Help me decide (full IM)

Triathlon Forum
1

Last year I did my first 70.3 and had a blast (it was hard though) in Galveston. Originally I planned to do it again this year and have two 70.3 races under my belt before trying for a full IM. Now I’m considering about going ahead and signing up for IM Texas in May instead of Galveston (I can’t afford to do both). This will be my third year in the sport of triathlon (I was a runner before that).

Long story short…I’m on the fence. Wife and I are thinking about having baby #2 in a year or so and part of me thinks I should go ahead and do a full now. Two kids is only going to make it tougher to train. The upside to IM Texas is that it is 4 hours from home and flat. The downside is that it is hotter than hell.

Should I hold off another year or two and get a few more 70.3 races under my belt or just go for it this year? I know I need to make my own decisions…but I appreciate input from veteran triathletes and fellow noobies alike.

2

Good question, and good on you for considering the family/time commitment side of it. Have you spoken to your wife yet to see what her opinion is yet? That may be the biggest factor in all of this.

3

Noob here. I got started w/ triathlon 3 years ago. I completed my first 70.3 (Redman) at the end of last year. Decided I was ready to give IMTX a shot. (Living in central Ark, it was close for me as well.)

Also, like you, I have a young family. The window of having time to train gets smaller by the day… My second child was born last Nov. My son was two then. It only gets harder to find time to train as they get older.

I set up a pain cave in my garage. 80% of my training was done on the treadmill or bike trainer watching kids movies with my toddler and putting my infant daughter to sleep with the hum of the machine I was on. The truth is, even w/ two kids, as long as their small (under 3) 90% of what they need can be right in your house. So I set up garage so I could do everything but swim right there anytime I had a spare hour, or half hour, or whatever. There’s time there if you can take advantage of it.

Now that my son’s 3 and daughter is 1, I can’t see how I could have legitimate time to train w/o quitting my job, ditching them with my wife all the time, or going broke on babysitters. Plus, it’s kinda of fun to be around them. :slight_smile:

I don’t regret my decision to move forward and do an IM this year. Your SO needs to be 100% on board. And you’ve gotta, for the most part, give up everything but your job and family. That’s why IMTX worked for me. We stay close to home during the first four months or so of the year. From Memorial day through New years, it feels like we’re gone every other weekend.

IMTX is hot. But it’s a great race. Really well supported and well run. (You can search ST for my race report, if you’re so inclined.) So, just slow down, take in lots of salts and fluids, and enjoy the day.

Sorry to be so disjointed w/ my response. In short, IMTX is great (and hot, but so what). It will only get harder to train moving forward w/ your family. If your SO is with you, do it. You won’t regret it.

4

She supports whatever decision I make but I can tell she’s worried about how much time an IM would consume. She saw how much time I devoted to a 70.3 and she’s worried I’ll have to double that. I do all my training during the week before she or the baby wakes up…so that helps. What sucks are the weekends when I’m gone for half a day.

5

Yeah the ol’ “Go ahead honey, I support you”, but you’ll be doing dishes and laundry for the next 2 years…:wink:

I’ve only done one full and I’m not married and no kids, so I might not be the expert you are looking for. But like you said alot of your mid week training can be done before anyone wakes up or after they go to bed so that helps. Even being on a quieter trainer in the same room so you all can watch a movie or TV together may help. I think there was only about a month and a half where the training on the weekend really interferes with home life. You may want to sit down and take a look at a training program and map out how much time it may consume training.

6

One suggestion for making the lost weekend palatable for your family: set aside a time when you will NEVER be training. Maybe Sunday afternoons. Or Monday evenings. Something so she knows that there is a day of relief from the kid and a time when she can see you. Or she can schedule things for herself that day (I don’t know…hair, shopping, tennis, whatever). But it will get tough if she “loses” you for two months to the f*(#ing ironman.

7

The training doesn’t have to double. I think an increase of 30-50% is plenty. But it needs ot be more deliberate and planned with good periodization and quality over quantity.

Depending on you work schedule, sleep requirements and such, you don’t have to devote the whole weekend. I think some folks are too ritualized and inflexible in their training schedules:

Weekends: Sat. Sleep in, then some times durign the day a 7-12 mile run + 45-50 minute swim during my daughters swim lessons (Hell, I need to be there anyway right?). Sun: Long ride starting at 4:45-6AM and back home before 11AM even if I throw a short brick in there. Advantage… the lightest traffic is on sunday mornings.

Weekdays: Sleep in 1 or 2 days as needed. Long run Wed. or Thursday waking up at 4:15-4:30AM. 80-100 minute ride ride 1 morning, medium run another morning. A 4th morning swim or short recovery run. At lucnh get in 45 minute swims or recovery runs. 2 evenings a week after 8PM when my daughter is asleep, hop on the trainer for 50-70 minutes. Occassionally I get out of work early and get in a ride before dinner

My rules… 1) I pick up my daughter form daycare and I have dinner with my family. 2) I’m home all evening until 8PM and I still get an hour to wind down, hanging out with my wife before bedtime.

The challenge for me is that I get to work at 7-7:15AM. The advantage is that I live 2 miles from work and my YMCA (pool) is about 2-1/2 miles form work and 1-1/4 from my home. In warmer weather I’ll even do a run-swim-run workout and that I can get out of work at 4PM a lot of days or stay later if I took a long lunch to workout.

If you get crative, you can train mostly invisibly. Of the 17 hours I trained last week, my wife only “missed me” (she was awake or not at work) for about 4 hours of that.

8

I am in a similar boat and similar issues have been passing thorugh my mind. If I were in your exact shoes/boat…I would get that FULL out of the way. Then you would know, in the future, just what to expect if you want to do another IM or HIM. Do it while you can, with another kid, it may be a loooooong time before you can do another.

9

TX is hot and brutal and I love it. Accept the challenge of the tough conditions and do it. Ignore the “negative Nancy’s” that whine about the race. I’ve done it all three years and am only skipping it in 2014 because I promised the family no IM’s. Time for a break.

10

I did my one and only full IM race earlier than I thought I should because of a kid on the way. It was the right call. I got it out of my system and went back to halfs when the baby arrived. I might do another when my kids stop thinking it is cool to hang out with their dad.

11

I don’t have a family so I’ll let others chime in on that.

You’ll be fine foregoing the additional 70.3s before your first IM provided you approach your training properly. My first half was Branson last year (September) and I followed that up with Galveston and IMTX this year. I’d probably skip Galveston if I were to sign up for IMTX again - they’re only 5 weeks apart so you can’t trash yourself properly in the half without risking your final prep. You come from running so the major groundwork has been laid. I bowled in high school and I still turned out fine.

This past year it didn’t get hot until the week before the race so nobody was physically prepared, even locals. However, you at least have a mental edge if you’ve run in Texas summers before. Pace the bike properly, stay on top of hydration, and don’t overcook the first half of the run. The swim is crap but the bike is beautiful (for Texas) and the run course is spectator friendly. You won’t regret it.

12

I appreciate the input. It takes a lot of training just to do a 70.3. So I figured why not just go ahead and do an IM. I realize there is more training involved, but I’m not starting from scratch. I pretty much haven’t stopped training so I’d just have to add to it. Now If I can just find $650. haha

13

As another person said be deliberate in your training. No wasted workouts.

For me when I was in IM mode I treated everything as a transition.

For example: go for a run after work.
Night before: all run gear out in accessible locationOn the drive home go over the plan in my mindPull into the garageLet the dogs outGet the mailBegin to change clothing while the dogs are outsideLet the dogs in. If they take longer I do kitchen chores such as (un)loading the dishwasherGet food for the dogsWhile they are eating I finish up run preparationPick up the food bowlsTreat the dogsOpen the door and leave

This can take 10 minutes or this can take 30 minutes. Your choice. 20 minutes does not seem like a lot of time, but it translates into 2 1/2 miles of running.

For morning runs I found I could either sleep 5 minutes more or waste a bunch of time doing non-value-added activities. I chose sleep every time.

My co-workers say they have no time for a run, but yet they can’t recite a single thing they did except watch TV.

14

One suggestion for making the lost weekend palatable for your family: set aside a time when you will NEVER be training. Maybe Sunday afternoons. Or Monday evenings. Something so she knows that there is a day of relief from the kid and a time when she can see you. Or she can schedule things for herself that day (I don’t know…hair, shopping, tennis, whatever). But it will get tough if she “loses” you for two months to the f*(#ing ironman.

I trained like this…except i took off an entire Sunday and no evening workouts. Tough, yes, but doable.

15

I think it ended up being more like $680ish after Active fees. :stuck_out_tongue:
Now If I can just find $650. haha

16

There will always be a reason why the timing for IM will not be optimal, especially as your family grows. I vote go for it now.