Work and training for IM

Triathlon Forum
1

So I’m a nurse and work 12 hour shifts. When you factor in preparing for work, the drive to and from and then the after work routine, it pretty much takes 14+ hours a day. On my work days, I don’t do any training. It just adds too much time to my day, time I already don’t have.

That leaves me with 4 days a week that I hit it pretty hard. I’ve been doing pretty well like that for the last couple years, but the most I’ve done so far is a 70.3. This year I plan to finish a full IM.

Now, I think I can train plenty hard enough on just my four days to be fit enough to finish an IM. But I prefer to work three in a row and have four in a row off. But thinking about it, I think I might be better served in my training if I worked 2, then had a day off for training, then my 3rd day, then three off.

Where I work I have the ability to request the days I want to work and, for the most part, I get the days I request. So getting, for instance, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or a similar combination, should be pretty similar.

What’s everybody’s take on the idea?

2

Depends on your background, fitness, and possibly age in case that limits recovery/ability to handle load on consecutive days. Assuming no kids as you don’t mention that…

You can probably finish a full IM without too many changes to whatever you’re doing for 70.3s.

If you want to do well or at least run the marathon, then sure, adjust the training to include IM-specific stuff, and yeah, I’d probably go with 2 and 1 days of work.

3

So I’m a nurse and work 12 hour shifts. When you factor in preparing for work, the drive to and from and then the after work routine, it pretty much takes 14+ hours a day. On my work days, I don’t do any training. It just adds too much time to my day, time I already don’t have.

That leaves me with 4 days a week that I hit it pretty hard. I’ve been doing pretty well like that for the last couple years, but the most I’ve done so far is a 70.3. This year I plan to finish a full IM.

Now, I think I can train plenty hard enough on just my four days to be fit enough to finish an IM. But I prefer to work three in a row and have four in a row off. But thinking about it, I think I might be better served in my training if I worked 2, then had a day off for training, then my 3rd day, then three off.

Where I work I have the ability to request the days I want to work and, for the most part, I get the days I request. So getting, for instance, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or a similar combination, should be pretty similar.

What’s everybody’s take on the idea?

If you have total freedom choosing work days and want to maximise training, I’d experiment with the different distributions below. It depends what type of nurse you are I suppose and how hectic your workday is, but if you are alternating training stress with work days you might be able to train harder.

When I trained for IM I never did more than 4 quality days per week anyway, so I think this is doable. Perhaps just experiment with different work/training schedules and see which allows you to maintain energy and adaptations:

  1. M/Tu/We (gives a big block for training, also gives headspace of 4 days away from work)
  2. M/Tu/Th (you mentioned above)
  3. M/W/F (spreads training more evenly)
  4. M/Th/Fr (gives two training blocks of 2 days)

You’re lucky to have such flexibility!

4

Good options above. If it were me, I would stack the work days. Feel like it would make things a lot more enjoyable outside of work. Maybe it’s better to do something like Monday/Wednesday/Friday but at the end of the day you’re still training the same # of days. You can do a lot of quality work in a 4 day block – just ask the Norwegians when they go to training camps. I know it’s hard but for Ironman training, I would try to find a little something on a work day. Even an hour spin before/after work or getting in a 30min run at lunch. Know it might not be possible but it might be better to space out the training days so that you can have slightly bigger training days, prepping for the IM.

5

at the top end of the sport, you have to train hard for an IM. For your first IM, and maybe many more to follow, the key is to train long. The difficulty of the workouts should come from the duration, not the intensity.

6

Depends on your background, fitness, and possibly age in case that limits recovery/ability to handle load on consecutive days. Assuming no kids as you don’t mention that…

You can probably finish a full IM without too many changes to whatever you’re doing for 70.3s.

If you want to do well or at least run the marathon, then sure, adjust the training to include IM-specific stuff, and yeah, I’d probably go with 2 and 1 days of work.Correct, no kids.

I would love to be able to actually run a full marathon but those days are well in the rear view mirror now. I feel like I’m strong enough to finish the swim in about 90 minutes and the ride in about 7 hours. If I can keep that kind of pace, that leaves me roughly eight hours to finish the marathon, and I’m not above walking most of the way.

7

If you have total freedom choosing work days and want to maximise training, I’d experiment with the different distributions below. It depends what type of nurse you are I suppose and how hectic your workday is, but if you are alternating training stress with work days you might be able to train harder.

When I trained for IM I never did more than 4 quality days per week anyway, so I think this is doable. Perhaps just experiment with different work/training schedules and see which allows you to maintain energy and adaptations:

  1. M/Tu/We (gives a big block for training, also gives headspace of 4 days away from work)
  2. M/Tu/Th (you mentioned above)
  3. M/W/F (spreads training more evenly)
  4. M/Th/Fr (gives two training blocks of 2 days)

You’re lucky to have such flexibility!This was really the idea behind this thread. I do prefer to have all three work days consecutive, but from a training perspective, I think I could maybe train a little harder if I broke up the schedule and had some recovery time in between. Of course, being a nurse isn’t exactly a desk job. I’m running just about from the time I get there until the time I leave. So I guess it’s a bit of a balancing act.

8

at the top end of the sport, you have to train hard for an IM. For your first IM, and maybe many more to follow, the key is to train long. The difficulty of the workouts should come from the duration, not the intensity.At this point (I’m on the wrong side of 50), I just want to earn the title Ironman. It will surely be a one-and-done thing, mainly due to the running. The hips and knees just can’t take it long term.

I don’t have any intention of giving up the sport, but after Ironman, I will likely only do sprints or even just aquabikes after that. I’m at best a middle-of-the-pack age grouper. I’m not chasing anything more than the title.

9

It will surely be a one-and-done thing.

Riiiiight :slight_smile:

I’ll give it 3 years tops before round 2.

10

Four training days a week is plenty and splitting your work days up is the most sensible way to do it. Even though you have a physical job you can recover on your work days,especially if you make sure you eat well during your work day.

If you are dealing with age and a “run injury” I would gear training to a swim/bike focus with your run more of a run strength program than “a marathon” program. I wouldn’t even worry about doing long runs every week,I’d do them every two weeks as you have stated that you plan to walk/run the marathon.

I see your biggest issue in your swim training access .I would move heaven and earth to search out a pool somewhere closer than the huge commute you currently face,even if it means joinig a gym with a pool.

At your age,sleep and recovery is important so make sure you get plenty and again,at your age some resistance work would be a good idea ( I am 60 ). First timers tend to freak out and worry too much about race day early on in training. Forget about the race and worry about your training blocks. I always say “train to get strong enough to deal with the training you will face in two months and repeat,and repeat util the race is much,much closer” . At your level overall fitness is what matters to start with. You are already used to long,physical days at work. Ironman should be easy by comparison.

11

I had almost 2 years during covid including one 12 month period where I was working hours as u describe but 6 days a week. I still managed to squeeze in training about 10-12 hrs total, couldn’t improve but held about where I was.

Having done 2 IMs last season I’d say big difference between aim to finish and aim to finish in a time. U have priorities right and I’d guess if you have done 70.3s u won’t have issues just manage pacing nutrition and perhaps a few long rides few long runs and u are good to go.

If u can hit 10 hours a week at least but challenge is u need to hit those hours fairly hard so all lumped together is worse than one on one off.

I realise it might be tough but even adding just a little vol on 2 of the work days might help. 30min straight out of bed or 30min during day particularly if u can do cable for swim so keeps swim fitness to some degree. Vo2 type short and sweet repeats on bike before breakfast. That sort of thing.

TIME crunched on those days means high intensity and stacked, and 1 weekend day ultra long low intensity maybe swap build up until u can handle 1 week long bike 180km+ on 1 week long run 30km+ walk run. But I’m no expert and went opposite way also age 50 and partial retirement so I train a little every day

I also said 1x only. In fact this coming March will be 3rd in 12 months. So u never know. For some ppl our strength is not in short distance or even 70.3 we do better in IM… Ymmv

12

It will surely be a one-and-done thing.

Riiiiight :slight_smile:

I’ll give it 3 years tops before round 2.

I’m 2.5 decades after my one/only IM. Like Jen, running wasn’t working out for me, and well, I could beat a rock to the bottom, so there’s that.

13

It will surely be a one-and-done thing.

Riiiiight :slight_smile:

I’ll give it 3 years tops before round 2.This is one thing where I feel pretty confident that I’ll stick to that one time, provided I finish in time. I did do the one 70.3 last month and it was a long day. I would not call it fun, but it was fulfilling. And that’s what I’m looking for out of IM.

I started a thread about this on a different forum some time ago, but when I die, if I could describe myself in 10 words or less, they would be: United States Marine, cancer survivor, Registered Nurse (and if all goes according to plan), Ironman.

14

Four training days a week is plenty and splitting your work days up is the most sensible way to do it. Even though you have a physical job you can recover on your work days,especially if you make sure you eat well during your work day.

If you are dealing with age and a “run injury” I would gear training to a swim/bike focus with your run more of a run strength program than “a marathon” program. I wouldn’t even worry about doing long runs every week,I’d do them every two weeks as you have stated that you plan to walk/run the marathon.

I see your biggest issue in your swim training access .I would move heaven and earth to search out a pool somewhere closer than the huge commute you currently face,even if it means joinig a gym with a pool.

At your age,sleep and recovery is important so make sure you get plenty and again,at your age some resistance work would be a good idea ( I am 60 ). First timers tend to freak out and worry too much about race day early on in training. Forget about the race and worry about your training blocks. I always say “train to get strong enough to deal with the training you will face in two months and repeat,and repeat util the race is much,much closer” . At your level overall fitness is what matters to start with. You are already used to long,physical days at work. Ironman should be easy by comparison.Ya, the swim part can be difficult. We do have a public pool here in my small town, but it’s only open during the summer. Those summer days I try to get at least two days a week training in the pool. The rest of the year, I will drive to Lake Mead 2-3 times a month (about 200 miles round trip) for some open water training. I would not call myself a fast swimmer, but I definitely believe myself to be a strong swimmer. By that I just mean I’m very comfortable in the water. No panic even in rough or crowded water and can maintain my modest pace for a couple hours.

And the break up of my training block is exactly why I’m thinking of this. A 12 hour shift can be pretty draining, but physically, it’s not as demanding as a hard training block. So I’m thinking work two, off one, work one, off three. That would give me a one day break in my week to get a harder training session in. As it is now, with four off, my first three are more moderate training sessions and that fourth day, right before I go back to work, is a high intensity or long duration day. (of course, moderate is all relative now. What I call moderate today would have killed me 2 or 3 years ago. I’m sure everybody can relate to that.)

As for the run. I really used to like running. Back in my Marine Corps days, I used to run just for fun. At one point, I was running 75+ miles a week, besides the organized company exercise. But unfortunately, I’m on the smaller side anyway (well, overall. Maybe not so much for a woman) and carrying the weight we sometimes had to carry takes a toll. Didn’t help that I was too stubborn to ever drop out of marches. Always in the back of the pack, but never in the truck.

15

I had almost 2 years during covid including one 12 month period where I was working hours as u describe but 6 days a week. I still managed to squeeze in training about 10-12 hrs total, couldn’t improve but held about where I was.

Having done 2 IMs last season I’d say big difference between aim to finish and aim to finish in a time. U have priorities right and I’d guess if you have done 70.3s u won’t have issues just manage pacing nutrition and perhaps a few long rides few long runs and u are good to go.

If u can hit 10 hours a week at least but challenge is u need to hit those hours fairly hard so all lumped together is worse than one on one off.

I realise it might be tough but even adding just a little vol on 2 of the work days might help. 30min straight out of bed or 30min during day particularly if u can do cable for swim so keeps swim fitness to some degree. Vo2 type short and sweet repeats on bike before breakfast. That sort of thing.

TIME crunched on those days means high intensity and stacked, and 1 weekend day ultra long low intensity maybe swap build up until u can handle 1 week long bike 180km+ on 1 week long run 30km+ walk run. But I’m no expert and went opposite way also age 50 and partial retirement so I train a little every day

I also said 1x only. In fact this coming March will be 3rd in 12 months. So u never know. For some ppl our strength is not in short distance or even 70.3 we do better in IM… YmmvI have thought about trying to get in even a modest training session on a work day but that’s just not going to happen, at least not on this schedule. I’m not a morning person so getting up any earlier than 5:30 is a non-starter. I tell people all the time that if five years in the Marine Corps can’t make a morning person out of me, nothing can.

I did work nights for about six years at a previous job, but there’s a pretty big difference between working an 8 hour shift and a 12 hour shift. Plus, as we all know, good, quality sleep is really essential to recovery.

Now, at my hospital, the ER does have a split shift that works 11-11. I’ve been thinking about transferring over to ER and give that a try. I think I could at least get in some basic core strengthening and weight training one or two times before a shift. But have to be honest, I’m a little intimidated by the ER. I fear that having worked there previously in MedSurg, they might have some expectations of me I wouldn’t be prepared to meet.

16

Oh, and another thing. My biggest concern for finishing an IM is actually the nutrition/hydration aspect. I don’t want to go into all the gory details, but simply say that damage from previous throat cancer treatment makes it virtually impossible for me to eat or drink while on the move or in any position other than vertical. I can drink on the bike, but not from a fixed hydration bottle. I have to sit upright and drink, which means at least slowing down if not stopping entirely. No way I could eat. I can do gels, but no way I could eat solid food of any kind. Peanut butter, bananas, nothing like that.

Similar for the run. I could keep moving but would have to slow to a walk.

And that’s something I’m planning in my strategy. I’m anticipating 3-4 stops during the ride of about 5 minutes each just to get off the bike, maybe eat a banana or consume a gel and drink a bottle of fluid. And my run/walk strategy I’m contemplating is run(jog) 3-4 miles, then walk one mile while I eat and hydrate.

I know that for an event of this length that nutrition and hydration are really going to be supremely essential. It’s also going to be the thing that eats into my pace. I’m anticipating just this alone is going to cost me about an hour out of my overall pace.

17

What’s your commute situation like? Are there safe routes to/from work? If you’re saying that your work days are pretty much toast from a training perspective, there might be an hour or two that you can salvage by biking or even running to work as your commute. For most people, there’s also a lunch hour to consider, but I get that with your job it might not be exactly conducive to going for a run at lunch.

Pre-pandemic (I’m now WFH, but I did my first 2 IMs this way), it would actually take me less time to bike to work than it did to drive most days due to the traffic. I figured I could sit in a car 45mins each way, or I could use the time to get in some zone 2 work. Now, I had a good route with few traffic lights and a shower at work so it worked for me.

Though sometimes it takes creativity - I’m in Canada and the route becomes unusable 4-5 months of the year. So instead, what I’d do is drive to about where the traffic got bad (6-7k from work) and then run in a few days per week, leaving clothes at the office on the other days. Again, not everyone can do this, but sometimes there are deadspots in your day that you can leverage for bonus training.

18

You can use cycling bottles and sit up and drink whenever. Regarding food will be practise but u don’t need bananas sandwiches or any of that u can get by with drink mix, liquid gels those jelly gels in a flask and maybe 2 scheduled 5 min stops one at special needs where u really eat solid if u need or feel like it, it’s your day enjoy it how u want. Puree maybe watered down might be an option focus on carbs so no peanut butter, jam honey or syrup. Banana is nice.

Walk the aid stations eat and drink in those. Some top tier IM racers walk the aid stations, Im mid level 3.32 run in an IM I walk every aid station. This is worth it to practise.

That 200mile round trip to lake mead imho is not really needed if u are comfortable in the water just spend more time in the local pool or do something else. Do it 1 time enough. That’s 3 4 hours drive time when you could train. Get cables and do swim work outs using those at least for fitness.

I’m no expert so ymmv

19

What’s your commute situation like? Are there safe routes to/from work? If you’re saying that your work days are pretty much toast from a training perspective, there might be an hour or two that you can salvage by biking or even running to work as your commute. For most people, there’s also a lunch hour to consider, but I get that with your job it might not be exactly conducive to going for a run at lunch.

Pre-pandemic (I’m now WFH, but I did my first 2 IMs this way), it would actually take me less time to bike to work than it did to drive most days due to the traffic. I figured I could sit in a car 45mins each way, or I could use the time to get in some zone 2 work. Now, I had a good route with few traffic lights and a shower at work so it worked for me.

Though sometimes it takes creativity - I’m in Canada and the route becomes unusable 4-5 months of the year. So instead, what I’d do is drive to about where the traffic got bad (6-7k from work) and then run in a few days per week, leaving clothes at the office on the other days. Again, not everyone can do this, but sometimes there are deadspots in your day that you can leverage for bonus training.My daily work commute is just a tick over 7 miles. The problem, especially this time of year is light and road conditions. I live in a rural town that has very few bike lanes, or even well prepared shoulders. Or even shoulders for that matter. And at this time of year, it’s dark going to and coming home from work. Not to mention frosty as hell. But a lack of safe riding space and light are simply too dangerous for me to consider riding to and from work. Then there’s the issue with being prepared for work when I get there. Being a nurse, there is an expectation that I be clean and dressed when I get there. A seven mile ride really wouldn’t take a whole lot longer, but I would have to consider taking clean scrubs with me, plus all my other daily use gear, and freshening up/changing when I got there. If I had a locker there, as you suggest, I could leave some clean scrubs there for just such an event. We do have some lockers there but not enough to go around.

It’s something I could consider more during the summer when it’s light the whole time. But even then, it doesn’t change the lack of safe riding lanes.

One thing I have considered is just going for a short run after my shift. I could just change there, do a quick 2-3 mile high intensity run, and then head home. There’s really no good reason I couldn’t do that. I just haven’t, mainly because despite doing these triathlons, I’m actually naturally a quite lazy person.

20

You can use cycling bottles and sit up and drink whenever. Regarding food will be practise but u don’t need bananas sandwiches or any of that u can get by with drink mix, liquid gels those jelly gels in a flask and maybe 2 scheduled 5 min stops one at special needs where u really eat solid if u need or feel like it, it’s your day enjoy it how u want. Puree maybe watered down might be an option focus on carbs so no peanut butter, jam honey or syrup. Banana is nice.

Walk the aid stations eat and drink in those. Some top tier IM racers walk the aid stations, Im mid level 3.32 run in an IM I walk every aid station. This is worth it to practise.

That 200mile round trip to lake mead imho is not really needed if u are comfortable in the water just spend more time in the local pool or do something else. Do it 1 time enough. That’s 3 4 hours drive time when you could train. Get cables and do swim work outs using those at least for fitness.

I’m no expert so ymmvYa, on my training rides, I often do sit up to drink. It does work. It’s just cumbersome and a little dangerous. I have every intention of doing so periodically during the bike segment. But I’m still budgeting some time to just stop for a couple minutes. I’m estimating the bike segment to take me approximately seven hours. That’s a long time to not take a break anyway. So as of right now, I’m anticipating drinking periodically while on the bike, but also stopping roughly every 30 miles just for a few minutes. Since I’m planning for IM in Tempe, that route is a three loop out and back. My thinking is just break at each lap for a few minutes. Step off the bike, eat and drink a little something and maybe bathroom break, depending.

I’m actually planning a day trip down to Tempe in March or April to check out the route before actually signing up. I figure I’ll do a BRICK with one lap of the bike course and one lap of the run course, just to get a feel for the routes.