The last thread was highjacked. Lets keep it simple so the arguments don’t take over. For those of you who have completed a sub 10 ironman, please provide your training schedule, milage, yardage, nutrition, etc.
My schedule for this year and last season is actually available through TrainingPeaks. Last fall I went under 10 at IM WI. It was my 3rd time sub 10.
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/publicview.asp?p=ChrisSweet
My training actually averaged out across the whole season was 10 hours a week. This is misleading because it includes pre and post season when I wasn’t doing much. If you look at the last few weeks, I’ve been ramping things up- definitely more than I was doing all spring.
Pure volume means little, actually. Quality of those miles is much more important. If you are getting an Ironman worth of training every week and that includes some quality in each sport, it is possible to go sub-10.
Chris
Basically what i did in the last 5 months before my sub 10 IM distance:
- bike twice a week. One short ride of 60 km (40 miles?) with lots of over geared stuff on hills to compensate the strength loss of long runs. The over geared stuff is 55-65 rpm. The rest I keep the cadence race specific. For me this is 75 rpm. The second ride is a longer one, but I did only one real long ride every 2 to 3 weeks. The longest ride was 6 hours, but I tried to get it done close to race pace and at specific cadence, for me 75 rpm. I never biked easy, but i am very cautious of getting tired from anaerobic efforts. Muscular fatigue of over geared work is important, and a very long ride once every 2/3 weeks.
-running I did as often as I could without getting injured or extremely tired. Most weeks it would be 5 times a week. I called a day if I got too tired to run comfortable at IM race pace. The length of the longest run was 2:40 hours. But I did some long run/walk training and hiking as well. The longest run/walk was 4 hours after a bike ride, with 5 min walk/ 5 min run. This to practice race nutrition after a long time on your feet. And I never did a lot of runs longer than 2 hours, and I never did two long runs closer than 10 days to each other.
I did some very long bricks as well 4-2 months before IM. This was something like 4 hours on the bike with 1,5-2 hours running. I think it is important to get a feeling for bike pacing, and running afterwards. And it is a good aerobic training to run 2 hours after 4 hours of training.
-swimming I did 2/3 times a week. If you are not a very good swimmer I believe you get better of just swimming. So all I did was 2/3 times a week an hour of swimming and in the last month before IM I only did open water swims. I never did a lot of high intensity swim training, but I did some.
race day was 1:02 swim/ bike 4:5x/ run 3:19.
Evaluation afterwards learnt me I ran incredibly well for a 3:06 open marathon pb. My bike was an easy sub 5, and the swim is not fast enough. This is in line with how I trained. I knew I never had trouble biking fast, so I spent little time on training on the bike. Running is normally a weakness, but I performed good because I just ran a lot. And for future IM I will swim more.
I would say sub 10 demands genetics (I am lucky to be faster than average, but I can never turn it pro and make a living out of sport, so in some way only the sub 8 guys are really gifted) and consistent training. I never got to tired from the above schedule, but improved over a few months. Don’t train in a way that you can’t back up. Consistent training takes the most out of you. And only time will tell how fast that is.
No kidding on the Hijack. I have three sub 10 IM’s all at IMF. 15 minute PR in 07 - 9:32 (perfect race conditions).
In the three months leading up to my race taper my monthly stats averaged as follows swim 45K yards, bike 850 miles, Run 135 miles.
Swim was 3/4 times per week on alternating weeks. 2x per week masters workouts averaging 3,200 yards, one longer open water swim 1.2 - 2.5 miles, and adding another stroke focused lake or pool swim every other week.
Bike was 3/4 times per week on alternating weeks. 2x per week 90 minutes focused hard stuff at above im HRM and perceived effort on the trainer, plus one long ride per week (100-140 miles). Alternating weeks 4th ride was a 60 mile ride just below race effort. In the 14 weeks leading up to my IM taper I had 10 100+ mile rides.
Run 4 times per week. Two one hour runs at 15 - 30 secs per mile faster then IM pace which was around 7:00 - 7:15 mins per mile for about 8.5 miles. One longer run 13-21 miles at around race pace targeting a negative split. Longer runs were almost always the day after a long bike to adopt to running on tired legs. Lastly, one short brick run of 30 minutes after my long rides at race pace.
I am 42, ran in HS and one year in college. Running is my strength. Last year splits at IMF were swim 1:06, bike 5:03, run 3:19. Swimming is obviously my weak link. IMHO if you are handicapping domestic IM times for IMLP, IMWISC, or IMCDA you would probably add 20-30 minutes to an IMF time. (posted for referance, not fuel for additional hijacking pls)
All the best,
RF
Thanks to you all for sharing.
I did my first 2 IM’s last year, IMAZ (9:43) and Kona (9:40). My training build for IMAZ was big, 17-20 hours per week as I headed into the April '07 race. My coach had me focus on a ton of cycling, probably 800+ miles per month. My weekly run volume was usually in the 30-40 mile range and 60,000+ yards of monthly swimming. After I qualified for Hawaii, my Kona build had much less volume, maybe 15 hours per week, but had more intensity work on both bike and run. So I suppose if you have a great aerobic base already, you mught benefit from a lesser volume, higher intensity plan. If your aerobic base isn’t built enough, get on you bike and go long.
You meant weekly run volume, right?
You meant weekly run volume, right?
Yes, sorry, fixed that. 
Anyone else willing to share?
Also, how are you sub-10 dudes (and dudettes, for all I know) measuring intensity? Heart-rate monitor, wattage or a combination of both? Are you training by distance, time or a combination of both?
Like the OP, I’m intrigued by what people are putting down so keep 'em coming.
Also, how are you sub-10 dudes (and dudettes, for all I know) measuring intensity? Heart-rate monitor, wattage or a combination of both? Are you training by distance, time or a combination of both?
Like the OP, I’m intrigued by what people are putting down so keep 'em coming.
I’m a HR guy.
My intensity check is whether I am able to talk or not. My intensity for training for both the bike and run is exactly this. If I want to train at race IM race intensity I should be able to just talk. I tried a borrowed heart rate monitor a few times and when I did I noticed that this feeling of running of breath (so not be able to talk) coincides with certain heart rates. After it I never had to borrow that hear rate monitor again. Works fine for me. And the few fast training sessions I did was just on feel. But I never did a lot of high intensity anyway. Swimming intervals is the difficult in terms of going too fast. I use the clock for preventing me swimming all intervals in the pool at lactate threshold.
Ironman training is also easy for pacing on feel I think. For short session I don’t care to run/ride/swim slightly below/at/or just above IM race pace. Lactate treshold training is recovery concerned a more unforgiving threshold. As long as I stay away from spending a lot of time at lactate threshold I get away with just trusting how I feel. And having a good FEEL of pacing is very important in the first hours of the race. So I should say that doing some training without measuring intensity is very a very smart idea. And it is much more fun as well to just go on feel and not constantly having to check your bleeping heart rate monitor while trying to walk on steep hills during an easy jog.
Nutrition is also an important intensity check. I eat during the long runs, and as long as I can eat I am doing fine. This counts for the bike as well, and aspecially for the long bricks. You know you are doing the right pace if you can eat during a long brick run. I eat race day nutrition during all training session that are longer than one hour to get used to eating. It helps during the IM marathon!
In my sub-10 (sub-9:30) years, I was at about 15-25,000 yds./week of swimming (not a lot of yards, but I was a much better runner off the bike), 300 to 400 miles/week biking and 45 to 60 miles/week running.
Also, weight room training, some plyometrics, calisthenics (push-ups, sit-ups, etc.), massage once weekly, etc.
I don’t really like using miles or yards to gauge training effort (except for the pool). I prefer time and intensity, which is (in my opinion) a much better method for measuring training efficacy. After all, an Ironman-distance race does have set distances, true, but success at it is measured in how many hours you took to finish it and what your perceived (or actual, if you’re using a heartrate monitor or a bike power meter and the like) effort was. That being said, depending upon the time of year in the training cycle, I could be at from 17 to 27 hours per week of training (during the IM build phase), with a 3 week taper leading up to the race. This meant at least one (EASY) 3 hour run and a couple of 6 hour bikes.
I always respected the folks who finished in the 15 to 17 hour range a lot more than the ones who came in under 10, or 9, or in the 8 hour range. Not because those fast folks weren’t admirable, but mainly because the slower ones were suffering just as much as the faster people…only for a lot longer.
BK
I did a 9:50 this year at IMCDA. It was my first NAS/WTC IM, after having done one independent iron distance race last year.
I averaged about 17-18 hours in the four months leading up to the taper, with maximum volume at 23.8 hours. I had 4 weeks that exceeded 20 hours this year. The early part of the year was run centric with a maximum weekly volume of 52.7 miles, and the later months were more bike centric with a max volume of 318.9 miles. This schedule was largely the result of shin splints that creeped in in late March. This forced me to reduce my running (the last 10 weeks prior to taper included 24 miles/week avg of running) and increase my biking. In retrospect, this is a pretty good schedule anyway. Get lots of good running in during the winter, then shift to biking in the spring.
I did focus on a few key workouts. I like to make sure that I do 3-4 long bricks prior to the race. These long bricks are 105 bike miles followed by 7 run miles. This is the only time I really worry too much about nutrition. I usually eat and drink on these workouts like it’s the real thing. Any other workout, I keep my eating and drinking to a minimum.
Finally, I should add that I am a former swimmer so I didn’t worry too much about it. I usually did 3x1hr per week (usually a 1000 w/u followed by 3 or 4 mini sets for a total of 4300 yds or so), mostly just trying to maintain swim fitness from years ago.
I haven’t gone sub 10 yet, but have been training all year to do it at Ironman Florida this year. You can follow my training on my blog.
Lets see - the stats. average weekly volume for final 8 weeks 15 hrs. THe 6 months before that about 10/wk. Biggest week of year was 16.5. I followed the opentri.com plan. I did two long rides of 5 hours, all the rest of the long rides were between 3-4, but were done at a high pace. 90% of cycling was done on the computrainer. Swimming I averaged 10-12k per week, running was 3-4 times per week(30miles), included 3 20 miles runs. For details of the training plan check out the opentri plan. I went 1:10, 5:08, 3:26 at IMAZ. Background was college soccer player (goalie). In tris for 7 years, 5th IM. I am a firm believer is very high quality on the bike.
Thanks for the great posts. Very good information.
How focused are the 10 hours Im’ers on hitting exact periodizations- like base, build, peak. Do you always make sure longest ride is x days from race, long run x days from race, highest volume week x weeks from race? Thanks for feedback
I agree with everything that everybody’s said here mainly because there are general parameters applicable to all of us, but much of what and how we train is specific to the individual.
A couple of contributors made good points about going shorter (in terms of time and miles) but also pointed out that the quality of the workouts were very high. That’s one method. The other (to a point) is to go longer and slower, at lower perceived (or actual) efforts, which works well for some (but not all) folks.
I also liked the one gentleman’s observation about using his Computrainer for 90% of his bike rides. To me, it’s a great way to control effort and time. Combined with a heartrate monitor, the cadence sensor and the wattage readout, you can’t find a better way to track improvement through various micro and macro-cycles all season long. If you’re aware of how to use it as a good biofeedback tool, you can go a long ways towards that magic sub-10.
I guess I would say that the more technical the discipline (swimming being the MOST of the three), the more time you should spend working on technique. Drills in swimming help far, far more than just spending vast amounts of time going from one end of the pool to the other and back again. Cultivating both fast and slow twitch muscle fiber, as much as physiologically possible, and capillary density (which will make you a more efficient human machine) can help. Specificity in training can help you with that.
Bottom line, there are more than a few ways to get to the finish line at an IM-distance race in under 10 hours. Think of all of this as a salad bar: Experiment, and take what works best for YOU and discard the rest.
BK