136: Ironman Arizona Prep Update

0:06Nick Bare:Hello, what is going on everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today, we are doing an Ironman prep update. We are officially in the week seven of Ironman prep, about 90 days out from Ironman Arizona, November 16th, 2025. And to be honest, I don't know how we are already on week seven. We're almost, we are actually a third of the way into this prep, into this series. It has gone so fast. I feel like we literally just started this prep a week ago. So these weeks are flying by. And I think a big part of that is because there is so much training involved. Also simultaneously, we're documenting the entire process.

1:05And I'll get into that, but it's more than just physically preparing for an Ironman triathlon.

1:13Nick Bare:We are creating an entire series out of it. we were uploading a full 45 minute to one hour YouTube video every Monday at 9 a.m. Central Standard Time. There's a lot of filming going on through the week. The guys are working just about seven days a week on filming, editing, producing, publishing. It's a big endeavor, not just on my behalf but the entire team's behalf 90 days out that's crazy it's flying by what i want to do before we dive into anything is review uh my training program for this week because in uh in the beginning of the prep i i went over what my first two weeks of training was going to look like.

2:12Nick Bare:And I may not have been clear enough in the way that I described that. The first two weeks of my prep, week one, week two, I considered that and looked at it as a reintroduction into triathlon training. Volume wasn't crazy high. I started training about 16 hours a week. I wasn't doing super long runs, super long bike rides. I wasn't spending a lot of time on the saddle, no brick workouts. It was just reintroduction back to triathlon this first two weeks. And some of the response was this volume is too low. It's not enough. I heard you, we heard you, but there was an intent behind that. So to give you kind of an updated, realistic overview of what my training looks like now into week seven of this prep might make a little bit more sense.

3:07Nick Bare:Okay, so week seven, Monday, one hour easy run in the morning. It's about eight miles. And then right after that easy run, I do 20 minutes of core work in the garage at my house. Then in the afternoon, I have a 90 minute endurance bike and a one hour swim. that's a pretty easy day for me. Tuesday, this is a brick workout. So it's a four hour bike into a one hour run. So this will be done in the BPN HQ gym. It'll be on the trainer. It'll be a structured workout that I customly build into Zwift. And then it syncs to my smart trainer. And for that four hours, it'll walk me through different percentages of my FTP to stimulate a certain threshold and power and overall stimulus on my body.

4:16Nick Bare:So four-hour bike into a one-hour run. That one-hour run will be done on the treadmill. Wednesday, I have an easy run in the morning, nine miles, and then 20 minutes of core strength work in the garage after that one hour swim in the afternoon. This is an easier day coming off of a big day, the prior day, because the prior day is a five-hour training day. To put that into context, I'll probably hop on the bike at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. So that is 9, 10, 11, 12, 10, 11, 12, 1. So 9 to 1, I'll be on the bike. 1 to 2, I'll be running. So I'll be training from 9 to 2 p.m., 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday this is my speed workout day so I have one mile repeats 10 miles of total volume so I'll be doing this probably on the track and then in the afternoon I have 20 minutes of strength and core work and a two hour endurance bike Friday nine mile easy run in the morning one hour endurance recovery bike one hour swim.

5:44Nick Bare:Saturday, 18 mile run. This is a structured run. So there are some tempo intervals built into this run. It's not just go run 18 miles. It's a very structured run with paces and rest and recovery built in. And then Sunday, this is my recovery day. It's 20 minutes of strength and core work and a one hour recovery bike. So that is week seven of Ironman prep overview. And I wanted to share that to show the contrast between week one and week two and week seven. Like I said, week one and two started around 16 hours of training a week. and now I'm at about 20 to 21 hours of training a week. This prep feels different.

6:36Nick Bare:I'll be honest, this prep feels very different than any of my previous fitness preps the last couple of years. And honestly, it's because we're having a lot of fun with it. And I say we, because I view this, I truly view this as a team effort. It's more than just training for a race, training for an Ironman. We document this entire thing and we share the journey on YouTube, on social. So much of my week, even though I'm the one training solo by myself, I'm with Trevor, I'm with Yoli and I'm with Landry. the four of us are bouncing around going to the lake going to the pool they're hanging out in the back of the truck filming a bike or a run in the hill country of central texas they're in the gym with me as i'm on the trainer or the treadmill i spend a lot of time with these guys we have a lot of deep conversations a lot of great like great conversations.

7:52Nick Bare:And I was listening to this podcast months ago and it was talking about creators, online creators who burn out. Because to be very honest and frank, I've been documenting my life, been sharing the journey. I've been creating content since, at least consistently, since 2014. So that is 11 years. 11 years of picking up a camera, being on camera, filming, sharing everything. And over those 11 years, there's times and moments where you're really creatively inspired and there's times and moments where you're not creatively inspired at all. and picking up a camera and filming a YouTube video is challenging.

8:54Nick Bare:It's hard. It's just part of the process. It's, you know, when you're doing something that long, it's expected to come with the journey. And I was listening to this podcast a few months ago and I was talking all about creator burnout. And the host of this podcast was explaining, if you are burning out as a creator, you have two options. You can either change your systems, your operations, your approach to creating that content, or you can change the environment. And that can be where you're creating and who you're creating with. right now filming and creating with three other I would consider good friends it's a lot of fun creatively I'm so inspired right now and it should be fun going into a prep like this and and putting in a massive effort and a lot of work and watching fitness build and dedicating 20 plus hours a week to this process and getting to the race day so you can throw down with your best performance possible.

10:15Nick Bare:It should be fun. You know, in the past, I've put a lot of pressure on myself when I go into these fitness preps. And I know people here in the business have felt that pressure before. I know my family, Steph has felt that pressure before, not directly, but can feel the pressure that I'm giving off, the stress that I'm giving off. I think as a leader, whether you're leading a business, team, organization, your family, one thing that I've learned over time is as a leader, you have a responsibility to manage your stress. Because if you allow your stress and pressure to bleed out on to your family or your team or your organization.

11:02That is unhealthy emotional leadership.

11:08Nick Bare:I've done that before. I've been there before. And I witness daily, frequently, unhealthy emotional leadership. Not necessarily here at BPN, but in different businesses and organizations. I think one of the worst things you can do as a leader is to create an unhealthy emotional environment.

11:37Nick Bare:And we're having so much fun with this prep right now. There's different mindset going into it. There's less pressure. I went into this prep with the intentions of we are going to enjoy this. It's going to be fun. and part of that is you know bpn is larger now the team is bigger i have the ability to delegate more responsibility now than i ever have before so one of the things that makes this iron man prep different from the one that i did in 2020 2021 back in 2020 2021 the business was smaller the team was was smaller we didn't have as much experienced talent on the team and i could not delegate as much so i was still very heavily involved in in all of the day-to-day from marketing to operations to fulfillment to website build design maintenance everything and now that the team is larger like i said i can i can delegate more responsibility so that i can focus on the things that one, I want to focus on, but two, that actually move the needle in the business.

12:57Nick Bare:This is where I can contribute a lot of value to the business. So it makes sense that I spend my time creating content and working on the series with the team and being heavily involved in the creative direction and brand process, this prep just, it feels different. There's a lot of joy and purpose around this prep. We're busy. We are busy. And I'll get into that. But one thing I've learned is that there's a difference between being busy and being rushed and hurried. My goal in life is to have a busy schedule, a busy calendar full of productive moments in time and experiences and memories. But what I don't want is to be hurried and rushed.

13:57Nick Bare:I don't want to be playing catch up. I don't want to put half effort into anything. and that is the result of being hurried and rushed, there's a difference. Busy versus hurried and rushed. There's actually a good book by John Mark Comer called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry that I highly recommend. That was a great book that opened my eyes up to the negative environment that comes with being rushed and hurried. Now on the heels of that, I will say that the hardest part of this Ironman prep, which I expected, but did not anticipate it to be at this level, time management. time management with everything right now in my life is challenging me the most i'm getting it done there's no doubt that i'm making it happen and i'm going to continue to make it happen until november 16th training sessions get completed to standard i am showing up for my team, the business, my family.

15:31Nick Bare:One of the things that I said in the beginning of this prep, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to do an Ironman, is to show and be an example of how you can commit to honoring your commitments. you can still be

15:51Nick Bare:ruthlessly ambitious to chase down and accomplish whatever goal it is you want to accomplish and in the process not sacrifice your personal responsibilities and obligations. So I'm getting it done but it's much harder than I anticipated. And as I previously mentioned it's not just the training that is that is tough to fit around the daily schedule of life, but it is filming these sessions and working with Landry, Trevor, and Yoli to bring the creative direction to life and work on these videos with these guys. I mean, they take lead on all of that. I don't want to act like I am heavily involved in the creative process or anything post-production, editing, publishing, creating all of those things.

16:54Nick Bare:I'm involved in the creative process with them because we work so closely every single day, but they take lead on it. They own it and they crush it. They're crushing it. I mean, these guys, we knew it going into a series like this, the creatives that work on a project of this size and magnitude, it ends up being a seven day a week job for the 18 week prep. We knew that going into it and they're showing up and they're getting it done. And in the process, we're having a whole lot of fun. But that is the biggest challenge with this prep for me so far is time management. Like I've mentioned, I was not willing and am not willing to sacrifice time with my family for an Ironman prep.

17:47Nick Bare:And I'm going to make sure I honor my commitments to the business and the team throughout. That's why every morning I wake up at 4.15 a.m. to be done with my run, no matter how long the distance, before my kids wake up and to be with my family so that after I run in the morning, Steph can train in the garage and our day is started and set on a solid foundation for the remainder of the day. And all my training sessions are done by 4, 4.30 PM at the max so that I can be home for family time at night and help put my kids down to bed. And on the weekends, Saturday runs, they are done before the kids wake up.

18:31Nick Bare:I was not willing to do an Ironman prep

18:38Nick Bare:and sacrifice time with my family. I wanted to make sure that I was honoring my commitments to the business and also honoring God and showing up and committing to spending time I'm in the word, reading scripture, studying the Bible, continuing to build my relationship with Jesus Christ. And every night as I'm laying in bed with the Normatec compression boots, Steph and I lay in bed at night and we read. I'm reading my Bible for 45 minutes to an hour as those compression boots just cook on my legs and bring them back to life. and that's also something that I wasn't willing to sacrifice. It's really important to me.

19:41Nick Bare:And I'm proud of myself so far with how I'm managing all of it, but it's tough. It's hard. No one said it's going to be easy. It's not supposed to be easy. That's one of the reasons I wanted to do it. I wanted to put myself in a position of discomfort, knowing that I would grow through the process and learn a whole lot about myself. And within these first six weeks, now being in week seven of prep, I can honestly say it's been transformational. This prep has been transformational. So you know what's interesting is training for an Ironman during the summer in Texas.

20:27it's tough right now. It's, you know, if you ever spent a summer in Texas,

20:33Nick Bare:we got heat and we have humidity. I think a lot of people who haven't spent significant time in Texas before think that we have dry heat. It is not dry heat. It is hot and humid. And that plays a huge role in training. Now, me personally, I love training in the heat. To a certain extent, when it gets out of control, I mean, it really wears on your body. Energy levels, central nervous system specifically. But it's actually been shown that there are similar effects on the body when it comes to heat as does altitude. Not the exact same mechanisms, but similar in terms of the way that the body has to spare and utilize oxygen delivery.

21:29So there are similar effects on the body when it comes to training in severe heat

21:36Nick Bare:as it does to training at altitude. And there's a saying, and it couldn't be any more true, that summer miles bring fall smiles. we as Texas athletes, Texas fitness individuals, we know that all the work we put in in the summer is going to have a massive return on investment come October, November, December. I skipped September because September is just as hot as August and even October sometimes. um but right now like middle of august i'm feeling the heat on these sessions that i'm training outdoors i mean this morning is a good example this morning was 90 humidity and i believe it was like a temperature of felt like 83 degrees fahrenheit and that was at 5 a.m.

22:46Nick Bare:And that humidity just wraps around you. And I sweat a lot. I'm a heavy sweater. I'm a salty sweater, which I have to consider when it comes to just pounding water throughout the day and sodium consumption. And I can easily lose eight to 10 pounds during some of these runs. Nine, 10 plus mile run. I'll weigh myself before and I'll weigh myself after. And I can be anywhere from eight to 10 plus pounds lighter. Now that is not fat. That is primarily water and glycogen. So your body stores carbohydrates in the muscle and in the liver. There's stored carbohydrates in the form of glycogen. And your body will tap in and utilize these energy stores during training sessions, especially longer training sessions.

23:45Nick Bare:And when you go for these training sessions, these runs, especially when you're sweating a lot, you're expending a lot of energy, your body is utilizing oxygen to cool itself down. You can easily sweat out and utilize glycogen at a rate where you're losing significant weight. I'm experiencing that. Now, by the end of the day, I end up putting all that weight back on. I rehydrate, I get water, salt, carbs back in me and it comes back. But that is just the effect that some of these training sessions have on the body. One of the things that you should look into considering, at least that I look into considering during training seasons where it's hot and humid, is I'll look at the temperature, I'll look at the humidity, and I'll look at the dew point.

24:41And I'll consider all three of these things to kind of gauge what the effort level is going to be for that run.

24:51Nick Bare:I mean, if you go run and it's hot and it's humid and there's a high dew point, that effort is going to feel and be much harder than if it was cooler out. Like a few weeks ago, we were in Northern California for a weekend. and I ran with Joe Greer 14 miles. It was probably 55 degrees, maybe 50 degrees when we started and there was like no humidity. We barely sweat on that entire run and all 14 miles felt effortless. Then we held like a 7, 11 minute per mile pace. Effortless, like very little impact to the body or central nervous system. I wasn't taxed or fatigued at all after that run.

25:42Nick Bare:Last week, or I guess two weeks ago, I had a 17 mile run here in Central Texas. And we started around 6.30 AM. Didn't get done until 8.45 AM. maybe a little over a two hour run, 17 miles. And the first hour of that run felt great. And then that sun started coming up and it was hot, it was humid. I got wrecked on that run. This is the first time this has happened to me in years. The last time something of this actually happened to me was probably last Ironman prep. I remember this one day in our Ironman prep back in 2020 where I was running outside midday and the heat and humidity kind of just wraps around you.

26:42Nick Bare:Feels like a hot blanket, hot, wet blanket. And you almost feel like you're suffocating. You can't breathe. You can't cool down. And I remember we had the truck with us and we had this cooler in the back that was filled with ice and I just opened this cooler up and put my head in that ice, trying to cool down as fast as possible because I was heating up and I could not control my heart rate. I could not control my body temperature. It starts getting dangerous. Well, that's what happened two weeks ago in the 17 mile run. 10, 11, 12 miles in felt easy breezy, felt like nothing. And out of nowhere, I started noticing that my heart rate started increasing and I couldn't bring it back down.

27:26Nick Bare:And my body temperature started increasing. I couldn't bring it back down. I couldn't control the effort. And it went from zero to 100 real quick where I had to actually pull off the side of the road, sit down. I thought I was going to throw up. I thought I was going to pass out. But that heat just overtakes your body. And if you're not heat acclimated, it can be pretty dangerous. So we took about 10 minutes, sat on the side of the road. Trevor put a bag of ice behind my neck and head and just trying to cool the body down a little bit so I could finish the run because there's no way I wasn't finishing that 17 mile training run.

28:06Nick Bare:No matter how long I had to rest, I was going to finish that training run that day. I wasn't pulling out of that one. And that's why I'm doing a lot of my training indoors right now. The training that I can do, you know, like running other than these brick workouts, I'm always running in the morning early. And then I'm doing a lot of my training on the bike, on the trainer, in the gym. I just find that the trainer is safer. You can control a lot of the variables. You can get a really efficient and effective workout. You can hold specific powers. You're not worried about hitting red lights and stop signs and other cars and all of those things.

28:51Nick Bare:I believe you still have to get out in the road and we are still getting out in the road and riding the bike. But I think the indoor trainer for the bike is one of the greatest inventions ever made when it comes to the sport of triathlon or cycling. I can get such a good workout in a few hours and really maximize the efficiency of the stimulus I'm trying to get out of that workout. So like that's one of the reasons I'm using the indoor trainer, but also just keeping me out of the sun later than day. Because it's not just that the sun makes these workouts harder and potentially dangerous, but it affects your recovery.

29:39Like I made the mistake last week

29:43Nick Bare:of doing a bike workout in my home garage. And I looked at my calendar for the day, my schedule. It was a one hour easy endurance bike. And I did that bike workout in our home garage early in the morning. I decided intentionally not to bring the bike fan from the BPN HQ to my house to ride because I didn't think it was going to be that hot. It was an easier ride. It was a one hour ride. I haven't sweated that much on the bike this entire prep. I can't tell you the last time I sweated that much in an hour ever. It was like a faucet coming off me. I instantly regretted not having my bike fan. Having a bike fan is like, if you have an indoor trainer, you almost have to have a bike fan or at least some sort of fan on you while you're riding.

30:42Nick Bare:I didn't have my bike fan. The garage was probably sitting about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. It was very still, still heat. There wasn't any airflow coming in and that workout wrecked me. And the reason I share that is because I was mad at myself after that because I knew that that workout, which was supposed to be more low stimulus, facilitate some recovery, that workout actually tanked me and had negative effects on my swim later in the day. But also I could feel that for the next couple of days. I dug myself a hole. So a lot of training when it comes to this much volume and varied intensities, is that you're trying to build.

31:35Nick Bare:And there are times when you dig deep and you bury yourself and you really push the limits. But if you do that when you didn't want to do that, it will affect your recovery. It'll affect the next workout. It affects the next couple of days of workouts. And it's actually pretty difficult to then dig out of that hole that you just dug yourself. so a lot of what this training is here especially for an ironman in the middle of texas in summer is that you are trying to control the variables that you can control to build fitness and facilitate this this stimulus to build in throughout the prep without making dumb decisions like I have done and bury yourself to reduce your ability to recover and hurt your progress.