Does anyone have an opinion on whether this is possible/know of any 12 week plans? IMC was to be my first full IM and “A” race this year, but I am facing being out of commission for the month of May, give or take. I currently have a decent base going (great running base, building up the bike and swim). If I can keep my training up to about 1/2 IM shape by the end of April, and am able to resume training sometime in June, is there a possibility of crossing the finish line? At this point, with airfare/hotel/registration, etc., I’d rather finish any way I can than just ditch the whole thing, health permitting of course.
Whatever time I have to take off in May will be true time off. Walking only. I don’t have to withdraw until July, but I am trying to set my expectations realistically.
Thanks!!!
my question would be- what is taking you out of comission in may, and how do you know it will be better in june? is it travel? surgery? religous ecstacy? If its something like surgery- i would guess whatever is making you only walk in may would be still slowing you down in june…and then you would be faced with an 8 week program…
I say go for it. get as fit as possible through april. Take as litle time off in may, then ramp it up.
I think by far your biggest risk willbe injury- you will be forced to ramp up volume pretty fast throughout june, so you will be at high injury risk i would think…
but if you dont have to withdraw until july, why not give it a try?
i mean afterall- the big lesson in amateru marathon in the past 20 years is that it doestn really take much training to run a marathon. My guess in 20 years we will say we were mostly overtraining for ironmen at the amateur level too.
There is a 13 week program in Gale bernhardts(sp?) book “training plans for multisport athletes” In my opinion, if you are in pretty good shape already then bumping up the volume for a long ride and a long run each week should get you to the finish line just fine. as long as you can adequately(sp?) build up to like a 5 hour ride close to the pace you plan on doing at the race and then like a 2:30 run then sure, why not. You said your running is good, and biking at least for me comes back fairly fast, also again just my experience, swimming comes back really fast, I did one IM and swam like 10-15k per week religiously, the following year, same race, my swimming was hit or miss, like one good week, one week with one swim etc. that second time around, my swim was only like 30 seconds slower.
my question would be- what is taking you out of comission in may, and how do you know it will be better in june? is it travel? surgery? religous ecstacy? If its something like surgery- i would guess whatever is making you only walk in may would be still slowing you down in june…and then you would be faced with an 8 week program…
Ya, this is my concern, and really its just going to be an unknown until I am dealing with it. I’ll be out for surgery, so i just don’t know how much time it really will take to be able to train again.
I know that IF I can start training again in June I’ll have to ramp up pretty quickly. My hope would be that 4 years of marathoning training and 2 years of pretty consistant distance triathlon training puts me at a reduced risk of aerobic/endurance/injury issues even after time off. I have no idea how much base fitness I’ll lose or how fatigued I will be after surgery. I’ve never taken time off like this, and I expect it won’t be a piece of cake to get back into shape. But I am hoping that with a little consistency and patience, it won’t take TOO long…especially if I prepare well before hand.
Give it a try? Id be careful to talk to your docs about this though- and to make sure htey undrestand that this isnt just jogging around, its serious training…
im not sure how much energy you are oging to have though- some friends who went through surgery had the shit kicked out them for a good long while…