To Ironman or not to Ironman, that is the question

Trained for and raced with (albeit 2.5 hours apart!) IMWI with hubby.  'Twas a good thing.  Will do it again for IMCdA in 7 months.....

My wife decided to do a sprint after she saw all the attention and positive things that were happening from my IM training,  we're both in the pool together which is great. 

Admittedly, one of the things I hoped to achieve out of my IM training was to inspire my wife to get off the couch.  So far its worked.

Anyway, sorry about the tangent, but I say go for it.  Just realize you both probably won't be able to run and bike together.  Someone's always faster (my friends wife crushes his times in IM's).

Hmm...I think there was a thread on this somewhere during the last year (Iron Distance forum, maybe)...might be worth searching for....some good responses, IIRC.

My wife and I did my first IM and her first HIM at the same event this summer (Vineman/Barb's Race) and did a lot of training together...but we already were doing a bit of biking and swimming together before that and she had 7 tri's under her belt previously.  We volunteered at IMAZ this weekend (just to support a few friends...not for signup) and she started to get the bug...was talking on the drive home about us volunteering again next year and doing signup for the race in 2011.  But I'll skip IM'ing that year if she goes ahead with that.  I felt perfectly okay being more or less on my own on race day for my first IM (while she was out on the HIM course for much of the day), but I don't think it'd be the same if roles are reversed.  I think I'd both want and need to be available for and to her on race day.

Training together can be a challenge if either of you have any sort of time goals and your ability levels are very dissimilar.  My wife's swim pace (esp. in OW) is close to mine, so that worked well.  However, running together was not doable and long rides together were generally better training for her than for me, if I'm being honest about it.  So you have to be really clear about what all that training time together is going to be accomplishing for you.  My attitude is to pick maybe one truly joint workout a week (normally either OWS or medium-length ride) and at other times to do solo workouts at the same location, meeting up afterwards.

Good luck.  It definitely can be done...a couple we sometimes have trained with did Vineman together this summer (and he proposed to her in the finisher chute when she crossed the line, a couple hours after he did...amazing scene).  Training for IM is an emotional roller coaster when there's just one person taking it on in a household...takes a lot of humor and patience to "go long" together (and I'm just saying that off of an IM/HIM experience...IM/IM is more than I really am up for at present).

If you get my wife to do a tri (ANY distance) I'll buy you dinner!Her email is [email protected]

^^^ Did you REALLY just post your wife's email address, which appears to include her full name, on a public internet forum?? Dude!!


Back on topic.... If your wife is just starting out with training, it's likely she doesn't really fully understand what is required to train for an ironman. I think it would be wise to encourage her to spend a couple of seasons doing shorter distance tris (sprint, olympic, maybe HIM) so she can build up some endurance, and really understand what kind of training would be involved for a full IM. Perhaps you could target an IM distance race in 2011 or 2012....

If and when you DO decide to do an IM together, make sure you clarify what doing it "together" means. Does it mean racing side-by-side from start to finish? Or does it mean you're both participants in the same event, and that you will each complete the race at your own pace?

If that's not understood ahead of time, I could see someone getting PO'd because:

a) they felt they were "held back" from running as fast a race as they could by the slower party; or
b) they felt deserted by the faster party during the race.

Likewise for training.... As another poster said, if your training paces are vastly different, someone is likely to get frustrated.

I think as long as everybody is on the same page in terms of what to expect, it could be a really great experience! I would love to do something like this with my husband, but since he hates to run, and his work hours are hellish, I don't really see it happening ! He does enjoy cycling, though, and we do that together, which is really nice.

Thank you for all the great advice!

It probably would have been helpful to say that we were thinking of doing it sometime after she gets done with law school (2012) and when we want to have kids.

Ummmm..........you want to do an Ironman together when you are having kids?? Uh.......yeah.......you might perhaps want to rethink that.........

 

x2, if that was what was meant (hard to tell with the wording).
My boyfriend and I have trained for multiple sprints, olys and HIMs together. It's nice to have the understanding of the time commitment, but I am not sure it would work for us on the IM distance (and we don't even have kiddos). I am doing my first IM next year, and he is eyeing one for 2011. Switching off every other year seems like a great idea to me - until we have kids. Then obviously we'll have to re-think all priorities.

 

Eventually, maybe it could be fun to do an Ironman together... but since she hasn't done any tri's before, try to spend a couple of seaons progressing from Sprint, to Oly to HIM first.

I train all the time with my wife; she's a great cyclings and a solid runner. Since I don't swim (duathlete stays on dry land and thank god for that!), she get's to do that on her own. That being said, we can't (obviously) do all training together, but we do interval work at the same time and place (which means we're together, but still training at our own ability), we try to get at least one long run in together each week (which is great!). If I feel like the pace was a bit slower than I wanted, I can always toss in a short faster run before or after. Biking is really easy to do together, we ride our long rides at the same pace by having me pull the majority of the time. Long TT training is always done seperately (really no way around that...).

Most important, by being smart about training and fitting in lots of training together we not only stay very motivated, but trust me, it's never a problem when I want a new toy... only question could be, "can I have one too?"

I say if you can get your SO involved in any way, training, shorter distances, supporting and cheering... all the better.  Just take a look at the "Heartfelt Plea" thread ... poor guy is about to go through a divorce because of the time his training took away time from his wife and she felt "left out" I guess and they are parting ways.

Any way to get her involved (as well as kids if they are old enough to get into training) I think would be helpful.

I got started late, at age 43, but have been encouraging my 21 and 22 year old children to pick up the sport as well - mainly to get healthier and to live a more fit lifestyle.

I've also been trying to find a mate or SO of my own that shares an interest in training or tri's, as I think this would make for a good relationship and sometimes I think it takes a triathlete to understand one and to understand the time commitment to training, etc ...

My wife and I have trained and competed together for 4 years now at Sprint to HIM distances.  Next year we are both competing in IM WI and plan to train together.  This will be especially nice in the long rides.  One piece of advice I can give you is, if you have children, budget plenty of baby sitting money so that you can train some time together.  Also, I thinks its helpful to use similar plans (or the same coach) so you are roughly at the same points during the season, especially the rest weeks and the taper. 

My husband and I train together pretty much all of the time.  We did IMFL in 2008 and wanted to do most of it together (I know, I know...we're kind of nerdy like that!)  I'm a faster swimmer, so I beat him out of the water, but he's a faster cyclist, so he caught up with me around mile 30 on the bike and we finished the race together after that.  Both of us pretty much had a goal of just finishing, so there was no bitterness on his end that he could have had a faster time if he raced solo.

We don't have kids, but we do have 2 dogs and jobs that sometimes make us work crazy hours and weekends.  Can't imagine how it would work with kids.  There was definitely about 3 weeks in the peak of our training where we were both tired and cranky and ready to pick a fight over anything! 

We split up duties...there's a whole lotta laundry, making sports drinks, cleaning/maintaining bikes, and other chores that will take up your time in addition to training hours.  We pretty much didn't clean our house for 9 months...didn't have the time or energy for it.  But despite all of that it was such an amazing experience to have shared together!  I wouldn't have changed a thing!

x2 on doing this before kids if you decide to do it.

I'm trying to negotiate training time for an HIM and it's tough (we have three boys).  And this negotiation is just between me and me, my wife is very supportive of my time commitment and will be fine with just about anything I want to do tri related, within reason.  But simply finding time for everything I need to do is tough - and that's with my oldest as my sherpa and biggest supporter.  We won't even talk about all the toys I really need!

VERY sorry for the confusion... I meant BETWEEN her graduating from law schools and having kids (6-7 years down the road)

Dood, you are so in luck...TriDDS and Tri-n-spin, both donkeys are right here in your neighborhood. They both trained AND competed together during this year's MOO and aside from swimming apart, went pedal stroke for pedal stroke on the bike and step for step on the run together. I think they'd be able to give you a pretty good perspective....

I am envious, though obviously you will both be very busy and might have to devide and conquer much of the non-tri chores at times (if you have kids - running them everywhere etc).  I can't think of a better way to train, that is trainng with full support of each other.  What an accomplishment you can both share!  That would be so cool.