I have seen the threads about what’s the minimum time needed to finish various distances and there are always some of you guys who say “if you don’t want to train 50 hours per week then why bother doing triathlon” and this sort of thing. Well, I have seen that there are a lot more lazy people like me on ST than you think. SOOOOO, enter the book THE 12 WEEK TRIATHLETE by Tom Holland. Anybody who is looking to make themself feel good for finishing a triathlon without giving up every other interest in their life and their wife should check this book out.
This book has got the lowest training times, BY FAR, for every distance I have ever seen. The Gale Bernhardt book had about the lowest training times for an olympic distance I had seen, far less than trinewbies or beginnertriathlete, for example, and this is even less than those. He lists a “performance” and a “just to finish plan” for each. The thing is, I would never have believed it would work but I just followed his “just to finish” olympic–4 weeks around 2hrs per week of base, 3 weeks around 3 hrs per week build phase, 3 weeks at 4.5 hrs per week peak phase and then a 2 week taper. And I was able to finish the olympic distance rather comfortably. The core of his thing is a long brick workout (long bike with short run) followed the next day by the long run. Bike and swim 2x per week, run 2 + the short brick for a 3rd. You build up each event to a workout about as long as the race event but only on their own. The longest day of training, was less than half the length of the actual race.
It worked to finish the olympic but that’s the only evidence I have that it works. The guy himself has done 10 ironmans with some ok times (they are listed in the book) but no Kona, etc.
So now I am tempted, VERY tempted to use his 1/2 Iron “just to finish” plan. It is again less than half the Bernhardt plan and WAY less than the others. 4 weeks of base around 4hrs per week, 3 weeks of build around 5 hrs per week, 3 weeks of peak around 7.5 hrs per week and then 2 weeks of taper. Hell, that’s shorter than most olympic plans and even a few of the extremist beginner sprint plans out there.
But the question is, will it work? I only want to finish the thing and I figure my time will be around 6:45. The hardcore of you will say why bother but for someone like me, who never had any fitness to speak of, to be able to say to myself “you finished a half ironman” would be pretty amazing. Do you think this program could work?
(I won’t set off the frenzy that would result if I told you how little he says one would need to train to finish the ironman)
Newbie/non-trigeek perspective: it would all depend on your base level of fitness and how easily you can push yourself without worrying about fatigue. I have tortured myself with crash-training in the past and gotten nowhere but injured and overly exhausted, and I never came close to feeling like I could finish an OD. If you could finish a OD with that training plan, then I can’t see why you couldn’t finish a HIM as well.
It can be done. His plan is probably about consistency which will gain you much more than going out and punishing yourself for two or three days then taking two or three days off.
It can be done. His plan is probably about consistency which will gain you much more than going out and punishing yourself for two or three days then taking two or three days off.
I’d agree it can be done, assuming a relatively active lifestyle before training (i.e., not a complete couch potato). And I’d also say that there’s zero time to learn to swim in there, so you’d better be able to more/less swim that distance if you had to tomorrow.
I’d say it completely depends on the person. Some people are naturally more athletic than others and can get by with less training and still complete longer races without mountains of training. Others will need all the training they can get.
I’m about to do my first Half IM in Sept. and I’m doing these totals right now:
Swim 2x per week, 2250 yards each time (about 1 hr, 15 min total swim time)
Bike 3x per week (1 12-miler, 1 30-miler, 1 50 miler w/3 mile run after)
Run 3x per week (1 8-miler, 1-12-miler, 1 3-miler after long bike)
As long as you have been regularly riding at least once a week, you can start swimming and running about 3 weeks before undertaking a ‘goal finish’ half IM. Make sure you do at least one training swim under race conditions. It’s good to try and run at least 21km total in training, but less is achievable.
On the ther hand, 6:45 Half IMs hurt, and there are many more enjoyable ways to destroy your body, assuming it deserves to e destroyed at all.
There are also many more amazing things to be able to say to yourself than “you finished a half ironman” and most of them take less time and money.
so really, everyone thinks this will be enough, barring injury? I guess I better start thinking about nutrition during the race as that’s not a big thing at Olympic distance.
this is my 3rd year of work/family/tri, and i set a goal of finishing a half. i train a lot more than the just-to-finish plan you have there, but i put in a lot less time (you can guess why – family and job are first for me) in the last month before my half.
and i finished in 6:45.
it was boring and not terribly rewarding. i can suffer for three hours on a run on my own. i know now that i can push myself for about 3-4 hours with my training, which means i’ll always fold on the run in a half. i can focus, now, on olys and shorter races, so i can ‘race’ and gauge improvement instead of walking to the finish line.
as someone on your level, as it were, i’d say that maybe a just-to-finish tri should be your first one. personally, i get satisfaction from shorter races where i see my finishes climb from BOP to MOP over the season.
im in a race this week that will take about 45 minutes. its a mini, and hardly competitive, but i’ll be able to sprint the whole time, feel the wind in my hair, that sort of thing, and i’ll feel much better about the ‘accomplishment’ than i did after my just-to-finish half.
(but if you do line up expecting to go for 6 hours plus, i’ll still say its a ballsy move. best of luck.)
Can it work? Sure. But why do you want to only put in as little training as you can get away with? Is there that much satisfaction in “just finishing”? You don’t need to spend money on a race to “just finish” a HIM distance. You can do it on your own with a bit of help from a family member.
As for the distances. A HIM swim isn’t much longer than an Oly swim, but the bike and run are both more than twice as far. While a minimal training plan can allow you to just finish, it’s not very likely you will be running much. If you get satisfaction out of walking most of the way to just finish - go for it!
Why bother? I can not understand the fascination with doing something so half-assed. Maybe it was my up-bringing but I feel that something worth doing is worth doing right, or at least to the best of one’s ability. I know this view will cause me to be flamed, but I am annoyed with the people who sign up for big races, like IMs, without the intent of doing their best. They do the math and realize they can swim easy, bike like an 8 year old girl, walk the entire marathon, and get a finishers medal. Where is the pride of accomplishment in that? Why do people skip the training and preparation required to race at their best possible level just so they say they have completed something. While everyone can not be fast or compete for the podium, everyone can do their best - anything else is cheating themselves and all of the other competitors.
To me, doing longer distance races are a personal thing. In the sprints and even Olys, I like to place well (nowhere near podium, but top third), but for my first HIM in September, I really want to see how far/long I can keep my body moving and overcome to urge to quit. I feel like I’m well-trained for my goal time of 6 hours, but I’m really interested to see how far I can push my limits. I think that’s the case with alot of people in these longer races, well-trained or not.
Why bother? I can not understand the fascination with doing something so half-assed. Maybe it was my up-bringing but I feel that something worth doing is worth doing right, or at least to the best of one’s ability. I know this view will cause me to be flamed, but I am annoyed with the people who sign up for big races, like IMs, without the intent of doing their best. They do the math and realize they can swim easy, bike like an 8 year old girl, walk the entire marathon, and get a finishers medal. Where is the pride of accomplishment in that? Why do people skip the training and preparation required to race at their best possible level just so they say they have completed something. While everyone can not be fast or compete for the podium, everyone can do their best - anything else is cheating themselves and all of the other competitors.
Won’t flame you but I am one of those people that will sign up for a race just to finish it…however, in my case, just finishing a lot of these races is doing my best. I’m never going to be a speed star, will probably never qualify for Kona, but if I can train hard, juggle family, training and work, and finish an IM, I’ll be a very happy guy. I know that I can do well on the swim (and usually do), can survive the ride and push myself pretty hard, but just guiven who I am, I will probably have to walk a lot fo the run…but just finishing the race and making it across the finish line and getting the finishers medal gives me a ton of pride in accomplsihment.
From a qworkout perspective, I think that if you are putting in quality short workouts, then you are not just doing it half-assed. My personal belief is that if I put in quality hours over a week, with a really focused effort, it will blow away most people who think that by putting in crazy long rides/runs/swims, that they will be better off. But that’s just me.
I respect wanting to see how you can do in a longer races, but why not try to do your very best. I do not mean the very best you may ever be able to do, but the very best you can at the event you are signing up for. Why not try to do your best by putting as much effort as you can into training?
As long as you are doing your best then no one can judge you and you have my respect for making the finish line. I was responding to the notion of “what is the minimal amount of effort I need to put in training to just finish?”. To this, I replied why bother?
I have great respect for anyone doing their best. This might mean Jim Birch hammering away in his mid 60’s, or my buddy who finished an OLY a couple of weeks ago even though he lost 45 mins with two punctures. He croosed the line in 3 hours even though he surely would have been top 5 overall. He made the best out of a bad situation that was not in his control. This is not the same as the guy who makes no attempt to prepare himself so that he has the chance to do his best.
I hear ya and was not arguing against your point. I’m with you on this one just making sure that us guys who are out there to simply finish don’t automatically get lumped in with those that are trying to do it on the least amount of effort.