I am in the midst of reading Chris Carmichael’s book “The Time-Crunched Triathlete.” I bought it because I did not read the disclaimer (or even the entire cover) which makes very clear that that the program he discusses in his book is geared mainly towards Olys and sprints. However, I do really like the way he writes and explains things, and he talks a decent amount in this book about why it doesn’t work for Ironman athletes. So I feel like he must have written a book on Ironman training but I can’t seem to track it down.
If not Carmichael, can anyone direct me to a good book on “advanced” Ironman training? I have two Ironmans under my belt - first was an 11:30 that was riddled with rookie errors, next was a much better 10:13 (albeit on a faster course, but still enough to equate to a big improvement in my overall and AG rank). Next year I want to take things up a notch - I have read Friel’s “Going Long” a few times and have used elements of his philosophy in my training with some success, but his approach seems to be very “one size fits all” and the more I read his book, the more I see him contradicting himself. I think it’s the inevitable result of his books being written so as to appeal to the widest possible audience rather than him not knowing what he’s talking about, but still, I want a reading list that’s more focused specifically on people who are trying to get to a sub-10 Ironman.
Anyone have a suggestion (or suggestions)? I am also considering hiring a coach, but I still love reading and being a student of the sport as much as I can be.
There isn’t one. Your best bet is to read some of the pioneering books on endurance training, running, swimming, etc. Many of them are, unfortunately, out of print. But you can sometimes find scanned copies on the web.
Brett Sutton has been sharing more of his thoughts recently on the TBB blog and on a very good 2-piece IMTalk interview. As always, some controversial stuff from a controversial coach, but a massive amount of insight as well. I keep hoping Joel Filliol will write a book, but for now, most of the folks who COULD write a book on advanced IM training are busy coaching athletes. C’est la vie.
At 10:13 you are doing something right even without the book. “Championship Triathlon Training” by Dallam and Jonas I read a few years ago and seemed pretty advanced. There was also a Traithlete Magazine article from 2003, 2004, or 2005 in their Road to Kona Issue on training with no time contraints. You mentioned “Going Long” - there is a lot of stuff on Gordo’s blog - endurancecorner.com.
If you are at 10.13 and want to go sub 10 you need a coach not a book. There are so many variables when you start getting onto 9.xx terriroty that it becomes impossible to provide reliable guidance based on guess work alone. The nearer you get to breaking 9hrs the more diverse and specific individual training needs to be in my experience. What works for one does not usually provide the best results for another at that level of competition. If you cannot get a coach my suggestion would be regular testing regimes to work out for yourself what is working for you and what is now just padding.