Hi there. I’m going to be training for a spring marathon. After that, I will want to recover sufficiently and then build for a half ironman race.
For those of you who have tried this: How many months have you waited after your marathon before you do your half ironman? So that you can race the half ironman COMFORTABLY?
Some facts about my situation,
I’m currently in half ironman shape (just did one), but obviously will get somewhat detrained over the winter.
Over the early winter, I will fit in maybe one month of resting/unstructured training, and then will focus on my marathon. During the marathon focus, the swimming and biking will both take a backseat (realistically, just once or twice a week each).
I have a weak base in cycling. I suspect that after the marathon, the key will be rebuilding my long bikes and bike volume in general.
Running is my strongest sport. I’ve run a few half marathons this year and right now I have a reasonable base.
Given the strong runner/weak cyclist combination, for the NEXT 2 months (prior to the winter offseason) I am thinking of focusing on cycling while just “maintaining” the running.
For my recent half ironman, I did four rides of 50+ miles (followed by short brick runs) in the 2 months prior to the race. As a weak cyclist, I think those four rides were absolutely critical. I will probably want to do at least 3-4, 50+ rides between the marathon and the race. That is one month worth of 50+ rides. Plus I’ll need to rebuild up to that distance.
Hey, Tigerchik, even if you can recover well in those 2 weeks, it begs the question of whether you can really train for a marathon and a Half Ironman simultaneously.
I’ve done some searches here on that question. The consensus seems to be, Don’t try it…Just not realistic. Too much biking on top of too much running. Very hard to fit it all in.
I’ll be doing (hopefully) the May 20 Colorado Colfax Marathon and the June 24 Buffalo Springs Lake IM 70.3. So, for me… that’s what? Five weeks?
My plan is similar to yours except that I’m going to try to maintain 3 Computrainer rides every week of no more than 1.5 hours. There will be 1 session of “quality” work where the majority of time is spent a threshold. I would imagine the “peak” effort of that type of workout would have a main set of something like 3 x 20’ @ FTP (Friel Zone 4-5a) or 2 x 30’ @ FTP. The other two workouts will be 1 active recovery and 1 endurance/tempo level workout. Max time on the bike for those weeks will probably be about 4 hours. Swimming will be once/week for 1-1.5 hrs focusing on technique (drills and kick sets) and speed (short intervals - 50s, 100s & 200s with short rest intervals).
I think that if I can hold on to shorter, more intense sessions of cycling and swimming I can continue to improve even as I focus on the run. Swimming and cycling are much stronger for me, though. I think I’ll have no real trouble getting from 1.5 hour “long” rides to 2.5-3 hour long rides over the course of 5 weeks. If I think I’m not progressing well on the bike, I may start the 2-3 hr rides earlier, but keep them entirely aerobic or recovery effort until after the marathon.
4 weeks got me a 3.41 marathon and a 5.44 1/2IM one year and a 4.02 and 6.08 the next - it depends how you recover, and how you race - triathlon, despite the enormous fitness it requires, isn’t as hard on your body as the marathon, which, if you really work at it, is one of the toughest things you’ll ever do.j
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re: a marathon is harder on one’s body than a half iron
I agree with you - but why is that true?
It doesn’t quite make sense to me. A half IM is so much longer, and your legs are worked for longer, even if a big portion of it is non-impact since it’s biking. Because a half IM is so much longer, is it that much less intense than a marathon that you’re truly racing?
Yeah, I was (am) deeply surprised by how easy it has been to recover from my half ironman race. Most of my stand-alone half marathons have made me more sore!
Having never done a marathon, I don’t know how well I will recover. Because of injury history (IT band & piriformis), I’ll probably give it 2 weeks before running again and then only gently.
Here’s my GUESS,
Absolute minimal time between marathon & half ironman: one month. That assumes excellent cycling fitness.
Ideal: 3-4 months. At least, for those of us who know we will have to rebuild our biking.
I’m planning Boston and Tupper Lake Half which are two months apart, figuring that should be lots of time.
Tigerchik - It takes my legs longer to recover from a Marathon than an IM. Sounds impossible, but I figure it’s because I’m too fatigued to run hard in the IM and therefore don’t damage the legs nearly as much.
i think it depends on your fitness level and your ability to recover. many advise against this, but last year a i did a half im and then clocked one of my fastest marathons a week later.
Actually, I did them two weeks apart and was fine. It probably helped that Boston was a complete debacle that I ended up walking for miles. I actually raced a duathlon six days later and was second overall. Then a week after that did a half-IM.
It depends on how the marathon goes. If you have the glycogen stores down pat, eat right during the race and do well then a half-IM two weeks later is marginal. However, a friend of mine did the same Boston Marathon, duathlon, Half-IM sequence and he won the Half-IM at White Lake. If you have the run volume to support it then it is not a big deal.
Boy, I’m going to say as long as it takes to get back to doing a few 3-4 hour rides and to running a couple 10-12 mile long runs in training: 1-2 week taper and you’re ready … Could be 2 months for some folks, 4 for others
Tigerchik - It takes my legs longer to recover from a Marathon than an IM. Sounds impossible, but I figure it’s because I’m too fatigued to run hard in the IM and therefore don’t damage the legs nearly as much.
