properly not just around your workouts but also throughout the day so I haven't been tracking my nutrition I've been eating more so intuitively the last couple years but when it comes to a prep like this I believe it's really important to track nutrition to make sure that I'm eating enough So I'm starting calories out at roughly 4 ,000 a day.

1:00:36And this will change based off of my training demands, my energy expenditure, how I'm recovering. I'll be tracking my HRV, my heart rate variability. I'll be tracking my resting heart rate. I'll be tracking my sleep. I'll be tracking my weight. really like based off how I'm feeling, how I'm performing. I will make changes to my nutrition strategy. But initially this is where I'm starting. It's about 4 ,000 calories a day, 525 grams of carbohydrates, 200 grams of protein and 120 grams of fat.

1:01:22So that's like daily caloric intake based off of my expenditure right now. but it's really important to fuel these workouts appropriately. I'm not doing, and I will not do any of these workouts fasted. So to give you an example of today's workout, how I'm fueling today's training. This morning, I ran eight miles and woke up at 4.30 AM. I was running by 5.15 AM. So as soon as I woke up, I had a scoop of G1M Sport Plus and a scoop of G1M Sport, and I had a Go Bar. So between those three supplements, it was 76 grams of carbohydrates total, and it was about 800 milligrams of sodium. So that's what I had before my run.

1:02:18And then when I got back from my run, in addition to my breakfast, which my breakfast was 150 grams of berries, two pieces of sourdough toast with some Kerrygold butter, four whole eggs with some flaky sea salt on top. And then I had my strong greens, my strong reds, my strong joints, strong omega, strong multivitamin, five grams of creatine monohydrate and a scoop of electrolytes. I will be consuming a lot of supplements and food during this prep. so that was what I consumed before my run and then after my run and then after I record this podcast today I'm about to go into my second training session so I will have and I had my lunch before I recorded this episode which was 300 grams of jasmine rice and eight ounces of about an 85 15 ground beef and then before going into this next training session I'll have in the first hour of training, two scoops of G1M Sport and a GoGel.

1:03:29I'll have the caffeinated GoGel. And then in the second 30-minute session, or I guess the whole hour, including the strength work, I'll have another two scoops of G1M Sport and a GoGel. So over these next two hours of training, I will consume another four scoops of GM Sport and two GoGels, one of those being caffeinated, one of those being non-caffeinated. And after that training session is over, I'll have a scoop of our recover supplement, as well as 60 grams of oats, two scoops of whey protein, a serving of honey and a banana before going home for dinner. And I'll have dinner. And before going to bed, I'll have a big bowl of cereal to get an additional 100 grams of carbs in.

1:04:25So carbs are so important because it's going to fuel this training. So the goal with consuming this many carbs around my training and then throughout the day is that I want to fuel the effort, fuel the effort, but then also replenish the glycogen that I'm tapping into and using so I can show up for the next day prepared and fueled and recovered to continue training week over week over these next 18 weeks in preparation for Ironman Arizona. Getting your nutrition dialed in is extremely, extremely important when you're going after any fitness school, but especially something that is so high energy demanding.

1:05:10such as an Ironman triathlon. So I will be consuming throughout this prep a lot of G1M Sport Plus, G1M Sport, GoBars, GoGels, electrolytes, and then food. Lots and lots of food. And a lot of the food choices that I'll be choosing are easily digestible sources. Because I'm training multiple times a day. one of the reasons I'm having a big bowl of cereal at night is because I'm not necessarily hungry before going to bed, especially after a larger dinner, but I know I need more carbohydrates. So I can easily get a hundred grams of carbohydrates in the form of cereal where I'm not going to feel overly stuffed or bloated or uncomfortable.

1:06:02It digests very easy, very quickly. I can wake up the next morning feeling light and strong and fueled and ready to go. So sometimes during these preps, especially as training demands increase, energy demands increase as well, and the food choices need to reflect something that can fuel you, but also digest very easy and very quickly so you can show up for the next workout or the next day not being bogged down. And that's one of the reasons I consume so much at G1M Sport. It's because I can drink my carbohydrates and electrolytes, my fuel, to fuel and replenish. And it's not an actual whole food source that is having to be consumed and digested and assimilated and all of the things.

1:06:56So we're in it, baby. Ironman prep season three, Ironman Arizona. that's the overview that I want to provided that is the what the why the how initially we are going to release a full youtube series we start filming today and we're going all out on this youtube series like we have historically with fitness preps but I'm really excited to document this one iron man training is fun but it's even more exciting to film and document and the content is always just interesting and new and exciting and we'll be releasing the first episode here in a few weeks and over these next couple months leading up to Iron Man Arizona so guys, thank you for all the support and as always, go one more

1:08:00Thank you.