IM Cozumel

Well, I’m racing Ironman Cozumel tomorrow! It’s been a long season for me…..running about 54 weeks since a break I took after Kona last year. I’ve spent many of those weeks focused on other’s performance which is my real focus. However, here I am sitting a day out from an IM, most of my athletes are finished with their seasons, and I am feeling very good and ready to roll. I really haven’t done an IM on such a fast course (if as advertised), so should be able to put down a pretty quick time. Maybe around 9:00-9:15 I think. Here’s my latest performance metrics:

400TT: 4:48
20 min Power: 340w
5k: 16:10
156lb at 5.5% BF (BMI = 21.7)

These are the best they have ever been for me. I’m most excited about my running which was very consistent for the past 6 months. I think I may have a shot at going under 3:05 for the marathon if everything goes as planned.

Following placid I realized that my best route to any speed improvements would be increased restoration (through lower volume and better sleep), and lower body weight. From my body building days I still have a bit of muscle I could use to lose so set out to drop 3-4 pounds of it following placid. At placid, my BMI at optimal body fat (5.5% for me) was about 22.2. I typically like to see top level men at about 21.0 at optimal BF for race day (good metric of how much muscle an athlete should have for triathlon), so this meant I had 8 pounds I COULD lose before Cozumel which would be worth about 16 minutes in IM. However, 8 pounds is a bit excessive in such a short timeframe following Placid so I shot for 5….worth about 10 minutes in IM (so much more than what I could get from fitness during the same period). This puts me at a BMI of about 21.7 and optimal BF for tomorrow.

Following this event, it will be some down time for me before beginning my build up to IM Utah along with 15+ other QT2 athletes. Already looking forward to it…..

-Jesse