Morgane Moinard : My Ironman 70.3 Nice preparation

Morgane Moinard, is a sports teacher, mother, and G4 ambassador,and if you remember well we followed her preparation for her 1st Ironman this spring. If you missed these articles, we invite you to read them here!

 Read here her preparation for the Ironman 70.3 of Nice :

Hard to be demotivated after my mechanical incident, which causes my DNF (do not finish) on the Ironman Nice, but it was obvious that I was not going to stay on this bad experience. So, I immediately registered without hesitating for the Ironman 70.3 Nice.

I thought I would prepare myself as I did for the Ironman, but not at all, the adrenaline was down, it was complicated to find the necessary motivation. I had the impression to start from the zero again! For my training, I continued in the same lign, I needed to improve my power, both bike and running.

I wanted to use this extra time to improve in runnig, but lack of motivation. So, I went back to training quietly, and we’ll see. I told myself, that if I was ready for an Ironman, I’ll be ready for 70.3 too. Even if i should handle the effort and the race differently.

In any case, the miracles do not exist, I know it will be difficult the race, because I didn’t trained enough as I wanted. Especially, since it was the school holidays, which means that I was with my childrens and it was hard to find enough time for training, and in addition the heatwave that we had this summer, all these factors prevented me from being efficient and in better shape.

When I had short sessions, I left the children at home, unless they wanted to come with me, in this case they took their bikes and I followed them by running. But training is not as effective because you must always be vigilant. For riding, thankfully the home trainer exists, and Netflix … 😊. And finally, for swimming, I left the kids at my neighbor’s house …, we try to organize ourselves as we can 😊!

In August it was easier, my husband was present, so I could train more seriously. We went to the beach with the boys, and I, during that time, I was swimming.

I went to recognize the bike course several times, because the bike lap is completely changed comparing the Ironman. When you leave the promenade, you arrive on Saint-Laurent du Var, and there is a small “wall” waiting for you. In will not push at this part, I will keep pedaling lightly in this first bump (about 800m to 12%), then a flat part during 150m to get recovered before passing to another bump, less difficult than the first but longer. The continuation of the course is made of easy up hills and expecting some wind, and then two others bumps, to arrive on the corniche of Saint-Laurent du Var.

After this complicated start, here is the Col de Vence, 9 km with an average of 7/8% I think. I know it by heart, because I live close and I often climb it. Nevertheless, I hate the first part. But what a relief once arrived up there! All that remains is the climb of Coursegoules before descending on the Promenade. (But watch out for the wind). Given the difficulty of the course, you must feel comfortable on your bike, that’s why I will choose a G4 shorts, the chamois pad is from rare quality.

The running will take place on the Promenade des Anglais, so I train a little on the flat. But otherwise I like to run in the Baous (mountain). Anyway, I have a hard time making improvement, so it’s pretty discouraging. But I’m thinking “let’s see on the race day”!