Can I do an Ironman in 52 weeks?

Welcome to BT first of all!  Great goal - I'd love to do IM Canada!  You have lots of time to train.  If people can do marathon training in 4 months, then you can train for an IM in 12 months.

Consider signing up for a shorter distance tri (or several) in the spring and summer - consider them training days.  There is a book by Gale Bernhardt called Training Plans for Multisport athletes that is good.  There is a 1/2 year IM plan - you could start with a shorter distance tri training plan and then move on to the IM one. 

Good luck!  Will you be waiting in line to sign up for the race?

What are you doing here?  You need to be on the road!!!!!

Seriously though, start with the Half Ironman traning on the front page....

That's a pretty tall order to go from zero to Ironman in just over a year.  However, training for and finishing an Ironman is always tough.  Here are a few recommendations I would make.

1)  Swimming is going to be very difficult for you if you have no background in swimming fitness.  You have to either get some coaching, attend a workshop (such as Total Immersion) or at the very least buy a book and a dvd to show you proper technique. 

2)  Read up on IM training, theories, plans, etc.  Two good books that I have are Bernhardt's TPfMSA and Joe Friel's "Going Long".

3)  The 26-week Ironman plan in Bernhardt's book starts with a 1 hour run in the first week.  You need to be at a place 26 weeks prior to your Ironman where you would consider a 1 hour run extremely easy.  You should look at the first week of the plan and think, "That's quite easy.  I probably won't even be sore from this workload."  Now, in order to do that, you have to set up a training program to get you from where you are now to the starting point of that plan.  Let's say that you have 28 weeks until your 26-week plan begins.  I would plan for 20-24 weeks of periodized training, followed by 4-8 weeks of easy, low-heart-rate base training before starting the IM program.  I just think that training hard for an entire year will leave your body exhausted and likely lead to overtraining.  In the meantime, I would mix in a few short races and at least one Olympic and one Half-Ironman in your 20-24 weeks.

I think I will be ready for my Ironman, IMAZ on 9-Apr-05 (33 weeks+...), but I will have done 32 weeks of training this year, culminating with a Half-Ironman, followed by 4 weeks of down time for recovery/base trainining.  I have been very dedicated to my training (just ask my wife).  I started from a pretty good base of running - I did a one-hour run the day before I really started Triathlon training.  I had no swimming ability then, just the history of growing up on a Lake water-skiing and such.  So it can be done, but you must make a plan and stick to it above all else.

4)  Finally, if you are deciced to do IM Canada, make sure that you are going to get into the race.  IMNA races often sell out quickly, even within 48 hours (right, Max?).  What I am saying is look into it to make sure that your friends standing in line will, in fact, be able to sign up someone other than themselves.

Finally, welcome to the nuthouse.

Stop.  You're making me blush.

Besides, I cannot think of a greater athletic accomplishment for the non-professional athlete than finishing an Ironman.

I can hardly believe bear is agreeing with something!

Sorry, had to throw that in.

LW