Posts Member

HAHAHAAHA. Ok. ok. I can swim fairly well.

Posts Member

To finish

Posts Member

As much training as needed to give you confidence.

I have seen people sign up for relay marathons on no training, get drunk the night before, and do the whole thing cause someone bet them...faster than the team did it (sub 4).

The first person I met who spoke of such a race did his on 2 century rides - 2 50;s, a little running, and didn't know how to swim. A barely sub two hour swim and 13 hours later he finished (2+13=15 hours, lots of time to spare).

If you are not going to quit, how are you not going to finish?

Posts Member

16 or 17 hour time limit?

Posts Member

That's just to finish? :O

I worked out the slowest you could go in each leg and still make the cutoffs.

Swim:
Time allowed: 2:20:00
Worst Pace Allowable: 3:38/100m

Bike:
Time allowed (from swim start): 10:30:00
Time allowed (bike only, assuming 2:30 for swim + transition): 8:00:00
Worst pace allowable: 22.5km/h (14mph)

Run (walk?):
Time allowed (from start): 17:00:00
Time allowed (run only, assuming full 10:30 was used for bike + swim): 6:30:00
Worst Pace Allowable: Approx 9:00/km (about 14:30/mile)

I've obviously never done it, but it seems to me I might be able to finish even with the base I have now... I wouldn't try (and won't for a few years!) but seems possible, no?

jono

Posts Member

Those are right. And when you break it down like that the pace and time seems rather generous and doable. 17 hours though makes for a miserably long day.

Posts Member

For most first times (which is the assumption I have based on the OP) I think a 90-day IM plan would be a bit ambitous even with a marathon background. Also, looking at the IM training plan linked from TriFuel (the opentri plan), Week 1 of 36 weeks starts with 8 hours total.

So, if 10 months/40 weeks is all you need to finish an IM, sure, you can train for a full in 10 months, starting from any condition, under the assumption you can go from couch potato (0 hours) and ramp up to 8 hours a week in 30 days and then start 36 more weeks of training.

Another example is Gail Bernhardt's '13 weeks to a 13 hour Ironman finish.' Sounds easy! Thirteen weeks is like what, four months. The devil is in the details. She assumes the following:

"You are an experienced triathlete. You have completed spring and Olympic-distance races. Life, however, has your clock in a stranglehold and training time is at a premium. Before beginning this plan, you are capable of swimming three times per week, about an hour each time. You estimate you could hold a 1 minute 45-second to 2-minute pace per 100 yards, for the 2.4-mile swim (total swim time of 1:12 to 1:25). Cycling currently includes being able to comfortably go an hour and a half or so. You're thinking you could average somewhere between 15 and 16 mph for 112 miles (total bike time between 6:15 and 7:30). Your long run is in the 1:15 to 1:30 range. You think you could manage a marathon pace of 10- to 11-minute miles (total run time between 4:15 and 5:00). Up to this point, you've been training around eight to 10 hours each week, which is very comfortable."

Posts Member

Anything is possible...on minimal training. People get off the couch all the time and runs Mary's and Ultras. I imagine some folks get off the couch and do Indie IM races (IM's being booked for ages while Indies are still open a few weeks out). It is possible to finish. I've seen it a lot. The problem is that you may do real damage to yourself and recovery may take months. The whole point of training if you're just Joe Mid-pack is to be able to finish and walk away for it in good shape. Better training equals not only better performance but better recovery.
My consistant advice is always...a year of training, with some races, in all three sports, before signing up for that IM yet another year down the road. Minimum of 12 weeks...unless you have tons of experience and a consistently good fitness level and can "jump in" long races and not give a rats ass what your place is. (POC does this at IM's...I do it at Ultras)
If POC chimes in on his training for IM's I chip in on how to run ultras on 30 or 40 miles a week.

Posts Member

Yeah...you know...1 pint curls, hot tubbing and indoor gymnastics.

Posts Member

Sounds rough, but I might be up for a challenge. ;-)

Posts Member

I've been ramping up slowly... I've done 1/2 marathons and century rides, working on the swimming. But one of the benefits is I've encountered injuries and addressed them along the way. If I'd just plowed ahead and tried to do Ironman, I don't know that I'd have made it without being sidelined.

BTW - peterwong, you're in Toronto right? There's a full Iron distance race in Montreal in September... you have 2 weeks to prepare, and there's still spots... GOOOOO! ;)

jono

Posts Member

Then you're ready now. Sign up.

You get 2:20:00 to swim 3.84kms - that's 35 minutes per kilometre!

Bike cutoff is 5:20pm - finish the swim by 8:30 is doable if you can swim at all well, that gives you 9 hours to ride 180k - that's 20kms per hour. Grandma can do it. In fact Sister Madonna Buder, who is 77 years old can do it.

5:30 to 12:00 am gives you six and a half hours to WALK 42kms.

Next question?

Oh, my training?
Well, I don't advise anyone else to do it my way, you have to know your own limitations. I swam about ten times this year. Ran 18 times since March and only once over 21kms. PS. I'm 56yrs old, 6'2" and 204lbs and last Sunday I did it in 14:30:15 a new PB by ten minutes.
Here's my training chart from this year's race.
PoC

Posts Member

Trifanatic's opening question:

"Why even bother doing an ironman if you just want to do the bare minimum to finish?.."

suggests that he has perhaps misunderstood Peter's query. Peter asked about the minimum necessary training time to succeed at doing Ironman in the 17 hours allowed.

That's a lot different from "wanting to do the bare minimum" I'm sure Peter wants to do as well as he is able on the day. I think he is trying to assess his situation with regard to the IM schedule of races within acceptable distance, and he needs to know if he can succeed this year or if he will need a longer training time. Is that about right Peter?

Bottom line is if you are "healthy" and know how to swim, I think you can survive an IM with two or three months of training.
You can run a 4hr marathon, so you are likely free from injury and have enough cardio fitness to train, that's enough to start.

The risks are that in a short period of training you stress yourself too much and get an injury, better to take a longer period in order to build a base more slowly giving your body time to adjust to the workload of going 140.6 miles.

and yeah, finish under 17 hours and you can brag all you want.
Since 1978, I'd guess there have been only a couple hundred thousand people worldwide who have done it. That would put you ahead of about 6 thousand million other people who haven't.

PoC

Posts Member

The journey to your first ironman (well - I'm sure all ironman competitions - not just your first) is the real treat. The race is the "bonus" after a long year of training. Living, breathing, sleeping, dreaming of Ironman for an entire year, giving up many "things" in order to train smart - this is the hard part - and the most rewarding. To do just 90 days worth of training doesn't seem to give the accomplishment justice - also, you probabl will finish...but you probably won't finish feeling well. If your goal is to finish with a smile and thinking "I can't wait to do this again" - then you need to train hard and stay committed. If it's to finish, even if you feel like dying at the end, the training for a short amount of time should work (?).