You are are track dude! Just remember that this is an endurance race. You gotta be able to run off the bike - that is after 1+ hour of swimming and 5-6 hr on the bike. Get your 5+ hr rides, 90 min swims and your 2.5+ hr runs in (as many as possible) between now and then and you will be set. Remember this is not rocket science...just train!

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I find myself telling myself lately, "JFT...and stop reading slowtwitch."

Do a couple of those long rides alone too.

I think you are doing fine. Remember, the race is nine months away. Even if it were tomorrow the likelyhood is that you could finish, but it wouldn't be pretty.

I'd say you're on track. Focus on everything you've done, and remember- you still have a lot of time. Slow and steady wins the race.

Happy New Year!

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Hello,

Sounds like you are in good shape. One small concern - for your first IM race your LSD pace is your race pace. If you try to go harder on the swim and bike you are in for a long walk.

Smtyrrell99: Thanks for the reply. I mentioned those paces as 'stand alone' paces and I realize that one cannot 'race pace' an IM the same one can a sprint or even an oly. Ideally, I'd like to be able to hold those speeds during an IM and that is one of my goals for throughout the year.

I know how you're feeling - I was in your place last year at this time. My advice: Relax and enjoy your year of training - you'll do fine. Don't peak too soon - 9 months is a long way off. The best thing you can do between now and September is NOT injure yourself. If you're feeling overtrained in July, do not hesitate to take an additional rest day.

Hey, I too am getting ready for my first IM next year, IM CDA first and then Canada. I had questioned my training quite a bit, and decided that the last couple of months was all about increasing my endurance. I had a lot of speed last year, but knew that I didn't have the endurance I needed for an IM, unless I really wanted to suffer like a dog. I've also come to realize the my half IM speed will not carry over into an IM, at leat I don't expect it to. I've focused heavily on lots of long swims, long rides, long runs (including a marathon), and long bricks. All of this at a much slower pace than I used to ever train. Just two months of this and I have noticed a major improvement in my endurance. I can really tell by the way I feel after a long bike ride. I used to feel totally spent after a 4 hour ride, now I feel great and still feel good enough to mow the lawn or whatever. I've also learned how to eat during these long rides. I'm going to keep doing this, and then start to mix back in some intensity training in Feb.

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- Steve
http://bailey.sts.winisp.net

You are so on your way. Another barometer to use is a brick, say 5hr bike 1 hr run. The 5 hr bike will get you within an hour of your IMMoo bike time, and if you can click off 8:15's for an hr and be comfortably aerobic you are going to be sooo ready. These also give you an opportunity to test out the nutrition. Your two 1/2IM's plus 2-3 of the big bricks should give you enough data to have a workable plan.

Best advice I ever read on nutrition was, If it works great in training it probably will work ok in an IM. If its only ok in training it will probably get ugly on race day. Rich Straus may have written that, Crucible Fitness.

It is way too early to be worrying about your level of fitness for IMMoo. Last year I injured my calf running in the snow and ice and couldn't run for 7 weeks in Jan and Feb. To compensate, I jumped in the pool and hammered a 12k week (up from 4 or 5 that I had been doing) and promptly strained my shoulder so all I could do was spin on my trainer in the basement until the beginning of March when I felt ok. I used March and April to do the type of training you should be doing now ..... easy runs and rides and swim technique work and gradually increasing the volume. By the summer, I was in full training/racing mode and had 2 half-IM pbs and then went 9:27 at IMFL. Your fitness tests that you use to predict how you'll do time-wise at IMMoo will be in June and July, but a word of caution, IM is a whole new ball-game and bad things can happen so I always set multiple goals (ie. sub 9:30 on a really good day, sub-10 if some bad crap happens, finish if really bad stuff happens) and be prepared to handle mentally whatever comes your way. In my first IM in 1999 I was convinced that I would run 3:00-3:05 range (I come from a running background and have run a 2:32 marathon) but in the 3 IM races I've done so far my run times have been 3:29, 3:18 and 3:12 and I'm still trying to piece together the magic combination that I'll need to balance the effort and nutrition requirements so that I can really tap into my running ability..... maybe I'll find the magic combination this year :)