looking for some advice here guys.
Long story short a lot of people I train or race with (15 or so) are doing IM Louisville and some of them are trying to get me to join in the fun. Just wonder if it is feasible to train for an IM while in college ( studying Mechanical Engineering ) or should I just focus at building speed and racing short course at this point in my life? I’m just trying to get outside opinions.
Whatever advice you have to offer would be greatly appreciated.
Ha. You sound just like me while in school. I studied mechanical engineering and graduated this past may. I too wondered if I should do ironman whole in school. Honestly, if it motivates you, I would say go for it. While many will say you should focus on the speed aspect because you are in your prime for speed, it really depends on your goals. If you are doing it just to have fun and be fit, no harm really. Triathlon is not a job for most of us. I decided to forgo doing all short stuff all the time. It just wasn’t as interesting to me. Am I slower because of it, sure. But I really don’t care because I’m an engineer and not looking to make money in tri. I can gain speed and focus on that now if I want.
Long story short, just do whatever motivates you. If training with friends and having fun along the journey to Ironman, seems like a fun goal, go for it. In the end, I kept enjoying Ironman and did 4 in school . It really I the best time in your life to train fr one before your older (50+). You schedule is pretty flexible (even in engineering) to fit workouts in all the time.
Another coincidence, Louisville was my first.
I did IM Louisville in 2010 when I was 20 and in college… it’s definitely doable. I didn’t train as much as I should have, but still made it at 13 hours… just make sure you get as used to heat heat heat hot hot hot rides and runs… IML was 106 that day back in 2010.
Hydrate and kick some butt
It’s all up to you though… if you like the long endurance game, then go for IML… if you prefer speed and whatnot, well, then think about IML and decide before the next price increase for IML registration 
I’m also a university student and think it does really depend. My personal choice with long-term development and sustainability is to stick with the faster stuff essentially forever mostly because of the “use it or lose it” idea. If you’re interested in switching to IM one day in the hopes of being competitive and KQ’ing then sticking with short course for now will also be your best bet. However if you just want to do the Ironman as a one-off thing because all of your buddies are doing it then why not? I don’t think that should in any way impede your long-term development.
As for finding the time to train… well it also depends. I have tons of time to train because I don’t attend a large part of my lectures (even if I did a very busy week would only be about 15-20 hours) and don’t have much in the way of homework, but from what I know this may be different in the U.S. college system. So possibly you might not be training at the level you’d like but I don’t think this is any different from most of the people on this board. It might be a bit painful but I would recommend basically doing a short-course focus and adding some volume going into the race, which should get you through in relatively good shape and allow you to not lose your short-course focus or sacrifice performance during your short-course season.
must be nice to have money while in college I lived off of $1 Big Macs while in college.
In all seriousness, your training will be less or about the same as the number of hours that college football and basketball players spend on practicing. If they could do it, so can you. If you have time, money, and motivation … nothing should stop you. You probably have a lot more free time while in college than you will once you get out. I was also a mechanical engineering major, but that was many many moons ago.
Big Macs for a dollar!? That’s luxury. Can’t even get a simple double cheeseburger for a dollar now a days.
I’d have time and motivation but would really have to stretch to get the money for racing and food for all that training.
Then don’t do it. We have enough kids coming out of college with tons of debts. Get an education, a job, and some sort of financial stability before you engage in something so expensive. This is a hobby. Not worth it to set yourself back financially when the Ironman will always be there.
I don’t see why not. What potential barriers or ill side effects do you see?
One piece of advice I’ll give you, which if you haven’t learned yet, you’ll unfortunately learn the hard way someday. There are no guarantees in life, and sometimes, the best decision you can make for yourself is to do epic stuff with friends, as those are memories that remain for the rest of everyone’s lives.
If training for and racing Louisville is something you really want to do, especially since you’ll have a bunch of buddies with you along the way, find a way to make it happen, both time-wise (you’ll never have that much “free” time again) and financially (got a job at the gym on campus if need be).
Yes, Ironman will “still be there”. But there are no guarantees that you’ll be able to go on this adventure with all those friends again, or that you’ll even have the time to do this, with work, possible grad school and family commitments. So make the decision that is ultimately the right one for you, whichever way you decide.
One piece of advice I’ll give you, which if you haven’t learned yet, you’ll unfortunately learn the hard way someday. There are no guarantees in life, and sometimes, the best decision you can make for yourself is to do epic stuff with friends, as those are memories that remain for the rest of everyone’s lives.
If training for and racing Louisville is something you really want to do, especially since you’ll have a bunch of buddies with you along the way, find a way to make it happen, both time-wise (you’ll never have that much “free” time again) and financially (got a job at the gym on campus if need be).
Yes, Ironman will “still be there”. But there are no guarantees that you’ll be able to go on this adventure with all those friends again, or that you’ll even have the time to do this, with work, possible grad school and family commitments. So make the decision that is ultimately the right one for you, whichever way you decide.
+1 on this. If this is something you’ll look back with great memories 20 years from now, then by all means join the fun. On the other hand, if drunken misadventures on a road trip would be more of what you’d remember fondly 20 years from now, then do the Ironman later in life.
While it may be hard to see now, as a college student you probably have a lot more free time (i.e. time to train) than you will later in life if you planning on having a family/kids and job. Not trying to bash college students, but people always think their current stage in life is so hard, then you get to the next stage and realize how good you had it. My first ironman was my junior year in college and it was very easy to do 20 hours a week. I was pre-med. The big thing if is you have money to afford it. Finding time is all about time management and it will become even more important as you get more responsibilities as you age. Now in my 30’s with two young kids, it is much harder to train and I don’t train as much as I used to due to time constraints, but those years of high volume have set me up to do well at lower volumes.
Best advice is do what you enjoy. If you have already partied enough and IM is important to you, do it.
I’d say it def depends how hard your college is and what your goals are.
I was far busier in college with academics and the extracurrics than I’ve ever been in my entire life, and most people think my job is pretty busy. Plus I have a kid now, so that doesn’t make it any easier, but it’s still easier with regular sleep than the insano academic demands of my college environment which I can barely even fathom doing now.
I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said, but I can relate a bit. Didn’t do an ironman in college but certainly trained enough to (often 20-25 hours/wk. Pre-med student). Its certainly possible, but training at that level necessitates a pretty basic disregard for all things that aren’t school and training. Of course, its more than possible to “do” an ironman on far less training, as long as don’t put too much emphasis on the time and competition aspects of it. Depends on where you want the balance of your life to lean, I suppose. Just make sure you do what you WANT to do, because you don’t want to second-guess yourself down the road
It’s not going to get any easier when you’re out of college. The hardest part will be the expense, but from a time perspective there’s likely not going to be an easier time in your life to train for the next few decades.
Every athlete at your school is putting in at least 20 hours a week training and in other sports related activities. And, despite the myth, athletes generally have a higher graduation rates and higher GPAs than the general student population (the differences are even bigger when you leave out football and basketball players).
So, IM training will not affect your GPA as long as you “get” your time from places you are wasting it now and not by just cutting back on studying 
As for expense, presumably as a college student training with other college students, you have not yet been sucked into the middle aged man curse of “needing” the latest gadget or go fast item. Show up on your old bike, ratty kit and 2 years old running shoes and kick some old man ass.
I did my first Ironman while getting my ME degree and wouldn’t trade it for the world. But Ironman is what got me into tri and was a big goal of mine. So if you have the desire (and especially if you can take a light quarter/semester) it is a worthwhile endeavor.
It is all about motivation. If you are motivated to get fast, then go short. If the endurance side motivates you than go long. For me, at that time, nothing was more motivating than a looming 140.6 (and that 2.4 mile swim was probably the most daunting to me at the time) and got me to train more than any other race would have.
Good Luck,
~Greg
that’s why I’m on the fence on one hand I really want to do an ironman but on the other hand I’ve finally started building into some decent speed and don’t want to lose it.
One piece of advice I’ll give you, which if you haven’t learned yet, you’ll unfortunately learn the hard way someday. There are no guarantees in life, and sometimes, the best decision you can make for yourself is to do epic stuff with friends, as those are memories that remain for the rest of everyone’s lives.
If training for and racing Louisville is something you really want to do, especially since you’ll have a bunch of buddies with you along the way, find a way to make it happen, both time-wise (you’ll never have that much “free” time again) and financially (got a job at the gym on campus if need be).
Yes, Ironman will “still be there”. But there are no guarantees that you’ll be able to go on this adventure with all those friends again, or that you’ll even have the time to do this, with work, possible grad school and family commitments. So make the decision that is ultimately the right one for you, whichever way you decide.
+2
If you’re training in a group, then absolutely why not? It’ll double as your social time.