150: Thoughts and Reflections on Ironman Arizona

In this episode, I walk through my full Ironman Arizona 2025 experience—from the weeks of prep to crossing that finish line. I break down how I approached carb loading, packing, and race-week logistics, and how I handled curveballs like getting into a car accident as soon as we arrived. I take you through each leg of the race, how I managed my nutrition, hydration, pacing, and transitions, and what was happening physically and mentally along the way. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 01:57 Pre-Race Preparations and Travel 02:20 Story Time 07:41 Traveling with Family and Car Accident 12:08 Bike Setup and Nutrition Planning 19:47 Final Preparations Before Race Day 29:31 Pre-Race Preparations 31:49 Swim 35:53 Transition to the Bike 36:54 Bike 41:53 Transition to the Run 46:29 Run 50:22 Crossing the Finish Line 53:12 Post-Race Reflections 55:07 Recovery and Future Plans ORDER MY BOOK HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFE https://bpn.team/member IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness In this episode, I walk through my full Ironman Arizona 2025 experience—from the weeks of prep to crossing that finish line. I break down how I approached carb loading, packing, and race-week logistics, and how I handled curveballs like getting into a car accident as soon as we arrived. I take you through each leg of the race, how I managed my nutrition, hydration, pacing, and transitions, and what was happening physically and mentally along the way. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 01:57 Pre-Race Preparations and Travel 02:20 Story Time 07:41 Traveling with Family and Car Accident 12:08 Bike Setup and Nutrition Planning 19:47 Final Preparations Before Race Day 29:31 Pre-Race Preparations 31:49 Swim 35:53 Transition to the Bike 36:54 Bike 41:53 Transition to the Run 46:29 Run 50:22 Crossing the Finish Line 53:12 Post-Race Reflections 55:07 Recovery and Future Plans ORDER MY BOOK HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFE https://bpn.team/member IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Nick Bare?

  Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's episode is a breakdown and recap of Ironman Arizona, which I completed this past Sunday. Today is now Thursday, the Thursday after the race. So I'm in recovery from, uh, from the Ironman effort, which I'm very happy with the effort overall. Total time, 10 hours, 6 minutes, 2 seconds. So close to sub 10. Swim was 1 hour, 30 minutes, 23 seconds.

• 0:48Nick Bare?

  My transition one was 8 minutes, 38 seconds. Bike, 5 hours, 3 minutes, 6 seconds. Transition two, 5 minutes, 23 seconds. And the run, 3 hours, 18 minutes, 32 seconds. For like I said, a total time of 10 hours, 6 minutes and 2 seconds total. And I'll break down each leg of the Ironman, Ironman Arizona here a little bit. But there are some things I want to share before we get into, to race day.

• 1:28Nick Bare?

  Now from my understanding, Ironman Arizona for years now has been a very popular race. But this is, 2025 was the, the last time that they'll be doing an Ironman in Arizona on this course. I'm not exactly sure why, but they are retiring the Ironman Arizona course.

• 1:53Nick Bare?

  Now this was a Sunday race and we flew out Friday. So two days prior to the Ironman.

• 2:05Nick Bare?

  Quick little story before we get into kind of the travel day because I want to talk about some of the logistics that go into an Ironman triathlon, especially when you're traveling with your entire family. The night before we left, so Thursday night, I'm laying in bed. I'm feeling great. It was day one of the carb up. I'm in, I'm in the taper. I'm feeling recovered, was trying to fall asleep early to get, you know, plentiful sleep in preparation for the race Sunday. So I was going to sleep before Steph. And earlier that day, as I walked into the bathroom, I saw this, this kit

• 2:49Nick Bare?

  in this box on our, our vanities. And it was a, a nose hair wax kit. And I assumed Steph bought this for me post-race because earlier in the week, we were talking about my out of control nose hairs that I trim and they grow back almost same day. It's, it's crazy. So I saw this kit sitting on the vanity earlier in the day and didn't think much of it. I'm getting into bed early Thursday night before Steph. Go through my, my nighttime routine. I put my sleep mask on.

• 3:31Nick Bare?

  I've been sleeping with this, this eye sleep mask for the last couple of months. And I love it. I absolutely enjoy it, especially the nights when I go to bed before Steph because it blacks everything out. You know, all the, the lights in the bedroom can be on and I don't see anything. I fall asleep so well. I stay asleep very well too. So I'm in bed, sleep mask on, about to fall asleep. And I hear Steph say, do you want me to clean out your nose hairs? So you have more horsepower in your, your breathing. Come, Ironman. And I was like, no, I'm about to fall asleep. I'll do it when I get back from the race.

• 4:15Nick Bare?

  So she was doing her nose at the time. And she said, let me just do it really quick. It doesn't hurt at all.

• 4:24Nick Bare?

  And I watched her do hers. She put the wax in the stick in her nose. She let it dry. She ripped it out. Didn't flinch. Nothing. And she pulled out like maybe a few nose hairs. My nose hairs are probably a hundred times more dense than Steph's nose hairs. So as I'm laying in bed, I was like, all right, we'll bring the kit over. Shove them up my nose. We'll rip it out. You say it doesn't hurt at all. I'll fall back to sleep. So I'm laying in bed. She brings the wax kit over. She puts one in at a time. So she starts with my right nostril. Puts the wax, the hot wax and the stick in there and lets it dry. I lean up.

• 5:08Nick Bare?

  I pull it out. And no lie. It drew blood. I was bleeding out of my right nostril. It hurt significantly more than she led me to believe. And I have to only attribute that to the amount of nose hairs that I have. They must be very dense and strong nose hairs. It was painful. I was bleeding. I had blood on my face. And I knew I had to do the other nostril. So we throw the, the hot wax and the stick into my left nostril now. I sit up.

• 5:47Nick Bare?

  I'm anticipating the pull because the first one hurt and drew blood. This one didn't come out quite as easy. I pulled. Nothing. No movement. So then I just start pulling harder and harder and harder. And I could feel each additional nose hair ripping out of my skin. Got the left nostril cleared out. Lots of hair came out.

• 6:20Nick Bare?

  I will say, it felt great. I could breathe really well. I can still breathe very well. My nose has never been this clean and empty before. For years, it's been filled with nose hairs. But it was traumatic. Thursday night before going to sleep. That's what my wife decided to treat me to prior to getting on a plane the next morning and flying to Arizona for my Ironman. Did it make a difference in my performance? Who knows?

• 6:55Nick Bare?

  Did I feel better? Absolutely. Once the pain resided.

• 7:01Nick Bare?

  But a lot of nose hair came out. My note right here, so I didn't forget to talk about this.

• 7:08Nick Bare?

  Talk about the nose hair clearance story.

• 7:14Nick Bare?

  That was Thursday night. Steph, I love you. Thank you for helping me with my nose hairs. But I'm going to choose different options in the future other than the wax kit. Painful. It was painful. Okay, so the next day, we traveled to, like I said, Arizona with our entire family. I wanted the whole family to be there for this race, so we took our three-year-old daughter Charlie, one-year-old son Nico, Steph's parents, Kim and Nick, Banda, they flew in for the race.

• 7:58Nick Bare?

  My dad and his girlfriend Sheri, they were there for the race.

• 8:06Nick Bare?

  And it was just really nice to have everyone there. It was really, really nice to have the whole family there and truly celebrate a big prep, a big effort, and a strong performance, in my opinion. But we traveled with the kids. And if you have kids, young kids especially, you know what traveling on an airplane is like with young kids. It was an adventure, but it was all good. It was fun. We flew out from Austin direct to Arizona.

• 8:41Nick Bare?

  Landed in Phoenix, we flew to the Phoenix Airport and went to rent a car. And the only vehicles they had left were big trucks. So we ended up getting a Ram 2500 as our rental.

• 8:59Nick Bare?

  Way too excessive for what we needed for the weekend, but it's all that was left. And in retrospect,

• 9:08Nick Bare?

  by the grace of God, very appreciative that we ended up renting a Ram 2500 because shortly after we got into our rental car and started making the the trek to our Airbnb, which was only 15 minutes away from the airport. Traffic was crazy in the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe area. We were staying in Scottsdale. We flew into Phoenix, but the race was in Tempe. They're all kind of like right in the same vicinity.

• 9:42Nick Bare?

  And we were, we were on the highway and traffic came to a pretty abrupt halt.

• 9:48Nick Bare?

  So we slowed down, we're sitting in traffic. I believe we were on the 202.

• 9:54Nick Bare?

  And next thing we know that happens is we're getting thrown out of our seats in our truck on the highway. What ended up happening is as traffic stopped abruptly, we were probably sitting for 20 seconds at that point. Were two cars behind us. The car wasn't paying attention, hit the car behind us, full speed. That car slammed into us, hit us, threw our truck around. Luckily, we had this massive 2500. So the only thing it really tore up was our rear bumper.

• 10:32Nick Bare?

  But it shook everyone up, you know, threw everything in the truck around. Steph actually ended up hitting her nose and breaking her nose. This is, this is Friday, two days before the race, right after we landed in Phoenix. The kids were crying and shook it up.

• 10:51Nick Bare?

  So that's how we started this whole trip. Uh, Steph was a trooper about all of them and she hit her nose so hard. There was blood everywhere within this truck all over herself. And we're just trying to get from airport after a long day of travel with the kids, the Airbnb and get them settled. So that's how all of this kind of kicked off. It was absolutely chaotic and we didn't share any of the story during the weekend because, you know, we just didn't feel like bringing any attention to it, but this is the first time I'm actually talking about it.

• 11:28Nick Bare?

  That was, that was like how we kicked off this whole weekend. Which unfortunate, but also just extremely appreciative and grateful that no one was seriously injured. We were all okay. We were able to get back to the Airbnb safely. Family was a little shaken up, but it was a, it was an event to start, to start the Ironman weekend. That is for sure. Uh, to pivot from there, some of the things that we did immediately after getting into Arizona.

• 12:08Nick Bare?

  So the bike was dropped off at Moxie Bike Shop in Scottsdale, Arizona. Great shop, highly recommend it. M O X I E. Moxie Bike Shop.

• 12:23Nick Bare?

  Because the thing when you, when you travel with your bike to one of these races, is that you have to, you know, in order to take it through the airport onto a plane, you have to put it in a bike bag. You can't just like walk your bike into the airport and they check it underneath on its own. You have to put it in a bike bag and to put it in a bike bag, it has to be broken down. And I don't know how to, to break a, a bike down properly. So I took that bike, the bike that I raced on, my Sorello P5, to a shop here in the Austin area. They broke it down, packed it up. We got the bike to Arizona on the plane.

• 13:09Nick Bare?

  Upon arriving, took it to Moxie Bike Shop where they took it out of the bag. They put it all back together. It's really important to note that you have some sort of guide of your measurements. When you get your bike fit, your bike fitting technician will write down all the measurements of what they adjusted on the bike that are specifically fitted to you. So I took that paper to Moxie and just provided it to them as they were building the bike back together. They could build it based off the specs that the bike technician who fitted me fitted that bike to. So it was exactly the way that I needed it, the way that I was training on it, and it

• 13:52Nick Bare?

  was fitted specifically to my needs. Now, a few things that we ended up doing additionally at the Moxie Bike Shop is I got new wheels and tires put on. I tried doing that here in Texas, but the shop couldn't get it done in time. So upon arriving to the Moxie Bike Shop, like I said, in Scottsdale, we put on a head, H E D, disc wheel on the back, and then we put on a matching, not disc, but a matching wheel and tire on the front of the bike.

• 14:33Nick Bare?

  Now, these disc wheels, you might have seen pictures or videos of these wheels. Most people don't train with disc wheels, but they race with disc wheels. I believe they're more aerodynamic. It's a faster setup. But essentially, the whole wheel, you can't see through it. It is maybe a carbon fiber type material, but it helps with the performance of the bike. So I used a disc wheel on my last triathlon, which is in 2021, my 70.3 in Cancun, Mexico. And I decided I wanted to use another disc wheel for this race, and we ended up getting that done just a

• 15:18Nick Bare?

  few days, you know, two days prior to the race. But I can tell a big difference in terms of riding performance utilizing a disc wheel as opposed to not. That's one of the things we got done as soon as we arrived to Arizona.

• 15:36Nick Bare?

  Now, the episode of the podcast that I recorded before this one that I'm speaking into right now and we released, the previous episode was all about my taper.

• 15:51Nick Bare?

  So, the day of, of travel being Friday, this is my second day of, um, my carbohydrate load.

• 16:01Nick Bare?

  Race was Sunday, as I talked about in the previous episode, I like to carbohydrate load three days and two days out. And then eat normal the day before, which I'll talk about here as we get into, uh, Saturday, the day before.

• 16:20Nick Bare?

  But Friday, the day of travel, ended up being my second day of the carbohydrate load. Uh, so there were some backwards planning,

• 16:30Nick Bare?

  logistical planning to kind of ensure that I stayed on top of my carbohydrate load. Uh, some of the things that I did, because I was consuming about 800 grams of carbs, that's why I ended up consuming Thursday and Friday each day, uh, before, before the race. So I had between those two days, 48 hours, 1600 ish grams of carbohydrates. And it was a perfect taper, it was a perfect carbohydrate load in my opinion. But to ensure that I stayed on top of my nutrition Friday while traveling,

• 17:08Nick Bare?

  I packed a lot of meals. So I carried a, a core with me on the plane that had, um, you know, ice packs and then I had a meal of beef and rice in there. I carried some orange juices, honey.

• 17:26Nick Bare?

  Cereal and then what I like to do going into a carbohydrate load is input everything the day before into my fitness pal. So I know exactly what I'm consuming during that carbohydrate load to hit my protein, fat and carbohydrate macronutrient goals throughout those days to ensure I'm dialed and just hit exactly what I need to. So the day before traveling, I had everything inputted into my fitness pal to hit the macronutrient goals that I wanted to. I prepared my foods and my meals, some of which were in a cooler, some of which were

• 18:04Nick Bare?

  just in my backpack. And then as soon as we landed in Phoenix, we put an order of Instacart in to have groceries delivered to our Airbnb for what we would need and what I would need really for the remainder of Friday and then all day Saturday leading into the race.

• 18:26Nick Bare?

  I think Instacart is one of the greatest things ever invented. Before having kids,

• 18:36Nick Bare?

  we never used Instacart. Before having kids, we used to love our trips to the grocery store. We take our time walking down the aisles, exploring what's new. It was a very relaxing, typically Sunday afternoon trip, Steph and I. After having kids,

• 18:55Nick Bare?

  we don't take those, those trips to the grocery store as frequently, but we Instacart all the time. I love Instacart. If you haven't used Instacart, it's a game changer, especially while traveling. So as soon as we landed, I had my Instacart order ready for groceries to be delivered to our Airbnb of everything we were going to need for the next couple of days. So that was Friday. Friday was a travel day. It was my second carbohydrate load day. It was a bike preparation day, a food preparation day. And unfortunately,

• 19:34Nick Bare?

  Friday for us came with an accident, which wasn't planned, was unfortunate, but like I've said, just grateful that no one was seriously injured and everyone was okay. Okay. So Saturday, the day before the Ironman.

• 19:52Nick Bare?

  And the reason I'm sharing Friday and Saturday leading up to the race day is because I take these days very serious. The way that I view it and approach these days leading up to the race, I mean, really, the whole prep, the entire 18-week prep, I was dialed in. For these last couple of days, I want to remove all variables. I want to control what I can control to set myself up for success, set my family up for success during the travel and the weekend and the race as well. And that comes with a lot of planning. So Saturday morning, we woke up, me and the

• 20:35Nick Bare?

  boys, the media team, went and did a shakeout run. So it was a two and a half mile shakeout run. Weather was perfect. It was beautiful in the Arizona area. The first thing I noticed in the first 30 seconds of that run, the poppiness of my legs. This tells me I tapered well and I carbohydrate loaded well. When I go out on that last shakeout run, the only way to describe it is you have this pop in your feet and your legs. As soon as your foot strikes the pavement or it strikes the ground, it pops back up. There is this responsiveness. And you know, when you get

• 21:20Nick Bare?

  deep into a prep and you're training on fatigued legs and a fatigued body all the time, you lose some of that poppiness, some of that responsiveness. You don't feel it or experience it for quite some time. So when you're at the back half of taper, you go out on that last shakeout run and you get that pop and that response when your foot strikes the ground, that for me tells me we're ready. We're recovered. We tapered well. We're fit. We're loaded with carbohydrates. Glycogen is topped off. We're ready to go race tomorrow morning. That's what I experienced on that shakeout run.

• 22:01Nick Bare?

  As I've already mentioned, between Thursday and Friday, I had about 1,600 grams of carbohydrates that were now loaded in the form of glycogen. Not all of it, but I was definitely topped off on glycogen.

• 22:18Nick Bare?

  The game plan for Saturday nutrition wise was to consume about thirty five hundred calories. And this broke down to roughly one hundred eighty five grams of protein, five hundred grams of carbohydrates and eighty grams of fat.

• 22:34Nick Bare?

  With limited fiber intake. And just consuming foods and food sources that I knew my body digested well. And preferred and liked foods that just work well for me. Also throughout the day, staying on top of hydration, not just water, but also electrolytes. So I had multiple servings of electrolytes. In the past, I've messed up. When I first started running marathons, were the two days before a race, I would drink one to two gallons of water. And I didn't know about proper hydration back then, and I wasn't incorporating electrolytes into that plan.

• 23:18Nick Bare?

  And what I ended up actually doing is flushing out all my body's stores of electrolytes. So come race day, I would cramp up and muscles would seize and they wouldn't work properly. It actually hurt my performance. So in the days leading up to,

• 23:34Nick Bare?

  not just consuming water, but staying on top of electrolyte consumption as well. So that Saturday, the day before the race, multiple servings of electrolytes.

• 23:46Nick Bare?

  Another note that I want to share that I like to do while traveling, especially around races. Is being very careful of water sources that you're consuming. I have somewhat of a sensitive stomach. So certain tap water or faucet water, or even water from like refrigerator filters. Will hurt my stomach. So we bought a bunch of bottled mountain spring water. That we just order in our Airbnb to drink those days leading up to the race. Just to have a clean source of water. Some people can drink any type of water and not have any stomach problems.

• 24:27Nick Bare?

  I'm not like that. I can tell when I drink bad water hurts my stomach. I get some pains, some discomfort, gas, bloating, and I just try to avoid that. And in really control every variable possible in those days leading up to the race. And water is one of those.

• 24:49Nick Bare?

  So the other things we had to do Saturday in preparation for the next morning.

• 24:56Nick Bare?

  As I mentioned, we did our 2.5 mile shakeout run in the morning, came back, had breakfast. Went to Ironman Village downtown Tempe. We checked in. Got my transition bags.

• 25:11Nick Bare?

  Bib, all the things I needed to check in. And then we went and dropped the bike off at bike check in. So you drop your bike off the day before and they store all these bikes. I mean, it's probably over 2,000 bikes based off the amount of participants in Ironman, Arizona on these racks.

• 25:32Nick Bare?

  Coordinating and planning. An Ironman. Logistically. As an organization. Blows my mind. It is a very complex system, lots of moving pieces, lots of equipment. After bike drop off, we had to drop off transition bags. So this is the bag that you pick up in between your swim and your bike. And then the bag you pick up in between your bike and your swim. So we packed transition bags, dropped those off at the respective locations. Just to provide context, like what am I putting in a transition bag? For my bag between the swim and the bike.

• 26:17Nick Bare?

  I had my cycling shoes, my helmet.

• 26:22Nick Bare?

  I had my Go Gels in there, socks, a Go Bar. In my transition bag from the bike to the run. I had my hat, sunglasses, running shoes, handheld water bottle, stuff like that. Gels, things I'm gonna need for for the transition, the next leg of the race.

• 26:48Nick Bare?

  I actually had a really good sleep Saturday night going into Sunday. I slept six hours, 45 minutes going into race day. I've never been someone who has struggled to sleep the night before a race. I sleep really well, actually. Uh, my Garmin sleep score was an 83 and my Garmin training readiness score was an 89, which is deemed excellent. So I was ready. You know, that's why I take these days leading up to the race so serious. I want my body to be primed. I want logistically to have a plan and be prepared.

• 27:29Nick Bare?

  I want to give my mind the space to just think and be mentally prepared to execute come race day. I want to nail my nutrition. I want to control all the variables that I am in control of. And that requires intentionality. It requires commitment. It requires discipline.

• 27:54Nick Bare?

  So based off my, my Garmin scores that I had,

• 27:58Nick Bare?

  you know, the next morning, Sunday morning, objectively, I was ready, but also subjectively, how I felt, I felt ready. I felt as ready as could be. Race day, Sunday, November 16th.

• 28:17Nick Bare?

  I had a 3:45 AM wake up for a 6:50 AM start time. That was 6:50 AM start time for age group athletes.

• 28:28Nick Bare?

  Some of the first things that I, I did immediately upon waking up. So in our Airbnb, it was me, Steph, Nico, Charlie and Steph's parents.

• 28:37Nick Bare?

  And the plan was to go over to the media team's Airbnb, which was five minutes from our Airbnb, or down the road, to do all the filming in preparation for that morning. So we didn't wake up the family. First thing I did at my Airbnb, though, coffee and bowel movement. Success. Anyone who has an early race knows that you gotta back up that wake up time as much as needed. So you can have a successful bowel movement. Cause you don't have to worry about that at the starting line in the first couple hours of the race. We achieved success in this case.

• 29:21Nick Bare?

  3:45 a.m. wake up, coffee and bowel movement, success by I would say 4:10 a.m. in the first 25 minutes upon waking. Then I drove over to the media team's Airbnb, like I said, so I didn't wake up the family. Breakfast I consumed roughly at 4:30 a.m. This was one cup of oats just cooked up, two tablespoons of peanut butter, one tablespoon roughly of honey, one and a half bananas, three whole eggs, and I put sea salt on top of all of it. And I had about 25 ounces of water

• 30:00Nick Bare?

  with two scoops of our electrolytes in there, which was an additional 1,000 milligrams of sodium in combination with the food and the salt that I added to the food. From there, I did some light stretching, mobility work, and I used the Hyperice massage gun on my lower body. Just get things primed up, ready for the swim. And then we made our way to downtown Tempe, Ironman Village at the starting line. We arrived roughly at 6 a.m.

• 30:35Nick Bare?

  And the first thing we did immediately upon arriving is I went over my bike at the bike check-in. I added my bike computer, which was fully charged to my bike. Didn't want to leave that sitting out overnight. And then I added my water bottles to my bike as well, which had my G and M sport in the bottles. Also pumped up my bike tires. So where all the bikes are stored for an Ironman, they have just tire pumps sitting around the perimeter that you can use to pump up your tires. Just because overnight, you know, with different weather conditions, you got cooler and tempe.

• 31:14Nick Bare?

  You can lose some air in your tires and you bring those tires back to optimal pressure before kicking off the race. And the last thing I did before making my way to the starting line and putting my wet suit on was I ate a go bar.

• 31:33Nick Bare?

  So I ate this about

• 31:38Nick Bare?

  almost two hours after breakfast. So I had a go bar, which is an additional 36 grams of carbohydrates before starting the swim. Now for the swim, as I mentioned, my time was one hour, 30 minutes, 23 seconds.

• 31:58Nick Bare?

  This was actually a bit slower than I would have wanted or expected, but I'm not mad about it. I knew going into the Ironman that the swim wasn't going to be my strongest. However, the goal was to finish the swim so that I could conserve energy and expend that saved energy on the bike and the run. I'm naturally not a great swimmer. Of the two triathlons I've done before this one, I made slight improvements to my swim, but didn't get better in a meaningful way.

• 32:38Nick Bare?

  And I really didn't expect to get better at swimming in a meaningful way during this 18 week prep. So the goal was to improve efficiency to conserve energy for the bike and the run.

• 32:54Nick Bare?

  One hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds. I'm not gonna lie, it felt like I was swimming for three hours in that river. It felt like a long swim. But coming out of the water, I still felt very strong. It didn't tax me very well. We were able to wear wetsuits in that swim based off of water temperatures. I believe the threshold for wetsuits in an Ironman triathlon is 86 degrees. So if the water is 86 degrees or above, you can't wear a wetsuit. In this case, it was wetsuit legal. Now normally in the Tempe Town Lake River, the water temperature is like 60 to 61 degrees.

• 33:38Nick Bare?

  But it had been warmer the weeks leading up to this race. So the water temperature actually wasn't that bad. It was like 67, 68 degrees. It didn't feel cold. It felt fine. Water condition wise though, it was choppy. The water was very choppy and it was very dirty. It was a, it was dirty water. It was dirtier than I would have expected it to be, in all honesty. But swimming in a triathlon is so unique. Because you know, you, you put in this massive training block in preparation.

• 34:15Nick Bare?

  And in my case, I was swimming most of the time in a pool. Calm waters, you know, a lane to yourself. I did some open water swims in the quarry, which is attached to Lifetime Fitness in North Austin. It's a beautiful spot to swim. If you're a triathlete in the Austin area, get a membership at the Lifetime North Austin by the Domain. There's this massive quarry behind it that you can swim in that is just reserved for swimmers, paddleboarders, kayakers. It's, it's beautiful and it's very clean water. I've never had any issues there.

• 34:54Nick Bare?

  But what makes a triathlon swim so unique is you're not swimming by yourself in controlled water conditions.

• 35:06Nick Bare?

  In a, in, in a lane, essentially. There's people swimming over you. There's people that are kicking you in the face. Your arms are getting stuck on other people's arms. Your legs are getting tangled in other people's bodies. Like it's, it's, imagine a school of fish. That's what it's like. It's, it's people all over each other. You're constantly hitting other people.

• 35:32Nick Bare?

  But the swim, in all fairness, you know, to wrap up the swim.

• 35:39Nick Bare?

  It was a solid swim.

• 35:42Nick Bare?

  In my opinion. I felt strong the whole way through. The goal, like I have mentioned, was to conserve energy. Definitely wasn't my fastest swim ever, but we got it done.

• 35:56Nick Bare?

  One hour, 30 minutes, 23 seconds.

• 36:01Nick Bare?

  Immediately getting out of the water, I transitioned one.

• 36:06Nick Bare?

  And I said, transition one, uh, was eight minutes, 38 seconds. Now you run out of the water, you, you run down this lane. And they have these people called wet suit strippers waiting for you. Where essentially you, you pull the zipper off the back of your wet suit. You lay on the ground and these people just grab your wet suit off you and rip it from your body. It's a wild experience. I mean, they rip those wet suits off you in, in, in no time. I got to my transition one bag, grabbed all my cycling gear and a go bar. So I had a go bar right before the swim. And then I had a go bar at transition one.

• 36:49Nick Bare?

  And I'll mention it later, but I had a go bar at transition two, going into the run as well. So going into the bike and going into the run.

• 36:58Nick Bare?

  For the bike, 5 hours, 3 minutes, 6 seconds. I was very happy with my bike performance. Like really proud of the strength that I had on the bike. To provide some context of how strong my bike was. I got out of the swim at 1,168th place. That tells you my swim was not the strongest. When I got off the bike, I moved up to 327th place.

• 37:38Nick Bare?

  And then when I finished the run and the Ironman, I ended up in 187th place overall. So from the end of the swim to the end of the Ironman, I almost went up 1,000 places. I passed 1,000 people. Uh, so that's why I said I just wanted to conserve energy in the swim. Cause I knew I could throw down on the bike in the run. Over the 18 weeks in the prep, I spent a lot of time on the bike. That was arguably my, my biggest focus of this prep.

• 38:20Nick Bare?

  Because as we see, it's, it's the most meaningful in terms of time during the Ironman. I spent a lot of time, not just time on the bike in volume, but with a combination of endurance, sweet spot training sessions, intervals, and VO2 max workouts. And it paid off. Every week I was doing one long ride on the bike, anywhere from 3 hours to 5 and a half hours. Every week I was doing a 2 hour sweet spot session.

• 38:59Nick Bare?

  And every week I was doing a 90 minute to a two hour VO2 max workout on the bike. So I was spending a lot of time on the bike during this prep in different thresholds and efforts of training. And you know, like I said, it paid off. I felt really strong. The entire five hours, three minutes, six seconds.

• 39:24Nick Bare?

  My fueling was very strategic and dialed in for the bike. I ended up consuming about 85 grams of carbohydrates and a thousand milligrams of sodium per hour. This is a combination of G1M Sport and Go Gels. Now, the first bottle that I had on the bike had one scoop of G1M Sport Plus. So right when I got on the bike, this would have been

• 39:55Nick Bare?

  one hour and 38 minutes into the Ironman. I had my first

• 40:05Nick Bare?

  hit of caffeine.

• 40:08Nick Bare?

  G1M Sport Plus is 150 milligrams of caffeine with added no tropics. So that was the first bottle and the first bottle that I consumed on the bike. In addition to G1M Sport Regular, I had one scoop, one serving of G1M Sport Plus. And also while on the bike during this five hours, I had two CAF Go Gels. So on the bike overall, I had consumed over the five hours, 300 milligrams of caffeine.

• 40:42Nick Bare?

  The course itself, I thought it was a beautiful course. It was three loops.

• 40:50Nick Bare?

  What I found was so nice about it. Going out was a gradual hill. I think going out each loop, we climbed about 500 feet. Maybe a little bit more, but there was a slight tailwind from what I experienced. So you really didn't feel that uphill. And on the way back, there was a slight headwind, but you were downhill gradually. So I felt like I could cook going out with that tailwind and I could cook coming back with that slight gradual downhill. I really enjoyed the three-loop course. I thought it was a beautiful course.

• 41:32Nick Bare?

  I haven't had no complaints of that course. It was really nice and really easy to ride, in my opinion. And I felt strong the entire way through, from hour one to the end. And I ended up averaging 22 miles per hour on the bike.

• 41:53Nick Bare?

  As I mentioned, immediately getting off the bike at transition two, I ate another go bar. While I was picking up my transition two bag. This is when I got off my bike, threw my running shoes on.

• 42:11Nick Bare?

  I showed this in the YouTube videos in the series that we filmed, but something I started incorporating in my long runs

• 42:22Nick Bare?

  throughout this prep is I carried a handheld water bottle. And the main reason I started doing this is because I started my prep in July. So July, August, even September, here in central Texas, very hot. And during these long runs,

• 42:41Nick Bare?

  16, 18, 20, 22 miles, I would sweat so much. So I started carrying a handheld water bottle with me on these long runs with water and electrolytes. And I would consume this and I would use that handheld water bottle also to carry my go gels.

• 43:01Nick Bare?

  So part of my plan going into the run of the Ironman was to carry a handheld water bottle.

• 43:09Nick Bare?

  This also allowed me to control my electrolyte consumption and carry all my go gels without having to rely with what was offered on course. So at T2, I took my helmet off, obviously. I took my cycling shoes off, obviously, threw my running shoes on. I ended up running with the Saucony Endorphin Elite 2.0s. Great shoe. Love that shoe. Threw my bib on with my number, hat, sunglasses, and then I grabbed my handheld water bottle.

• 43:46Nick Bare?

  It's a Nathan handheld water bottle. Threw my go gels in there. And then I also had some VPN electrolyte go packs in that little pocket as well. So I filled up my handheld water bottle and I put one scoop of one go pack of electrolytes in there, which was 500mg of sodium. Throughout the run, throughout the 26.2 miles, I consumed that one bottle in the first half. So between mile one and mile 13, I consumed 500mg of sodium. And then I re-topped that bottle off with another go pack of electrolytes.

• 44:31Nick Bare?

  So I had an additional 500mg of sodium to sip on for the last half, the last 13 miles. I practiced that during training. I carried that over to the race. I didn't cramp up at all. The entire, the entire run, which we're about to get into.

• 44:50Nick Bare?

  Last thing I'll mention on the bike, weather conditions were great. I really didn't sweat at all on the bike. Getting off the bike, there were no white sweat marks on my tri kit. This is something to keep in mind. You know, I wore a black tri kit. And I wore that tri kit under my wetsuit so that when I got into the water, I just ripped my wetsuit off and I was already ready to go. I was wearing my tri kit under my wetsuit.

• 45:26Nick Bare?

  When I was on the bike, didn't sweat much, no sweat stains, which is a good sign. If you get off the bike and you see white sweat marks all over your tri kit, it probably means you're dehydrated and you gotta catch up a little bit with hydration, water and electrolyte consumption. I got off the bike, no sweat stains, no sweat marks, which put me in a good position for the run. Now, if you see some photos of me post-race, after the run, I had white sweat marks and stains all over my tri kit. Cause at that point, I was dehydrated. I lost significant water during the run.

• 46:09Nick Bare?

  And I was sweating a whole lot more on the run than I was on the bike. But transitioning into, into the run, the last segment of the race. So I've already mentioned, I had another go bar at T2. I ran my marathon, 3 hours, 18 minutes, 32 seconds. That ends up being roughly a 735 minute per mile pace. I didn't know how it was going to feel exactly as I started running, but I was surprised. I put out a big effort on the bike.

• 46:54Nick Bare?

  I assumed my legs were going to be a little cooked come the run. When I started running, I couldn't tell you that I just biked 112 miles prior to starting to run. My legs felt fresh. They still had that poppiness. They still had that responsiveness that I felt the day before at the shakeout run, which was a great sign. And when I started running, I didn't look at my watch. I just ran based off feel and effort. I just wanted to fall into something comfortable. And after I hit my first mile, I looked down and it was about a 630 minute per mile pace. And I held that for the first couple of miles.

• 47:36Nick Bare?

  I was really happy with the first half of the marathon. And after the first half, I thought I might have been able to go sub three on the marathon. But things kind of changed that second half of of the race. I felt really strong the first thirteen ish miles. And then I didn't feel as strong, which is where my pace really started to drop.

• 48:03Nick Bare?

  My stomach ended up turning on me, which I expected. Uh, as I've mentioned, I have more of a sensitive stomach, especially when it comes to some of these longer distance endurance events. It's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when my stomach's gonna start to hurt or turn on me. And my stomach started to turn on me the second half of the run of the marathon.

• 48:32Nick Bare?

  Uh, and at that point, not just the stomach turning, but legs were tired, fatigued. My pace started slowly dropping. If you go and look at my splits from my marathon, I had two miles that were over ten minute miles. Those were miles where I spent some time in the bathroom in the porta potty. That slowed me down significantly. If I would have had a stronger second half of the marathon, I definitely would have went sub ten. Definitely, but I would have loved to have been able to run a sub three to close out this race. And I thought in the beginning it was a potential.

• 49:14Nick Bare?

  But I just, I slowed down significantly that second half of of the race that lasts thirteen miles. And I just couldn't hold it all together to to hold that effort and that pace that I wanted to.

• 49:28Nick Bare?

  Overall, I'm happy with the marathon. I mean, three hours, eighteen minutes, thirty two seconds after swimming two point four miles, after biking one hundred and twelve miles.

• 49:39Nick Bare?

  I mean, I can't be happy. I'm sorry, I can't be mad at that performance. Overall, I'm really happy with the entire race.

• 49:49Nick Bare?

  My first Ironman ever in 2019, there was Ironman Florida and Panama City. I believe my time was 11 hours, 28 minutes.

• 50:03Nick Bare?

  So to shave off almost an hour and a half for my first Ironman, you know, I can't, I can't be mad about that.

• 50:15Nick Bare?

  It was exactly the day that I wanted. It was exactly the effort I wanted. And when I crossed that finish line, I emptied it all. There was nothing left. There, there was nothing left when I crossed that finish line. I, I put everything I had into that race. And with that being said, I mean, I'm proud of that. I'm, I'm proud to be able to say that I emptied the tank on that race as well as I could have. And the best part, you know, crossing that finish line and the Ironman organization team was, was so nice and generous and helpful.

• 50:55Nick Bare?

  They allowed Steph and Charlie to be right at the, the finish line, waiting for me within the fencing and put the medal around my neck. And I crossed that finish line as bear hugged Charlie and Steph. Nico was with my in-laws on the, the other side of the fence. But just like seeing my family, being able to hug them, being able to love on them.

• 51:26Nick Bare?

  That's what I was, I was running towards. I wasn't running towards a finish line. I wasn't running towards a specific time or a number on a clock. I was running to my family. I was running to be embraced and rest on their shoulders. Like literally, I grabbed them, I hugged them, legs were weak and shaky. And I just put my head on their shoulders and just

• 51:55Nick Bare?

  exhaled, rest. Job finished. 18 week prep done, race completed.

• 52:05Nick Bare?

  I sent it.

• 52:08Nick Bare?

  I, I, I,

• 52:11Nick Bare?

  I did everything I could on that course. And the only thing left to do was just embrace my beautiful wife and my daughter and go see my son and hug my dad and

• 52:24Nick Bare?

  it was a great way to wrap up a prep.

• 52:28Nick Bare?

  Wrap up a hard, physical challenge.

• 52:34Nick Bare?

  To celebrate a huge transformational chapter of my life. And also to celebrate the YouTube series and the boys who worked on that series so hard. Yoli, Landry and Trevor for 18 weeks.

• 52:57Nick Bare?

  I was really happy with that day.

• 53:00Nick Bare?

  The only way I can describe it, it's exactly what I hoped it would have been. It was that and more.

• 53:09Nick Bare?

  So post-race,

• 53:12Nick Bare?

  we went and picked up the bike. All my transition bags, headed back to the Airbnb. You know, as I've mentioned, my diet was dialed in for those 18 weeks of prep. Dialed. I really didn't eat anything off my, my diet.

• 53:35Nick Bare?

  So the first thing we had once getting back to the Airbnb.

• 53:40Nick Bare?

  We had pizza, wings and breadsticks waiting for us and it was delicious. One of the things I was thinking about during that run. I was picturing later that night. Me sitting on the couch. Eating food with my family and my kids next to me and my wife next to me and in that moment, hours later, there I was on the couch with a plate of pizza, wings and breadsticks. And my daughter next to me, my wife next to me, all of our family just

• 54:14Nick Bare?

  kind of reminiscing about the day and just hanging out and

• 54:19Nick Bare?

  it was, it was such a, a restful, peaceful, joyful moment. A truly a celebration.

• 54:29Nick Bare?

  But I will tell you. That pizza and those wings.

• 54:35Nick Bare?

  They slapped. It was so good. It's exactly what I needed post-race. After a big race, I'm never too hungry. My stomach's kind of jacked up and you've been consuming so many carbs on the day to say top off on fuel and

• 54:53Nick Bare?

  throwing back as much sodium and hydration as possible. But I was hungry after this one. And the meal was very fulfilling.

• 55:07Nick Bare?

  So right now, we're at the time of this recording, we're four days. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, four days post-Ironman. And to be honest, my body feels really solid. I remember after my first Ironman, or even after my first Ultra, and after my first marathon, body being wrecked. You can't walk the next day.

• 55:30Nick Bare?

  But over time, over the years, as I've gotten in better shape, I've built better conditioning, I've learned how to prep better. Recovery has naturally adapted as well.

• 55:43Nick Bare?

  So I'm not overly sore at all, four days post-race. Body feels

• 55:50Nick Bare?

  I'd say fairly normal.

• 55:53Nick Bare?

  The central nervous system and energy is definitely drained as expected. It was a big effort and a big prep. And I always experience sleep disruption for about a week after a big effort or a big race. Every time I do not necessarily marathon, but ultras, Ironman,

• 56:18Nick Bare?

  because of bigger effort, it attacks the body in a more meaningful way. I always experience sleep disruptions for days afterwards. Waking up multiple times throughout the night, not being able to get a lot of deep sleep, not being able to sleep in even when I try. But right now, the focus is recovery, rest, good food, and preparing to rebuild and reincorporate strength training back into this next training block.

• 56:52Nick Bare?

  Put some size back on, put some weight back on and truly balance endurance and strength.

• 57:00Nick Bare?

  But that was Ironman Arizona. Such a fun prep.

• 57:06Nick Bare?

  Truly a life-changing prep. And I don't say that in a light way at all. It was a life-changing prep. During Ironman Arizona and the beginning of the prep and the beginning of the series. That's when I committed my life to following Christ.

• 57:23Nick Bare?

  And I was reborn and renewed. I am not the same person.

• 57:31Nick Bare?

  I was when I first started prep as I am today. Truly a life transformation during this, this build, this prep, this series. And of all the preps I've ever done, of all the races and the series we've ever documented and shared. This one. Has to go down as my favorite. This is one that I will remember forever.

• 58:01Nick Bare?

  This one.

• 58:04Nick Bare?

  Truly.

• 58:08Nick Bare?

  I experienced unlock, breakthrough and renewal.

• 58:16Nick Bare?

  So that is Ironman Prep. Season three, closing it out. Ironman Arizona. Guys, thank you for all the support and the love. I appreciate you. And as always.

• 58:31Nick Bare?

  Go on more.