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Need help getting serious with my training (long)
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Goal: 2005 Duke Blue Devil

Background:
2004 was my "non-Ironman" year
2003 finished IMW in 13:30. It was my first Ironman. My splits were:

Swim 1:17
Bike 6:42
Run 5:12

Comments from the race: Swim felt easy, did the first half of the bike in 3:08 and felt good but knew that was not going to last as I couldn't eat anything. Bonked around mile 80. If there was a headwind, I think I would have gone backwards. Run was fine - ending up walking miles 18-22 b/c of cramping from the 90 degree heat.

My training: Here's the pathetic (depending on how you look at it) part. Just reviewed my log and here are the results:

Weekly averages (from 1/1/03 - 9/7/03:
Distance Time
Swim 2,000 yards 1:00
Bike 50 miles 3:12
Run 10.5 miles 1:24
Stretch 0:30

Total 6:06

Due to extenuating circumstances, I couldn't commit more time to training.

This year (b/c of many changes), I'm pretty confident in saying that I have about 10 hrs / week to train

How should I apportion my training?

I know swimming is my worst event, but is it worth putting in extra time to pick up 10 minutes there (if that's even possible) or b/c of my ten hr timeframe, would the extra time yield bigger gains in the biking or running department?

I think if all things break right (weather included) I can go sub 12 hrs (1:15/6:10/4:20) but would like some help on where to concentrate my training.
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Re: Need help getting serious with my training (long) [kac94] [ In reply to ]
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2/5/3 timewise with some variations. Your swim time was decent, much more to be gained from improving your bike split, followed by run split.

Marty Gaal, CSCS
One Step Beyond Coaching
Triangle Open Water Swim Series | Old School Aquathon Series
Powerstroke® Freestyle Technique DVD
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Re: Need help getting serious with my training (long) [kac94] [ In reply to ]
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10 hours / week isn't a big among of time to train for an Ironman but still it's better than 6hr a week. Don't know if it's enough to go sub12hr. Anyway as Marty said, your swimning time in IMWI it's by far the best and it's where you will gain less time. So my advice would be you do the same swimming program you did on 2003 and improve on your bike and running by putting more hours under your belt. Invest more on the bike cause the way you perform on the marathon will depend on how fit you are on the bike. So stick with a weekly avg of swimming and do 6 hours of bike and 3 hr of running. If you have more time, stick with the bike/run time porpotion.



Ohh... get a coach, he will help you to take the best out of every training


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Last edited by: Klep: Nov 10, 04 8:35
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Re: Need help getting serious with my training (long) [kac94] [ In reply to ]
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Check out Gordo and Freil's "Going Long" It hits many of the key principals of long distance training dead-on.

Some general points:

- If the swim felt easy, you may not need to invest significantly more time in it. A good wetsuit and a great draft may get you close to 1:10. With a bit more training perhaps even a bit faster. Key thing is finishing the swim without it killing you.

- Sounds like you had some pacing/nutrition issues on the bike. MANY, people fall into this trap in their first IM or every IM! Pacing and nutrion in the first 2 hours of the bike is critical. The rest of the day revolves around what happens in these two hours.

- I have seen the best results when people without a strong running background increase their run frequency ie the number of times they run per week for blocks of time. This can apply to the bike as well. Many standard programs have people doing 2 or 3 workouts a week, and that's not enough frequency to see real development.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: Need help getting serious with my training (long) [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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Guys-

Thanks for the advice.

Couple things:

1) I want 10 hrs to be my average. If I need to go over as the rides get longer, so be it.
2) I think my problems on the bike in Wisco were more nutrition than pacing. I pretty much rode steady (and well within myslef) for 80 miles until I bonked - which I knew was going to happen but was powerless to stop.

Aside- what does one do in those situations when you can't force yourself to eat?

3) Fleck, you mention increasing frequency to see gains. Should I do shorter runs/bikes but more frequently (ie 30 min run am / 30 min bike pm 3 times midweek) and do my longer stuff on the weekend?

KC
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Re: Need help getting serious with my training (long) [kac94] [ In reply to ]
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I'd bet that you'd actually be fastest by riding 10 hours/week until about 1 month out. Then swim a couple times per week.....its unorthodox but I'd bet that it would give you the fastest time. You'd have to walk/run the marathon - but you'll have to do that anyway with 10 hours/week training. I know I could run a faster marathon with good bike fitness/smart pacing/no run fitness than medium bike fitness/start the run on tired legs/medium run fitness.

If you want to do some run training - maybe 8 hours/bike and 2 on the run. Run frequently - don't worry about long runs - just build some leg durability. Start swimming 1 month out.

Now with these strategies - you need to race super smart - cruise the swim - lose 10 minutes+ on the swim - do not sweat it. The key is the bike/run. You must bike within yourself so you are not toast on the run. You must take the first part of the bike super easy - you must eat!!! Every mile on the marathon that you walk = lose about 10 minutes.

12 hours on 10 hours training/week would be a good feat. Swim and trans = 1:20 - 1:30. Run likely 4:30+ - you need bike fitness to comfortably go under 6 hours and still run 10:30 miles....

Dave

P.S. I think your IM time on 6 hours/training is remarkably good!
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Re: Need help getting serious with my training (long) [daveinmammoth] [ In reply to ]
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Hmmmm. Unorthodox yes but there may be some merit to it. Especially when you consider my longest ride was 72 miles and my longest run was 12 miles leading up to the race

I could always do 1/7/2.

The 1 hr / wk swimming would pretty much match what I did in 2003 (I'm such a bad swimmer I think I need to swim 1/wk to not go backwards too much)

7 hrs on the bikes should = ~ 130 miles / week.

2 hrs of running could be split up any number of ways depending on how close to race day I was.
Last edited by: kac94: Nov 10, 04 10:13
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