What To Put In Your Ironman Race Bags (updated edition!)

Alright you guys, Ben Greenfield here. Pre Ironman Kona 2014. It's been a few years since I've shot the what to put in your Ironman race bag video. So today I'm going to show you everything you need to know when you get all those confusing bags handed to you at an Ironman triathlon. Alright, so let's jump right in the night before the race. Always lay the bags out right with everything I plan on doing along with getting the bike set up. And I'm just going to show you everything that you need to know about. Let's start with the swim bag. You'll get a bag that's marked pre swim when you race in Ironman. So in this particular race I'll be using a swim skin, a blue 70 swim skin rather than a wetsuit that goes in the pre swim bag. Goggles of course go in the pre swim bag. Your swim cap goes in the pre swim bag. If you have electrolytes and you want to use them before the swim. If you find that when you don't use them you cramp, you'll put electrolytes in your pre swim bag so that you can swallow a few before you head down to the water. Like two to four electrolytes. You want to put your chip in your pre swim bag. You want some kind of a sunscreen that you can put in your pre swim bag. And all this other little thing is another extra sunscreen they had in the registration bag. So I toss it in there just in case I lose. One can never have too much sunscreen down here in Hawaii. You'll want one kind of way to get a little bit of fuel into your body right before you hit the swim. I like that little surge of energy actually. So I threw like a Gu Roctane. Sometimes you can do a shot of caffeine, whatever works for you. But like a little pick me up right before you start swimming. About 30 minutes before the swim I'll drink a bottle of X2 Performance for a little bit of extra ATP during the swimming. And that is, that's pretty much what's going into the swim bag. I also throw my water bottle in there so I can sip on water leading up to the swim. And I actually in that water bottle that I sip leading up to the swim I put some amino acids because when you exercise with high blood levels of amino acids it staves off central nervous system fatigue. So cool little trick. So that isn't just plain water, it's actually got some aminos in it. Sorry, gatorade it doesn't actually have Gatorade in it. And then the last thing I know, this is getting all supplement crazy. Now, I'm not trying to scare you away, but this is just like an antioxidant. It's called phylloquinone. It's like a PQQ antioxidant. So just a little bit of extra stuff for a long day. I'll take something like this just because my body's gonna have a lot of free radicals built up during the day. Okay. So I come out of the swim and I'm gonna get my bike gear, Right? So bike gear, you're of course going to want your shoes there, you're going to want your socks there. And usually I'll have the socks rolled up inside the shoes kind of like this. You're going to have your helmet there with your number already attached to your helmet. You're going to have your sunglasses in that bag. You're going to want plenty of chamois cream in that bag. I put a lot of chamois cream on and I have a bunch of it in that bike gear bag. I put that on liberally in the crotch, anywhere where you want it. Compression sleeves, right? I'll put some compression sleeves on. And then because I'm in Kona, I actually put some arm cooling sleeves in that bike bag as well. Now it's not on my bike right now, but it will be when my bike is set up in transition area. And that's these two water bottles. Okay. What I'm currently putting in my water bottles, I might as well tell it to you just so that you know what I'm fueling with for this race. I'm going to show you exactly what's in these water bottles. Each water bottle is designed to last one and a half hours and I've got four of them. Okay, so that's a total of six hours worth of fuel. And what I've got in here is a mix of chia seeds, honey amino acids and some powdered coconut water and some bee pollen extract. And the way that I pulled that off was I've got in each water bottle three scoops of thorn aminos, three scoops of this ischiate endurance, which is like kind of like this paleo approved, super duper natural stuff. It's basically chia seeds and honey and then recovery nectar, which is basically just powdered coconut water. Okay. So that's my super secret magic blend for this race. It's going to be a new one that I've used for Ironman, but I used something very similar to this when I trained with the Navy SEAL camp down in down in Encinitas, California about a month ago. And it burned really clean. So basically three of this, Three of this and three of this in each water bottle for a total of six hours worth of fuel. Right? So I'll have two of those bottles waiting for me on my bike as I come out of the swim. And then another two bottles over there in the bike special needs bag, which is the next bag that will hit one other thing on the bike. Of course, your number is going to be waiting for you in your bike gear bag. Now over here to bike special needs, we've got two more water bottles, right? It's for our second three hours of the race. Same mix, three of the natural force recovery nectar, three of the natural force ischiate endurance and three scoops of the thorn amino complex. One shot of X2 performance and two more of those little free radical dealios. Okay, so that's it in the bike special needs bag. Boom. Done. Super clean. Okay? And then I get onto the run. Now in the run, waiting for me are a few things. First of all, my shoes. Fresh pair of socks. Okay, super important. This will feel like money. When you put on this fresh pair of socks, you'll reapply the shammy cream. Okay, so I have more shammy cream here to reapply on the feet. I've got a second race number in case I lose my other race number. They always give you two. I've got this little thing called a spy belt. And inside this spy belt, what I have, sorry for the video here, it's going to get a little messy because I'm doing this myself. I'm flying solo on this video. So apologies, that was really bad video. Right, So I will never be on ESPN SportsCenter now. That's not Enduralite's fizz. I emptied out all the fizz and I put in electrolyte capsules. Okay. So I can take up to four of those an hour during the run if I want to or if I'm feeling like something is cramping. And then the other thing that's full of are some fat based energy gels, a little bit higher amounts of fat and amino acids. In this particular race, I've got enough peanut butter chocolate hammer gels shoved in there to take about one every 20 to 30 minutes during the first half of the run until I get the special needs for the run. The last thing I've got in There because I just finished racing Spartan World Championships and my right knee is trashed right now. I actually have a knee brace. I don't know if I'll use it, but I have it in there just in case. Always have that insurance in the Ren gear bag. So that's like one of those super nice knee braces. Okay. And then you get out to the special foods for the run, your special needs bag for the run. So in this bag, it's light special needs bag for the bike. Pretty simple, right? One dry pair of socks in case it's raining on race day. It's nice to have a dry pair of socks. Enough gels to again for the second half of the run, take in a gel every 20 to 30 minutes or so. One more shot of X2 performance for a boost. One more shot of this stuff. If you're wondering what this brand is like, what this stuff is, it's called, it's a cheesy name but it's called Unfair Advantage. It's made by Dave Asprey's bulletproof company anyways though, so once you step back and look at a big picture, that's what the bags look like. And then just real quick so you can see what the bike setup is like this year. A Nathan sports water bottle. I didn't cut off the straw yet. No, the straw will not be that high when I race in the morning. I'll be cutting it off later after this video because that's a Viagra enabled straw right there. It's a big one. Okay. So I just taped my Nathan sports water bottle to my aero bars. And then I've got inside of here I've got my multi tool in case I need to make any adjustments during the race. And then one more bottle of those, those, those athletes by Millennium Sports. The electrolytes and those just shove into there. Two water bottle cages, one for each water bottle that I showed you earlier. So pure clean water will go in that and then my actual liquid fuel will go in that. I'm riding tubulars for this race. So this is just a like a little draft cage. And inside here all I've got is one tube. X. What's it called? Pit Stop. Pit Stop. In case I need it. I may drop possibly a tire change in there tomorrow. I haven't decided yet. I'm still kind of piecing that part together. And then of course I've got my race number on the back. Okay. That's how those go on the back. And then I've got of course my little race, little sticker that they give you there. Okay. So there you go. Eight and a half minutes. Boom. I hope this has been helpful for you and will help you in your race. And that's pretty much it. That'll all get shoved into a big backpack. And 5am Walk down to the race and 3am in the mirror. Total selfie. Bada boom, bada bing. Alright, later.