#1 tip to complete your ironman faster

Dead on for me. I did plenty of centuries and 2.4 mile swims and 18 mi runs but my weeks were so hodge podge that I would have a 20 hour week followed by a 4 hour week and it hurt me in the end.

I could say MORE training.  I could say figure out the reason for my cramping.  I could say a bunch of other things, but I think the number one item that would have made me faster in my first and only IM would be to not stop as much to thank persons, and walking as much of the course as I did.

The second most important tip is to get more training and consistent training, as was mentioned.

A consistent and adequate training laod

Don't eat the paste! This will make total sense to you halfway through the marathon, one way or another.  This is how Patrick McCrann's article explains it and sums it up perfectly:

Awesome feedabck everyone thanks. And now I finally understand all the "Don't eat the paste" comments!

Can you do anything to prepare for it? 

I disagree slightly with Bryan.  Yes, training load is important, but so is knowing how to pace properly on race day.  I nailed the swim, and bike pacing ( 281 TSS ), but blew my race up, by opening the marathon way too hard.  I kept it up for 30k, then the wheels blew off as I bonked hard.

Your ultimate finish may be locked in you, but to *realize* that finish, you have to properly pace.  The better you pace, the closer you will get to realizing that ultimate potential ( which I do agree is fixed in you before the cannon goes off ).

bryancd - 2008-06-25 12:11 PM My problem with "The Paste" is that it's just a euphanism for stupidity on race day. Just stick to the plan, people! Maybe it's easier when you have severe OCD....

Yep I'm definitely obsessive, but the thing I like about "don't eat the paste" (and other catch phrases mlike that) is that they get stuck in my brain and just come out automtaically by themselves at the right time. That's my trigger to check what the hell I'm doing and sort it out. The subconcious takes care of it all for me.

Another one that works for me is "free money" (don't even ask where that came from...) whenever I start running downhill. I used to put the breaks on downhill but now that automatically pops into my head and reminds me to take the breaks off and not waste the hill.

Yep as I said - obsessive (and somewhat weird too).

Gerrard 

Yeah that's a tough one to get right mentally. I always feel like I could be working harder on my bike and on a century ride I did last year pushed it as hard as I could and was used by by the end. The idea of running after that was totally incomprehensible!

But at the time I bet it is hard to hold back if you know you could be going faster. That kind of hold back 30 mins on the ride to save an hour on the run is pretty compelling tho.

Thanks

Gerrard 

But if you follow all of your plans like you did in training there should be no need to go slower on the bike.  I believe Brian called some people out before IMAZ saying if they expected to meet their goals, that they had set, they were going to have to train to meet those goals.  I believe one point was thinking you had a 5:30 bike split in the tank even though you've never ridden at that pace for close to that distance.  Or planning on throwing down a sub 4 marathon while you train at a slower pace.  (forgive the chopped up cliff-notes version)  I could be wrong but i've always heard that if you train like you race and you'll race like you train.