Haha, well, as I said my bike fitness is far below my normal level, so no run fitness can fix that!

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
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Well get your ass off the couch and ST and get on Rouvy and do endless snow canyon repeats ASAP before you get to St. George and get on the Macca approved cabbage and water diet (I say this as I sit on my ass, on ST eating a bag for Doritos, so any hopes of going sub 5 at 60 next year are slipping fast unless I get my act together....I don't think I can blame it on being loaded up at work)

I can't say for Ironman distance but a lot of people in my tri club (myself included) did have PBs at age 50 for the Oly distance.
I think a lot of gains can be made in swimming and cycling and understanding pacing. You also should have gained a lot of wisdom to know when to push and when to conserve. And how to not freak out in transitions or when conditions are challenging. It can't be understated how important the mental aspect is.

Personally, for the swim, when younger I didn't really focus on it. When you are older and have time to train and really focus, you can make incremental improvements with form and the feeling of effort. Newer wetsuits (like the ROKA Maverick) are frickin amazing as well.
With cycling I think a lot of advances in understanding how to hold watts, in addition to better equipment, have helped a lot. For instance, in my 20's I would push massive gears at probably 70 cadence. Now I use easier gears at 90 cadence. Incredibly I am actually faster now.

That said, running - there is no substitute for youth and fresh joints.

Examples: racing for nearly 30 years, Wildflower Olympic distance. My avg swim was around 24:40. But when I focused on swimming, in 2014 and 2015 I went sub 22. That's the equivalent of taking 2 mins off the run time, right?
For the bike, when I was young and dumb and strong I went 1:01 for the Oly distance (1989!). At age 48 I went 1:00:28 at nationals. At age 49 went 59:19. And at age 50 went 59:57 at Worlds.

Sadly, running declines. I used to break 40 mins in a 10k during an Oly race. Now I am lucky to break 44.

The other part is stuff declines after ~52 years old (so do it now!). Frankly, I hate running now because it freaking hurts. Swimming and cycling are still good because it's non-impact. In 2022, age 56, at Nationals, went 25:27 on the swim (I panicked and had to breast stroke for a bit), 1:02:37 on the bike and 47:51 on the run.

I'm 57 now and sort of resigned to just do Sprint distance! That said, I plan on doing Nationals Oly again this year. I think I can get the swim and bike down but the run is doubtful.

If you at 49 yrs old are still run-fit, well that's awesome. Lots of LSD plus speedwork once a week. Swim at least 3x week-tempo and threshold; don't waste time with slow yards. Bike one x week hard effort, the rest easier - focus on high cadence and maintaining speed. Believe it or not, racing on Zwift will teach you a lot about cadence, heart rate, and watts; this translates remarkably well to the real world.

And spend a lot of time with injury prevention and take at least one day a week off.

Perhaps most importantly, train with people who are faster than you and who have more wisdom when it comes to race tactics and mental focus. This will help beyond what you might imagine.

The caveat to this w/respect to IM distance is obviously, fueling. IMO, in particular, I think it's under-explained how a long swim depletes calories and with IM distance, you are starting from a deficit. It is essential to refuel after the swim. Personally, the "hunger" I get after swimming 4000+ yards is different than the same amount of time on the bike. I feel like I need "real food" with salt and protein. That may be something to dial in on. KIND bars are pretty tasty as an example.
As I have got older I find that fueling needs require more protein vs pure carbs which tend to make me crash. Plus there is the simple need for the feeling of satiation. Oranges and bananas are good for that as well.
I am not yet convinced that Maurten drink mixes do this. It makes me feel like vomiting.

Good luck and let us know what you learn and how you progress.
For reference it would be interesting to know what your previous PB splits are for IM distance as well as your bike equipment and swim/bike/run frequency and amounts are per week.

I have competed in Ironman events at 26, 27, 56 and 57. The race at 27 was a DNF largely from inadequate training but I was well trained for the event at 26. Even so, I probably went a bit too hard on the bike and blew up in the second half of the run for a time of 11:23.

At 56 I was also reasonably well trained. My half IM times were approximately 30 minutes slower than at 26 but my full I’m time was 10:59. The better time was due to better pacing and probably better nutrition. I was 30 minutes behind a PB starting the run but ran 55 minutes faster. I would say the course probably contributed too (Busselton at 56 versus Forster-Tuncurry at 26).

I had a great coach at 26 and my training really well planned but I didn’t have the experience to use that properly. Having power metres available when I was 56 made pacing a lot easier and there was a lot more nutrition options and information available by then too. I think it shows that I probably could have done a lot better at 26 than I did but I was still relatively happy with my effort back then.

So for me I did get a PB after 50 when having properly trained in my 20”s but experience, equipment and knowledge all improved. I still hope/plan to better my PB again at 59 or 60 but I haven’t done that yet so it doesn’t count.

Thanks for the response, it's given me some stuff to think about and reconsider. The info about fuelling with protein rings true to me, as does the stuff about active recovery, rest and the way running beats me up. I'd love to be able to train with others but I live in a small town with no tri club and do my training at weird times (lunch times, and straight after work) so haven't been able to connect with anyone. The cadence advice is definitely applicable, I need to improve on that. The idea of stashing some "real food" in T1 is a good one. I wonder what a PBJ sandwich at the start of the bike would do for me?

My IM PB splits were 1:08/5:51/4:03 on the Penticton IMC course. Bike probably is a limiter (15 year old Cervelo P2) but I'm a teacher and a dad of nine kids, so can't justify buying a new bike while the old one still works (and I've taken good care of it, so it still works). I have a 70.3 PB of 4:35, so I know I should be able to bring my IM time down a bit, in theory at least. Currently my training frequency is 2 swims, 3 bikes, 3 runs each week. Total volume in the 8-10 hour range which I realise is on the low side, so I've started to edge that up to 12 hpw. I know the path to improvement leads through increased volume and frequency, so I'm trying to find ways to increase those. I started riding my mountain bike to work (30 minutes, almost all uphill!) this week to sneak in some more bike volume, I'm hoping to fit that in 3 times a week.

Thanks again for the advice, I really appreciate it.

IMAZ 2015 12:03 Age 53
IMAZ 2017 11:39 55
IMAZ. 2019 10:55 57
IMAZ. 2021 10:48 59 (Kona Qual)


I had two things going for me.....my first full was in my early 50s and I have gradually increased my training load.

Through 2021 I was still fortunate enough that the more I trained, the faster I got.

Bad bike accident a couple of months before Kona in 22 and it has been a bit of a struggle ever since. We will see what those times look like in my mid 60s......hopefully there is a comeback story still in here

My PR at Ironman was set at age 60. Kids were grown, RETIRED, plenty of sleep (rest), and time to train. Also it was at IM Arizona with cool weather and little wind. 11:21, previous best was 11:40.
I did my first Ironman in Kona in ‘82 and had done an IM about every other year since then.

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Team Zoot So Cal

Wow, reading these replies some of you guys are absolutely flying, much respect. I just want to go sub 12H IM by age 40 (next year). After that it's all gravy.

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Nutmeg State

I'm sure there's someone out in the world who did their first IM at 50+ and it didn't go so well

They trained a little bit better, or they had better luck on the second try, and beat that time, setting PB

Then they stopped, so the PB was retained

Theoretically, anyway?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

PB 9.27 at age 56 in Roth.....but I only raced one IM before turning 50 (at age 41) on a super hilly course, on a road bike with clip on aero bars and hit the wall on the run and walked at least 2 miles. I was an hour slower. I have no doubt that if I'd raced Roth at 41 with the same knowledge and kit as I did age 56 I'd have gone faster than 9.27. Maybe that partly answers your question.

This is basically what I figured: the knowledge/experience you had gained outweighed the loss of the purely physiological advantages of being younger. So by being smarter with training and racing you can "make up for" the depredations of aging. Of course for all those who made no mistakes in their training/racing when they were younger, this won't work and they can't set PBs... It's the knowledge that I'm after, specifically how to adapt my training to maximise improvements in fitness and speed now that I am a bit older.

Can you share more about your training structure? S/B/R most days? Duration and weekly voume?

"It's the knowledge that I'm after, specifically how to adapt my training to maximise improvements in fitness and speed now that I am a bit older."


My take on racing age 50+....


Swim - I'm an average swimmer and I've never felt the need to improve whilst focusing on long distance. The extra work and time required to save even 2 minutes say in the Ironman swim is disproportionate to the actual benefit. I swim about 65 minutes on 8k average a week.


Bike - the backbone of a good Ironman, not just in terms of having a fast split but also not being wasted for the run. Lots of miles, lots of TT's, lots of time in the aero position. Through the miserable UK winter I ride indoor intervals on an old turbo trainer with no sessions more than 2 hours for most of Dec - Feb. You can do all of this at age 50+ with little risk of injury. My big weeks were 200 miles. An absolutely key consideration is to maximise you bike set up. That doesn't mean spending a fortune but it means buying the best proven bits of kit you can afford and getting into a position you can hold for several hours.


Run - the hard part. You will not be able to run as far, as fast and as often as you did when much younger. So you need to adapt. I run 3 or 4 times a week (mainly 3). Long run, shorter but harder interval and either a brick/hill workout or easy run. Make every run count, no junk miles, run on softer surfaces, wear good well cushioned shoes. My biggest week will be 30 miles total.


General - I don't take dietary supplements. I've used High 5 Energy source to train and race for years. I use SiS Rego for recovery. Nothing else other than a sensible diet. I rarely drink alcohol, in the run up to Roth I went about 18 months without drinking a drop. I don't obsess about weight but seem to naturally get down to about 75kg by the time my A race comes around (I'm 6'0" tall). Rest is vital, I don't train more now than I did when younger, despite more time, but I do rest more....I spend most afternoons here in Europe with my feet up for two hours watching cycling on Discovery+!


I also train completely alone. I'm not in a swim squad, never ride with friends and run solo for every session. Long distance triathlon is a solitary individual sport not a team game and I make every session MY session and don't swim/ride/run at the pace of someone else.


I hope some of the above is useful.

I am 58 now I think maybe I could. I have done 3 ironmans one I dnfed (embrunman because I didn't make bike cutoff at top of col de lizard). I did not train seriously for any of them. Biggest bike week was 120 miles. I did them because friends asked me to do with them.

My running sucks compared to my prime. At age 16 I did 5 K in 16:10. Two weeks ago with solid training I almost died doing 26 min. I could lose 10 pds and go maybe a min faster.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Thanks for this reply, I appreciate the advice. I can apply most of it to my training. My struggle will be with the "down-time" aspect of training as my job and family life are really quite full-on and carving out 12 hours in a week to train is a challenge. Training is really my "down-time" so I need to find ways to be smart with speeding up recovery. I'll look into the "SiS Rego" supplement you mentioned.

Short Version: If I did every session in the week it would look something like this:

Monday - Friday
AM - Swim between 2,200 - 4,200 yards (40mins - 1hr 15min)
Lunch - 45 mins on Treadmill (5 miles)
PM - between 1hr - 1hr 30min on bike trainer (20 - 30 miles)

Saturday (not fixed)
AM - Swim 3,200-4,200 yards (1hr - 1hr 15min)
PM - Run 10-15 miles (1hr 30min - 2hr 10min)

Sunday (not fixed)
AM - Swim 3,200-4,200 yards (1hr - 1hr 15min)
PM - TT Bike Outside 30 - 80 miles (1hr 30min - 4hr)

Totals:
Swim: 16,000 - 20,000yards (7hrs)
Run: 35-40 miles
Bike: 130 - 210 miles
Hours: 18 - 23 hours

Longer Version:
I don't plan in any rest days because those are going to occur on their own due to life/work/family commitments, which are not always controllable.
So although I have 19 individual sessions planned through a week I normally make about 14-15 of these, with some weeks hitting all 19. Also on race weeks I will taper in depending on the race length (I mainly do sprints and Olympics, with 1 70.3 in November each year - and the 5 yearly IM).

Swim:
All sessions start with a 1,200 yard warmup, of which 400 is straight swim, 400 is position 11 drill (because I have a terrible crossover), and the 400 pull buoy.
Main sets will be a mix of 10x100yd @ 1.30 pace 15sec rest; 5x200yd @ 1.38 pace 15sec rest; 4x250yd @ 1.40 pace 15sec rest. Then longer sets but nothing over 500yd with total each day depending on my early work requirements.

Run:
Monday-Friday is generally boring - on the treadmill at steady state for 45 mins at lunch time. Pretty much every day I can make this happen. In a non-airconditioned room that gets hot as balls, so racing in June and July in Texas is not a problem for me.
Weekend runs are outside around a local park, with pace determined by time available. If I only have 1hr then I run hard, and if I have 2+hrs then I'll run slower.

Bike:
Monday-Friday are on the bike trainer with a mix of session types. Typically there will be 2 harder sessions of either VO2, Tempo, Thresh - may not be flashy but I utilize the Garmin workouts as they work with the Tacx Flux S trainer and I don't have internet access for Zwift etc. The other 3 sessions will be base work.
Weekend ride will be dependent on the next race, so hard intervals before sprint races and currently longer IM pace rides.

I walk about 10 miles a week with my dog, with walks every day acting as both active recovery and mental relaxation.
I also drink too much beer.
This works for me and is not supposed to be a plan to eek out the very last ounce of performance in the pursuit of peak athletic ability, but it keeps me fit, healthy and without injury, and at the front of my local races.

Thanks for the information. That's a pretty impressive week! Holy shit, that would leave me utterly drained, kudos to you.

I see you have ranges for each sport and your totals vary from 18 to 23 hours per week, but could you explain your system for adapting this plan to have "stretch" weeks and "recovery" weeks? Do you step back all your running one week and swim more that week, for example? Or do you step back all three sports in the same week? I'd love to get my volume up (goal at the moment is 12 hpw, so still nowhere near what you are managing) without crushing myself in the process. I see you use family/work interventions as rest days, but I'm curious to know how you vary the programme on a weekly (or monthly) basis.

Thank you!

A beating man would say it's very unlikely that I will PR.
(My PRs from my 40s are respectable).


But.....

I am going to try!!

My chances are much better, if I believe it's possible!!


That said, I am going to have to do things differently.

I haven't quite figured out what this means yet!!

Unfortunately there isn't some grand plan behind this that I execute, and the 23 hours a week is a max volume which I only occasionally hit.

The increase/decrease in time/volume naturally occurs - such as I might have a work appointment to get to after swimming which means I shorten the swim time, but that means I'm doing those 100yd repeats all out. Yesterday I was out of the office all day so ran at lunch at a park and then ran again in the evening instead of the bike workout. Flexability and consistency has been my mantra.
I don't have a coach, I go to occasional swim clinics, I gave up riding with groups (prefer to walk my dog on Saturday mornings), this is just how I stay motivated, healthy, and performing high enough that I'm happy.

If I look at the last 3 weeks for instance I had a sprint race March 16th and olympic race March 24th, for the week between those races I did 12 individual sessions, and took the Saturday off - total 11 hours.
The week after the olympic I completed 13 sessions - 17hrs 30mins.
The following week I did 17 sessions - 18hrs 30min.
So far this week (today being day 5 of the week) I have completed 12 sessions - 11hrs 35mins. I anticipate that I will finish this week with 18 sessions but maybe I don't and that is okay.

This is not a maximum performance training plan - but for me is sustainable year in year out.

So the main takeaway from your success is: being flexible with training sessions, creating multiple training opportunities every day, being super consistent over a long period of time. The result of that is you achieve large amounts of volume, which then builds the engine and makes you faster. Thanks again for the input!

Congratulations, how old are you? I just turned 53 and, with 14 sessions (14-15 hours) a week, I already feel like walking on the edge. Don't you feel the need for trading, at least, a couple of specific sessions for strength and conditioning?

I just turned 50 last month.
So far I have managed 13 years without any significant injuries (touch wood, cross fingers) without any strength/conditioning work. I know from the medical literature that at some point I should add/switch out for that strength work, but the thing is I enjoy the S/B/R and would rather do one of those than a gym workout.