12 Hours with Ironman Champ Leanda Cave

October 26th, 2012 • BY Rachel Sturtz

Two weeks ago, Great Britain’s Leanda Cave, 34, became the first woman—and second athlete ever—to win both the 70.3 world championship and the Ironman World Championship in the same year. That’s on top of two world titles for the ITU short and long course. The girl has her bases covered. What makes Cave a daunting competitor is not a killer instinct or having one discipline in which she excels beyond anyone else, it’s that she churns steadily through a course and her laid-back personality puts to rest any chance of another athlete getting in her head. This Saturday, October 27th, you can tune into NBC from 4 to 6pm EST to catch the two-hour broadcast of her win at the 2012 Ironman World Championship. Until then, we catch up with Cave here to learn how she spent the 12 hours leading up to the most important win of her life. She dished.

5 p.m.: After I put my bike in transition, I went back to my hotel room to eat dinner. I try to eat as early as possible before an Ironman race. I stop eating carbs the morning before because I don’t like anything in my stomach weighing me down. I’ve had gut trouble in the past, and if I stay away from carbs, it feels like it flushes out my stomach and I start race day a little lighter. In Kona, I had chicken and steak for dinner, and half a bottle of wine. Well, I like wine quite a bit and it helps me relax before a race.

6 p.m.: Hotel room movie, usually.

8 p.m.: The earlier I get to bed, the earlier I get up, generally. I take half a sleeping tablet and try to be in bed at 8 p.m. when my alarm’s set for 4 a.m.

3 a.m.: They say when your nerves start to kick in, there’s no way you’re going back to sleep. I got up an hour before my alarm went off that morning. But I don’t always need a lot of sleep the night before. I’ve had too many sleepless nights to know it’s a mental thing that you can overcome. You just need a little more caffeine the next day. I spent the extra time that morning reading online newspapers and listening to the BBC world news.

4 a.m.: My breakfast varies; I don’t have a set routine. Sometimes it’s oatmeal or a bagel. I ate a muffin before Hawaii and had a protein drink. In Kona, I added an electrolyte drink to get extra salt in my system. In total, I probably eat 600 calories—and I hope to eat half my breakfast.

5:30 a.m.: Time to check in, put my bottles and nutrition on my bike, and get race-numbered up. I do a 10-minute run warm up behind the hotel, maybe add in a short fartlek, and finish up with some stretching. I don’t listen to music or do visualization—that’s for training. Thirty minutes out, I hang out with friends, just chatting. I’m pretty chill in that way. I told my coach Siri the week before, “I’m ready.” I had a confidence this year that I didn’t have last year when I came in scared. When you know what shape you’re in, you dictate the race; people start racing their race based on what you’re doing. I knew I could go in and push the swim, the run, the bike. I was ready to give it a good shot.

Fifteen minutes to go: I head over to the start.

To view preview footage from the 2012 IRONMAN World Championship, check out the Official IRONMAN YouTube channel.

Photo: Larry Rosa/EnduraPix.com

Kamagra oral jelly Online something to buy the most convenient way. He doesn’t demand from you any actions except how to visit the website. And in separate with goods necessary to you to put the end. To specify your address and to wait for the supplier to whom you will give money.