Ironman in 10 weeks?!

"Rookie" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I was originally hoping by this stage to have the distances well in
hand, and be able to spend the next 2 months building on that base -
finetuning nutrition strategy, introducing some more intensive work,
etc. My current thinking is that the focus now has to simply be on as
much LSD (with lots of bricks) as I can fit in to ensure I can actually
get round? Is there any point in me doing speed or intensity work at
all?

Was originally planning on <12 hours, think this may well slip now.

I was really worried until you said you bike 80/ran 15 last weekend. Your
base isn't too bad. I'd try to get 3 or so centuries in broken up by some
shorter long rides of 60 or so. I personally don't like to build my runs
up as far as I would for a marathon, but then I'm a crappy runner. Bricks
are good, but don't feel you have to do a 100/15 to be ready for an IM.
The trick is to ride/run long enough to feel the difference in recovery
time off the bike from an oly. Maybe a 60/4 or so?

My main bit of advice is that you cannot cram for an IM, so get some
good, quality training, but don't push so hard that you injure yourself.
If every week between now and your taper is 12+ hours and you're used to
8, you might not end up at the start line, or you could be there but
overtrained and not in good race day condition. With a base like yous,
I'm sure you'll finish easily if you race within your abilities. You may
not meet your time expectations, but that's what the second race is for!

Tom

In article <[email hidden]>,

Rookie said:

or 3 olympic or half ironmans every year since). Cycled 80 miles on
saturday and ran 15 miles yesterday, a bit stiff today but nothing too
bad. Have done no bricks to date.

You can still pull this off; 80/15 is not bad at all. Get a few 100-mile
rides in, build your run up to 18 or so, keep working on your swimming
and MAKE SURE YOU TAPER. I put my logest run about 4 weeks out, with a
long ride 3 weeks out, and I was fine. DO NOT try to "make up for lost
time" during those last four weeks. It is better to be 10% undertrained
than 1% overtrained.

Bricks are a little overrated if your just trying to finish the race. A
gentler version has you doing a long ride Saturday followed by a long
run Sunday.

You might be better off walking the first half-mile of the run rather
than killing yourself trying to get your legs to turn over, especially
if your goal is to finish.

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

So you're actually 9 weeks out....so you have less than that for "real"
training, "real" meaning what the body can absorb and use on race day.

The advice you've gotten so far is sound: longest run, 4-5 weeks out
(still do a long run 3 weeks out, just not your longest) and longest
bike 3-4 weeks out (for me, 5 weeks on the run and 4 for the
bike)....nothing you do the last 10 days will affect you
physiologically in a positive manner, so you should be well into taper
mode by then.

The reality is, then, that you have 4-6 weeks of training you can do
before you need to back off....but you're not in a position to do giant
mileage in that short a time, so focus on the bike, make sure you can
swim the distance without being thrashed and as for running...remember
that you can always walk. Don't worry too much about pushing up the
long run---that is where you run the highest risk of injury.

Very good luck to you...which race are you doing?

Mike C

Rookie said:

I am entered in an Ironman on 21st August. Through a combination of
far too much work and a couple of niggling injuries over the last
couple of months I am way behind on the training I had originally
planned. Have only managed 1 week in the last 2 months where I've gone
over 10 hours training, many of them have only been ~5-6 hours
training.

Question is: how best to focus my time now with ~8 weeks of hard
training time left and what kind of goal is realistic? Injuries have
cleared up and workload is back to sensible proportions.

I have never done an Ironman but have been in training of some sort all
my life so although the last few months has been poor, I'm not in bad
shape (30 years old, rowing training until I was 26, then have done 2
or 3 olympic or half ironmans every year since). Cycled 80 miles on
saturday and ran 15 miles yesterday, a bit stiff today but nothing too
bad. Have done no bricks to date. Swimming is behind - had a shoulder
injury which prevented training, have gradually built distance up to
1000m over last 2 weeks since I started back and am confident that the
endurance will build sufficiently to let me go the distance, albeit
fairly slowly.

I was originally hoping by this stage to have the distances well in
hand, and be able to spend the next 2 months building on that base -
finetuning nutrition strategy, introducing some more intensive work,
etc. My current thinking is that the focus now has to simply be on as
much LSD (with lots of bricks) as I can fit in to ensure I can actually
get round? Is there any point in me doing speed or intensity work at
all?

Was originally planning on <12 hours, think this may well slip now.

UK Ironman. Thanks for all the advice guys - particularly about not
overdoing it. Must admit that temptation was to 'cram' until 2 weeks
out and then wind down but sounds like that might not be so smart!

Thanks again

good luck, my initial advice was to abandon all hope and send your
registration to me... I'm just jealous wish I was going.... good luck
and most of all have fun
Eric

Rookie said:

UK Ironman. Thanks for all the advice guys - particularly about not
overdoing it. Must admit that temptation was to 'cram' until 2 weeks
out and then wind down but sounds like that might not be so smart!

Thanks again