A little background: I am a strong swimmer, above average cyclist, and below average runner. I am currently in my 4th year of racing. In Sept, I’ll complete my second half this year and 4th overall. I’ll have done 10 sprints and an Olympic by the end of '09. My plan is to do an Ironman or Iron distance race in 2011, which will then give me 5 years of racing. With that amount of racing, I feel confident and comfortable bumping up to the distance. I’ll probably get eaten alive for this, but at this point in my life (I’m 26) I only plan on completing one Iron. I want to obviously finish the race in a respectable time, but the distance doesn’t suit me. I am not looking to go to Kona.
So, the question is: Start off next year with a marathon in May (Long Branch, NJ) or just continue to build up my overall tri stength by completing a few more halves, olympics, and sprints? If I were to do the marathon, I would still have all of the tri season. I don’t think I would be touching the bike at all until the marathon would be over, bike endurance would be real low. Is the marathon going to wipe out my season? Logical thinking would say to do the marathon because I am not a strong runner. However, I have seen and heard of many people incurring many more injuries from solely focussing on run training, especially the marathon distance. I know of quite a few Ironman athletes that have only done marathons contained within their Ironman. Let’s hear it. What has past experience done for you? Positives/negatives?
I’ve done 18 marathons. 5 of those were in Ironman races.
IMO: Training for a stand alone marathon is really good…racing the marathon, not so much. Lots of recovery time needed for a stand alone marathon…I believe you will be better off doing Multi-Sport training, as opposed to a single sport focus. It is foolish to think that you need to bang out a marathon before you can train and effectively race an Ironman…
Logical thinking would say to do the marathon because I am not a strong runner.
Logical thinking would say don’t do the marathon. You don’t gain very much from racing a full marathon, other than experience for racing your next full marathon. The benefits are in the training for the event. If you have any triathlon speed goals, train for the full but race a half (if you want or need any standalone running goals to guide you along).
Listen to Lar Dog, that man can run.
From my own experience, I have run the Jersey Shore Marathon (in April) a couple of times, and then gone on to an IM later that year (IMC or IMLP). As the other poster said, training for a marathon = good, racing a marathon = not so good.
You essentially lose a month of base training given the marathon taper, the recovery week, and the starting out gingerly week afterwards (of course YMMV).
I think the idea of running a marathon is good, but you may want to look at Philly in November, or the Marine Corp, in another year. Use the spring months to build your base for tri. Otherwise, you’ll very likely have the feeling of playing catchup, particularly if you are doing LP or CDA.
having done it both ways prior to IM for me I just went in more banged up doing the mary in Jan for a June IM, for me I won’t be running more than 19 mile long run before my next…
I agree with everyone that racing a marathon adds little value and the trade-off is mainly negative (down time). I do like racing a half marathon and then using martinez’s tables for best case IM marathon time estimates to help with early IM run pacing. Don’t start running 30-60 sec/mile faster than you should.
I think you need to decide how you want your race to go. If you want to run the whole marathon and go < 4 hours - then you need to ramp your miles up = some run focus months/year.
If you are happy crushing the swim/bike and walk/run the run - then you don’t need to run as much…
You have at least 1 1/2 years to build run fitness - you should be able to do it without getting too injured…train your weaknesses is a good rule of thumb.
All in all - I vote you should swim a lot less, bike a little less, and run a lot more. Do a block of 6+ months where you really bump up the run miles/frequency.
Dave
Some random thoughts:
Agree with Lardogs comments and defer to his experience. I don’t think there is a great need to race a marathon to prepare yourself physically for an IM.
But if you want to race a marathon and an ironman in the next couple of years consider this advice:
Particularly if you live in a part of the world where outdoor training is severely restricted in the winter, don’t mess up your spring, summer and fall multisport training by racing a spring or summer marathon. It is the tapering for the marathon and the recovery time afterward that messes with your multisport training. You don’t want to be doing that in the spring or summer when you should be riding and running lots.
You can effectively multisport train while doing enough of a run focus to prepare yourself for a marathon, but because the taper and post race recovery messes with your training, the right time to do the marathon is not the spring or summer but late in the fall, so that you are doing part of your taper, your race and your recovery during what would be your normal downtime.
I raced the Houston marathon in early january 06 and IMC in late August 06 and had excellent results (for me) at both. Notice that the time gap between those two races gives you a full month of recovery after the marathon, then 6 months to train for the IM and then 3 more weeks to taper for the IM. And the taper and recovery time both occurred at a time of year when it is impossible to ride outdoors here.
Choose your IM race (one where you can train outdoors for 5 months before it), count back about 8 months from the IM race date and do your marathon then.
And remember, this is only if you want to do a marathon, don’t do it bcause you think you have to. (I say go or it, marathons are cool.)
oh yeah, one standard bit of advice I give to all newcomers working their way up to an ironman - watch out for running related injuries. if injuries are going to wreck your training or your race, it will most likely be related to running.
Good luck. Come back here and let us know what you decide and how it works out.
You should ask yourself two questions. (1) Are you an injury prone runner? and (2) Do you plan on going all-out during the marathon? If the answer to both of those is “no,” then you can recover from the race quickly enough that it won’t perturb your tri season much.
Here’s a personal example: I did Boston this spring. I didn’t have anything to prove there since I qualified for two years, so I didn’t try to set a PR. Heck I barely trained for the thing to be honest. I just ran a good tempo workout, hung out at the 13th mile for a good minute, finished about 15 minutes later than my current PR…and I was back at racing 4 days afterward. No downtime at all.
Even if you do have to recover from the race for a few weeks, that’s a great time to get some swim and bike sessions in. And when you’re feeling ready to run again, most of your running base will still be around and you’ll actually wind up with a head start for your ironman training.
Another thing to note is that marathon training normally includes cross-training days. Swim and/or bike and/or do squats on those days.
The way I see it, you can do the marathon as long as you don’t get injured during it.
I’m on my way to doing my first ironman next year.
And, I’ve taken the path of first doing a marathon (2 actually). If nothing else, I’d say that it’s a huge confidence builder. Now I know I can do a marathon, I just need to put in a whole bunch of bike training.
and then, when finish the Ironman and say “damn,that was easy, now I can do an Ironman”, then what?
If confidence is your problem, train and improve your confidence.
I’m on my way to doing my first ironman next year.
And, I’ve taken the path of first doing a marathon (2 actually). If nothing else, I’d say that it’s a huge confidence builder. Now I know I can do a marathon, I just need to put in a whole bunch of bike training.
Give the marathon a try and see how it goes. You have tons of time to train and recover and you’ll learn a lot. Injuries? You are young, so just train with awareness and caution. As you realize, most any running or tri. event you do in the 1-2 months after a marathon probably will be compromised by the marathon, just be aware of that.
I agree with the guy who said to do Philly this year
If you do it, I will!
and then, when finish the Ironman and say “damn,that was easy, now I can do an Ironman”, then what?
Ultras of course. 