Tri_ing_it_out wrote:
The title says it all. It is a 30-week program to train for an ironman. I have always been like a "mileage junkie" as he described it in the book, but I am worried about switching to a time-based training and heart-rate based training. I was wondering if anyone has any experience in this training program. What was your expectation when you followed it, and what was the result in the end? Did you improve? Did you feel like you were well prepared? This will be my first ironman and I want to do well. I want to do it within 12 hours but training by time seems... counter-intuitive for me... Has anyone tried the "Your Best Triathlon" by Joe Friel's training plan as well? How does that compare with Don Fink's?
Yes, I followed it for my first and only IM. Well, sort of followed it. I was only able to run for part of the middle ten weeks and more or less gave up swimming in that section through boredom. In the final ten weeks in lieu of running I either cycled or XC skied.
Came in at 12h 4 mins. Everything went absolutely by the book right up to halfway through the run. At that point the lack of running-specific conditioning in my legs was exposed brutally. Possibly could have come in anywhere between 10h30 and 11h 20 had I followed the program fully.
The nice things about it are (a) you just do what you're told and don't think too hard; (b) you can see the structure of the training blocks clearly, so always know what you're aiming for over the next couple of weeks. The obvious downside is that it won't get the very very best out of you.