Obviously, my first choice would be to continue under KP’s guidance. I’m confident I would continue reaching my IM goals with his coaching. Unfortunately, that’s not possible & I need to find a lower-cost alternative.
Plans I have looked at:
Joe Friel’s - Base/Build-Peak (Advanced with Power)
Rich Strauss’ - Iron Distance (Advanced with Power)
Huddle/Frey - Ironman: Start to Finish
Does anyone have any experience with any of these, or can recommend something else? I’m preferebly looking for a power-based plan.
Any info is appreciated.
dh
My PR was using Huddle/Freys IM book but since I’m using power now in training I’m going to use Rich Strauss’s IM Plan with Power next year…very specific and detailed (which is what I like)…
I made my own. I looked at a few, mainly Gail Bernhardt’s 13-week plan, but didn’t follow it perseay. I finished my first IM in 12 hours and recovered in 2 days. If you want to know more, PM me.
Made my own. A lot of base and a good taper. Swim as much as I can (4x week), run frequently not far(6x week), bike far but not fast(3x week).
Unless you plan on finishing fast,<10hrs, I would stick to 95% base work. Anyway, works for me.
Paul
Made my own. A lot of base and a good taper. Swim as much as I can (4x week), run frequently not far(6x week), bike far but not fast(3x week).
Unless you plan on finishing fast,<10hrs, I would stick to 95% base work. Anyway, works for me.
Paul
Don Fink’s “Be IronFit”. It’s excellent
Made my own. A lot of base and a good taper. Swim as much as I can (4x week), run frequently not far(6x week), bike far but not fast(3x week).
Unless you plan on finishing fast,<10hrs, I would stick to 95% base work. Anyway, works for me.
Paul
what about 10.5 hr finish?
A modified version of Gale Bernhardt’s 26 week plan.
“what about 10.5 hr finish?”
It’s not that complicated. Once you break it down it’s fairly straight forward.
Rough balanced splits would be:
About 1:20 on the swim
About 5:30 on the bike
about 3:40 on the run
Now what?: You need to get your swimming to the point that you can swim 2.4 miles comfortably and it not kill you. Same for the bike - you need to be able to ride 5:30 for 112 miles non-stop at an effort that is equivilant to a moderatly hard, long training ride, but still leave energy in the tank to run about a 3:40 marathon. It’s this last thing that for many is the biggest challenge, but again it’s not that fast - about 8:30 min/mile. All things considered, the pacing on the bike on race day is critical.
When you think about that paces involved with this, it’s ALL aerobic. Not necessarily all LSD, but it’s still all aerobic, so you want to get your aerobic engine as fit as you can and that’s pretty straight-forward - put in as many miles as you can while keeping the pace reasonable and steady.
“I finished my first IM in 12 hours and recovered in 2 days.”
TWO DAYS?!
Fleck,
Did you mean to say 3.8 km…? as opposed to 3.8 miles…?
Yes, thank you for pointing that out. My apologies.
Well, I finished the race at 7pm on a Saturday evening, and was running/swimming on Tuesday, and did a half IM (Clearwater) the following Saturday and PR’ed by nearly 20 minutes. I’m not trying to boast here…just providing an example for the original poster as to the results of my IM training plan.
tigerchik, you took the words right out of my mouth…
Jay, you might not have been “sore” after 2 days…but I guarantee you were not recovered.
Kurt
Possibly, but I can tell you that 7 days after the IM, I was racing in Clearwater and felt 100%, and had a bike and 1/2 mary PR. I certainly “felt” recovered. Okay, this thread is not about me…so I’m ducking back into the shadows on this one…
wow, good for you…now the hard question…did you race IMFL hard enough then? 
I used Don Fink “be Ironfit” last year for Lake Placid. ($13.95) It was my first Ironman. I was pretty anal about following it to the T for the first couple of weeks. Then I just biked a lot. It got me to the line in 11:30:06. It’s a 30 week program. Base, Build, Peak. I’m using it again for LP this year. 30 weeks started on Monday. My goal was to finish. The book totally got me ready to achieve my goal. It’s not a power based plan. It’s a HR zone plan.
Good luck
Ha, ha. I guess not! I stuck to my pacing plan and it worked out. I had set a conservative goal of 13 hours, and finished in 12, so I felt like I went at a good pace for my ability level. Maybe I sold myself short! I still suck compared to most on ST!