Everyone talks about getting fitter. Fewer people talk about the other thing that decides how an Ironman actually goes for you: the conditions. Japan is likely to be hot, and if I want to give myself a real shot at qualifying for Kona one day, fitness alone doesn't cover that. I need to be able to perform in the heat too.
Training the adaptation, not just the session
So I've started being a lot more intentional about heat work. Indoor sessions with the fans off, bottles filled, electrolytes and salt tabs sorted beforehand, weighing myself before and after to see what I'm actually losing. It's not about making every session brutal for the sake of it — it's about teaching my body how to deal with heat specifically.
The physiology is fairly simple, even if the sessions don't feel simple at the time: over time my plasma volume should increase, I should start sweating more efficiently, and my heart rate should sit more stable at a given effort in the heat. All of that adds up to one thing — performing better when race day actually gets hot, instead of finding out the hard way in Japan.
So that's another gap I'm working on. Not just getting stronger. Getting more resilient.