I found a training program online that will actually fit me schedule with 2 kids in soccer… It was created by Phil Mosley and is only 12 weeks has a longest run of 2 hours and longest brick of 5 hours. This is very doable for me and much less than my last time.
I believe the plan will work, but wanted to see if anyone else has done this plan or one similar and get thoughts on how it went.
I found a training program online that will actually fit me schedule with 2 kids in soccer… It was created by Phil Mosley and is only 12 weeks has a longest run of 2 hours and longest brick of 5 hours. This is very doable for me and much less than my last time.
I believe the plan will work, but wanted to see if anyone else has done this plan or one similar and get thoughts on how it went.
How do you mean, the plan will work?
Will it get you to the finish line, yes probably. But how long will it take?
I mean will it work to finish within a reasonable range of my abilities, or will I be doing the death march from mile 12 to the finish…
It all depends on your past experience, genetics, total workload, specificity of training etc.
Yes it can work if the mix is right.
I mean will it work to finish within a reasonable range of my abilities, or will I be doing the death march from mile 12 to the finish…
Unfortunatley you didn’t give any background on yourself:
Age, Past Races, Recent Race Results…stuff like that
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I mean will it work to finish within a reasonable range of my abilities, or will I be doing the death march from mile 12 to the finish…
People who train 20 hours a week end up in a death march from mile 12.
My two cents: You can get a lot done in a 15 hour week with the proper mix of intensity. My other thought goes back to my first statement. Regardless of how long you train, you have to race smart and within the abilities you trained for.
You can do it. Good luck!
My experience pales in comparison to some of the people on here, but I expect that you’ll get some cautionary feedback about anything calling for no more than a 2 hour run. I haven’t used your plan or this one, but another schedule friendly routine that I’ve seen around is Gale Bernhardt’s “13 Weeks to a 13-Hour Ironman” article.
http://naples.net/sports/nats/im/
Depending on your goal, you might even be able to get away with a few hours less per week. In that case though, I’d suggest something that’s spread out over more time. The Be Iron Fit book has a “just finish” plan that might work for a 14 hour race time, and the schedule is 30 weeks long. While that may seem like a lot, the first 10 weeks start out with just 3 hours, and there’s an easy and steady buildup to the peak around 10 hours. If you try to cram things into a 13 week period and miss 1, that’s a big hit. If things are spread out over a longer period, that’s less of a big deal. It’ll be up to you to gauge what works best for physical and family considerations.
i averaged 8 hours per week for the 50 weeks up to mine, i ran 6 min km to 30k-jsh then wheels came off, longest bike on trainer 4.5 hrs longest run 33k on treadmill, longest ride outside 120k with ~2200m of climbing
only rode outside maybe 8 times and 3 of those were a race weekend and 5 a trip to france
I’m pretty certain that if I’d been more focused, managed my time better I could have done a lot better on a lot less - I had 8-10 weeks where the avrg was probably a little over 11
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My experience pales in comparison to some of the people on here, but I expect that you’ll get some cautionary feedback about anything calling for no more than a 2 hour run. I haven’t used your plan or this one, but another schedule friendly routine that I’ve seen around is Gale Bernhardt’s “13 Weeks to a 13-Hour Ironman” article.
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The caution being that its’ hard to substitute weekly mileage/training load on the run, unless you have a very strong running background and great running efficiency/mechanics. Being undertrained in any discipline means planning ot underperform during that leg. You either plan to under perform, our you under perform in a spectacular blow up.
My longest run before Kona was 2h23m. That was back in early July. Actually the weekend before Racine. But I consistently was running 5-6 hours per week other than recovery weeks, so overall volume trumped long runs. I feel like I ran to the best of my abilities in Kona given the heat, solid bike effort and my weight.
I think the best value in training might be b rotating each discipline, then a recovery period. So a 4 cycle block. Doing maybe run focus for 9-10 days, then a swim focus for maybe 8 days, then Bike focus for 9-10 days followed by 3-4 day recovery period… gives you a nice 1 month block of training. In the final build and taper, you would switch to a more conventional plan and might increase volume slightly and make training more specific.
There are lots of people doing well of of 13 hours per week.
Whether you accomplish something anywhere close to your ability on race day is almost exclusively about race execution and much less about how many hours per week you put n or how that schedule was put together. Training dictates how fast you CAN go, execution determines how fast you WILL go.
That said, I am a fan of long race simulation bricks because it is hard for people to get it through their thick skull just how easily you need to ride and just how many calories you need to get in without having them go through the race simulations and feeling how much a difference proper execution makes. To that end, I’d recommend a longer brick than 5 hours, I think 5 hours is neither here nor there, not really long enough to test iron distance execution yet long enough to have a considerable overhang of recovery.
However, not everyone agrees with me on that.
If you execute the plan, you can do well. Solid training over 12 weeks for 13 hours per week is enough - not to win but enough to go and acquit yourself well.
Another way to say it is, if you do the 12 weeks of 13 hours per week and started with some endurance ability before that, and then proceed to go stink it up on race day - it won’t be the training plan’s fault.
Good luck
I spent the majority of the first half of this year training 7-8 hours a week training for the Vineman 70.3 in July. That race went well for me so I decided to sign up for my first full, IMLT. The next 7 weeks I increased my training hours to 12-15 hours a week. Full time job and son in soccer and was still able to get plenty of family time. Swim and bike went fine for me at Tahoe and felt great starting the run, my best discipline. The wheels fell off for me though. Not because of my training, but because I ended up with exercise induced asthma. Made the run a bitch. Every time I tried pushing the pace, I had to stop and hack.
Didn’t really have a training plan either. Each day I would train one or two disciplines (morning before work and at lunch), but no time or mileage set. It was more about how much time I had to train and how my body felt. Saturday was always my long bike and run brick, but I didn’t even have a specific mileage or time set for these workouts. It was more, I want to ride at least 5 hours today. One Saturday it would be 5:15, the next 5:30. Bottom line, get out and train but don’t focus on having to train a certain amount of hours each week or for each discipline or you’ll fail.
I’m no speedster, MOPer. Just did IMLou as my first and used Bernhardt’s 13 weeks to a 13 hour IM, loved the program. She lists some prerequisites that you’ll need to be able to check the box on. I finished in 13:15 and still had gas in the tank, ran the whole marathon actually 1 minute faster than my first stand alone, 4:44. It was a great day and I was prepared, highly recommend it.
I have raced 10 ironman races and have probably maxed out at 15 hours per week in training.
Over the past year I earned a pro card and went sub nine on an average of 12 hours per week. You can do fine off 13.
I did 11:10 in arizona using that same program, for what it’s worth.
Just finished B2B Full in 10:58 averaging a little over 12 hours. Followed the Trainer Road plans for the bike, ran 5 to 6 days a week with limited swimming. Run/swim before work and trainer rides after the 3 kids go to bed.
Personally- I think the Achilles heel of these low volume approaches is the bike training.
112 miles is NOT a long way to ride.
IT IS a long way to “race.”
And IT IS an extremely long way to “race” without getting tired.
Personally - I think I need more than 6 hours/wk on the bike.
I need:
4 hr/wk of bike training- to complete 112 miles
7 hr/wk to race 112 miles
9*hr/wk to race 112 miles withou getting exhausted.
(I also think I need 5 hrs of running and 3 hours of swimming).
Wow, that makes me feel better. 11 hours is my goal. Based on my experiences after reading that program I felt it made enough sense, but it’s good to hear from someone whs actually done it.
This sounds right.
7 hrs of cycling is about 140-145 mpw
5 hrs of running is about 36-40 mpw
I’d say that it definitely puts one in a good position to race.
13 hours a week average over the entire year versus 13 hours per week averaged over a 10-20 week build are vastly different. If you want to do well consistency of training over an entire year is very important. When people say things like “I qualified of Kona on 12 hours of training.” most often they qualified on 12 hours of training averaged over the ENTIRE year and usually for several years. That means 8-10 hours a week in the “off season” and 8-10 hours in taper and recovery weeks. It also means very often 14-16 hours for several big weeks linked together.
I will qualify this by stating that I have qualified for Kona twice (barely) but I am not an expert and I don’t win races. I have read dozens of threads like this and haven’t done a scientific analysis of the results so this is my gestalt based upon looking at responses and looking at my own training.
This approach reflects roughly where I’ll be by IMNZ in March. I started my coached training in January this year and have consistently done a minimum of 10-12 hours and a max of about 15.5 every week since with one break in April. It’ll be my first full IM and while I have no illusions about being “racing” it, I expect to enjoy my day and finish well inside the cutoff. My aim is focus on 70.3 after it and see what I can do there with focused work.