THE LAST 30 MINUTES: CROWIE’S CHECKLIST FOR FINISHING THE IRONMAN BIKE
Craig “Crowie” Alexander is a 3x Hawaii IRONMAN World Champion, 2x IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, former Kona course record holder, and 12x Australian champion. He logged over 100 victories during his 25-year pro career. Today, he shares the mental checklist he used in the last 30 minutes of an IRONMAN bike to set up for a killer run.
Craig “Crowie” Alexander: In 2011, the year of my third and final IRONMAN World Championship win, I found myself in a lead group of 4 athletes with 40km left to ride. Chris Lieto, the best cyclist of our generation, suddenly attacked.
My first instinct was to chase. After a moment of indecision, I didn’t.
What stopped me was my pre-race plan. It called for a shift in focus during the last 30 minutes of the bike: prepare for the marathon, not fight for bike position. I’d rehearsed it in training and knew it worked.
So as Lieto rode away, I went back to my plan and worked through a checklist I’d practiced a hundred times. Confidence returned as we rode into Kailua-Kona.
Here’s what was on that checklist.
1. Deliberately back off
Many athletes sabotage their marathon in the final phase of the ride. I’ve done it myself. You feel good, push hard all the way to T2, and arrive overcooked.
To avoid it, reduce your pedaling effort by 1–5% below your target race power. Focus on an even pedal stroke to avoid unnecessary surges.
There are real physiological reasons for this: it lowers accumulated lactate and metabolites produced at higher intensities, and reduces neuromuscular fatigue before the run.
If you’re racing the bike in the last half hour, you’re setting yourself up for a bad run. Your goal is a strong marathon.
2. Prepare your body for the run
As you ease off the power, gradually bring your cadence up into the mid-80s to low-90s rpm. This reduces muscular tension and primes your legs for a higher-turnover running stride.
Stretch your hip flexors. Relax your back. Stand periodically at higher cadence to engage your glutes. This wakes up your posterior chain and gives you more hip extension from the first steps of the run.
Relax your shoulders and hands, too. The energy demand of overgripping the bars adds up fast.
The goal is to reactivate the running muscles that have stiffened during the bike.
3. Top off the tank
Most successful IRONMAN athletes front-load their calories on the bike — 50 to 120 grams of carbs per hour, based on your training — then consume less on the run.
But the last 30 minutes of your ride is when that fueling rhythm changes.
Take one final gel, or 20–30g of carbohydrate, about 15 minutes before T2. Finish your last bottle in small, regular sips.
If you’ve fallen behind on fueling during the ride, don’t try to catch up now. Start the run with stable energy, not a sloshing stomach.
4. Visualize
Picture a calm, intentional T2 followed by a smooth first 15 minutes of running. That mental prep saves more time than maxing out the last 5km of the bike.
Commit to starting the run at a pace that feels almost too slow. Racing out of T2 is one of the most common IRONMAN marathon mistakes, and it looks the same every time: feeling great through the first 5km, then wrecked throughout the second half of the marathon.
Mentally rehearse your opening pace, your first stop at an aid station, your cooling strategy and your fueling plan. Keep your self-talk calm and process-focused: good posture, brisk cadence, relaxed breathing, deliberately holding back.
Don’t worry about your early splits or the person next to you. They can wait until later in the race.
Know your race plan cold before you start running.
5. Run a final systems check
Use the last 30 minutes of the ride for a quick self-assessment:
• Am I hydrated?
• Is my fueling on track?
• Is my salt intake adequate?
• Are there any hot spots on my feet?
• Do I need to stretch or shake out my hips and legs?
My best IRONMAN marathons, especially in Hawaii’s challenging conditions, began the same way: during the last 30 minutes on the bike, I worked through my checklist.
It let me flow through T2 and execute the race I’d trained to run.
