Feeling the burn yet? Too bad, because after you peel your sore, chafed thighs from your seat, you’re still 26.2 miles away from the finish line: It’s marathon time.
Since 2011, the United States’ hopes for a champion in this legendary race have been pinned on Tim O’Donnell, who on Oct. 12, 2019, clocked the best finish ever for an American at the Ironman: 7 hours, 59 minutes and 40 seconds, just 8:28 behind winner Jan Frodeno’s Ironman record time. “I was with a good group of swimmers who got away from the pack, and that made the race,” says the former collegiate swim competitor and Navy lieutenant, who legged out the race on a broken foot he had suffered just seven weeks earlier. “We never looked back.”
Since 2011, Tim O’Donnell has competed in the Ironman World Championship triathlon in Kona, Hawaii, nine times, with six top-10 finishes, including 4th in 2018, 6th in 2016, 3rd in 2015, 5th in 2013, and 8th in 2012. But in his runner-up performance in 2019, he experienced something he never had before. “This is the first year that I never had that meltdown moment during the run, where I had to regain (my composure) and try to salvage and make up time,” he says. “This is the first year I ran strong through the entire marathon.”
The 39-year-old UCAN-sponsored athlete’s secret to success? Good, old-fashioned hard work in the gym, the pool and the great outdoors around his home base in Boulder, Colorado, as he dutifully logs an average of 20 hours riding, 10 hours running, eight hours of swimming, and up to three hours of weight training per week.
For this, he gives some of the credit to UCAN—specifically the company’s signature food product, SuperStarch. “SuperStarch is like a slow-drip IV, giving a constant, steady release of carbohydrates,” he says. O’Donnell also uses it during his training, especially on “Terrible Tuesdays.” “When you’re finishing up running and hitting the water 35-45 minutes later, you need something quick in between that’s not going to give you that spike…it has to be energy that can get you through to the end of the session.”
And O’Donnell will need all the energy he can when it comes to what he calls “Terrible Tuesday,” a hyperintensive mash-up of each triathlon discipline and a lifting session for good measure. “To prepare for an eight-hour race like the Ironman, you have to put your body in overload sometimes in training,” O’Donnell explains. “Honestly, I’ve found it’s better to do it all on one day like this, because when you do your intense biking, swimming and running sessions on different days, it becomes harder to recover and bounce back for the next one.”
Dinner: some sort of meat, veggie and starch, and time with daughter Izzy
8:30 p.m.Administration, emails
10 p.m.Bed
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Photo courtesy of UCAN
The Dirt Paths: 10-Mile Tempo Run
“One particular course we do on a Tuesday is just some dirt roads outside of Boulder,” O’Donnell says of his 7 a.m. “tempo,” or “build” run. That may mean a 10-mile trek in 60 minutes, working up to a 5:20-mile pace.
“The first half of the run is to get warmed up and put a little load on the legs, while the back half is focused on running at a half-Ironman pace,” he explains. “The first 32 minutes or so, the first 4 1/2 miles, gets faster and faster. You may be running 6:20 or 6 minutes per mile early, but by the back half, you’re running at a 5:20-mile pace.”
In addition to his Tuesday tempo runs and his long runs on the weekend, O’Donnell also mixes in sprints and intervals — finding that as he’s gotten older, shorter, faster bursts can help build up his VO2 max without wearing down his body.
“Where I used to do a lot of fast efforts in more like a three-to-five-minute range, now a lot of research shows you can get the same benefits from shorter durations, as low as 20 to 30 seconds of max effort, with just a little recovery in between.”
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Courtesy of @TALBOTCOX
The Pool: 6,000-Yard Threshold-Set Swim
After his morning run, O’Donnell splashes down into one of the two lap pools at RallySport, the facility owned by his strength coach of six years, Erin Carson, CSCS, to do a swim with coach Julie Dibens and other members of her triathlon team.
“The swim in an Ironman is 2.4 miles, which is roughly 3,800 meters, so on those threshold days, the main ‘set’ will be around 4,000 yards, along with some higher-intensity, shorter-rest sprints, like 300-meter repeats mixed with 400s and also some 50s at race pace,” O’Donnell recounts. “You’re not necessarily going all out on these swim distances, but you’re always super uncomfortable—and that’s exactly how Ironman racing is, always uncomfortable but never full gas.”
And if you’re wondering, the stroke is typically basic freestyle (i.e., the front crawl), essentially the stroke used during a race that’s best at getting you from Point A to Point B while saving the strength in your legs for the cycling and marathon to come.
“We’ll mix in some backstroke for recovery in between sets and for warmups and warm-downs, and some days in the offseason we may do butterflies for strength development, but in season, there’s just not enough time to mix it up,” he says.
A post shared by Timothy ODonnell (@tointri) on Jun 6, 2019 at 9:41pm PDT
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Finbarr Webster/Shutterstock / Shutterstock
The Gym: 45-Minute Strength Session
While normal humans would be calling it a day after a long run and grueling swim, O’Donnell is just getting warmed up. At 11 a.m., he’s in the RallySport weight room with Carson, who’s putting him through the paces of a functional strength-training workout.
“We’ll do three weight sessions per week, with Tuesdays involving more of our heavier lifts,” O’Donnell says. “I’ve found that helps activate my glutes, hamstrings and other lower-body muscles ahead of my hard cycling ride to come.”
Exercises are grouped into supersets and circuits—“which saves time, with the focus on creating a physical challenge without exhausting a specific muscle group,” Carson explains. “It’s important that Tim feel the triathlon performance relevance in the gym session to keep his motivation high. But our key objective with heavier loading comes in the form of a hormonal response that is energy giving.”
A post shared by Timothy ODonnell (@tointri) on Aug 30, 2019 at 9:14am PDT
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Photo courtesy of UCAN
Terrible Tuesday Workout
Iron Man Tim O’Donnell Terrible Tuesday Workout
Mode
Exercise
Sets
Reps
Load
Circuit
Wide Stance Lateral Gliding*
2
10 glides per side
Bodyweight
Circuit
Half Kneeling Hip Opener†
2
10 per side
Bodyweight
Circuit
Mini Band Lateral Step (band at foot)
2
10 per side
Bodyweight
Superset
Decompression Breathing
2
5 deep breaths
–
Superset
Hanging Knee Raise
2
10
Bodyweight
Superset
Hex Bar Deadlift
3
6
Heavy load
Superset
Dumbbell Bench Press
3
6
Heavy load
Superset
Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat
3
6
Heavy load
Superset
Sled Push
3
10 to 15 feet
Moderate load
Circuit
ViPR Back Lunge with PNF Pattern
2
10 per side
4-6 kg (light)
Circuit
One-Arm Dumbbell Row
2
6 per side
Heavy load
Circuit
Elbow Plank Weight Shifts (Rd. 1)
1
10 per side
Bodyweight
Circuit
Elbow Plank Alt. Arm Reach (Rd. 2
1
10 per side
Bodyweight
* A dynamic side-to-side bodyweight shift to lengthen the adductors and activate the gluteus medius.
† For the first set, O’Donnell will do a rotation at chest height for the first round, and then 10 each side; the second set, he’ll do a double-arm overhead reach and 10 per side.
Note: You can purchase O’Donnell’s full off-season strength program at ecfitstrength.com.
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Andrea Martin (DiRuscio)
The Open Road: Outdoor Cycling with Intervals
Weekends are best suited for O’Donnell’s long cycling workouts, but on Tuesdays, he’ll focus more on intervals over the course of a two-hour, 40- to 55-mile ride.
“I like to do intervals up hills, because you can really push your power when you’re going uphill and it’s a little bit safer,“ he says. “Think of it like this: If I’m on the flats and I’m trying to hit 300 watts or whatever, I could end up going 30 miles an hour — if you’re going that fast, you’d better be on a road with light traffic and not a lot of intersections.” Along his ride, he’ll intersperse four-minute efforts of 360- to 385-watt sprints with four-minute recovery periods in between.
Depending on the weather, he might also instead opt to stay inside, using an indoor bike trainer.
“A trainer is a really great tool, because you can control your environment, you never have to stop pedaling for stoplights and traffic, and you can really dial in on the type of training session you’re trying to do,” he points out.
