I believe there are many genuine people that can give advice in this area. That being; how do you train for triathlon, specifically Ironman distance, with a full time job and other responsibilities?
I guess what I’m looking for is what does a normal week look like for you? And how do you manage it. How long can you actually train every day?
Thanks in advance.
Can’t wait to see some tips…my “focused” training for IMLP 2018 begins after my vacation ends mid-October and I’m trying to figure out how this is all going to work…
Me 2. I’m constantly struggling to find that balance. Not only with the hours worked but being a UPS driver the amount of walking I do in a day I am constantly on tired legs
Why not race olympics and or 70.3s if you have a busy schedule? It takes the body a long time to build up to be able to RACE an ironman. Probably with 10+ years of endurance background.
It’s important to first examine what your goals are, if it is to just finish, then you can probably finish with a couple of training hours a week with a long ride and a long run on the weekends no problem. If your goal is to race your best race, my suggestion is to go back to racing olympics (12-15hr a week of training in my opinion to reach 98% of potential), or 70.3 (16-20 for 98% of potential) in my opinion.
Finishing an ironman in 12-15 hours is not really impressive, it may impress your inactive co-workers. Completing an olympic distance at 2hr +/- 5minutes is much more impressive to anyone who has any idea in the sport. Just like running a 16min 5k is better than a 4hr marathon.
I’m very fortunate. I work 40 hrs/wk. I live 7 mi. from my office.
My only “child” is 25 and lives across town. I swim on M/W/F mornings…run on Monday and Wed…and AM Strength - PM Ride on Tues/Thurs. Weekends are big (final 10 wks). This past Sat. was an 80/11 ride/run brick. Sun. was 50 mi. ride with 4,000’ ascent. This weekend I have a 5 hr ride on Sat. and an 18 mi. run on Sunday. I’ll peak at +/- 22 hrs/wk.
I still love the training (this will be my first full, at 52), but I’m ready for the day to get here.
I have a full-time job (50-ish hours a week), full-time student, and married with 2 kids (17 & 11). Biggest piece of advice I can provide is really a question… How early can you wake up?
Latest I wake up on training days is 4:30 am. I can get a long run or ride in long before anyone at home is awake, and it doesn’t impact work. I am fortunate that my health club has a location inside of 2 miles from work, so I often do my swimming at lunch. For longer swims, I will swap the AM and do a shorter, tempo run at lunch instead.
Best thing you can do though, is be INCREDIBLY attentive to your spouse and children when you are not training. Because at the end of the day, they require (and deserve) more from you than your training or your employer. When they have the attention they deserve, they are much more accommodating and supportive of what you’re trying to accomplish.
Good luck!
-Mike
I also agree that to be successful you need to get used to taking advantage of the early hours. I work 50-60 hours a week and have 2 kids (5 and 8) and a husband who can sometimes feel like a third child (that was meant most lovingly, of course). I get up at 4:30 and also typically take advantage of the lunch hour for swimming, running or strength. If my calendar also presents me with the odd open hour during the day I take advantage of that as well. I always have a bag packed so I can take advantage of an “offsite meeting”. I don’t train in the evenings because I spend that time with the family and turn the computer back on once the kids are in bed. I also try and have my training done by 10 on the weekends so I can spend the rest of the day with the family. This means a lot of riding on the trainer but I’m okay with that. While naps during the weekend afternoons sound amazing, I try to soldier on and participate in all of the kids activities so I’m not missing valuable time with my kids because of the training. And my husband has hockey every Sunday evening to he’s okay with the trade off and my taking the weekend mornings of training.
I’ll plan one or two big weekends of training away and then race weekends I typically go solo (and I don’t race often) but then I make those weekends up to my husband by giving him a few big weekends of going away to college football. The balance with my husband I find is tougher than the balance with work.
Great tips!
And PS…love your screen name! One of the most valuable life lessons my dad taught me!
It’s a luxury not everyone has, but every time I move I factor in commute time to office. You definitely need to learn to embrace the 5:30am workout, but being to workout up to 8 or 8:30am really is a huge benefit.
As others have said, get up early and get your workout in. Also, bike or run commute to work if possible. I live 12 miles from work and bike commute a few times per week and it only adds 15-20 minutes onto my commute. I subscribe to the BarryP running method and try to get most of my runs in during lunch, so even though it’s only 4 miles a pop, the consistency of running daily really helps my run legs. If no shower at work, baby wipes are your friend.
I’m fortunate in that I have a pretty flexible job, no boss, and virtually zero commute. Plus I live/work 5 minutes from a pool. I have 2 kids (3 and 6) and a wife that works part time.
I have one family rule about not missing dinner time. I’m always home by dinner (about 5:30pm)
The flex part of my job comes in handy for training in that I can come in early (I get in around 6am) and I can burn my vacation time an hour at a time. So on days I need to train longer I will get here at 6, skip lunch, burn an hour or two of vacation and be out the door at noon. Meaning that I can get in 4-5 hour training blocks midweek if I need to. Most days I just skip lunch, leave at 2 and thats enough to get my training in.
Normal day (during the spring/summer training) is something like this…
5:15am I get up and do 10 minutes of whatever MWOD has posted for the dayIf a swim is on the books for the day then I swim at lunch (rarely do I ever swim more than an 45 minutes to an hour)Get off work and do whatever workout is on the books for the day. This could be anything from a 20 minute run to a 3-5 hour brick. Just depends on the day/time of year.
Weekends usually have a longer ride on one of the two days. I try to take a full weekend day off a week or just keep it to a shorter morning run. I also take a full weekend off every month just to give my family a break from scheduling around my workouts.
I’ve done 3 full IM (all Whistler) and more 70.3s that I can remember.
I would say the key thing to success at this is having a supportive family and understand what your goals are. You can complete a 140.6 in 7 hours a week of training. The key word there being “complete” and not compete.
I think it’s also important to understand that recovery is something you need to factor in as someone trying to do so much on such a tight time budget. Recovery needs to be factored into your limited time. So if you have 10 free hours a week to train, know that some of that time needs to be done doing things other than S-B-R. Massage, foam roller, or just a nap are all things you will have to factor in based on your individual needs.
Echoing the crowd here.
4am alarm gets me up to 1.5hrs before work (get there at 7am).
1 more hour at lunch.
That’s 2.5 hrs every weekday, so could be sitting at 12.5 hrs before the weekend. Then go nuts on the weekend.
If I was training for IM distance I’d set it up like this (this would be peak):
M: 5-6k swim, recovery run 5-6 miles
T: trainer ride, recovery run 5-6 miles
W: progression or tempo run ~10-12 miles total, 3-4k swim
TH: trainer ride, recovery run 5-6 miles
F: easy run ~10-12 miles, 3-4k swim
S: Long bike, brick run
S: Long run, easy recovery bike or open water recovery swim
Why not race olympics and or 70.3s if you have a busy schedule? It takes the body a long time to build up to be able to RACE an ironman. Probably with 10+ years of endurance background.
It’s important to first examine what your goals are, if it is to just finish, then you can probably finish with a couple of training hours a week with a long ride and a long run on the weekends no problem. If your goal is to race your best race, my suggestion is to go back to racing olympics (12-15hr a week of training in my opinion to reach 98% of potential), or 70.3 (16-20 for 98% of potential) in my opinion.
Finishing an ironman in 12-15 hours is not really impressive, it may impress your inactive co-workers. Completing an olympic distance at 2hr +/- 5minutes is much more impressive to anyone who has any idea in the sport. Just like running a 16min 5k is better than a 4hr marathon.
I second this…I have transitioned to 70.3 due to busy schedule. After 5 years of full distance IM (4 - 13 hour finishes), I realized I could not train properly to compete at the full distance. 10 more hours training per week is required to get that 1 1/2 to 2 ours off that a full distance time. I enjoy competing more than finishing. I can retire in 6 years and I will return to the full IM distance then. I don’t regret the full distance training. A 3 hour training ride followed by a 1 hour run for 70.3 is like a day off.
A 3 hour training ride followed by a 1 hour run for 70.3 is like a day off.
What kind of distance are you covering in that 4 hr brick? Seems excessive for 70.3.
Why not race olympics and or 70.3s if you have a busy schedule? It takes the body a long time to build up to be able to RACE an ironman. Probably with 10+ years of endurance background.
It’s important to first examine what your goals are, if it is to just finish, then you can probably finish with a couple of training hours a week with a long ride and a long run on the weekends no problem. If your goal is to race your best race, my suggestion is to go back to racing olympics (12-15hr a week of training in my opinion to reach 98% of potential), or 70.3 (16-20 for 98% of potential) in my opinion.
Finishing an ironman in 12-15 hours is not really impressive, it may impress your inactive co-workers. Completing an olympic distance at 2hr +/- 5minutes is much more impressive to anyone who has any idea in the sport. Just like running a 16min 5k is better than a 4hr marathon.
I second this…I have transitioned to 70.3 due to busy schedule. After 5 years of full distance IM (4 - 13 hour finishes), I realized I could not train properly to compete at the full distance. 10 more hours training per week is required to get that 1 1/2 to 2 ours off that a full distance time. I enjoy competing more than finishing. I can retire in 6 years and I will return to the full IM distance then. I don’t regret the full distance training. A 3 hour training ride followed by a 1 hour run for 70.3 is like a day off.
I triple this. After completing a number of IMS (most in the 11 hour range) I’ve moved to 70.3 for the foreseeable future. After every IM I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I just had more time (or was willing to give more time) I could have done better. Of course with 70.3 time is still an issue but with good execution there is still the chance to be competitive.
You nailed it on the head. While completing the IMs was an amazing experience, I enjoy competing way more than completing. My last IM was 2 years ago and I still think of a half as a “pretty easy” thing to do.
**I guess what I’m looking for is what does a normal week look like for you? And how do you manage it. How long can you actually train every day? **
Cue the people saying they work 60+ hours in a very stressful job, are doing a Masters degree and studying daily, have 3 kids and wife they spend a lot of time with while training for an IM. And in their spare time volunteer 2 days a week for the children and are learning a musical instrument or two.
Just to remind you that reading some of the posts will require a grain or two of salt. This is a triathlon board and there are 2 things people love to do, wildly overestimate how much they train and extrapolate a single day’s accomplishments into a daily habit 
IMO, waking up early is key pretty much regardless of family commitments. Then, if you also have a family, using your lunch hour to do the shorter workout of the day is the best scenario.
At the moment I am focusing on being competitive at 70.3s and hopefully get a WC slot for Nelson Mandela Bay. I train 12-18h a week, 14-15h on average. Usually at the office around 8.30am, can train at lunch and leave the office around 7-7:30pm.
Wake up everyday at 5am.
Monday AM: 1 hour hard trainer ride + 30min easy run off
Monday lunch: Easy recovery swim (~2000m)
Tuesday AM: Swim (4000m-4500m)
Tuesday lunch: Run (45min-1h)
Wednesday AM: 1h-1h30 trainer ride
Wednesday lunch or evening: 1h trainer ride
Thursday AM: Swim (4000m-4500m)
Thursday lunch: Run (45min-1h)
Friday AM: Swim (4000m-4500m)
Satuday: Long Ride (3-4h) + 30min run off
Sunday: Long Run (easy, up to 2h) + 30min easy recovery swim
A 3 hour training ride followed by a 1 hour run for 70.3 is like a day off.
What kind of distance are you covering in that 4 hr brick? Seems excessive for 70.3.
That would be my longest workout. Around 60 miles on the bike depending on the route. 7 to 8 so on the run again depending on the route. IM training makes that seem like a light workload. Most workouts are shorter and more intense.
**I guess what I’m looking for is what does a normal week look like for you? And how do you manage it. How long can you actually train every day? **
Cue the people saying they work 60+ hours in a very stressful job, are doing a Masters degree and studying daily, have 3 kids and wife they spend a lot of time with while training for an IM. And in their spare time volunteer 2 days a week for the children and are learning a musical instrument or two.
**Just to remind you that reading some of the posts will require a grain or two of salt. **This is a triathlon board and there are 2 things people love to do, wildly overestimate how much they train and extrapolate a single day’s accomplishments into a daily habit
Or just the ability to do math. Anyone who says they do all that is not being honest or magically never sleeps.
That being said, none of that in the replies I’ve seen so far.
Best tip I can give: Get as much training as you can in that’s “free” from a time sink perspective. (ie: that you’d otherwise be unproductive from a work or family time perspective)
For during the week.
-I get most of my cycling base kms done on my commute. Commute takes me +10 mins round trip total vs taking the car, including showers and at 55 mins each way with high quality cycling roads, I can usually choose what type of workout I can put there. I also have good roads, and showers at work, but others without such luxuries make it work as well. A steel frame road-geometry bike goes well for dual purpose perspective.
On weekends:
-If you have young kids, then put your rest day on the weekend and give your family the time they need. Also, set boundaries and stick to them. When I was Ironman training with a 1.5 year old, I made a deal with my wife: Saturdays would be family time, and I could go for my long ride on Sunday. The only trick was to be home when you say you’re going to be home.