First question I would ask is, where do you live?

This will have a bearing on both the type of events I would suggest doing and when to do them. It also relates to the training that you will be able to do based on weather ie do you have a real winter( cold and snow) where you live?

The only thing that I will say for sure - don't do a marathon!

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I just finished my first IM -Ultramax- on 9/25.

To prepare, I ran a marathon 5/9. I do not recommend that for IM preparation. As I am sure most would agree, the recovery time is way too long. A half marathon would have been better preparation-less recovery, but good mentally because of the distance and race intensity.

In addition to a few Olys. and a couple of organized century rides, I did a Half-IM in July (my fourth). It was great prep. for the IM both mentally and physically. While it took 5-6 days to fully recover, the recovery was much quicker and easier than for the marathon. Especially if you have never gone longer than an OLy., I highly recommend doing a Half a few months before Placid. A Full IM is worlds longer than an OLY. However, I did not find the Full to be even twice as hard as the Full, given that the pacing for the races is so different.

Good luck.

I like having a half IM on my schedule about 8 weeks out. It gives you an intermediate goal and breaks up the training routine. It is also a good test and gives you some pacing idea. Just my thoughts. If Fleck disagrees--I'd listen to him.

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Ken St. Pe'

Aww hell, do what I do...NONE. Hell my first Tri of any distance was IMLP. Next 3 Tris were IMLP...why bother for anything but the big show?

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Ditto. I started with IMLP. Piece of cake.

Don't worry about it. Your body type was made for endurance sports. You'll fly up those hills.

I haven't done an Ironman yet: I am training at the moment, with a plan from a well respected coach. There is definitely a 1/2 Ironman in the plan, it is about 12 weeks out from the IM: used to practice nutrition and pacing. I will be peaking for this, and then resting for a while and then have a 10 week plan to build and taper for the IM. There is no marathon in the plan: It takes a couple of weeks to recover from one of those, the time which apparently would be better used in building capacity. I have some six hour rides in the plan, which coincide with some century ride events, some half marathons in appropriate places, some long open water swims: in all of which I am instructed not to thrash myself too much. we'll see how it goes.

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Those who know do not speak, those who speak, do not know.

Aspeth,

I have coached several fellows for IMLP. My suggestions for them/events to do before were:

Powerman Alabama: good hill work...longer distance

Run a 1/2 marathon in early - mid May.........

Lots of biking, as biking is 50% of the event. Spinervals.

Travel to the bigger events, higher profile, will get you accustomed also to good competition...again, not knowing where you live or where you race......these are two suggestions.........A good nutrition plan is a must also.

Race as much as you can! (within the sensible limits of training...you also don't have to race hard at every race, in fact learning to not race hard is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of going into an IM).

Embrace the sport and don't be a slave to a single event, even if it is a big one such as an Ironman. There is so much to learn (about and IM and yourself and the sport) by racing (like pacing and how you react to the stress of the event). And there are always going to be factors that are beyond your control (crashes, getting the flu, flatting, getting the runs cause your race plan nutrition is screwed up, etc.) that I think it is really beneficial to not make an IM as the make-or-break of your season.

The more you are at ease with the sport and more experience you have, the more "successful" you will be for the season overall.

In addition, think of all the training you are doing...if your are into training, then train; if you are into the sport, then get out there and enjoy it and learn! It seems pretty weird that people can train hundreds of hours each year and only race for 20!?

I am also signed up for my first full IM (Lake Placid) after two years of doing half-IM races. I'm planning on doing a half-IM in early June because that's the earliest one I can find. Since I'm now pretty familiar with how I feel at different stages of a half-IM, it'll be a very good benchmark for me to see how much all the miles and miles and yards have affected my fitness. Here's hoping I see *some* benefit from all this work! :-)

I do have one marathon planned in January, many months before the race. The reason is simple: I've only done one marathon before and I had an absolutely HORRIBLE experience; it took me months to recover and I still have some residual fear of experiencing that kind of pain again. I have to get over that fear, and the only way I'm going to do it is to run another Marathon -- this time with better preparation and more realistic goals.

Other than that, my plan is basically volume-oriented. I want to be comfortable riding 100 miles, and comfortable running 18 miles, and comfortable swimming 4000 yards. I have no thoughts of speed -- right now I don't feel confident about the distances, and until I do speed is a non-issue. Likely, that means speed isn't an issue until 2006 or 2007. This is a year where I train to train.

Lee Silverman
JackRabbit Sports
Park Slope, Brooklyn

Another first timer for Lake Placid as well. What rear cassette would anyone recommend for a Native Floridian with little hill training? (I live in TN now so I am working on hills, but still not great on them).

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http://timeoutdoors.blogspot.com/
Photo Blog - App Trail Thru Hike March - Sept 2009

Huh? Have we met? How do you know what my body type is? I'm scared to ask. :)

Sorry -- that would've been helpful! I just moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Plenty of hills available here in all shapes and sizes. Not too cold in the winter, just some rain and of course shortened daylight hours to contend with.

I am thinking about doing Wildflower as a half-IM...

Great - so you can train outdoors all winter.

I would suggest that you try and do at least one 1/2 IM and 3 - 4 Olympic distance races. Wildflower would be a good one to do.

1/2 marathon runs are also great efforts and a perfect level of intensity. Same for 10Ks. Many triathletes tend to shy away from these type of races, but they are great training.

It can be said about any IM, but Lake Placid in particular - you can't ever do too many hills in training when getting ready. If you live in San Francisco, you have great access to hilly terrain for training. Go nuts!!

Best wishes.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I would definitely do a 1/2 before Placid. Almost everyone I talk to had a terrible experience at their first 1/2. My first 1/2 was a disaster. I think this is because it is a much different race from an Olympic or sprint and pacing and nutrition play a much larger part. You should try this out in a 1/2 so you can hopefully get it right by Lake Placid. I think a 1/2 is a lot more like a full IM than an Olympic distance race is like a 1/2. There are like 20 1/2's in the Northeast next year before IMLP. NJ Devilman (5/15); Harriman (5/21); Eagleman (June); Musselman; Tupper Lake; New Hampshire in June. You could do Gulf Coast or St. Croix. There's a new half in West Virginia. I've heard the best time for a 1/2 is 7 weeks out from IM. Last year before IMLP (my first IM), I did 1/2 IM South Africa in March and Eagleman in June - this worked pretty well for me.

I am following Fink's 30-week competitive program from the book beIRONfit for the UltraMax race (I assume it will be the same weekend in 05 as it was in 04).

He suggests doing a 1/2IM 8 weeks out and an Oly race 12-weeks out.

Now, this does not coincide with the races I want to do, 1/2Max on June 11th, and a local Oly in Ottawa (usually mid-july). I haven't decided whether I will just do those races and modify the training plan ... or not do those races, stick to the plan verbatim, and do the Oly-1/2IM races as "solo's". I have Oly and 1/2IM routes ready to go in my area, so that is not that big of a deal. At this point, it is not something I am stressing over.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

I'll be a first-timer at IMUK, August 05. I had developed what I thought was a solid plan that involved doing a marathon in early May 05, which I thought was plenty of time to recover before August. Will a marathon really screw up the rest of my training that badly? I was planning to focus on the bike and swim after the marathon, throw in an Olympic or two (no 1/2IMs where I live) in June-July, returning to the run (tempo work) in July, leaving time to taper 14 days before the race.

Am I smoking crack?

you already know what a marathon feels like so i'd pass on doing one in the spring. i'd recommend doing a ton of bike riding and pass on the half so you can train straight throught the spring. what worked well for me and something you might want to do if you're accessible to lake placid, is to spend a long weekend at lp over 4th of july weekend, and practice on the actual swim, bike, and run courses. get a good boot camp there, and you should be ready to start tapering soon afterwards.

I think it's more important to consider the pace you run your build up races at than the race itself. You could do a HIM at Olympic pace, such as I did at Sherborne this year, but it took me 4 weeks to get over it which would be pointless in an IM build up. If I ran it at IM (or even a bit slower) pace then I'd recover quicker so it'd benefit me in the overall scheme and I'd learn a lot about feeding and pacing for your IM race.

Olympics are short enough to be treated as a speed session but again, as long as you can recover in a few days and get back to training. Keep a close eye on your HR during the period after a race, if it's higher then you'd expect it to be then you're still not recovered.

In terms of IM training, I usually view an Oly Race as a "BRICK". Heck, many early season "bricks" are 2-3 hour ride and hour run. I usually just throw in a pre-bike swim and do a solo-oly. Why not? makes the brick funner, since it's a "practice race". I usually just do these at a Z2 pace and call them "zone 2 races".

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
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Looks like there is lots of good advice above. I did a 1/2 12 weeks out from my first IM and there were a lot of benefits. The biggest was knowing your fueling/pacing strategy is working and mentally knowing you finished a 1/2 goes a long way toward having confidence for the IM.

I think that doing a 1/2 before IMLP will give you a lot of confidence, as a couple of others have mentioned. If you can't do one, you'll probably be okay(given that you've prepared properly, etc), but I found that having done a 1/2, I didn't feel at any time during IMLP that I could not finish. The IM is longer and more challenging than the 1/2, but there is a certain similarity in that if you can keep yourself going for a 1/2, you can keep going indefinitely. Having done training sessions in which you have biked over 112 and run over 20 will also help you.

Oly's are a great format for racing, and get you through the basic process of doing a tri, but I think they are a totally different animal than IM. I can actually race an Oly, whereas for a 1/2 or IM I am just trying to maintain a reasonable effort.

IMLP is a great race. It is a challenging, yet fair, course. Good Luck.

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I don't think that it is "necessary" to do any specific events before IMLP. But if IMLP is your only event you may be missing out on the fun of doing tri's. I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket. By doing a dozen tri's a year in addition to IMLP, I get a broader flavor of what tri's are about. In fact for me doing lotsof duathlons, triathlons etc in the spring/(early summer) actually interferes with true "iron" training. Of coarse it is good "practice" to do some half's etc before too.

MUST do Keauhou Kona, HI 1/2 before IMLP :-)

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I was, now I will tri again!
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Any time is a good time.
God Bless you my friend.