I’m starting my first Half Ironman training. Two questions.
Why do the published training programs vary so widely regarding how many hours a week to train? At Beginnertriathlete.com, the average of the 4 weeks in Base 1 is 7.6 hours per week. In Joe Friel, it’s 12.75 hours per week! Similar pattern later in the season - for Base 3 the highest volume Beginnertriathlete week is 10.5 hours while the highest Friel is 18 hours. That is an enormous difference. Assuming I actually have the time to do the longer hours if I want, how do I decide what is right for me?
Why is it common to train number of hours instead of number of miles/yards? By that logic, a faster swimmer/cyclist/runner will get the necessary miles in every week, while a slower athlete may not. For instance, if I’m a slow cyclist, how can I possibly build up to the required mileage if I try to confine my weekly hours?
As my wife just replied, “It depends on how well you want to do.” If you want to finish then all you really should do is make sure you can swim, ride and run the distance. If you want to race it then you need a lot more work. For a friend of mine who regularly puts up 4:20s to 4:30 over the last couple of years as a 40-something racer, that means 10K a week in the pool, 10 hours on the bike and 5-7 hours on the run.
Now 10 or more years earlier when he went 4:06 in a slightly long Half-IM at Long Course Worlds where he medaled, he would tell you you need closer to the volume most people would associate with IM racing, i.e. 10-20K swimming, 15-20 a week on the bike and 8 hours of running.
I have done half IMs on 5K a week swimming, 5-7 hours a week on the bike and 3-4 hours of running, but they were all long and painful. 4-6 hours of racing is an aerobic test and you can’t fake lots of aerobic volume training.
Chad
P.S. It is better to keep track of hours of a specific level of effort than miles. I ride a lot in the mountains at altitude and won’t do as much actual distance as a guy who lives at sea level where it is flat. We might put out the same effort and he will travel 2-4 miles per hour faster than me.
It also probably matters where you’re coming from. If you have a solid base built up over a few years, then you’ll be able to handle the workload of the higher hours. But if you are relatively new to endurance sports, then a “lighter” plan that gets you to the finish line may be the better bet.
FWIW, I used the BT plan (somewhat modified for my own schedule) last year in my first season and thought it worked well for me. Finished my first HIM in 5:17. Not anywhere near the speedsters out front mind you, but quite good for someone who had gotten back off the couch (after nearly 15 years on it) just one year earlier. Now that I have somewhat higher goals, I won’t use the program this season.
1. Why do the published training programs vary so widely regarding how many hours a week to train? At Beginnertriathlete.com, the average of the 4 weeks in Base 1 is 7.6 hours per week. In Joe Friel, it’s 12.75 hours per week! Similar pattern later in the season - for Base 3 the highest volume Beginnertriathlete week is 10.5 hours while the highest Friel is 18 hours. That is an enormous difference. Assuming I actually have the time to do the longer hours if I want, how do I decide what is right for me?
I’m not sure which Joe Friel book you are reading, but I think you misread something. In the Triathletes Training Bible (TTB), if you read through it, it basically tells you to pick your annual volume (in hours), and then breaks that down into weekly hour volumes: Table 7.2, pg 93, 2nd Ed. You need to factor what your previous training volumes were, what you can handle, and what your event goals are. More than likely an average of 10 hrs/wk will let you finish comfortably in around or below 6 hrs for a half. Trying to go under 5 hrs on that would hurt. Pick a target and plan it out. Monthly time trials and the occasional race will give you indicators as to what your potential in the half will be.
Why is it common to train number of hours instead of number of miles/yards? By that logic, a faster swimmer/cyclist/runner will get the necessary miles in every week, while a slower athlete may not. For instance, if I’m a slow cyclist, how can I possibly build up to the required mileage if I try to confine my weekly hours?
Absolutely a faster athlete will get more work in per hour of exercise, that’s why they win the races. Tracking distance works reasonably well for single sport athletes, but when you are involved with multisports, it is difficult to translate swim yards to running miles. However, volume as measured in hours per week is extremely useful to track your week to week workout efforts. I still track weekly yardage and mileage for ego reasons and to generate confidence when I step up to the line on race day.
If you are a slow cyclist, then that is a limiter for you and indicates you should put more time in on the bike. That will cost you time somewhere else. If you are like most people, you don’t have unlimited time to train, and if you are like the rest of us, you don’t have unlimited endurance to train excessively. It all comes down to budgeting. There is a lot of reasoning behind all this. One in fact could write a book. Actually, just go read TTB thoroughly.
Good luck.
Tour de Half 2006:
May: New Jerey Devilman
June: Blackwater Eagleman, Tupper Lake Tinman
July: Musselman
August: Timberman
By the end of this summer, I am going to be some kind of a man!
On BT.com - I have written the newer plan (Oly to HIM BRidge) and the minimum is 10 hours on most weeks. Coach AJ had a 20 week plan as well and it’s not low volume like you are talking. You may be talking about the older plan, and if you are I would venture to say that the coach who wrote it was making the program reach the lowest common denominator - meaning that ‘most’ people on the site who wanted to do a HIM could reach the volume. Remember, its’ a Beginner site.
Programs vary b/c of the audience the author is trying to reach. There is no one size fits all. You don’t need 17 hours a week to do a 1/2 IM IMO. The average AGer doesn’t need 17 hours/ week to do an IM either IMO. That’s almost 900 hours a year.
B/c your body knows time not miles. There is a point where you are going to have to ride faster to race faster - but if you plan on riding 4 hours in the HIM, then your training rides in the range of 4-4.5 hours should be ok. I DO think you need to ride the distance for a 1/2 IM, and I do think pacing that off of time is important. We do some rides here in Boulder that are 90 miles and take 7 hours due to the climbing…do you think I am underprepared for an IM b/c I didn’t ride 112 miles? Of course not. Time in the saddle is time in the saddle as long as you are keeping your HR and watts at the appropriate exertion levels.
You have lots of different programs because you can have lots of different goals at a half IM, from just finishing to winning the race on a tough course against tough competition.
Keeping track of time instead of distance in each sport helps you to allocate your training. Two basic ideas here: (1) keep your training time in the same ratios as you expect to spend in the race, or (2) spend more time in your weak areas and less in your strong areas.
I did my first half IM last year. FWIW, during the 18 weeks leading up to the race, including the taper, race week and all stepback weeks, I had average weekly volumes of 4800 yards swimming, 78 miles on bike, and 21 miles running. My highest weekly volumes were 6800 yards swimming, 125 miles on the bike and 31.2 miles running. My highest daily volumes were 4500 yards swimming, 55 miles biking and 13 miles running. Average of 9 hours, 13 minutes training per week, and a maximum of 13 hours, 12 minutes in a single week. My longest single workout was 3 hours 45 minutes in a 52 mile bike, 4 mile run brick. I did the half IM in 5:25, and while doing it was not easy, I certainly had more than enough endurance to complete the race at a reasonably hard pace for me and was “racing” at the end.
I’d agree w/Mike (on the gold membership above) that it’s well worth it. Not only do you get the plans, but the ability to ask questions and get feedback from Mike as well. Not full-fledged customized coaching, but an exceptional value nonetheless.
Depending on your background (any strengths in one or more of the single sports) , you may be able to finish (and finish reasonably well, which of course also depends on your definition of that) a HIM on much less overall time and volume than the various plans call for.
There are some lively debates going on in cyberspace at this very moment about whether high volume/low intensity is “better” than lower volume/higher intensity training.
The one takeaway from all of that is: If you have more hours to train, then you can do more of it at the lower intensity levels/higher volume they suggest. Conversely, if you are very time-constrained, then you would probably be better served (this is more specifically regarding cycling) to do more intensity to get more bang for your buck from that limited time.
I was woefully undertrained relative to what the ‘standard’ plans call for in terms of volume for HIM training last year. And on an average of 6.5 hrs / wk (max weeks 11.5 hrs), I finished 2 HIM’s and a ultra-distance Du, and was in the top 1/3 of the field in all 3 of those events.
Best of luck in your HIM this season! Enjoy the journey-
“I was woefully undertrained relative to what the ‘standard’ plans call for in terms of volume for HIM training last year. And on an average of 6.5 hrs / wk (max weeks 11.5 hrs), I finished 2 HIM’s and a ultra-distance Du, and was in the top 1/3 of the field in all 3 of those events.”
Question, I’m guessing you did a lot of these hours at a high intensity?
Nothing against higher intensity and speed (which has certainly helped my running in particular), but I tend to love long-slow distance workouts, where I can just zen out and enjoy the scenery. Very slow 2-4 hour bike rides, very slow 1-2 hour trail runs. And I have the time to do that. So I will probably stick to that, mixing in more speedwork during the build phase. I find that if I do too much speedwork or tempo work too early in the season, I start to not look forward to my runs/bikes. They become a chore instead of a nice escape into the country roads.
So, I’m leaning towards a weekly volume that is somewhere halfway between the minimum and the maximum recommended. With a lot of long-slow distance. It makes my mouth water, I really enjoy my season when I do it this way.
The only difference for me between half Ironman and Ironman training is that the long bike ride drops from 6 hours to 4 hours but becomes much harder. Aside from that, everything is pretty well the same. I train to race half Ironman and “tour Ironman”. In an Ironman, I am never “racing on the brink”. In half Ironman, I am essentially going at Olympic distance race intensity for the whole swim and bike, and during the run, although I am going slower than Olympic tri, perceived exertion is identical (ie sucking wind for the entire run). So basically this works out to 15-22 hours in season for Ironman or 13-20 hours in season for half Ironman. My half Ironman times range from the high 4:20’s to low 4:40’s depending on course, wind and heat.
On BT.com - I have written the newer plan (Oly to HIM BRidge) and the minimum is 10 hours on most weeks.
Wow…according to this plan I’m not ready to make the bridge. Minumum 5hrs, maximum of 11hrs and average of 8hrs. Olys for me I guess. How discouraging.
<< Nothing against higher intensity and speed (which has certainly helped my running in particular), but I tend to love long-slow distance workouts, where I can just zen out and enjoy the scenery. Very slow 2-4 hour bike rides, very slow 1-2 hour trail runs. And I have the time to do that. >>
That great! You should be enjoying the training, since it’s where you’ll be spending 98% of your time this season. But, depending on what it means to you to “enjoy” your races, you might wanna add some intensity, at least on the bike, cuz if you wanna ride faster, ya hafta ride faster.
<< Question, I’m guessing you did a lot of these hours at a high intensity? >>
For running, no, almost all my runs were done z2 or z1.
For cycling, yes, the majority of my rides were upper-steady, mod-hard, or hard, or at least had elements of that in them. I’m a firm believer in riding harder/faster, OR riding stupid easy (recovery rides) and skipping that space in between. If you don’t go easy enough on your easy days, you can’t go hard enough on your hard days.
Swimming - what’s that? That’s my secret method for keeping my weekly hours low, I train more like a duathlete, and swim a mininal amount (I won’t be able to get away with that this year, so I’m already ramping up the swim frequency a bit).
I do my own training plan. I’m pretty much a rookie with only one season and one HIM under my belt, but three to come this season (one in 3.5 weeks). I do:
Swim: 4,500 yards per week (my best discipline)
Bike: 100 miles per week
Run: 25 miles per week
Those are peak miles that I build up to and do for the last 8 weeks leading up to the taper 2 weeks out. My max hours would be about 12 hours/week.
I’m a middle-of-the-pack 40-44 AG’er. My one HIM was completed in 5:45.
That’s my secret method for keeping my weekly hours low, I train more like a duathlete, and swim a mininal amount (I won’t be able to get away with that this year, so I’m already ramping up the swim frequency a bit).