From 2009-2019 I raced around 35 times, mostly sprint, but also 5 olympic, 4 half and 2 full. I got decently fast at sprint distance including a handful of podiums at local races but as soon as the distance increased, I got much slower (PRs of 2:42/6:25/15:00:00). My last race was a full distance in august of 2019. The pandemic stopped my racing and drastically reduced my training. I haven't swum since that last race, my total run mileage in these 4 years has been less than many of my yearly totals before the pandemic, but my bike mileage has remained in an okay spot. I haven't felt much of a desire to race and have enjoyed not having to juggle 3 sports, but I'm getting a little bit of an itch to do a full distance next year.
Part of what is driving that desire is digging a little into my previous full distance preps and reminding myself how poorly prepared I was. Both races were 3rd weekend in August and from January-July I trained a total of 180 and 186 hours. In 2014 I trained 13 hours between January and February and in 2019 I hit 14 for the same time period. In 2019, I didn't even run for the first 7 weeks of the year (not because of injury). I know there is so much low hanging fruit, just by training more consistently and having more total hours trained. And I want to prove I can do that.
With all of this said, I wouldn't be looking to do something incredibly ambitious. I just want to prove I can train properly and lower my time. In 2014 I did Mont Tremblant in 15:17:59 and in 2019 I did Peasantman (116mi bike) in 15:00:44. Both courses have around 5,000ft of climbing and I'd be looking at doing IM Maryland next year. I've already gone 6:25:04 at Eagleman. I would just love to go very low 14 hours at IMMD or just under. Nothing crazy.
If I aim to hit something like 300 hours total January-Sept, I think this should be quite doable. I don't want this to consume me. I've got full support from my wife, but in the past I've become too obsessed, and I've enjoyed not having that the last four years.
Thoughts? Advice?
Part of what is driving that desire is digging a little into my previous full distance preps and reminding myself how poorly prepared I was. Both races were 3rd weekend in August and from January-July I trained a total of 180 and 186 hours. In 2014 I trained 13 hours between January and February and in 2019 I hit 14 for the same time period. In 2019, I didn't even run for the first 7 weeks of the year (not because of injury). I know there is so much low hanging fruit, just by training more consistently and having more total hours trained. And I want to prove I can do that.
With all of this said, I wouldn't be looking to do something incredibly ambitious. I just want to prove I can train properly and lower my time. In 2014 I did Mont Tremblant in 15:17:59 and in 2019 I did Peasantman (116mi bike) in 15:00:44. Both courses have around 5,000ft of climbing and I'd be looking at doing IM Maryland next year. I've already gone 6:25:04 at Eagleman. I would just love to go very low 14 hours at IMMD or just under. Nothing crazy.
If I aim to hit something like 300 hours total January-Sept, I think this should be quite doable. I don't want this to consume me. I've got full support from my wife, but in the past I've become too obsessed, and I've enjoyed not having that the last four years.
Thoughts? Advice?