Make the Window Work: 3FU3L Ironman Chattanooga

Upon signing up for my third Ironman, I knew that this time around it would be quite a challenge squeezing in the training with an increasingly busy work schedule. Managing a gym, overseeing CrossFit Endurance main site and keeping up with my remote athletes sucks up quite a bit of time. When you’re very passionate about your work it always seems to go that way. Figuring out how to balance my passion for competing, while helping others achieve their goals has been a never-ending struggle. One that I am excited to live, but nonetheless the question marks were real – would I be able to recover? How would my body feel? Could I still pull off a competitive time on less training?

I’m proud to report that my expectations were met. With only eight to eleven hours of training per week, one early season 70.3 tune up race and a “peak” training “test nutrition” ride of sixty miles, I finished in the top ten for my age group, seventh to be exact. I was able to complete the Ironman Chattanooga course under eleven hours and I put out a sub four hour marathon on a very hilly Ironman run course. It was one of the most graded marathons I’ve ever covered in or out of Ironman competition. The funniest fact is that if most triathletes were to analyze my training schedule, they would have thought I was crazy focusing fifty percent of my time in the gym.

This training cycle came down to convenience, how could I get the most out of each session with sometimes only thirty minute windows to workout? During all of my twelve-hour work days, everything had to be strategic. I made sure to plan the exact time I would complete each sport (fluctuating times consistently) and became diligent about my fueling. The trouble most age group athletes face is recovering from their busy days. It’s not usually the training (unless you still believe volume is the answer), but how the factors of life affect recovery. The timing of everything I did became super important. Checking in with my body was a must.

If you’re like me, meaning you enjoy living life, spending time with loved ones, remaining injury free and training using an efficient approach, here are three things to make your training work in the window…

Plan Your Expectations. Understand that if you were a professional athlete things would be quite different. You’d have more time to recover, more time for mobility and more time off from the mental demands of daily living. CrossFit Endurance is realistic approach to getting the training into the windows of you week. Your expectations should still remain high if you have the ability to get the work in. Be honest with yourself and collect time trials often. Your training results won’t lie to you on race day.

Prepare Your Fuel in Advance. Before my four am wake up calls, my gym bag was packed with a fresh serving of 3FU3L in a shaker bottle and my low-carb real food lunch awaited in the fridge. If it wasn’t for 3FU3L before and after my workouts, I wouldn’t have survived. There was hardly enough time to train let alone remain properly fueled. I’m all for a few fasted workouts, but getting something in the window immediately after each session went along way with recovery like never before. The preparation was crucial and always having a back up plan for my daily nutrition made life much easier.

Proceed with Confidence on Race Day. It doesn’t matter how well your training cycle goes anything can happen on Ironman day. Your head dictates your success. You have to be confident in your vision. Whether you’re an entrepreneur hustling to make your business happen or you’re attempting to finish your first 140.6 mile race, the mental toughness must remain strong. Confidence decides how you handle and perceive challenges. Believe that you used every tool in training and made the windows work.