But it seems to lack what a lot of the Triathletes here in my area(Macon, GA) have said which is you really need about 8 - 9 long rides of 100 miles ore more before going into the Ironman.
The above schedule for the Ironman has only 3 “longer” rides of 5-6 hrs. For me, to get in a 100 mile ride, it’ll probably take around 6 1/2 - 7hrs. Remember, I’m a beginner here. My 60mile ride this past Sunday was 3hrs 15mins. (tons of hills)
At any rate, I’m wondering if I should simply pepper that schedule with Century rides here and there… Or, does someone else have another Ironman schedule they recommend for beginners like myself.
Info on me:
(10min / mile running)
2.5 mile swim(pool): 1hr 30min
Longest bike, 60miles: 3hr 15min.
In Triathlete magazine they have a program by Paula Newby Fraser. One for beginners, another for intermediate and third for the skinny, shaved and M-DOT tattooed. I think it is quiet a good program.
I use the one I developed based on Don Fink’s book IronFit. He does recommend a few century rides. I also used others books mainly the Tri bible and Gordo’s going long.
I go every Sunday with the local cycling club (60-70 miles). Then, on some Sundays I continue on my own for another 15 miles away from home and 15 miles back. On other Sundays, I cycle the 60-70 miles that they do, go home change to running gear and go for a 45 minutes run.
Century rides are good for getting you used to the saddle. I find it makes my upper body and neck more used to strains of long distance. But the pace (at least in events in my area) is very slow.
As far the bike section is concerned - if you can ride 60 miles in 3:15 it sounds to me that you are ready to tackle the Half Ironman with no problems.
Go to page 46-47: find your annual hours column–I multiplied 12 hours a week x 52 =~600
Follow weekly hours of base, build, and peak program listed on that page. I correspond the weekly hours with the chart on pages 44-45; the long bike recommended for that week is followed with 3 swims, two more bikes, and three runs to equal the weekly total (I scheduled a brick run every other week following the long bike). I can’t figure that this program will hurt my performance, only help. Anybody do something similar for an IM?
The trick to riding fast in an IM w/out killing yourself is not only to do several long rides near the time you expect to ride but to do them at the pace you expect to ride or faster. You can go ride at 15mph all day. Come race day if you avg 18.5 become friends with not having a good race.
Sample workouts might be 30 min warm up, 3.5hr at IM pace, 15 ez, 3x20min at half IM pace or faster with 5 min recovery, then easy back home. Or 5hrs w/ 4.25 at IM pace. Or 6 hr w/ 4x1hr at Im pace 10min at 40k pace 5 min easy. For my IM I rode two rides over 100 miles, one at 112 and the other 126.
I came from 0 biking background to my first IM in about 1.5 years. Before my 1st IM I put in 5-6x 100+mile rides and 5-6x 80-90 mile rides. Enjoyed the bike under great conditions. My next IM I faced much tougher conditions (some hills + lots of wind) - and I only had 2 rides over 4 hours and none over 5 hours b/c of family commitments getting in the way of training. The bike during the race was brutal. I am no coach and I am fairly new to the sport. I would say that riding 100+ miles at least 2-3 times before you race an IM will certainly pay dividends. Go for more if you can fit it in without gettin injured.
Good luck with the 1/2 IM – enjoy the race and the total buzz you get from crossing the finish line.
a.) it’s a 13 week course (I have 21 weeks )
b.) it assumes you are going to do a sub 13hr IM.
Hah. sub 13hour!#%@% That’s insane for somebody like me. I do 10min/mile runs (if I’m lucky I can keep that pace up for 20miiles) I avg about 15/17mph on the bike. I’m a fairly decent swimmer, but it doesn’t really make up for the slowness in the other 2 sports.
Soo… I really need something that is geared more towards a newbie.
Btw, I love the fleece you sent me. I wore it all winter long!
occy, I did the “13 weeks to a thirteen hour ironman” for my first. It’s pretty laid back and only one, maybe two, hundred mile rides. I did quite a few 3-4 hour rides from what I can remember. I’m not sure where I found it but it seems to be pretty well known. I have a hardcopy of it, I’ll search some more for a link or a saved copy if you’d like.
I was a newbie too, and the program I followed looked pretty similar to the thriteen weeks to the 13 hour IM. While I didn’t break thirteen hours like I hoped, I still finished the thing without crawling, cramping or medical attention.
Sure if you do more training you might get a better result, but as a newbie I was probably at my limit as to how much I could do: In the end it was three six-hour rides plus one hour bricks in the build up to the event. I think the program is probably the minimum you should do without making a spectacle of yourself getting to the finish on will-power alone.
If you have 21 weeks to go the advice I got and followed is to break it into two chunks. I worked up to a half IM in the first 10 weeks, took a rest and then did 10 weeks to the IM
Yeah, the biggest problem I see with the 13 week program (and the 20 week one for that matter) is it doesn’t have enough long rides. I’ve been told by local Triathletes who’ve done dozens of IM distant races that I should probably have anywhere from 8-9 100M rides under my belt before IMFL.
I respect their opinion, and realize that maybe I do need to log more time in the saddle to feel confident on race day.
The other thing is… I’m also worried about runs. There doesn’t seem to be enough running. Maybe I’m just trying to kill myself… but. I really believe in being prepared and doing your homework(training) to prepare for raceday.
While I’m one of those that will be in the back of the pack, I want to make sure I put in enough work that I don’t get injured on race day, and that I finish. (which, finishing is my ultimate goal).
Anyway… I’m actually leaning toward modifying the 20week BeginnerTriathlete.com Ironman schedule. I might see if I can beg my friends here locally to put me a schedule together too.
Trae
PS. w00p! 1/2 Ironman: Rock and Rollman, is right around the corner. Less than 2 weeks and I feel super pumped.
