Novice Ironman Help
Alexander Livingston
Posts: 1
Myself and 7 other University friends have signed up to Ironman Nice 2015, but have zero experience of both Ironmans and Triathlons between us. We are trying to run as a group sub 112 hours (14 hours each) in order to raise £10,000 for charity.
Each member of our team has been delegated a section to research and I have been given the bike section. We are all starting completely new to this sport, but we do have a varied and quite strong background in other sports (rowing, rugby, running etc), so understand general nutrition and have a good base fitness. If anyone could recommend some good articles to start out with to read it would be greatly appreciated initially, as well as any good advice and tips for training, gear and experience.
If there are any absolute DO's and DON'T's when it comes to bikes as well to help filter initial searches that would also help. I appreciate this is quite a broad subject matter, but anything will help at the moment!
Also if you are interested in our story please like and follow our instagram, Facebook and twitter (@teamkaha), as well as a website, www.teamkaha.co.uk . We are also looking for sponsorship and business opportunities, and already have the backing of Huub, Jack Oatbar and speedfil, so please get in contact if you want to help or have any questions on what we can offer or what you could offer us!
Looking forward to watching this journey progress! Thanks for your time!
Comments
hi alex - firstly, good luck! i hope you and your friends make a real success of it, and enjoy the journey to IM Nice. it's supposed to be a tough course so i'm sure the challenge will be a real one.
there are a lot of opinions in tri, and cycling, so mine is but one. it's 'right' insofar as it is 'right' for me, and your experience and view when looking at all the views might be different.
i would suggest that as far as bikes goes the only thing that really matters is how well it fits. a fantastic, all singing and dancing hunk of go-faster carbon pr0n will do nothing but hurt you and make you miserable after 112miles (say 5-7h). the bike that is best for you is the one that fits your riding style, body shape and flexibility. this might be non-carbon, and not that expensive. if so, great.
nothing beats cycling legs. you can't buy them, you can't upgrade them to the newest zipp model and they only come in one colour - slightly tanned. if you want to get comfortable on your bike over long distances then ride your bike over long distances. you don't have to do 5h rides every week, though, like an unthinking automaton.
time trial bikes are great, but they aren't the be all and end all. cycling legs on road bikes can beat time trial bikes whose riders haven't trained.
nice is hilly. find some hills and ride them.
nice is hot. if you live in the uk, i can't help with that.
not sure how helpful this is... unless it attracts the opposite opinion...
Having done one Ironman my advice is to plan, plan, plan.
Agree ref the heat. I used to train in the gym with loads of layers on to get used to the heat - that did help me. Also finding the hottest part of the day to train in come the summer months.
Enclosed is the plan I used so you can use that to build a plan a little better - build slowly on the bike it took my some months to be able to do the 112 miles but when I did it in training I felt like a super hero.....
Ref the help sponsorship wise please do get in touch through the site or twitter @triathlonbox and I'll see what I can do to help as it looks like a monster challenge and always trying to raise cash for charity if I can.
http://www.triathlonbox.co.uk/resources