The Nick Bare Podcast - 129: Ironman Prep Season 3: What, How, and Why

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Ironman prep is back. This episode is devoted to my Ironman Prep Season 3 for the Ironman Arizona race on November 16, 2025. In it, we'll discuss the physical and mental challenges, training schedule, and how this prep will differ due to my increased responsibilities. It cover fuel strategies, training specifics, and the balance between personal goals and professional commitments.CHAPTERS:01:55 Why Ironman Now?06:58 Rediscovering the Love for Cycling09:30 Balancing Life and Training15:22 The Importance of Setting Goals18:03 Reflecting on Past Ironman Experiences39:13 New Training Strategies and Nutrition53:11 Fueling for Success01:00:38 YouTube Series ComingORDER MY BOOK HERE:https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210FOLLOW:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFEhttps://bpn.team/memberIG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Before we dive into the topic of this episode, which is all about Iron Man Prep Season 3 that I'm officially in the prep as of right now. At the time of this recording, this is my second day being in prep. So this whole episode is going to be talking about the what, the why, the how, of all things, Ironman, Arizona on November 16th. So we'll dive into that. But before we do, two updates. The first is a book update.

So my book, Go One More. It launched. It went live June 24th, 2025. And I just want to say thank you. You guys supported the book launch in terms of pre-orders and then launch week. You guys showed up. You bought the audio book on Audible,

the paperback, the hardcover, Kindles. And you guys showed up and supported in so much, of so much of a magnitude that you helped me become a New York Times bestseller. We officially hit the New York Times

bestseller list last week. That was my goal. And for me, that is a huge accomplishment. And I truly cannot have done that without you guys showing up pre-ordering the book, ordering the book, supporting the feedback, the reviews has been amazing to see and witness. And I appreciate you guys so much. So thank you for supporting the book launch. Thank you for helping me hit the New York Times bestseller list.

We did it. We did it together. Like I've told you guys, I was working on the book going more for over two years now. So it was a long time coming to release it into the world. But then to hit the list, that was just the icing on the cake. So that's update number one. New York Times bestseller. Update number two, again, I want to thank you guys.

we are in right now the second day of the BPN summer sale. So this year, the BPN summer sale was July 7th and July 8th. And you guys, again, showed up and supported. As many of you know, we only do two sales a year. That is our annual summer sale and that is our annual Black Friday sale. 20% off the entire site. And our goal every year is to beat the previous years, numbers.

That is our goal. We set these stretch goals and we have a lot of data and insights that guide us towards setting these goals. Yesterday, the first day of the sale, we surpassed the summer sale of 2024 the entire first day last year in the first 19 minutes. yesterday. We surpassed the first day of the 2004 summer sale, first day sales in the first 19 minutes yesterday.

It was wild to watch and witness and see all the orders rolling in. Just in the first day, we had over 27,000 orders, 27,000 orders. We've plused up our warehouse team. we have 18 packing stations in the warehouse right now. We brought in a lot of temporary help and support. And our goal is to get those orders down as fast as possible. But we are mind blown just watching the traffic on the website yesterday.

I mean, we had about 20,000 people on the website yesterday when we went live. And those orders just rolled in like crazy. The number one selling product yesterday was G1M Sport Plus. I think we sold about 12,000 units of G1M Sport Plus yesterday. The second best selling product was creatine, creatine monohydrate. Then I believe it was weight protein and then go gels. And GOMSport. But GUNM Sport Plus crushed.

yesterday. So those are my two updates. New York Times bestseller and our summer sale, huge success. The most successful day of BPN history was yesterday. We had 170,000 sessions on our website, which prior to that, the largest number of sessions on our website in one day was a 140,000. So we beat our previous record by 30,000 sessions on the website yesterday. So a lot of records broken. And it's been a great summer so far for not just myself, but the BPN team and family as well. And we have a bunch of other celebrations coming up. This coming weekend, we're celebrating my daughter's third birthday. And then my birthday is August 1st. I'm turning 35. years old this year, 35, five years away from 40. And then 10 days after my birthday, my son,

Nico turns one. So between my daughter, myself, and my son, the three of our birthdays are in less than a month timeframe, just stacked. Charlie, myself, and then Nico. So we're about to celebrate their birthdays and my birthdays. And my birthdays. birthday here the next couple days and weeks. Iron Man Prep Season 3. It's official. We're in it. The what?

Iron Man, Arizona, November 16th, which means we're about 18 weeks away right now. It's in Tempe, Arizona. If you're unfamiliar with what an Iron Man triathlon is, It's a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run. You finish it all up with a marathon. The swim at Iron Man, Arizona is in a lake. It has a rolling bike course and a rolling run course.

It is a fast course, from what I understand, is a very popular course. Weather is great that time of the year in Tempe, Arizona. Based off the Ironman website, water temperature average will be 61 degrees. So we'll be wearing wetsuits. The high of the air temperature is estimated to be about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. In the low air temperature is estimated to be about 53 degrees Fahrenheit. So great racing conditions. great weather in the fall.

My first Iron Man ever was in early November of 2019. And that was in Florida. So it was still nice and warm. That was an ocean swim, obviously. But I'm really excited. I'm really excited to be back in Iron Man prep. I'm really excited to race and throw down in Tempe, Arizona in about 18 weeks. And moving into the Y, if you would have asked me a few months ago when my next Iron Man race was going to be,

and there were actually, I mean, there had been people for the last couple years asking me when my next triathlon and when my next Iron Man was going to be, if you would have asked me a few months ago, I would have said it's not even on my heart. horizon. It's not a thought. It's not a question. For the last couple of years, I've been saying at some point in the future, I will consider and explore triathlon and an Ironman again. But it wasn't something I was itching to do. It wasn't something that I was being drawn and called towards. And why? Why not? And then why so, why now? I think one of the reasons I haven't been interested in triathlon or Iron Man's last

couple years is really just because I understand and I know how demanding training for an Iron Man is. It requires a tremendous amount of training, running, cycling, cycling, swimming, strength, It's time demanding. It's energy demanding. You know, it will, it will wear on you for sure when you're training anywhere from 16 to 20 plus hours a week. It's a lot. And deciding and committing to an Ironman Triathlon and a prep, that has to be something that is very deliberate and thoughtful and much to be considered. And one of the reasons I haven't even considered it the last couple years

in full transparency and honesty is just because my life responsibilities these last couple years have been a lot. They've grown significantly. You know, this prep will be much different than my previous fitness preps and more so, specifically, triathlon Ironman preps because my life looks different.

But over these last three years, you know, the business has grown, business responsibility has become greater. My family has grown. Family responsibility has become greater. As I mentioned earlier, my daughter turns three. This coming weekend,

my son is turning one next month. And I really want to be, and have wanted to be a present, committed, active husband, father, business leader. That's why I haven't these last couple years. And I just wasn't, I wasn't, I didn't feel that bite, that bug to jump into another prep. I wasn't ready to commit to what was required to prep for an Ironman triathlon. Because I don't want to just do a triathlon. I don't want to do a sprint. I don't want to do an Olympic distance. I don't even want to do a 70.3. If I'm going to do it, I want to do the whole thing.

140.6. The full Iron Man. No half. No shorter distances. I don't want to just do a triathlon. I want to do an Iron Man. I'm going to do it. So why now? To be honest, when I got injured earlier this year, you know, I was I was training for Grandma's Marathon. I was going into a big marathon prep. And I had a leg injury, which was really caused from the car accident I was in a few months ago, getting hit by a car while running in December of 2024. And then I jumped right into prep probably too early for a marathon. And the injuries I sustained from that car accident getting hit by that car. And then as volume increased in marathon prep, my leg just gave out.

I had to take about six weeks off of running completely. And when I stopped running to let my leg heal, I started cycling again. And I thought I was going to hate being back on the bike. And it was the complete opposite. Being forced to be back on the bike, I loved it. I loved the balance of aerobic conditioning and muscular endurance, muscular strength that you can get from different types of workout on the bike, especially the smart trainer. I use the Wahoo Kicker.

So I'd wake up every morning. I'd go in my garage, hop on the trainer. I would do a ride. I would just like to work out within Zwift, and I would do a ride anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes. And I would choose either an endurance ride or a sweet spot workout or a V-O-2 max, a big gear work, working on some strength. And it hit me during that time period where I couldn't run of,

oh, this is why I loved to be on the bike. I forgot what this felt like. So that's, I think, where it started, it started entertaining my mind and my interest a little bit. I was like, I think I could actually spend some more time on the bike. And then my leg healed up and I started running again. And I was cycling less, but I kept thinking, man, I want to get back on the bike. I want to balance these two.

And the thought of jumping back into marathon prep wasn't very interesting to me. I wanted something different. I wanted something new and challenging. And that's where the thought of Iron Man

started entertaining my mind a little bit again. And I thought on it for a while. And I thought on it, I didn't share any ideas with anyone. I didn't want to put it out there into the world or my inner circle of people to be influenced in one way or the other. I wanted to truly make this decision on my own. And one morning I run, it just hit me.

I said to myself, all right, we're going to do this. We're going to go back into Iron Man prep. And I'm so excited. I'm so excited. But this prep is going to look different. I'm going to preface that right now. I've learned a lot of these last couple years, and I mean, I just wrote my entire book on all of these concepts

and these life transitions that I've navigated from getting married to becoming a father to growing and scaling a business and leading a team of people. This prep is going to look different. In my past life, Before the business wasn't as large as it is now, before I had kids. I could be very selfish with my time. So I went into Ironman prep or I went into previous fitness preps.

I could be very selfish and that could be the priority of my life. And all other things would show up secondary to that one thing. I can't do that this time. The priorities in my life or my business, the people in that business, the team, my family, my wife, my kids, in no particular order. It is family first, business, second, and then it is Iron Man Prep. So I'm going to make sure throughout these next 18 weeks that I'm very intentional and deliberate with how I'm spending my time, in my energy,

how I'm showing up for my business and my team, and my family. So this prep will look different than previous fitness preps have been executed. And I share that just to be very honest and set expectations. I'm speaking to myself right now. I'm setting expectations for myself. Now that does not mean I'm not going all in on this prep.

As I've talked about in my book, there's a difference between being all in and all consumed. This prep will not consume me. I will not be all consumed by this prep, but I will be all in. I will be and I am committed

to putting in the work, hitting all of my work ounce, making the time to get in the training sessions that I need to be fully prepared to tow the line from November 16th, 2025 to throw down at Ironman, Arizona. But I will not execute in that way at the expense of the business, the people in my family. That is, in my opinion, and like I said, why I. wrote the book, that is go one more. Being committed will look different through different seasons of life. And just because you have and I have responsibilities and priorities that sit above and

before my fitness, these goals, my training, it doesn't mean you can't set and I can't set very ambitious personal goals and go after them. The process might look a little bit different, but is not an excuse. It is not a reason to not pursue. The pursuit might just look a little different. This pursuit to Iron Man, Arizona, should and will look different than my Iron Man prep did in 2019 and my Ironman prep and 2020, 2021 did. That's just the reality. And to be honest, another reason I want to do this Iron Man is I'm ready for a fitness challenge that

excites me that's aligned with a BPN mission and it humbles me once again. Like yesterday, my first workout back in this prep was a one hour run in the morning. I did eight miles. And I had a 90-minute session on the bike in the afternoon. That was an endurance focused session that I did on the smart trainer on Zwift. And I did 20 minutes of core work. And I woke up this morning, legs pretty trashed, very heavy. I did eight miles this morning, a one-hour run. And I was feeling yesterday's work. You know, there is some work to be done over these next 18 weeks to get back into peak triathlon, Ironman racing, shape, and conditions. It's going to be humbling. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a lot of hard work. And I'm super excited. It puts me back in the

the position of being a student once again and learning things all over. Remove all ego and humble yourself. And if you're anything like me, I need short-term and long-term goals. Like the goals that we established here at BPN earlier this year that are aligned with our vision are 10-year targets. We have these long-term goals, 10-year targets that we're working towards.

and then we'll establish short-term goals throughout that help us get to those 10-year targets. Those are my professional endeavors and ambitions, but I like to set up my personal life in the same way, where I have this vision, and that vision is made up of the three components that we've talked about, core values, purpose, goals, and then along the way, setting up short-term goals as well that align with that vision to help me get to my long-term targets and to keep the process exciting and entertaining. I need something that I'm constantly working towards.

I'm a person who thrives through a process of achievement. I want to go out and achieve. And I get a lot of reward internally from achieving things through a long and painful and challenging process. and once I accomplish one thing or a few things, I need to set new targets on the horizon to keep working towards. And I have to do that because it keeps life exciting, but it also is very fulfilling for me and brings joy in happiness and satisfaction. I'm an individual

that needs to be constantly working towards something. Because if I'm not, I feel lost. I feel like I have lack of direction and purpose. I've just learned that about myself over the years. I need something that I'm constantly working towards. Short-term targets and long-term targets. That keeps me motivated. That keeps me disciplined.

That keeps me excited. That keeps me in the fight. I don't want to ever be taken out of the fight because as soon as I'm taken out of the fight, that drive starts to dissipate, that focus starts to become a little blurry. Keep yourself in the fight by setting these short-term goals and targets that are aligned with your long-term goals and targets. Now, my first Iron Man ever, let's go back a little bit and talk history before I talk about how I'm training for Iron Man, Arizona. The first Ironman I ever trained for was Ironman, Florida, in Panama City. Like I said, it was November of 2019.

And I've shared this story before, but I want to share it again. You know, when I got in the Army in 2017, I said, I will never run a day in my life again. And I didn't just say it. I recorded it and published it in a YouTube video. I will never run a day in my life again. I said that. And it's funny because if you look at my life since that moment, it has been driven through running and endurance training.

So I didn't run for about a year after I get out of the military. And I felt this itch. And I signed up for the Austin Marathon, 2018. And that's where I caught the bug. And the following year, I did the Austin Marathon again. And from there, I wanted to do something more challenging because I was inspired by this clip that I watched on YouTube. And this clip was from the 1982 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. And there was this competitor, her name is Julie Moss.

and there's this famous clip of her body breaking down and giving up on her as she tries to get across the finish line of the Ironman World Championship in 1982. Her body was literally giving up on her. Full body seizures and cramps. She was literally crawling to get across the finish line. And I watched this clip in 2018. or 2019, I saw it for the first time, and I remember thinking to myself, I want to experience something this hard and challenging. When I got out of the Army in 2017, I think one of the reasons I said I would never run a day in my life again is because I was ready to embrace

comfort, inconvenience, and ease. And then I realized after transitioning out of the military and experiencing comfort and convenience and ease, that was the last thing I wanted. Because I recognized what that would do to me over weeks and months and years. That would just erode me into nothing. I would lose the edge that I required to keep growing and scaling and developing.

I needed hardship. I needed something challenging. That's why I signed up for my first marathon. And I grew from that experience. And when you recognize and learn what those experiences can do for you mentally, emotionally, and physically, you want more of it. Because we as individuals, we thrive under pressure and we thrive through adaptations and stimulus and growth. And when I watched that clip of Julie Mawes in 1982, struggling literally for her life to get, get across the finish line, as I'm sitting probably on my couch watching this at night with

my feet up, my laptop, on my legs, completely just chill down, thinking, wow, I need something like this. I need to experience something similar to this. I need to experience this exactly. I need to do an Iron Man. And from there, it wasn't much thought of, I'm going to sign up for an Iron Man. It was that one YouTube video clip that I watched and then I signed up. It was a very

pivotal point in my life as well because simultaneously as I'm watching this, I'm deciding I need to do this, my mom was struggling and fighting for her life as she was battling

ovarian cancer. So my mom was diagnosed officially with cancer January of 2019 and within six months the cancer developed at a rate that was so aggressive

and severe. It was stage four that she passed away in June of 2019 in the house that me and my brother grew up in. She ended up going on hospice. We were able to spend her last couple days alive

in hospice care in our home with her as she passed away. And as soon as I got back to Texas, two weeks after she passed, I helped my dad as we planned her funeral and I spent some time with family. And then two weeks after she passed away, we had to get back to Texas because we had to get back to work. You know, at the time, BPN was much smaller.

Me and my brother had to come back to Pennsylvania, with our now wives, Valerie is Preston's wife and Steph, obviously my wife. So we all travel to Pennsylvania. And the only person keeping BPN alive down here was John Byers. Literally we had one employee back then. John was holding down the BPN for. He was answering all customer service emails. He was packing all the orders.

He was receiving truckloads and inventories was 2019, which is why. it's so crazy, you know, 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 Iron Man Prep. And, you know, 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. And I had this playlist that 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 Iron Man prep ever in 2019. And I finished that Iron Man 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.

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 GOM 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 in 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. So now you can not only prime your body, but prime your body and your mind for the toughest workouts in 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. That 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 Iron Man that I decided I wanted to pursue a sub-three-hour marathon. 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. I 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.

I didn't know what my FTP functional training power was. I didn't know what Watts were. I wasn't measuring any power. hour. Even when I was on the bike during the race at Iron Man, 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, like I said, I have 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. You 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 in. 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, 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 Iron Man, and I was trashed after that first Iron Man. It was a blast. And I believe I ran my marathon in four hours and four minutes.

And the day after that Iron Man 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. 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 other year of training. And I ended up running at 256, 27, I believe, which is my first sub three hour marathon. But it took a lot more work and a lot more time 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, you know, being on the bike and swimming for multiple hours prior to. And then after that sub-three-hour marathon, I went back into Iron Man 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. And that second Iron Man prep, I learned so much.

I mean, that was foundational and truly instrumental to me just having a understanding. understanding and grasp around how endurance 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 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 you know a brick workout is when you go from a bike right into a run and big gear sessions and V-O-2 max and it all started making sense in my opinion that is some of the

best way of learning by doing there is theory and there is 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 a 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 Iron Man 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. However, What happened during the second Iron Man prep is that we got hit with the pandemic. And I was signed up for Iron Man, Texas. Iron Man, Texas got canceled. I pivoted my race plan to multiple other full distance Iron Man's.

They all got canceled that year. We ended up having to pivot to a 70.3 in Cancun, Mexico, which wasn't actually an Iron Man 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 Ironman training series in that preparation,

I entered the lottery for Leadville. 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 Iron Man, ended up being Challenge Kent Cune 70.3. I 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. And now here we are. Here we are six years. Six years after that first

Iron Man prep, we're back for season three, 18 weeks away from Ironman in Arizona. So I want to talk about the how. I'm not using a coach for this prep, actually. And I don't 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. 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 of 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 being 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 balancing ideas off of and getting advice from. I by no means am doing this prep alone, but I will not have a one-on-one, one dedicated coach. I will be programming my own workouts and weeks over these next 18 weeks leading into Iron Man, Arizona. And one of the ways that I am coached and mentored and guided when I go into a fitness prep, like this last Hirox prep that I did for Hirox Dallas is a pretty good example. I didn't have a coach for Hirox Dallas. I did all my own programming and created my own workouts.

But when I was in high rocks prep from June until November of 2024, all of 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 Hirox.

The same thing is applied to this Iron Man prep. All the content I'm consuming right now, podcast, books, YouTube videos, are triathlon and Iron Man specific training and content. like on my runs recently I've been listening to some cycling podcast on my bike yesterday

my 90-minute bike I was watching all of Lionel Sanders who's a pro triathlet 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 of my workouts will be created by myself over these next 18 weeks. So I'm using these next two weeks, the first two weeks of this prep

as a reintroduction to triathlon training. 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 Iron Man 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 Iron Man 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. I'll be leaning on Luke heavily. For 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 right now I'm training 16 hours a week, and that will definitely increase. 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 in 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. And I'll place these Tuesdays, Tuesday afternoons. Wednesday in the morning is my speed work. So right now it's 10 miles total of 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 is a brick workout. So it's a bike session into a run.

So initially it's going to be a 90-minute bike session. This is either V-O-2 max focused or strength-focused on the bike with a six-mile runoff. So 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 it, 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. When 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 until you build that aerobic base, making sure you're in the right zone. So 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. But 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 15 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, V-O-2 max workouts, and then big gear and strength work. So 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 weeks to reassess and reestablish where I'm at but an endurance bike session is about 55 to 75% of your FTP sweet spot workout is 85% of your FTP sweet spot workout is 85 to 95% of your FTP, and V2 max workouts are shorter intervals above your FTP. And then big gear or 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. And then initially on the swim, it will be all form in 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. Now, with all of this training, it's a massive energy demand. There is a lot of energy expenditure in terms of calories. Nutrition and fueling is just just as important as the training. 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 of 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. And 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.

be tracking my weight, really 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. So that's like daily caloric intake based off of my experience. 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 a.m. I was running by 5.15 a.m.

So as soon as I woke up, I had a scoop of GUNM Sport plus and a scoop of GOMSport, 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. And 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 carry gold 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 next training session, I'll have, in the first hour of training two scoops of GUNM sport and a go gel.

I'll have the caffeinated go gel. 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 go gel. So over these next two hours of training, I will consume another four scoops of GEM sport. and two go gels, 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 weight protein, a serving of honey and a banana before going home for dinner.

And I'll have dinner, and before going to bed, I have a big bowl of cereal. to get an additional 100 grams of carbs in. So 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, such as an Ironman triathlon. So I will be consuming throughout this prep a lot of G&M Sport Plus, GUNM Sport, GoBars, Go gels, 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. I'm training multiple times a day. You know, 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 100 grams of carbohydrates in the form of cereal where I'm not going to feel overly stuffed or bloated or uncomfortable. It 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 GOMSport. 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. So we're in it, baby. Iron Man Prep Season 3, Iron Man, Arizona. That's the overview that I want to provide.

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.