Hey folks,
I’ve signed up to my first Ironman race (Wales 2014) and I’m keen to follow a training programme which will help me get ready for the big day. At the mo, I’m torn between two training plans…
The first is Don Fink’s 30-week Competitive programme, the other is a race-specific 36 week plan designed by the guys from thetrilife.com.
As it stands, I own a copy of Don Fink’s book and it seems to be a good, general plan to follow. However, the much more expensive plan from the Trilife seems to be tailored for the Ironman Wales course and you also get some help and advice from the coaches. This sounds ideal but I’m wondering if it’s worth the money!?
I’m planning to start my training in the New Year either way but I would really love to hear if anyone has followed one of these plans and what they thought about it?
Thanks for your help!
Cheers,
Ben
IM Wales is notoriously hilly. It seems strange that in the sample weeks viewable the trilife training plans don’t mention hill training anywhre. Makes me wonder if they’re really as event specific as they should be - and they’re hilariously expensive. If I were you I’d go for the Fink plan but modify it to include a goodly dose of hill training for both the bike and the run.
Rob
Just signed up to the forum and in the same boat, iM Wales will be my first long event, and I also own don finks book. Would be interested to hear any suggestions for tweaks to make his plan more specific for Wales.
Also based in Cambridgeshire so hills are a limited commodity!
OK so why does training need to be hill specific? The goal of the bike leg is to maintain a steady effort / power / heart rate as much as possible, and whether that is tested and trained on flat courses versus hills doesn’t really matter that much (as long as you take into account hilly courses just take longer). I’ve used the intermediate Be Ironfit plan last year for IMWI (5h35 bike split), Wisconsin is hilly though not as difficult as Wales based on what I’ve heard or read, but it’s still a hilly course. The book does not specify training on flat roads or hills but my training route had a lot of hills on it, not really to make it harder but to force me to constantly adjust effort based on whether I was going up, down or riding on a flat road, just like I would need to do on race day. In other words, I think there is a benefit by training on a similar course which will help with race execution, but I wouldn’t call it an absolute must in order to build proper fitness.
Hi Frenchben
I used the Don Fink competitive plan this year for Ironman Melbourne and found it worked well although the course is only rolling. (10.08 with shortened swim due to crazy arsed weather)
The trilife program looks expensive but it depends how often and how much info you can pull from the online coaches.
The only thing I changed with Don Fink’s plan was that I made sure the weekly bike rides had more threshold and tempo thrown in and rode hills a bit harder on the long rides (rode very even power on race day though).
Good luck with the training
cheers
Rob
Hey folks,
I’ve signed up to my first Ironman race (Wales 2014) and I’m keen to follow a training programme which will help me get ready for the big day. At the mo, I’m torn between two training plans…
The first is Don Fink’s 30-week Competitive programme, the other is a race-specific 36 week plan designed by the guys from thetrilife.com.
As it stands, I own a copy of Don Fink’s book and it seems to be a good, general plan to follow. However, the much more expensive plan from the Trilife seems to be tailored for the Ironman Wales course and you also get some help and advice from the coaches. This sounds ideal but I’m wondering if it’s worth the money!?
I’m planning to start my training in the New Year either way but I would really love to hear if anyone has followed one of these plans and what they thought about it?
Thanks for your help!
Cheers,
Ben
Hi, I can’t comment directly on the IM Wales training plan, but I used to get coaching through the TriLife for around 4 years and thought they did a great job and they provided excellent support. I especially liked how all the plans were in trainingpeaks so it was easy to see what training to do and have a good record of it. Another thing was that they were based in the UK and it made communicating with them easy. So for me they worked well.
I don’t know the details of the Don Fink plan though.
Chad
Hi everyone,
Thanks very much for all your replies. This is incredibly helpful.
It sounds like Don Fink’s book will be fine for me but I will try and squeeze in as many hill training sessions as possible during my training season… Let the fun / blood, sweat and tears begin!
Cheers,
Ben
Hey mate,
You might want to check out the Long Course Race weekend. It’s the same route as the IM Wales course but spread across 3 days (I’m thinking of going)…
http://www.longcourseweekend.com/
Good luck with your training!
Cheers,
Ben
Cheers for that, looks interesting…and surprisingly cheap!
I think I would probably do the swim and maybe the cycle, doesn’t seem much point in doing the whole marathon run due to the recovery time needed afterwards.
daz
Hi everyone,
Thanks very much for all your replies. This is incredibly helpful.
It sounds like Don Fink’s book will be fine for me but I will try and squeeze in as many hill training sessions as possible during my training season… Let the fun / blood, sweat and tears begin!
Cheers,
BenGood luck, i think you will like the plan. Like others, I also upped the intensities of the bike in the Be Ironfit plan. Basically I did most if not all Z2 rides at 75~80% FTP range which made me work very hard every single time (try maintaining that for 5.5 hours!) but i felt very good on race day with that approach.
Hey mate,
You might want to check out the Long Course Race weekend. It’s the same route as the IM Wales course but spread across 3 days (I’m thinking of going)…
http://www.longcourseweekend.com/
Good luck with your training!
Cheers,
Ben
It’s a good way to recce the swim and bike as they are pretty much identical to IMWales course, but the run is completely different. Still have the option to look at or test the IMW run as the route is available anyway
Hey Daz,
There’s a half-marathon option on the Sunday which is what I’m doing. For all 3 events, you’re looking at 100 sheets.
See you there?
Cheers,
Ben
Nice one, thank you!
That very much depends on whether I have managed to get a new job in the private sector.
Long holidays for teachers are great, but quite restrictive when it comes to things like this!