#875 – Ironman Wisconsin 2025 Recap - How's Your Mental Game?

Crushing Iron Triathlon Podcast

Mike Tarrolly

Ironman, Nutrition, Triathlon, Podcast, Fitness, Swimming, Training, Coaching, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Triathlon is 90% mental, the other half is physical.*

Today we recap Ironman Wisconsin 2025. This was Mike's 12th Ironman and there was some good, bad and a little ugly. We talk about everything from pre-race anxiety, to adjusting your day based on feel, and maybe most importantly, how to keep going when every bone in your body says no. They talk about riding the course and managing the hills, nutrition, and why we keep coming back for more pain. By all accounts, Ironman Wisconsin seemed like it's coming back in full force. The weather was great, the support was off the charts, and the volunteers were more than plentiful. Doing an Ironman can really suck in the moment, but that's exactly why we keep going.

Topics:

Anticipation/Expectations
Anxiety
Pre-Race
Mike talks about the race
Mind over matter
Great conditions
Madison showed up!
Having goals
Swim conditions
Swim issues
Cold off out of the water?
Start of the bike
Adjusting your effort
Understanding what the body has on race day
Mental tests
The hills, the downhills, the wind
Avg Power/Normalized
Going by feel
Nutrition on bike
Mental prep for a marathon
This sucks, do it anyway
Mantras
Run course changes
Why do we do this?
Are we too comfortable?
How do you keep running?
Some fast people out there
He missed qualifying by one second
What's it take to have your best race?
Working your way through issues
Is it Mike's last race?

*Yogi Berra Quote reference.

Mike Tarrolly - [email protected]

Robbie Bruce - [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	all right
0:02.0	all right
0:19.0	just like clockwork back on a Tuesday just just i mean kudos to you i mean i i was actually
0:25.5	like fully anticipating a wednesday cast you know you raced a full on monday or excuse me sunday i
0:33.1	travel back and i was like man we still going today but you're like no we can go it we can go early go early if you want. You're ready to roll. And it's, yeah, it's a, it's a little rainy, but it is a wonderful, wonderful Tuesday. It's September 9th, the year 2025. Welcome to all everybody. You're listening to the Crushing Iron Podcast. This is episode 875. Yep. I mean, I'm only 61, man. Don't write me off yet, bro.
0:58.4	I'm back in the game. I mean, you, I mean, you kind of like, you know, you kind of put out there that
1:03.3	maybe you were just like, you know, going to retire from the sport after after what I thought.
1:08.8	And we'll go, I mean, your your dissection the race is obviously a way more important to mine. I saw somebody to finish on. I thought that was one of, if not your top two best performances on that course. Really? Yeah. Well, I mean, time was, given, I mean, obviously we're, you know, everyone's getting older, right? Yeah. But, you know, yeah, no, I thought I said that other thing. That's one of his best performances. That said you'd be, you'd be pretty damn happy with that. Well, yeah, there's a lot of interesting things to break down about it. I think it definitely wasn't, I think it was my fourth best time there, but. Yeah.
1:50.7	And not really close to the third, but there's a lot of things to like about it, you know.
1:58.8	Yeah, like you said, I mean, I never want to give into this age thing, you know, and, but, you know, the one thing I realized out there again is
2:03.4	that triathlon is a 90% mental and the other half is physical. If I may borrow from
2:09.4	Yogi Berra on his baseball quote. Yeah. Uh, that's, that's what it comes down to, uh, for me with my,
2:16.6	what I did out there. And, uh, you know, yeah, I mean, I feel pretty good to for me, with my, what I did out there.
2:18.3	And, you know, yeah, I mean,
2:19.9	I feel pretty good about my mental,
2:22.5	my mental game on Sunday for various reasons,
2:26.6	but we can get in them later.
2:28.8	Yeah, I mean, before we then get in the race,
2:31.0	obviously we were out, you know,
2:32.9	late last week, we're all up in Wisconsin.
2:34.9	We had, I think, close to 50 athletes in town doing the 70.3 in the full. And I will say we will, we'll maybe do the same thing. Well, not maybe. We'll do the same thing next year and give a little, give a little more, a little more love, a little more livelihood to the 70.3. had quite a few people stop and say, hey, I appreciate
2:52.0	you guys giving love to the 70.3 with a little bit of a preview because it is such a different
	...

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