In this episode of the Find Your Edge podcast, host Coach Chris Newport delivers a comprehensive race‑week preparation guide for triathletes targeting Ironman North Carolina 70.3 and similar events. He begins with a promotion of the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp (April 22‑26 at Lake Jocassee, SC), highlighting its small‑group coaching, nutrition, and sports‑psychology components. The core of the episode covers seven practical domains: (1) tapering – reducing training volume while preserving intensity to arrive fresh; (2) gear checks – confirming that goggles, wetsuit, bike components, and shoes are race‑ready and not new; (3) sleep and recovery – securing at least eight hours nightly, especially in the final days before the start; (4) hydration and nutrition – maintaining familiar eating/drinking habits, avoiding alcohol, new carb‑loading protocols, and using urine color as a hydration gauge; (5) community support – actively communicating needs to friends, family, and training partners; (6) logistics – double‑checking travel arrangements, packing essential gear, reviewing the athlete guide, and planning for transition zones; (7) weather‑specific gear – recommending light vests, toe warmers, and hand protection for expected 60‑40 °F conditions. Throughout, Newport emphasizes consistency, preparation, and enjoyment, directing listeners to a free triathlon checklist and additional resources on theenduranceedge.com.
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I'll see you there. Welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am your host, Coach Chris Newport, and as many of you know, we are located in North Carolina and this weekend is Ironman North Carolina 70.3 down in Wilmington. We have a bunch of athletes who are doing this event, so I figured, hey, Why not do a little podcast blitz? So one short podcast every day leading up to Saturday's race. So we'll have 5 episodes, one about pre-race preparation, another about the swim, another about the bike, another about the run, and another about what you do in the post-race period. So hopefully you'll tune into all of these different episodes, whether you're doing Ironman North Carolina or another Ironman, Half Ironman, or sprint or Olympic distance race. These are all relevant to you. So putting in all of that effort that you've done for your race, this is race week. So hopefully you're excited, but as for training, you're most likely tapering. So tapering is all about a reduction in overall training volume while maintaining some of your intensity. This helps get you mentally and physically prepared for race day, allows your body to overall get some additional recovery, and allows you to be at peak performance on race day. So Really, the purpose of a taper is to make you hopefully feel like you're shooting out of a cannon as the gun goes off. So be able to trust your taper, and certainly if you have a coach or some community or support group, lean on them if there are any concerns about tapering. But typically we have most, most athletes do roughly a 1-week taper. Some people need more, some people need less. Totally depends on you and your unique situation. So now let's talk about gear. This is a good opportunity to go over all of your race equipment. Make sure everything is good to go from your goggles to your wetsuit, to your bike and your running shoes. This is not the opportunity to try out new things. This is really not the time to grab a new saddle unless your saddle is terrible. Uh, this is not the time to get a new pair of running shoes. Hopefully you've gotten all of those details worked out. You've tried on your wetsuit before. I have seen so many people actually as a lifeguard. And some of these races who literally strip their wetsuit in the water and hand it to me, and then I have to go find them later to deliver it back to them because the wetsuit doesn't fit or they've never worn it before. So those are things that you definitely wanna make sure that you check over and try out. Same thing goes for your bike. So hopefully you have brought your bike to a trusted mechanic to make sure everything is checked over from checking the torque on all of the various bolts. Uh, the reason why I say that is because I I do know athletes who have not properly secured their aero bars and they literally fell off and then they wrecked. So make sure that all the bolts are tightened to the proper torque, that your chain is looking good and it's nice and clean, it's not overstretched, um, that your race wheels are true, that your tires are all good to go. So check through all of those equipment. And sometimes you have to make an appointment with your bike shop, so make sure you do that. And hopefully even you've done that already. So that's race equipment. And now thinking more of sort of the mental and, um, nutrition and physical side of things. This is, like I mentioned before with tapering, this is your opportunity to really rest and recover as you lead into race week. There is no better tool to get you appropriate recovery than sleep. So hopefully you're getting your minimum 8 hours of sleep. Some of us need just a tad less, uh, a lot of us need a whole lot more. So hopefully you're getting at least your 8 hours of sleep as you lead into race week because that is really going to determine your overall performance for appropriate muscle and, um, muscle recovery and mental recovery as well. So really protect your sleep, especially in the 2 days leading up to race day or 3 days leading up to race day. Uh, we know that the night before you're probably not gonna sleep a lot just because of the logistics of having to get up so early and be in certain places. But definitely try to get as much rest and recovery, protect that sleep as much as you can. So hydration and nutrition. This week is definitely not the time to try anything new. That means not going out to that new restaurant. That means, um, not trying that new cocktail. In fact, if you can leave alcohol alone for the week, that is ideal and will help you be that much better prepared on race day. But this is also not the time to try any carb loading if you haven't tried it already in training. So carb loading is a fantastic technique that helps to improve performance for activities lasting longer than 90 minutes, but this is not the time to try it before an important race week. So that is definitely something that you'll wanna try in your training. Also, another thing that I see a lot of athletes doing is that they're chugging water or they're drinking tons of sports drinks in the day, uh, or days leading up to race day. And that is actually what you don't want to do. You wanna make sure that you are in fact drinking plenty of water so that your urine is a very light colored yellow. Uh, that's one of the best and easiest ways to judge your hydration status, but you certainly don't need sports drinks or additional electrolyte beverages, assuming that you are getting plenty of electrolytes from your food intake. So namely your fruits, your vegetables, um, not skipping the salt shaker. So making sure that you're eating your typical mixed meals that you are used to and drinking plenty of fluids as you lead up to race week. And remember, your, Kidneys are really good at what they're doing on a minute-to-minute basis. So it's not like they're gonna know, oh, I'm gonna hold onto all these additional electrolytes and water the day before because you're doing that race the next day. Nope, they, they don't know that. So just make sure that, again, check that hydration status by checking your urine color. Um, if you want a really great chart, we have on, on our website, theenduranceedge.com, our hydration guide. It's a really awesome tool. I encourage people to print that off and slap it on the back of their toilet seat so that you have that little reminder of what should my urine color be as I lead into race week? This is also a good opportunity to make sure that you've got all of your various pre-race pre-foods, um, all prepped and ready to go. If you're used to having, say, oatmeal, um, in the pre-race period, then make sure you've got your oatmeal ready to go, or your Clif Bar, or your banana, or your toast or bagel, or whatever it is that you're gonna have. Make sure that is in place. Um, all the things that you've trained with, um, dinner the night before the race, make sure that also is very familiar foods. Hopefully things like sweet potatoes have been in your repertoire or other high carb foods, but not all carbs, making sure you're, you're fitting in your sources of protein as well so that you can make sure that your body is used to whatever you have put in it and you're all prepared. All right. So next thing to think about is your support and your community. So definitely be sure to engage your friends, your family, your training buddies. It is really awesome to have a support net network, especially since you're gonna be doing more rest and recovery this week. Maybe you have more time to phone a friend or to call your family or to talk to them. Um, so make sure that they're able to share in your excitement and preparation so that they can follow you on the app, especially if you're doing some sort of an Ironman event, they can follow you there. So, and ask for support. Sometimes people don't necessarily know what you need. Unless you tell them. So this is a good chance to really engage your community, your friends, your family, and give you the support that you need. And telling them, hey, it'd be really nice if I saw you on the run course or at the end of the swim, or if they can physically be, but just communicate clearly as to what you need in order for you to feel appropriately supported. So now thinking about logistics. So this is the time to make sure that you're checking on your travel plans, whether you're staying at a hotel or an Airbnb or whatever. Just double and triple check those plans. Make sure you're all good to go. If you are flying, remember to bring all of the things you need for race day as much as you possibly can, actually packing them on the plane, like your helmet, your running shoes, your bike shoes, um, your tri kit, anything that you know you absolutely cannot replace. I would prefer not to replace. That is kind of like, you know, it's like having your binky with you. So making sure you've got all of those pieces in place, double checking that you've got a full tank of gas if you're driving, making sure you've got all your food and your snacks for flying or for traveling or whatever you're doing, making sure you've got your dinner plans in place. A lot of people will pack themselves a dinner and they'll reheat it in the hotel room or whatever. So making sure you've got your travel plans, All good to go. Another thing to check in on is the athlete guide. A lot of races will have their athlete guide posted or their, they'll, we'll send it to you. In the case of Ironman North Carolina, they've got a pretty extensive athlete guide because there are so many specific logistical things going on because it is a, what's called a point-to-point race. So you have T1 and T2 in different spots. So then you just need to think through, okay, what do I need to have in T1? What do I need to have at T2? And also with this particular race, this particular race, you get bussed from T1 to the swim start and then the swim, uh, finish, knowing that that's a really long run to get to transition area. And then also knowing, okay, when I get to T2, T2 and the finish line are not in the same places. So there's kind of a lot of pieces to, to fill in. Um, and then being able to wait and hang out at the race start prior, just without any of your other things. So making sure that you know, okay, what bags do I need to have where and what things am I gonna need and when? So thinking through those things, one place that we have helped you out with is we've got a really awesome triathlon checklist. So get that on our website, theenduranceedge.com. It just goes through a list of all the things that you might need generally, things for the swim, things for the bike, things for the run. And then there's some additional slots that you can print off. In fact, I have one that's laminated in my bag and then I can, you know, write on it in like a little dry erase marker and erase things if there are more specific things to the race that I might need or, you know, cross things off. Who doesn't love a good checklist? I mean, come on. So you can grab that for free on our website. So hopefully taking some of the big decisions off of your plate and just reminding you to not forget anything. Other things to do for logistics is just check the weather, make sure that you know that you're bringing the right gear for the right conditions. In the case of Ironman North Carolina specifically, it looks like the high is gonna be in the 60s, the low is gonna be in the 40s. So when you hop on your bike, it might be a little chilly. So oftentimes I will recommend in that case that people bring a light vest that will keep your core warm. And then making sure your hands and your toes are also warm. There are some great, um, neoprene toe warmers that you can take to make sure that you can feel your feet through the entire bike ride and then into the run. And same thing, making sure that you can feel your fingers. Um, so that's always good to have that additional dexterity to be able to shift gears and those things in order to control your bike. So little things to think about as you prepare for race week. I am excited for you. Good luck, and don't forget to have fun. You're awesome. And I look forward to our podcast blitz tomorrow.
Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again, and we'll catch you next time.
