Quick and Easy "Am I ready for a Half" thread

My response to these threads is usually 'go for it'.  Not this time.  I really think it would be a mistake.  You would finish, probably, maybe, but it wouldn't be pretty IMO.

Half IMs are a dime a dozen.  There will be plenty more.  Enjoy your already quite ambitious race schedule then sit down and think about how it all went.  If you feel ready to tacke a race that will take something like 2 to 3 times longer than your Olympic race, and will take a lot more out of you, then choose a spring half and follow a good training program for it.

You can fake your way through a sprint, and with some background fitness you can fake your way through an Olympic distance race.  HIM?  Not so much.

I'd agree that you should wait.  8 weeks is not enough to get your running where it would need to be to get through a half safely and comfortably.  What's the rush for July?  Maybe build a plan for 16-18 weeks and attempt an September one?  Or just build and do one next year.

I get the tri bug thing, we all do.  But Sprints and Olympics are triathlons too!

Thanks for the feedback.  The rush for July was that I don't know of any August events within a reasonable driving distance, and September will be tough because my wife is an OB/Gyn and has a million patients due around that time and doesn't want to leave town.

I'm surprised that there aren't more longer distance events at the end of the summer or early fall.  Up here in the cold north it's just too damn hard to train effectively to do an early season half, unless you're sadistic and like running in below zero weather and spending hours on the trainer watching Lost.  The ice didn't come out of our lakes until April 20th this year, and the roads had snow and ice on them close to that time as well so biking outside was just dangerous and less than fun.

Go for it.  Cancel the July 9th Oly and do the July 24th half.   That's 10 weeks away, you have time.  The swim isn't much longer for a half than an Oly but the bike and the run are.  You may be able to use the July 9th Oly as a prep race to see if your training has improved your run.  If you want to say you accomplished something, then 10 weeks from sprint to half is an accomplishment.

I glanced at your logs.  Your swim training is low for a half, so is your biking and running.  There's a lot of time spent on strength training, in fact way too much.  More on that than swim-bike-run training.  You should drop most of that and use the time to bike and run more, especially run.  The cardio benefits of run training will improve your cycling.

You've run 31 miles and biked 80 miles the whole year, and the race is 10 weeks away?  

No freaking way.  Depending on the course, you could probably finish.  There are a few races you probably wouldn't.  A sprint being a piece of cake relative to a half is like saying that flag football game last weekend with  my drinking buddies was easy, think I can make it in the NFL?

They run HIMs in 2012 too, I suspect 

You can do a HIM but not at your current training (or lack there of) level.  You need to be able to commit yourself to 10-12 hrs/ week (minimum) of swim bike run and even then you still might struggle with your limited base.    Why not do your planned races and gradually ramp up your training, if you can stay committed to the training then do a HIM in early '12.  Just my .02

The reason I'm asking is because I'm wondering if it can be done or absolutely not.  I'm not like most people, so if the overwhelming opinion is that it can't be done, then I'm not going to do it.  I have no interest in entering a race, taking up someone else's spot when the race fills, only to have my rear handed to me because I had no business being there in the first place.

It's a little better, but you've been logging about a month and those are your totals for what would be the third month before a HIM  I still think it's too little.  But that's just my opinion.  As Fred said, BT gets a lot of "can I do it" posts that are clearly "I'm gonna do it, but what do you think?" questions, because people seem to make up their minds prior to posting the question.   That may not be you.  Fair enough.

As to can it/can't it...  the cutoffs are fairly generous, usually around 8 hours total  I would bet that you could finish.  However, I also think that everyone that finishes deserves to be there, simply by paying the entry fee.  Whether you go 4:30 and are first or 7:59 and are last, you  deserve to be there

I've been asking myself the same thing but I was a fish as a kid and when the sea allows, I've been swimming around 5-8K/week, cycling around 200+km/wk and running 2-4 hours/week for the past few months. 

I am still not sure my run will be there in 3 weeks but I know I'm ready with the swim and bike but it took me a couple months of regular 90km rides to feel comfortable with that distance.  Now I don't think twice about a 90km ride.  But yeah, I hear you on the run.

I haven't looked at your logs but thinking your HIM is end July, if you put the distance in now you will probably be rady for the bike then.  I woudl think the run wil take longer though.

After thinking about it some more, and reading your feedback, I'm going to hold off on the half in July and focus on my running and add a couple Olympic distance events over the end of the summer instead.  I still haven't decided if I want to attempt a full marathon or not, but the Twin Cities Marathon isn't until Oct. 2, otherwise there's a half on Sept. 10 close by that's supposed to be real good.  Either way, there's a few Hal Higden plans that would fit either one of those choices.  Then I think after all that I'll have a more solid base under me for running and will look at doing a half next summer instead when I'll not have to struggle through it.

Thanks for the honest feedback!