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| Avoid Undesirable Surprises |
Avoid Undesirable Surprises With Your Race Day Only Gear
By: Vinnie Santana - vinnie@ironguides.net
That old saying of "never try anything new on race day" is still the most important advice you can get. The closer the race gets, more and more you should be simulating the conditions you will face on race day, be it in equipment, course profile, and training sessions.
That way you avoid those unwelcome surprises that may ruin your race Especially for an Ironman race, where if something goes wrong, the problem will likely last for a while! Be it blisters, chafing, lower back or neck pain, cramps, and another several problems that for some reason, only happen on race day! The usual mistakes usually happen with the following parts:
Some athletes do have specific shoes for racing only. They never wear the shoes as they are trying to "save them" for race them, keep the cushioning always new, etc. However it is important to use that pair, a lot, before an Ironman race.
The reason is that each shoe model offers a different level of support and stability, on race day, if you are running a marathon on tired legs on a different shoes than the ones you trained with, the small muscles in your foot and lower leg, are going to be used with a slightly different pressure and range of motion, that would be OK for an marathon, but when you are into the last 10 miles of an Ironman run, you don't want to be over stressing your lower leg and foot, they will be sore enough!
Unless you have a swimming background, you probably love to race in a wetsuit. You float more, swim faster and stay warm. However, that little muscular discomfort on your shoulders will only stay with you on race day and once again, we want to be as fresh as possible for the last 10 miles of the marathon. So for the last few weeks before your IM race, swim at least ONCE a week in the wetsuit. If you can do an open water swim, it is even better. You can also simulate the wetsuit swim in the pool using some of the pullgear and specific workouts that like in the race will overload your shoulders and not only your aerobic system.
Just like racing shoes, most of athletes do use different shorts for racing than the ones from training. Especially for Ironman training, since you are on your bike for so many hours a week, you want to use the most comfortable shorts, but when race day comes, some athletes switch to the tri-shorts, avoiding the need to change their bottoms in transition.
The problem here, is that the pad for the trishorts can be as much as 1cm thinner than a good euro-style bike short, now if you raise your saddle by 1cm on race day, it will make quite a difference in comfort, and it is very likely that you will be riding towards the "nose" of the saddle to make up for that difference, which eventually will change the geometry of your position. How is that for "race the way you train?"
Stick to the old advice, literally!
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