Recently inspired by the “breaking 5 hrs for a HIM” post thought i would post this question
What are some landmark/key workouts one should be able to do on their way to training to a sub 9:30 IM?
Assuming you have the time to train.
How many here have done this?
well, if a honest hard brick workout (7-8h) is done and you are comfy holding the 9:30 pace…you know when taper… you should be able to get it done. it s not more complicated than this.
swim bike or run workout individual time arent important as someone can break 9h30 many way… swimming crapy or rider slow or running a bad marathon…
how far out from the race would you do this brick session?
You can get a good idea from your training how fast you will go?? are you sure thats possible?? haha jk lol
Jonnyo, target goal aside for the 7-8 hour brick, what is the breakdown…1hour/6 hour/1 hour? Also, how far out.
Are you currently in the Phillipines?
it s individual and depend on each athelte but let say 3 or 4 times (once a week) up to 4 weeks out!
HAHA! im hoping so…having been working hard on the run. biked 5:00 flat last year and i think my bike fitness is same if not better this year.
yeah…you got it about right… i would do more like 45min swim, 6h30 and 40min run…
wouldn’t that take the ride well beyond 180k if you are riding 9:30 pace???
i m sure you can do that math!
I think hes saying that overall fitness is going to matter more then how long each portion is. So its better to go longer on the bike and not shred your legs, because if you can hold the bike pace for that long and still run. Odds are you overall fitness is there since the run is in ironman isnt based on how fast you can run a marathon but if you have the legs at the end of the bike to be able to run.
LOL … was never my strong point. thanks for the advice! its 8 weeks out now so, i should get 2-3 of those workouts in. it will be good to here if any other top quality IM athletes suggest the same thing. hopefully some will respond. good luck for all your races this season!
Oh i see… this makes sense now
now, lets make something clear… i never recommended you such brick., I dont know what you have done in training and dont know if you are ready for such things…
it s a hard brick… not the most healthy thing in the world… but going 9h30 in a ironman isnt healthy to start with so…
If you’re not that close, the key is consistency. And not consistency between now and your Ironman in July–consistency between now and your Ironman in July of 2011. If you are close, it’s all mental. I’m a whopping 4 minutes from breaking 9:30 but did that running 3x per week because of injury so I think I can comment that Jonnyo is right–the key workout for me is the 5hr ride/2hr run brick. The key to that workout is that you’re asking yourself the whole time if you’ll be able to do it. And as Peter “the Great” Reid said:
“When you’re out there you’re asking yourself a lot of questions. Race day is the wrong time to be trying to answer those questions.”
point taken… i have been doing something very similar already, just wanted a picture on what others do to achieve those times. and see if i can fine tune anything.
How many of those 5/2 bricks do you throw in?
im not sure about the others who have posted so far … but i myself have done a 6.5hr ride/ 2hr run and 2 more a little less than that SO FAR. so all up i will probably get in 4-5 of these type workouts. i like the idea of adding in the swim as well though to decrease the time spent in the other 2 disciplines.
Usually once near the end of the build phase right before taper, so about 3-4 weeks out from the race. People like Jonnyo (sub-8:40) probably do it a few more times.
What are some landmark/key workouts one should be able to do on their way to training to a sub 9:30 IM?
Let me first say that it’s best to not get too hung up on splits and times. However, you need to start somewhere and know what the realistic facts are.
The first thing to do is to check out the results of a few IM races and see what the splits are for the people going 9:30. There is going to be a bit of a range, but a well balanced 9:30 IM athlete is going to have swim/bike/run splits at a typical IM race of roughly 1:00/5:15/3:15, give or take a few minutes for each split. Yes, their is going to be range in overall times - IM Lanzarote vs. say, IM Florida, so you need to look at a few IM races and then do some averaging. I find IMC to be a a good course for this - it’s not the hardest, but it’s not the easiest either. If you look at enough races some trends and averages will start to emerge.
That’s not a bad starting point because now you know what you need to do.
After that, it’s trying to figure out a training program, that will get you there.
It’s hard to say what the bench mark workouts would be, but some of the goal workouts would be as follows:
Swim one hour, non-stop at IM race pace and it not kill you
Ride the IM distance in roughly five hours non-stop and still feel good getting off the bike.
Run 2.5 to 3 hours non-stop, at 7:00 to 7:30 min/mile and again not feel completely wasted after a run like this.( Note, as some know I don’t advocate this, but if you can run a stand-alone marathon in around 2:50, then you have a shot at at 3:15 in an IM)
Other than the paces, the key words in their are *non-stop. *I say this because, I think the biggest wake-up call and the biggest shock to many IM athletes is the fact that on race day, it is non-stop and so much of their training is stop-and-go. This is not only true for athletes at this level but all IM competitors.