There is tapering ahead of the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice – and then there is the Lucy Bartholomew version.
For not much more than a couple of weeks ago, the Australian ultrarunning star finished 10th in trail running’s blue riband event, UTMB.
UTMB is a 100-mile race circumnavigating the Mont-Blanc massif, and this year saw a new course-record time by winner Katie Schide.
Bartholomew herself was an hour and 40 minutes quicker than she had been 12 months previously, saying: “I am super happy with my time, which would have been in the top three most other years, but I am so impressed and inspired by the speed of the women’s race, which brought out my best on that day.”
This will be the second time she’s tackled the UTMB / IMWC double – in 2023 she became just the sixth person to complete both events in the same year but the gap between them this year is just three weeks, half what it’s been in the past.
That makes the incredible endurance double even more challenging – though Bartholomew says the fact it’s the first time the women’s race has been held outside the United States works in her favour.
Three weeks out – it’s time to start training!
She finished in 10:43:41 in Kona last year in what was just her second full-distance race and looking ahead to Sunday’s renewal, she said: “The day after UTMB I got an email saying, ‘IRONMAN World Championship Nice is three weeks away, it’s time to start your taper’, and I thought ‘no, it’s time to start training’!
“I feel really good, though. I have come out of UTMB with no niggles or injuries, which is better than last year. I have eaten for a family of five in the past week and have been very intuitive about moving my body and sleeping to catch back up.
“My plan for the in-between weeks was to ride and swim a little to remind my body what these sports are and to run a few times, but nothing wild. I would rather turn up to Nice fresh and stoked, than overtrained and exhausted.”
Despite having more time between the two races last year, Bartholomew says she is aided this time by the IRONMAN World Championship being held in the same country as UTMB Mont-Blanc in 2024 rather than Hawaii.
“Last year felt harder,” she explained. “The international travel and the last third of UTMB being a massive fight with my mind and body meant I was already so much further back than where I am now.
“It always fascinates me to watch the body and mind recover because with UTMB, you run through a whole night and then don’t really sleep the night after as your body starts to repair, so I am really trying to respect that and say to it, ‘OK, tell me what you want to do each day’ and being guided by that rather than a training plan.”
‘Cherry on the cake’
As a professional trail runner and with the UTMB being the pinnacle race of the sport, Bartholomew had dedicated almost all of her efforts in training this year to being competitive on race day – with the exception of a short block geared towards the IRONMAN Asia Pacific Championship Cairns in June, where she finished third in her age group to qualify for Nice.
She said: “UTMB was the main focus this year. And while last year in the lead-up to UTMB I still tried to stay consistent with triathlon training, I fully committed to the ultra trail sport this year.
Nice feels like a cherry on the cake of my endurance buffet summer.
“And I’m mostly excited, curious and grateful to have this opportunity.”
As well as the shorter turnaround time between the two races this year, one of the big differences compared to her 2023 effort is the IRONMAN World Championship race location. In Kona, the bike course is notorious for its hot, humid and windy conditions but with comparatively less elevation and turns, whereas the bike course in Nice is more technical, winding and with plenty of elevation.
“I am so excited about the bike course. I definitely prefer the hilly style, and it looks so pretty! I have also never been to Nice, so it is cool to go from Chamonix, the French Alps [the town where UTMB starts and finishes], to Nice, the French coast, and race the two pinnacles of each sport,” she said.
“I love being part of sports. I love learning and experiencing and rubbing shoulders with other athletes. I love testing my body and mind, and I hope it shows others not to put themselves in a box and dare to do something no one has ever done.”
