big guy, watn to move from sprints to do a 70.3

Former big guy here....

Mix in an Olympic.
Swim regularly and often and seize open water sessions when you can. If you're not a 'swimmer', you can make the fastest 'proportional' gains swimming. Nothing better than getting into the water confident and coming out strong. That's a leg up on a lot of folks, I think.
Get used to riding 50 miles on a bike.
Find a training plan that fits your goals and investment. Myself, I'm a completer and didn't want to spend hours evaluating heart rate data and understanding RPE and carrying around a book of training sessions just to keep track of it. There's plans out there that are (super simple....key Google words there) that aren't much more difficult than "ride 40 minutes with five 1 minute sprints of hard effort". Or, if getting into the HR data or RPE or complexities is intriguing, find one that does that. There's several on this site.
Recognize that the whole 'nutrition' thing now comes in to play. You'll have enough time on the roads that you'll need to deal with hydration for sure...and you'll have enough time to sample/test/evaluate nutrition results.

Pick a plan, follow it...and barring disaster/unforeseen events....you'll succeed.

Good advice above.

Definitely recommend trying an Oly first. Why ? Because a HIM is a leap of about 4x+ what you are used to (in terms of time or distance). A different animal for sure.

An adequate training plan, & hydration/nutrition implementation are two main factors that you need to get more involved with.

You don't have to do the Oly, but it would help ease you into the longer distance events.

Edited by metafizx 2016-07-05 5:19 PM

Hey buddy, I can relate. Began this journey last year at age 59 after coming down from 235 lbs to my current 195-198 (at 6' tall). So I am a borderline Clydesdale. Did a sprint as my first triathlon at the tail end of last season. Just finished an Iroman 70.3 last weekend.

Diet and exercise both did it for me. And truth be told I still snack a bit much (healthy stuff like nuts but calories nonetheless) and then I like my wine. I have switched to a nearly paleo diet and like it. Gone, except for special occasions, are wheat / bread, rice, white potatoes and processed foods. I was surprised at how easy it was to change my tastes / palate. It feels good to eat clean.

I have a grueling travel schedule for work so I was not always able to do the training volume I wanted. You can only swim so many times across a 28' hotel pool before you say "screw this". And when you are working in Montana and the temps are in the low 40s with 30 mph winds you can't get your bike work in. But I got it in where I could and I accomplished what I set out to do, which was finish within the time constraints. What a sense of achievement you will have when you do that.

There is some excellent advice on this thread. My next 70.3 goal is to bring the time down considerably, and getting the training regimen sharpened up will help with that. But don't feel like if you miss a workout or two you won't get it done. You cannot believe what your body will achieve when a major goal is on the line and the adrenaline is pumping.

Edited by HaydenHunter 2016-07-05 7:03 PM

I've found this out first hand here in the last few months.

Generally for every 10 pounds you lose you will pick up 20 sec per mile over a 5k. So just by losing 10 pounds you improve your 5k by 1 min. I've lost close to 40 and PR'd my last 5k at 21:19 where my pervious best attempt was 24:19.

For me I have thought about diet and exercise as two separate things.

You cannot exercise to lose weight. You exercise to be healthier and fitter. You eat better to lose weight.

Counting calories isn't much fun but it works. For about two months I measured and weighted everything that went into my gullet. Now, I have a much better understanding about how much I am eating and how many calories I am consuming.

I seriously weighed a piece of bread, put peanut butter on it, and weighed it again. It is amazing how quickly nuts and nut butters add up the calories.

One other thing that helped me out is to NOT keep up with how many calories I burn during exercise. Say my daily calorie goal was 2000 and I road my bike for an hour and burned a 1000 calories. I didn't add the 1000 to the 2000 for a 3000 calorie day. I kept it right at 2000 total for the day. This is included any post workout recovery meals.

Rest and Recovery are just as important as the training.

Keep a solid core year round. That sounds vague but the more time you spend in the saddle and pool......pavement too, the smaller the gap going from 0 - 70.3 training helps. Find a plan, something simple that fits your schedule and stick with it the best you can. Preparation in your gear and nutrition takes some time. In a sprint some people get by with just a little bit of water. You'll need to have a fueling plan for the longer races.

Have fun, stay injury free, and get it.