I’ve never lived in a place where I could train comfortably all year round due to weather, so my IM training plans have never been more than 4-5 months straight. I moved to a warm weather location and now plan to train year round.
I’m 8 months out from IM CdA and want to make the max out of my time to go into my specific race plan strong. What would you doing this time of year?
My goal is 10 hours
I’ve been back for 6 weeks and have built up to 40km/week for the past few. Very slow, 7 runs a week. 5k peaked last year around 21:30, haven’t tried yet recently. I’m cycling 200km per week. FTP peaked at 330 last year and it’s around 270 now. Not started swimming yet but will soon
What to do for the next 4 months before I start my race plan? Build to 60mpw? Focus on getting ftp up? Add lots of swimming? I trying to keep it to 12 hours a week, until I’m 16 weeks out and then bump up to 16hrs per week.
It’s a crazy stretch goal for me. If it’s going to happen should I be doing?
About me …
I’ve done 2 IMs, first about 12 hrs and 10 hours 2 years later (swim was short, so maybe an equivalent of 10:40). Fastest HIM was 4:47
Im relatively better on the bike but still MOP. Fastest IM run was 3.45 fastest open half was 97 minutes.
I’ve never really been properly trained given 5 month training plans. Maybe only peaked at 25mpw running.
ayyee aboutta do my first im in 9 months i’m swimming mostly. swim is my worst leg. ran a marathon last week, might run like a half marathon distance on my own once a week cause I live in mi and it’s balls cold, and just on the trainer whenever i’m hype at home but don’t wanna go outside. yup lol until it gets warm and I can go wild
Sounds to me like a great time to ramp up run mileage (slowly) and try to bring your open run speed up a bit. I don’t have the chart in front of me, but if I had to guess 21:30 for 5k and 1:37 for 13.1 probably makes 3:45 for an IM run about as quick as you can be for your given speed potential.
Maybe a bit faster than that, but closeclose. McMillan suggests it should be 3hr open mary. What do you think open Mary needs to be to run 3:10ish in CdA?
What open marathon time should I target to have a shot at 3.15 IM marathon
I think you’re falling into the trap of picking an ambitious target and trying to reverse engineer your training to meet it. I think it’s better to just focus on a good training plan and focus your energies on performing it correctly, getting rest, etc. A 3:15 marathon for a 9:59 is quite aggressive.
For me, I’m 9 months away from my next IM and I’m doing shorter workouts generally with more intensity, then throwing the occasional long aerobic session in so my body remembers what it feels like. I’m also trying to put some weight back on though and get my bike power up though so my training would look very different to yours.
What open marathon time should I target to have a shot at 3.15 IM marathon
I think you’re falling into the trap of picking an ambitious target and trying to reverse engineer your training to meet it. I think it’s better to just focus on a good training plan and focus your energies on performing it correctly, getting rest, etc. A 3:15 marathon for a 9:59 is quite aggressive.
At IM CdA it is… but at a lot of the flat bike courses I wouldn’t agree =). But very good point in not letting an aggressive stretch goal dictate the plan. Spot on
Approximately how much of my weekly training time would you recommend I spend running? Getting to 60km / week running slow would be nearly 50% of my weekly training time. Seems logical to me.
What do others do? What % of your time do you devote to Running during offseason base building?
I’ve been swimming 5x per week for the past 8 weeks, getting in 13-15k a week. I’m planning on continuing that through the holidays. Mostly because like many of us, I’ve neglected swimming and I’m really focused on having a well balanced first Ironman, also it’s seemed like a safe way to build up my engine without taxing my body too much.
I’ve been gradually increasing my mileage, basically all easy running on 5-6 days week. Using the Barry P plan for the most part - I’m at 30mpw and adding 2-3 each week. I have been doing one steady state run each week just to really focus on economy, but outside of that it’s all been easy.
I signed up for Trainerroad for the Bike and have been doing 3-4 sessions a week on the Trainer, but nothing more than 4 hours in a week. It’s been mostly high quality, but when it’s sunny in Portland I’ve been sneaking in some endurance rides on the weekends.
I’ve been really focused on form and base - just want to be ready for my scheduled build which will start in January. Following Friel’s methods for the most part.
You should spend more time on the sports you’re weakest at in my opinion, as you’ll improve more quickly. Got previous splits to share?
50% of weekly training dedicated to running is high. If you’re running it all slow then you’ll be building your aerobic engine but if that’s not a limiter then it might not be an optimal use of time. I do 25% swim, 50% bike, 25% run in terms of time, but that’s because I’m using the bike to maintain some aerobic fitness and specifically trying to improve my biking for the next month or two. If your swim and bike splits are in the top quartile then your approach might be great. If your biking and running at at a similar level then you might benefit from putting in more cycling so that improves too. Also, if you’re planning an open marathon in the next couple of months then your approach might be good too. Need more information really
Run is the limiter. Like I noted in my history above I’ve never actually built a solid run base and as such never managed to put too many weeks together with 25+ miles. Fastest 5k was 21:30, HM 97 mins and marathon about 3:50. Think my fastest 1k was 3:30. Fastest HIM run was 101 mins and IM run was 3:54.
Cycling I’m not FOP but usually top 20-30%. Fastest HIM split was 2:20 (PRd my run afterwards too). Fastest 40k is just under an hour and FTP peaked around 330.
This is a very easy question to answer for me, since I’m actually in the same boat! Run speed is my biggest limiter, and after 2 more weeks of base building, I’m going to start a 3 month run focus, and plan on having the running make up 50+% of my weekly training. I’m shooting to bring my standalone 5k down to ~17:00, and then be a consistent 1:24-1:26 in HIM next summer.
In that case lots of running probably will help you. You could do something like run easy for 30 minutes 5-6 times a week (assuming you’re doing some running at the moment). That might add up to 30km/week. Then you can identify one as your long run, adding 15-30 minutes each week (with the occasional recovery week), one as a speed session, and one as a medium distance tempo run. If you build up the time gradually you can hopefully build that solid run base so that you’re less likely to get injured as you do speedwork and longer runs. The weekly distance will start to increase as you get faster and as the runs get longer. They key is to have patience and not jump into it too fast so that your body absorbs the volume comfortably. Over 2 or 3 months you’ll at least see your heart rate for a given pace come down. Make sure you do technique drills too to help get some economy gains.
Yup, pretty close to what I’m doing already. About 7 runs a week, for 40kmpw for 5 weeks straight. Building at about 10% a week now until I hit and plateu at 60kmpw. I’ll introduce intensity in about 6 weeks when I’ve gotten a couple weeks at 60kmph under my belt.
Was just curious if that’s crazy as it will come at the expense of raising FTP or more time in the pool.
Sorry, meant to say 3:30 marathon if I was properly trained at 21:30 5k
What open marathon time should I target to have a shot at 3.15 IM marathon
A good drift from open to IM marathon is 6-10 min per hour. So if you are in 3:00 shape then a really good time would be 3:18, a pretty good time would be 3:30. Some very rare athletes will go below 6 min per hour.
Having said that most people (likely more than 50%) don’t achieve potential on race day, either by biking too hard or by running the first half too hard. Look at your execution, I would say that based on your times it isn’t too bad (21:30 for 5km vs 3:55 for IM)……So now you just need to become a better runner if that is your goal.
Keep in mind that usually only 30-40 people will crack 3:15 at most IM’s so you are looking at going from a 3:55 IM marathon to top 1 or 2 %……