That plan is OK.

A sub 15hour IM is doable with that plan.

11 month IM plan is long don't do that condense it.

I recommend either hiring a coach or buy a Triathlon Training Book. To shorten the IM learning curve. It ain't brain surgery.

I fear that books will give me too much detail with complex workouts, etc. I prefer to keep it simple. If you think 11 months is too long maybe I will tone it down up to 6 months pre race.

6 months is plenty that way you can stay focused. But still stay very active beforehand.

There are some "plans" online, Ill PM you one. Enjoy the journey

Thanks for the link. Here is another plan I was looking at.

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2013/05/six-months-to-ironman-a-basic-training-program.aspx#axzz3AEXzoqQw

Yeah that plan is really basic. Your goal at sub 15 hours isn't that aggressive so you will be fine with that.

I would get a coach or join a triathlon team for advice. But again that above plan is fine since your goal is sub 15hours

I have always followed the double the distance then multiply by 2.2. This worked pretty nicely between my half marathon and full.

my half marathon was 1:43 = 103 minutes, times 2.2 = 226 min. My Full time was 3:51 which is 231 minutes, pretty close.
HIM 6:15 = 375 min, times 2.2 = 825 min = 13:45

So, my real goal is sub 14 but I will be content with sub 15.

Damn, I have my first IM distance race in 10 days, according to your formula I'll do 10h 3min...need to find those 3 minutes somewhere.

My average training hours have been for the last (and my first) year in triathlon
last 12 weeks 15h
last 6 months 13.5h
last 11 months 12.5h

I'll be happy with 10h30m but I'll go in trying to go <10h

With that volume, there Is little reason not to get down to a 10hr IM...
I got the tri bible and pro rata'd a plan from it for 18 weeks maxing at 14hrs a week... And it's crapped out races in the 10 to 10:30 window...
So with high quality and attention to detail no reason for you not to exceed your goal.... Go big mate.... And enjoy

Execution is really important to capitalize on that fitness. I underfueled at my 4th IM this past while on the bike, and it destroyed me. I was dehydrated and my stomach shut down and then the cramps started. It wasn't even hot.

If you want frustration, have nutrition ruin your fitness.

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Chris Harris

sub 15 sounds good, i agree 1 yr is little long, would worry about burning out. i trained IMMT for 9 months (my first):
-- 1st 3 month's: 12-15 hrs a week
-- middle 3 months: 13-16 hrs a week, lot of swimming and biking (mostly indoors)
-- Last 3 months: 15-22 hrs a week
I had dreams of braking 10 hrs on that plan, that fell short after drafting pentalty and the second round of hills in MT.
I agree with others, get a coach well worth the money and potential keeping from being injured. Have fun good luck!
If your training for IMMT get ready for hills, i was not.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

Ever done a stand-alone marathon?

If you have you might want to forgo the long runs for extra bikes. Long runs require more recovery and have more chance of injury.

Each IM I have done I came in under-biked vs. under-run. I live in Chicagoland so some of that is related to a very small biking season, but in general I could have always used more biking. My general goals for IM were 50x the distance over 12 months -- 120 miles swimming, 5,600 miles biking, and 1,310 miles running. Swimming and running were no problems, but even including spinning hours hitting nearly 6 hours/week(@ 19mph) on the bike was tough. Now your finishing goal is more reasonable, but still distance multipliers are a way to look at your training plan.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

I ended up finishing IMMT in 16 hrs due to stomach issues and cramping on 2nd lap of the bike, so had to run/walk the marathon. Goal was to finish in <14 hrs and trained about 14-16hrs a week. I'd plan for training volume to be at least 2-3x the distance per week: Swim 8-12+k, Bike 200-300+mi, Run 35-50+mi. I felt my bike volume held me back, since I started a new job and could only get 150mi/week. Great venue and fans at IMMT.

I would train like an Olympic triathlete for around 9 months. Try to get 25 miles of running in per week (average not max), 4-5 hours of riding, 3-4 hours of swimming. Long workouts are irrelevant. Just weekly consistent volume is all that matters and slice it and dice it however you want....just friggin train. This is where most people fall off. They just don't train enough. Improve your body composition and get as lean as possible. Get 56 hours of sleep per week. Once you do that for 9 months you'll be ready. Last 2 months, some fine tuning with longer swims and bikes. I would do zero long runs for you over 2 hours, because the reality is that with your target finish time, you LIKELY will not run the entire run course. Your challenge is to get to T2 with a full tank of gas. That means a ton of swim and bike fitness. Then on race day, you've done 25 miles of running EVERY WEEK ALL YEAR. Your taper week, you did ZERO running, so all you need to do is do a week of run training crammed into a single day. Now you are 1 mile from the finish line and the pull of the finish line will give you everything you need for that final 1 mile.

So where do you sign up for the program? Well, I just gave it to your here on this post. Now just go do around an Ironman of training ( (a bit more swim, a bit less bike) every week for the next 9 months and you will be set.

Oh, one more thing...walk 30 min per day...that gives you 3 extra hours on your feet per week that will harden your legs for the IM marathon because the reality is that your pace (and my pace for that matter) is not much faster than walking.....and it will also help you improve your body composition

This is absolutely sound advice. Hiring a coach is a good idea, but I don't feel its worth it unless you are shooting for a time. In this case you are shooting for a finish really. The plan Devashish just gave you is easy enough to do and will carry you to a finish. I finished my first full last year, and to be honest i wish I would have waited and done my first full distance when I was ready to do it faster (but thats my personal ambition). I finished in 14 hours which was upsetting to me. However, given that my experience was 1 sprint race, and 1 half iron the year before I'll live with it. I say this because like you my half iron was 6:20, so you can beat your goal by just getting some solid time on the bike and in the water.

Good summary thanks. My question has always been why spend a close to equal time on swims vs bike and run? So I am a slow swimmer, 45 minutes for the half distance. This is a casual swim that rarely feels like it saps me of energy. I don't intend on pushing the swim effort beyond what I have done in the halfs. Considering its a short effort vs the bike and run and considering I am a crappy swimmer who's come to terms with the time it will take me to finish (estimate 1:40) wouldn't I be better of say swimming no more then 2 hours a week and use the saved time on the bike which I feel is the longest leg requiring good fitness/capability?

Like others have said, sub 15 is not aggressive, and for that reason I'm going to disagree with those suggesting to get a coach. Unless you have money to burn it's completely unnecessary. For my first I followed the free 20 week beginner plan from BeginnerTriathlete and did fine. I finished in 14:18 and really enjoyed my day.
The plan starts at 8 hour weeks and maxes out at 18(i think, maybe less).
It was fairly simple for the most part, and explained a lot of why it was having you do what you're doing.
Like others have said 11 months is a LONG time to follow a plan. I had an intermediate goal which was an olympic about 5 months before the IM. So my first few months were training for that, but also building up a base to start IM training "officially."
Main thing I'd suggest is figure out what the race terrain is like and try to simulate in your training.

This isn't rocket science, so I don't know why a coach is necessary for a sub 15 goal. Swim a lot, run a lot, and bike a lot but with a purpose. A generic training plan will work fine.

This plan would work for you. Over the 20 week program, the overall average hours per week is 12.

Thanks, I just found that training plan and will look into it. Ironman.com had a 6 month plan too so I may come up with a hybrid. I will also follow the general advice on the board and not start the official training until about 6 months in. From now until the "official" training I will maintain my fitness at a more casual level. By the way I did the IMMT 70.3 so that I can evaluate the course for doing the full next year. So now I know what I am in for, ie the last few miles of each bike loop :(

Seems like plenty of training time to get the finish you're after based on your previous results.

As others have said, 11 months is a long time to train though. I'd break it up a bit, work on your limiters. E.g. something like

First 4 months, swim focus - swim 6 hours/week, plenty of speed work, forget about the bike and spend the remaining 4 hours running (all easy pace).
Months 5, 6, 7, run focus - build the running volume up to 6 hours/week (still all pretty easy, try and run 5-6 days/week with a long run of max 2 hours), cut the swimming back a bit to maybe 3-4 hours, start getting on the bike again (you said you could go up to 12 hours/week at this point, so should be able to be doing 1 hour on the trainer and a 1-2 hour ride at the weekend).
Months 8,9,10, bike focus - maintain the running volume, cut the swimming back to whatever you need to maintain the gains you made during the swim focus (2 hours/week?), rest of the time on the bike. Build the weekend long ride up to 3-4 hours, and do a couple of century rides to get comfortable with the distance and practice your nutrition. If you feel like you're on top of the run volume and can handle some intensity then great, but not really necessary for your target goal.
Month 11 - fine tune and taper

Here's the thing - going under 15 hours, and even going under 14 hours, doesn't require you to be at all fast. A 1:30 swim, a 16mph bike and 11 minute miles will get you in under comfortably under 14 hours, with plenty of time for transitions and a few comfort breaks. That does however require you to have the endurance and form to keep moving at a steady pace for a long time. You get that from consistency of training. Most people finishing in the 14-15 hour range are running slower than 5 hours, which means they're having to take extended breaks and/or walk substantial chunks. That's generally a result of bad nutrition, bad pacing on the bike, or a lack of endurance. If you put in 10-14 hours a week for 11 months without injuring yourself, you should have plenty of endurance. So then it's just (easy!) a case of executing your pacing and nutrition on the day.

Dev, I just copied this and emailed it to myself for future reference. Thank you.

Dev...not arguing with your points, just making an observation. The portion in bold is just slightly over what I average weekly to train for HIMs. I certainly do not have your expertise, but there is no way that I would attempt a full on that volume. Am I missing something or is it the fact that he just wants to finish in <15 hrs?

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don't know what you're talking about, the last few miles of the course are easy peasy downhill

There are some great articles in Slowtwitch's training section written by Dan regarding an IM campaign. One of the takeaways is that you don't train hard for an IM for a year. However, you can build general fitness throughout the year, and then, 12-8 weeks out, you put in the hard work and volume to top yourself off for the IM.

Dev's plan is something that few people do, but should. It's the months of just normal volume, without the big push. It's not easy, for sure. However it's easier than 9 months of intense focus.

The point that it's a good volume for HIM training is actually exactly correct. I'd guess that many IM'ers happily train at HIM training loads for their base training, and then spike it up to specific, longer workouts 8-12 weeks out from the IM.

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Chris Harris

Just copied it and emailed it to friends that were cheering me on all day at IMMT and are on the fence. I personally think everyone can finish an Ironman if they WANT it enough!!!!