I keep seeing articles and ads in relation to this on :
http://www.triathlondominator.com/
He claims to have a training plan that will get someone ready to dominate an ironman on greatly reduced training by emphasizing high intensity interval training, rest, quality nutrition, with a dab of volume here and there (or at least thats what it sounds like). has anyone bought this? thoughts? I think it would be an interesting experiment to train for an IM in this way…
I keep seeing articles and ads in relation to this on :
http://www.triathlondominator.com/
He claims to have a training plan that will get someone ready to dominate an ironman on greatly reduced training by emphasizing high intensity interval training, rest, quality nutrition, with a dab of volume here and there (or at least thats what it sounds like). has anyone bought this? thoughts? I think it would be an interesting experiment to train for an IM in this way…
Product ds that have that many fonts are never worth the money
Yes,
Many people have done it. It is called ‘Having Kids’.
Only responding to what you wrote, haven’t followed the link…
This can work in theory. It typically works best for an athlete with an established base using the traditional very high volume training who then backs off the high volume and increases the intensity.
For someone using this to get in to ironman condition in the first place, I’d expect an 80% injury rate for 2 reasons. One is that intensity (particularly run intensity) is very injurious to most people. The second is that doing sporadic high volume workouts is injurious too…it guarantees that every time you do a high volume workout you are not quite adapted to it (by not being done often enough and not having a total volume large enough to support the workout).
thanks for the replies. this is what my instinct tells me…if something is too good to be true, it probably is. that said, the author of this (greenfield) does pretty well at races up here in the northwest. But I guess there’s no guarantee that he’s actually following a low volume training plan of this type.
I’m only going to post once on this, because I don’t want to get spammy or advertise a product. I’ve got two kids, two jobs and not a heckuva lot of free time. It is very similar to what I do in my own training. Speedwork, weightlifting, efficiency/economy drills, VO2 efforts, dialed in nutrition, diet supplements, and a smart taper/race week. Doesn’t mean there’s no 100 mile rides or 2 hour runs…just not many of them.
Without even looking at the link but reading your synapse, why not? Seemed to work for Andy Potts last year.
Seriously, after 2-3 years of what seemed like nothing but LSD and base building for IMWI 07 and 08 I took this year off from doing IM and only did 1/2’s, oly’s and sprints. I still did a few 100 mile rides or 16 mile + runs here and there, but with a wife and 4 kids I could just not get away from them that long (nor did I want to) to do the every weekend long workouts that I had been doing. So I did a lot more intervals (esp on the bike) and shorter runs but lots more hills. I think I rarely went over 10hrs a week.
I took my half time down from 5:15 to 4:44 this year, knocked almost 10 minutes off my oly time (2:15-20 down to sub 2:10) and just felt better/fitter and faster. Best thing was I was able to do mutliple races (raced 6 out of 7 weekends in Aug/Sept including 3 halfs) and it seemed like I felt fine a few hours after an Oly or almost recovered the next day after a half. I ended up at Mightyman half last weekend and that was my 17th race of the year.
Next year I’m going back to IMLP and I’m gong to continue on a similar plan, with more intensity, less time and few long rides/runs (although I will still do a few). However I do think you have to have some base/good fitness or else you risk injury/burnout etc…
So for those of us with some established base and families/jobs/lives etc… that can’t train 20hrs week I think a plan like this can work. I’ll let you know come July 2010 ;).
What baxnelly says agrees with me. He indicates that his base of mileage in previous years has helped him stay injury free and possibly is a contributor to his improvement this year on less mileage (although it remains to be seen if his IM is better).
I think, based on his comments, that he may have been overtrained in his previous high mileage training and that some of this year’s improvements come simply from not fighting overtraining.
I’m only going to post once on this, because I don’t want to get spammy or advertise a product. I’ve got two kids, two jobs and not a heckuva lot of free time. It is very similar to what I do in my own training. Speedwork, weightlifting, efficiency/economy drills, VO2 efforts, dialed in nutrition, diet supplements, and a smart taper/race week. Doesn’t mean there’s no 100 mile rides or 2 hour runs…just not many of them.
Have you completed any IM races with this training plan? Had you completed any prior using a higher volume approach? If yes to both, how do the 2 performances compare?
Not saying that this type of training is bad for triathlon…just probably for IM. And it can work quite well for an IM if the athlete had built the base in the previous years of training.
IM CDA twice (9:59 and 9:46) and Ironman Hawaii twice, using this plan. Tried high volume in IM Canada build-up and did OK at first (:56 swim and 4:56 bike) but came off the bike with knee pain and didn’t finish. Plus, I never saw my family and lived on rice and beans.
IM CDA twice (9:59 and 9:46) and Ironman Hawaii twice, using this plan. Tried high volume in IM Canada build-up and did OK at first (:56 swim and 4:56 bike) but came off the bike with knee pain and didn’t finish. Plus, I never saw my family and lived on rice and beans.
BTW, this is probably very much like I train…but I do short course stuff.
I keep seeing articles and ads in relation to this on :
http://www.triathlondominator.com/
He claims to have a training plan that will get someone ready to dominate an ironman on greatly reduced training by emphasizing high intensity interval training, rest, quality nutrition, with a dab of volume here and there (or at least thats what it sounds like). has anyone bought this? thoughts? I think it would be an interesting experiment to train for an IM in this way…
This is my favourite part of the page:
So he endorses his own workout plan!!! Well, i am sold. 
So for those of us with some established base and families/jobs/lives etc… that can’t train 20hrs week I think a plan like this can work. I’ll let you know come July 2010 ;).
Can you please update me on your thoughts? I’m really interested to know what you think! thanks.
So for those of us with some established base and families/jobs/lives etc… that can’t train 20hrs week I think a plan like this can work. I’ll let you know come July 2010 ;).
Can you please update me on your thoughts? I’m really interested to know what you think! thanks.
I actually went the complete opposite because of a change in life situation that resulted in me putting in a ton of time, miles and hours. See this post:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2911280;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#2911636
I guess I’ll be the guinea pig on this. I signed up for IMLP July 2011 and only have one Tri (a Sprint this past July) under my belt (and even then was only middle of the pack). I don’t have 20 hours a week to train and certainly don’t expect to “dominate” anything, but after getting past the cheesy marketing site, I couldn’t find any bad reviews of this training plan. Lots of flames from others, but nobody has taken the time to actually train with it and posted results. I know it was fairly new, so I am expecting some more info coming online soon about those completing recent IM events on this plan.
I looked at a LOT of other plans before settling on Ben’s Triathlon Dominator package. The real reason I picked it is there were VERY specific workouts and goals and it had the flexibility to move a couple of workouts around when necessary. But the main reason is that it was the ONLY full plan I could find that also had a full nutrition plan. I need some hand holding on my training since I put a lot of “junk” miles in without a lot of concrete results.
So, my plan technically starts on November 25th, but Ben also provided me with an off-season plan to carry me to the start date and get a core level of fitness (keeping my body used to daily workouts). I am 6’ tall and was at 218 last year. I was down to 203 when I did the NJ State Triathlon but still felt heavy. I’m only three weeks into the off-season plan and diet and am down to 191.4 (as of this weekend) with a goal weight of 175. I am not going hungry and have “cheated” on a few too many occasions lol… (tough with summertime bbq’s), however I already feel 100x better.
My goal is to finish with a respectable time and try to run the entire marathon at the end (albeit at a slow jog). I am certainly not aiming for a Kona slot, but after reviewing the training plan leading up to the race, it does increase in intensity quite a bit heading into spring.
Plus, I’ve emailed Ben a few questions on the plan and he is VERY quick to respond, so I truly believe he is putting his name behind this plan and wants you to succeed.
I expect this to be the most difficult thing I have ever done, but also expect to enjoy my time training and performing the IM. I’ll post my progress and completion using this plan so there is some concrete data rather than what should and should not work.
I ended up using the Ben Greenfield Triathlon Dominator package for Ironman Louisville and raced to an 11:22. I jumped in and started following it after New Orleans 70.3. I still have alot of work to do to keep getting faster but I find that this approach of high intensity mixed with longer sessions worked very well for me. I’m a father of two and a firefighter and on my days off I watch my kids as my wife works until 5 p.m. Most of the time I would take my kids to the gym and knock out the first workout of the day and maybe the second if it was a strength training workout. On the weekends I would head out earlier and get everything done. Some of the days I had to swap because I’m on a 24hr on 48hr work schedule and for the long sessions I didn’t want to be smashed at work. One thing you have to pay attention to when doing most of these sessions is to concentrate on your recovery and nutrition afterwards. The program has a nutrition protocol to follow and it works extremley good if your honest with it. You have to take ice baths and live on the foam roller, or the TP massage kit that I use, after some harder sessions . The strength training will keep you strong and balanced. I know there is always tons of debate on this subject but for the profession I’m in you need to keep some strength. This also helps with injury prevention. I did alter the swimming a bit as I used the DVD boxset, “Clean up your stroke”, from SwimSmooth instead of the Dominator swim sessions. The workouts fit nicely into the plan. One day a week was off and it was used for rest and recovery or to make up a missed session. Other plans that I have tried in the past were from Ironguides and these plans still left me very fatigued even though they claimed it was a lower volume approach. The weekends were Iron weekends and very high volume and left me drained going into the next week. Those plans were based on RPE and can work for some but I found that my ego would take over alot and I would go harder then I was supposed to. The training zones I set up using the Dominator plan kept me honest and for most of the harder intervals I would just use RPE with pace and speed because the heart rate would lag. Using the Dominator plan I averaged around 12-14 hrs a week. I reached the line at Louisville feeling confident and ready. The other thing I thought was great is that the support you can get from the forum when you purchase the plan. Any questions about races and workouts were answered very quickly. I recommend it to anyone who wants to use your training time wisely.
Over / under that these positive reviews are actually written by Ben Greenfield and his marketing team?
Over / under that these positive reviews are actually written by Ben Greenfield and his marketing team?
if so, in this case, it would be the best effort I have seen to date (knowingly) of guerilla marketing.
44 posts and no particular pattern to them. seems to be a real dude.
and did you look how old that post is? His marketing team blows if they only post once a year…
Products that have that many fonts are never worth the money.
That’s funny!