Beyond Training BookHidden Chapter: The Art of Biohacking the Ironman
I’m often asked how I can race an Ironman triathlon in 9-10 hours on just 8-10 hours of training a week.
People seem most curious about how they could potentially handle the mental rigor of, say, a 5 hour bike ride when the majority of their training rides are just an hour or two long…
…or how they can handle the impact of a marathon when the majority of runs are short 20-30 minute treadmill bouts….
…or how they can line up on the starting line at the beach on the morning of the race, know they have an entire day of “running from a lion” (or chasing a gazelle, depending on your perspective) ahead of them, and be able to still have supreme confidence despite never having exercised all day leading into the event.
The truth is, your body can perform very well in a rigorous endurance event like an Ironman triathlon on far less training than you might think. Your mind can have the mental toughness and your psyche can have the rock-solid confidence necessary to tackle the long day. Your heart, joints, bones and sinews can bounce back quickly too if you play your cards right.
It simply all comes down to knowing the art of biohacking the Ironman. And you’re about to find out exactly how to do it, with three simple, practical tips for several important phases leading up to your big day: 4 weeks out, 2 weeks, out, 1 week out, the night before the race, race day, and immediately post-race (and by the way, these techniques will also work for a marathon, Half-Ironman, or any other extreme feat of physical fitness or endurance).
Ready for the deep dive into Ironman biohacking? Let’s do it!
————————————-
4 Weeks Out
If you’re really serious about “minimalist training”, not beating up your body excessively, using underground training tactics, and freeing up your valuable time for friends, family, career or other hobbies, then up until this point in your preparation, you’ve been using all the underground training tactics from Chapter 4 of the Beyond Training book, along with all the Recovery tactics in Part 3 of the book.
But now, just a month out from your big day, it’s time to start implementing a few extra biohacks. Here are going to be your biggest biohack wins at this point four weeks out from the race:
1. Begin Using Colostrum
Colostrum is a thick yellow fluid which is produced as a precursor to mother’s milk in humans, goats, and other mammals, where it is produced by the mother for two days following birth.
Scientists investigating natural ways to enhance athletic performance have found that the consumption of colostrum from supplemental sources can massively reduce gut permeability, otherwise known as leaky gut syndrome. Their findings, published in the March issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, could have positive implications for any endurance athlete – especially those competing in hot conditions.
A research group led by Ray Playford, Professor of Medicine at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry looked at athletes who were asked to run for 20 minutes at 80 per cent of their aerobic maximum. At the end of the exercise, changes in the subjects gut permeability and “leakiness” were measured using urine samples, and they also looked changes in the athletes’ core temperature. Under standard conditions, gut leakiness had increased by 250% and temperature had risen by 2 degrees. However, when the group were loaded with colostrum for several weeks leading into the trial, the rise in gut leakiness was reduced by about 80%, despite the same effort and temperature rise.
This is important, because the body’s response to increased permeability is to clear the gut contents, giving rise to symptoms such as diarrhea to avoid toxins from gut organisms entering the bloodstream – since these lead to heatstroke, which can result in serious damage to your internal organs.
Professor Playford’s research identified changes in gut barrier function in laboratory studies too: gut cells were cultured at normal 37 degrees body heat and at 39 degrees to replicate the temperature after exercise. The death rate of gut cells was significantly increased at the higher temperature. But when colostrum was added to the culture medium the rise in cell death rate was reduced by two thirds.
Professor Playford sums it up like this:
“Athletes’ performance can be seriously diminished due to gut symptoms during heavy exercise. We have been looking at natural approaches to reduce this problem as the range of products that athletes can legitimately take is very limited. Our findings suggest colostrum may have real value in helping our athletes perform. This is a research area we are especially interested in given our proximity to the 2012 Olympic site. In addition, extremes of temperature and exercise are often suffered by armed forces in desert war scenarios and can result in heat stroke which is life threatening. Based on our results to date, our research group is also exploring products that may be useful for protecting soldiers in life threatening situations such as these.”
Don’t worry – you don’t need to chase down a mommy goat. Just use capsules. Four weeks out from Ironman, I recommend for females and smaller athletes to take 3 capsules of a product called CapraColostrum on an empty stomach in the morning and another 3 in the evening. For males and larger athletes, take 4 capsules at each dosing.
Your gut will thank you on race day. And you’ll be pleased to know that no baby mammals were deprived of colostrum in the writing of this post, or the harvesting of colostrum.
2. Create A “Trigger” Using NLP
When I’m charging through the marathon in an Ironman triathlon, I have a special trigger I use that automatically supercharges my body for up to 2 minutes. It’s a simple act of squeezing my tightly with my four fingers. This is called an anchor, and I learned this biohack through something called Neurolinguistic Programming, or “NLP”.
NLP relies on three components: neurology, language and programming. Your neurological system regulates how your body functions, your language determines how you interface and communicate with other people and your programming determines the kinds of models of the world you create in your mind. All of this is “programmable” through the biohack of NLP, which can change the fundamental dynamics between your mind (neuro) and language (linguistic) and how this interplay affects your body and behavior (programming).
Once you’ve learned NLP, it can be used to block pain, become more relaxed, psyche up, or focus attention during feats of physical performance. You can hear, step-by-step, how I created my personal anchor in the podcast episode “How To Rewire Your Brain and Body With Neurolinguistic Programming“. It will tell you everything you need to know.
3. Cold Exposure
In the podcast episode, “How You Can Use Cold Thermogenesis To Perform Like Lance Armstrong And Michael Phelps” and the article “Tips For Burning More Fat With Cold Thermogenesis (And Why Icing Really Does Work)“, you learn about the myriad of benefits derived from cold therapy. For the purpose of biohacking Ironman, three specifically useful benefits of cold exposure include:
A) Enhanced Immune System
Cold therapy has been proven to enhance the immune system, primarily by increasing levels of immune system cells that help fight disease and infection. Specifically, cold exposure – likely due to it’s ability to stimulate norepinephrine release – can induce leukocytosis and granulocytosis, an increase in natural killer cell count and activity, and a rise in circulating levels of interleukin-6, all of which can massively improve your immune system integrity.
B) Reduced Pain Perception
In a study in Japan, cooling by ice water was one of the “competitive stimuli” that reduced the perception of the pain of a laser beam on the skin. You can read about this in the study “Pain relief by various kinds of interference stimulation applied to the peripheral skin in humans: pain-related brain potentials following CO2 laser stimulation.“.
C) Increased Stress Tolerance
In addition, healthy subjects who regularly swim during the winter were evaluated at Berlin’s Institute of Biochemistry at Humboldt University Medical School. Their blood and urine showed increased levels of anti-oxidants, which prevent cell damage, indicating their bodies’ increased tolerance to stress. You can read about this in the study “Uric acid and glutathione levels during short-term whole body cold exposure.”
I suspect there’s a reason the some of the fiercest Native American tribes took their babies and, from birth, washed them daily in cold water to make them hardy. This was a practice that all these people did throughout their lives, no matter the water temperature or the weather. And in the winter, they would break through the ice to bathe. Now that’s hardcore.
Ready to get the same kind of toughness? For the last 4 weeks leading into Ironman, I recommend one icy cold shower in the morning, one icy cold shower in the evening (preferably after your workouts) and one 15-20 minute cold water soak per week (preferably after your toughest run of the week). The increase in immune system, pain tolerance and stress tolerance will serve you quite well when the going gets hard during your race (plus there are added cardiovascular blood flow benefits to this practice, making cold thermogenesis, ironically, a form of heat acclimation).
—————————————
2 Weeks Out
1. Eliminate Most Caffeine
As you learn in Chapter 16 of Beyond Training, caffeine can significantly help with sports performance. 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, more popularly known as caffeine, is the world’s most consumed natural pharmacological agent. Caffeine has been shown to improve endurance and time trial performance in cyclists, increase endurance in runners, and improve performance times and boost power in rowers. Caffeine has also been shown to improve performance in cycling and running events lasting 5 minutes or more, and to increase power output, speed, and strength in sprint and power events lasting less than 10 seconds (incidentally, caffeine has been shown to have no effect, and may even be a negative factor, in sprint and power events lasting anywhere from 15 seconds to 3 minutes)
In tennis players, caffeine increases hitting accuracy, speed and agility, and overall success on the court. And players reported feeling more energy late in their matches. Caffeine also reduces your “rating of perceived exertion”, or how hard you feel like you’re actually working – which essentially causes you to push harder and faster.
Unfortunately, most people are averaging 238 mg of caffeine every day — which is the equivalent of 2–3 cups of coffee – and 20–30% of people consume an enormous 600 mg of caffeine daily (with about 71% of it coffee, 16% from tea, and 12% from soft drinks and energy drinks). This means that if any of these folks try to use caffeine or coffee to get an ergogenic sports performance enhancing effect prior to a workout or race, it doesn’t really work.
So to get the ergogenic benefits of caffiene, you have to “deload” and quit caffeine a couple weeks prior to your event (ideally 14-17 days before to get the benefits shown in most research studies).
Now I personally can’t miss out on the dark, rich flavor of a morning cup of coffee, so I simply switch to decaf coffee to achieve this effect. But the problem with most decaffeinated coffee is that harsh chemicals and toxins are used to suck the caffeine out of the bean. So I use a form of organic coffee called Bulletproof Upgraded Decaf.
This coffee uses a type of decaffeination called a Swiss Water Process, which is certified organic by the Organic Crop Improvement Association, the world’s largest organic certification agency, in accordance with standards developed by the USDA National Organic Program. A decaffeination facility that uses this process must conform to the OCIA’s rigorous standards.
The other advantage to this form of coffee – whether in it’s caffeinated or decaffeinated form – is that it is mold-free. Most coffee beans are processed by either leaving them in the sun and elements to wither and spoil as they dry, or by pressing them and letting them ferment (spoil) to remove the outer layer of the bean. Both of these techniques are known to produce significant levels of mycotoxins. But the Upgraded Coffee beans are processed immediately after picking using a process that avoids any chance of fermentation. This is a more expensive process, but is safer because it dramatically reduces harmful molds or bacteria from impacting your health, focus or performance.
So switch to Bulletproof Upgraded Decaf (or any other form of organic, swiss-water process decaf) and then also cut back on chocolate or cacao nibs if you do much of those. Be careful of green tea – since it also contains relatively high sources of caffeine, and also inspect any supplements you’re using to limit caffeine use. Although you can’t completely avoid caffeine, if you can limit it to no more than 50-70mg per day, you’ll get the full benefits of caffeine loading on race morning.
2. Begin Salt Soaks
No doubt you’ve heard of Epsom salts baths before for reducing muscle soreness. These are also fantastic for drawing toxins and accumulated inflammation out of muscle tissue. But if you really want to take things to the next level a couple weeks out from the race, you can begin – every 3-4 days – to include not Epsom salts, but magnesium salt soaks. I recommend something called magnesium bath flakes for this.
These magnesium flakes are dry flakes of magnesium chloride hexahydrate and other trace minerals. You simply dissolve 1 to 3 cups of magnesium flakes (or more) in full tub bath and soak for 20-30 minutes (or more if you want). The temperature of your water should be 101F to 103F. This is because extremely hot bath water causes your skin to eliminate minerals rather than absorb them (and that’s a bad thing going into Ironman of course). Following the bath, rinse your skin with cool running water, then pat your skin dry with a towel. And for added cardiovascular and toughness-inducing benefit, take one of those icy cold showers once you finish.
3. Invert
After you’ve spent months on your feet, preparing and training for your incredibly important race, it’s time to begin spending more and more time off your feet, draining inflammation and reducing swelling – preferably with your feet above your head. This is why doing yoga inversion poses (or if you’re extreme like me, using an inversion table) for those last couple weeks going into your competition is crucial. The nearer your race schedule is, the more crucial and beneficial doing yoga inversion poses become.
Perform inversions for five to ten minutes daily (this is enough time to help drain the blood from your legs and improve circulation). When this drainage happens, you’ll allow your body to recover faster so that you feel more light on your feet come race day. Just Google “yoga inversion poses” and you’ll find a plethora of good poses, or read this article, which is chock full of good inversion methods. If you decide to take things to the next level and use an inversion table instead, simply hang from it for 5-10 minutes at the beginning or end of as many days as possible once you’re two weeks out.
1 Week Out
1. Begin ATP Loading
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is the cellular energy required for muscular contraction, cellular division and cellular growth in the body. Through daily, consistent training, the available biochemical pool of building blocks necessary for creating ATP becomes gradually depleted, so by loading with ATP during your final week, you go into your race chock full of extra energy currency.
Supplementing with a specific form of ATP called “Disodium ATP” has also been shown to not only increase extracellular adenine nucleotide levels, which causes vasodilation of your blood vessels. This widening of blood vessels allows more nutrients such as oxygen and glucose to reach the muscle cells, while also helping to transport lactic acid to the liver for reprocessing and conversion into glucose – another source of energy for your muscles.
I personally load with ATP by taking one shot of X2Performance for each day on the final seven days before the race (and I also do another shot on race morning, and another shot every 3 hours during the event). The added benefit is that this stuff also contains d-Ribose, a potent ATP precursor that allows you to more rapidly regenerate ATP from your body’s available “nucleotide pool”. So it’s cool stuff. Warning: X2Performance contains 70mg of caffeine too, so be sure to eliminate any other sources of caffeine if you use it.
2. Eliminate Tight Spots
When you have tight spots in your body, you not only become more prone to aches, pains, and sprains, but the notorious shoulder pain, hip pain, knee pain, and foot pain that tends to creep up during the long Ironman day becomes far more likely to rear it’s ugly head. Hard training puts a lot of stress on the body, but this stress is multiplied when every movement stretches a muscle close to its full range or pushes a joint near its limit. Flexible and mobile joints can move farther without incurring stress on their support structures, reducing fatigue and the wear and tear that adds up quickly to leave you sore and whimpering on the ground.
So to fix this, you need to hunt for and eliminate tight spots one week before your race. The lower back, hips, calves, thighs (both the inner and the side of your thighs), and underneath your armpits (your shoulder’s internal rotators) are the more common tight spots in the body that you need to pay close attention to.
To eliminate these troublesome tight spots during the week before the race, I try to find a quiet location in my house, condo or hotel room, put my mp3 player on so I don’t get bored to tears, grit my teeth, and go to town with my Rumble Roller, lacrosse ball, and/or muscle stick, spending the time that I’d normally be exercising to instead loosen these tight spots instead. Watch this video from Ironman Canada race week to see exactly how I do it.
Another excellent resource to really nail the nitty-gritty ins-and-outs of mobility work is “Becoming A Supple Leopard” by Kelly Starrett. It’s a veritable cookbook for recipes to reduce or eliminate tight spots in your body.
3. Load With Minerals
In the article “Is Salt Really Bad For You“, I describe how I “load” with up to six teaspoons of salt each day for the final seven days going into the big race – especially if I’m racing in hot and/or humid conditions. Although electrolyte use during exercise or your race is not as necessary as you’d think (listen to my interview with Tim Noakes to hear why), going into your big event with topped-off mineral levels can significantly help to mitigate cramping and increase performance.
When it comes to naturally acquired salt, there is no finer specimen than Pink Himalayan Salt, which contains 84 trace minerals. This is way different than regular table salt, which is basically just aluminum caked sodium chloride. For this, I’m a fan of Kosher Pink Himalayan Salt from Onnit Himalayan Salt, which free of heavy metals, pesticides, or PCBs. While there is really no such thing as “organic” salt, this is probably the most pristine salt you’ll find anywhere on the planet.
For even more mineral loading, I’m also a fan of a shot of Trace Liquid Minerals each morning, which is a potent one-two combo when combined with a good salt. Liquid minerals are a rich trace mineral formula with 69 different minerals – all in a liquid form that gives the highest level of absorption and assimilation (compared to, say, salt capsules). A good strategy is to simply combine a morning shot of liquid minerals with a sprinkling of sea salt on each of your daily meals in the last week leading into your race. This will seem like a lot of salt, but your body will thank you during (and after) the event.
Night Before Race
Anybody who has ever raced an Ironman triathlon, run a marathon, or done any other feat of physical endurance can tell you how satisfactory it can be to A) have a good night’s sleep going into the event and B) to have a good poo on race morning so that you do not have to complete part of or your entire race feeling like you need to stop and go Number 2.
I have my own special mix that I use for ultimate relaxation on race morning, combined with good elimination and a complete, satisfactory “elimination” the morning of the race. Here’s how it goes:
1. Melatonin patch. 60 minutes before bed, I simply put a melatonin patch on a hair-free area of my body, like my inner thigh or armpit area. This bypasses the loss of melatonin absorption that you’d normally experience from oral intake of a melatonin capsule, and instead gets the stuff directly into your bloodstream. You’ll wake relaxed and refreshed, but without the grogginess you’ll typically get from oral melatonin supplementation.
2. Passionflower extract. Passionflower is a natural source of Gamma Amino Butyric Acid (GABA), which one of the best natural ways to relax and get the same effects as something like Valium or Diazepam without the nasty hangover side effects. This passionflower extract is especially potent when combined with the melatonin patch, and I do about 20 drops of passionflower sublingually directly before my head hits the pillow. For the best effect, hold in your mouth for about 60 seconds, then swallow.
3. Oxygenated magnesium in the form of MagO7. And here’s where the poo comes in. I talk about this stuff in my episode “How To Poop The Right Way” with Troy Casey. It kinda flies under the radar when it comes to things that help with bowel movements, but I’ve found it to be a perfect solution the night before the race. MagO7 is a combination of powdered magnesium based compound which have been stabilized to release monoatomic, nascent oxygen as it absorbs. The timed release ensures that MagO7 will provide an adequate amount of oxygen, slowly, for better utilization of the magnesium. As a result you get a stool softening effect, without any of the intestinal discomfort or 24-hour-ish effect of a high fiber supplement like psyllium husk, Metamucil, etc. For best effect, I recommend popping 2-4 capsules of MagO7 with a glass of water (or red wine, if you’re that type of person) about 2 hours prior to bed.
Race Day
1. Drink A Cup of High Fat Coffee
Rather than throwing a bunch of sugar and starch into your body on race morning, you can actually keep yourself in a state of focused, fatty-acid utilization by drinking a cup of coffee (in this case, fully caffeinated – all systems are a go now!) that has been blended with fats, which carry potent sources of wakefulness molecules across your blood-brain barrier. Here’s how to do it:
-Start with 1 cup (8 oz.) filtered water, just off the boil.
-Measure 2 1/2 heaping tablespoons freshly ground Bulletproof® Upgraded™ Coffee beans (approximately 2 rounded tablespoons per 6 oz. water) and brew using your favorite coffee brewing method. I personally travel to all my races with an “aeropress” coffee maker for this purpose.
-Pour in 1 tablespoon MCT Oil or Brain Octane Oil.
-Add 2 heaping tablespoons grass-fed, unsalted butter.
-If you have it around, also add 2 tablespoons amino acids in the form of collagen.
Mix this concoction in a blender for 20 seconds until the oil and butter are emulsified so the drink is frothy and looks like a creamy latte without a film of oil on the surface. For added calories (I personally do this) add about 4oz of full fat coconut milk. Suck this all down about 90 minutes to 2 hours prior to start time. If you do this morning protocol, you don’t even need to eat anything else until you exit the swim!
2. Use Body Cooling Gear
In my race report blog article “Battling the Heat in Vegas“, I describe how I use body cooling gear such as a handheld palm cooling device, a xylitol infused hat, and even a body cooling vest during the race. Ultimately, in retrospect, I think all of this was a bit overboard – and it was logistically challenging to throw in all these different body cooling devices.
But at a minimum, I recommend you at least use arm coolers. Of all the body cooling hacks I’ve tried, I’ve found that these give the biggest bang for your buck with the least management issues when it comes to body cooling – whether cycling or running. I prefer the DeSoto Arm Cooling Sleeves, which have a special moisture-radiating material that offer a cooling effect, and, as an added benefit, protect your arms from the sun. There’s more on cooling your body quickly post-race towards the end of this chapter.
3. Take Amino Acids
In the study “Effects of amino acid supplementation on muscle soreness and damage.“, you learn about how taking amino acids can prevent muscle cannibalization and build-up of inflammatory byproducts during hard workouts and race – while also increasing your RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion), which means you can push your body harder, and decreasing post-race soreness.
From an overall health standpoint, by maintaining high blood levels of amino acids, you also require your body to use less sugar during the race, which allows for less carbohydrate fermentation in your gut and less build-up of free radicals and reactive oxygen species.
For these reasons, many gels and sports drinks are now using something called Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s) in their products. But if you really want to take things to the next level, you can actually utilize a more complete form of amino acids called Essential Amino Acids (EAA’s), at an intake of about 5-10 grams per hour during the race. When it comes to during-the-race supplementation, this is one of the biggest, most immediately noticeable biohacks I use.
Implementation of the amino acid trick is straightforward: I simply carry a bunch of white tablets called “NatureAminos” in a film canister during the bike and run. Or, I blend the tablets in a blender with my other fuels in my bike bottle and run flask. I outline more complete instructions for this blending method in Chapter 16 of Beyond Training.
Post Race
Finally, as I mentioned earlier, bouncing back quickly from your event is crucial if you want your legs to feel good and you want to get back into the swing of things as fast as possible. I’m typically back into workouts, playing basketball and tennis, paddleboarding, chasing my kids, rolling out of bed without having a hernia, and just plain having fun within just a few days after Ironman. Here are three of the most important things I personally do as soon as possible after I cross the finish line by keeping each of these items in my post-race bag:
1. Transdermal Magnesium
I use a transdermal magnesium lotion made by the same company that makes the magnesium flakes I mentioned earlier. It is a smooth, quickly absorbed emulsion of magnesium chloride and MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) in a skin-nourishing base of certified organic oils. MSM has long been revered as a superior form of sulfur supplementation, and when smeared on your skin as a post-race topical treatment, it enhances cell membrane permeability and facilitates more efficient uptake of the magnesium ions that are also in the lotion.
There’s a big benefit to this stuff too if your race was in the sun, since it’s rich in plant moisturizers, including coconut oil and shea butter – so it soothes and hydrates that burn you might have without leaving your skin feeling waxy or greasy. If you’re prone to post-race cramping, post-race soreness, dry skin, or anything else like that after the race, this stuff is your ticket.
2. Use High-Dose Curcumin
At doses of 1+ grams, curcumin is a natural anti-inflammatory that doesn’t rip up your stomach like ibuprofen or Advil. It has been proven in studies to be as effective in reducing inflammation as cortisone. You can get curcumin in extracted high-dose capsules from just about any health food store, but I personally use this stuff called Phenocane.
Phenocane is a natural anti-inflammatory and COX2 inhibitor that relieves pain and eliminates inflammation without inhibiting COX1 development like aspirin does or causing many of the liver and stomach problems that ibuprofen and Advil do.
In other words, it prevents the production of an enzyme which is bad for you without inhibiting the growth of one that is good for you. COX2 enzymes have long been thought to be one of the causes of cancer in the body and they are known to help sustain PGE1 (Prostaglandin) which is the secretion that causes inflammation and the pain that results from it. COX1 is an enzyme that protects the lining of the digestive tract and bloodstream.
In addition to curcumin, Phenocane contains:
-Curcuminoids: These are the sub particles that make up curcumin. Curcuminoids are the extremely potent, reduced parts taken from curcumin, which is reduced from the herb called turmeric. Curcuminoids have been found to be very powerful COX2 inhibitors and are the key ingredient of Phenocane.
-dl phenylalanine: Otherwise called DLPA. DLPA is a beneficial amino acid that is noted for helping the body maintain higher levels of serotonin. Serotonin is a hormone produced in the brain that promotes good feelings and has been proven to elevate mood, which then helps reduce feelings of pain.
-Boswellia: Boswellia is an herb that is also fairly well-known for its ability to inhibit COX2 in the body. It operates by a slightly different mechanism than curcuminoids, causing it to enhance and maximize the COX2 inhibiting activity of Phenocane.
-Nattokinase: This enzyme has been found to help reduce blood clots, thus, diminishing possible negative side effects from Phenocane as a COX2 inhibitor. Nattokinase is derived from the vegetable cheese called Natto, which is a popular soybean food in Japan.
3. Use Compression + Ice
It’s no secret that most people attempt to use ice to cool down or soothe sore muscles. But icing alone may actually increase the permeability of your lymphatic vessels (tubes which normally help carry excess tissue fluids back into the cardiovascular system). Once this lymphatic permeability increases, there may be risk of a large amounts of fluid backflowing into the injured or sore area, causing more swelling than may have occurred if you didn’t ice in the first place.
To limit this amount of lymphatic backflow, you have to combine ice with compression. So as soon as I cross the finish line, I go into the medical tent to hunt down ziplock or plastic bags of ice (most medical tents have these). I then put these into the front and the back of the shorts on my legs. If I’m wearing a spandex-type, tight-fitting short, this is easy to pull off. Otherwise, I use cellophane wrap (also common in medical tents) or Ace bandage to compress the ice.
A company called 110% Play Harder gear has actually implemented the ability to place recovery enhancing ice packs into compression tights and leggings, so when I get back to my home, condo or hotel room, I pull on their full leggings and then put the ice into those (you get a 10% discount with FREE shipping when you use code “GREENFIELD” at 110% Play Harder on these).
You’ll notice a huge difference when you enhance the effects of ice (and mitigate the potential for lymphatic backflow) by combining ice with compression. Remember – it’s all about feeling good and getting back to your normal life as quickly as you can! Oh yeah – and also not getting a blood clot on the airplane flight back home.
———————————–
So that’s it.
Those are, if I counted properly, 18 of the best ways to get into the Art of Biohacking the Ironman.
This may seem like a lot of stuff to do, but once you make these things a natural habit of your last month going into the race, you’re going to notice a huge difference in your performance, your toughness, your focus and your ability to bounce back quickly after the event. When it comes to better living through science, all about this kind of biohacking, baby. Compared to your friends who are hobbling through a race with upset stomachs, a bad night of sleep, or heavy legs, you’ll be ready and rarin’ to go.
And by the way, I’ve decided to make this hidden chapter interactive too. So if you have questions, your own biohacks to add, comments, thoughts, or any other form of feedback, just leave it under this post and I’ll be happy to reply!