Am I Crazy?

I say go for it!  I'm a beginner myself and have no expert opinion to offer.  But I'll tell you one thing: 100% of the goals you don't set you never reach.  Aim high, there's nothing wrong with that...as someone who's pushed himself to the limit in the past you know what your body can handle, just be smart with the training and be honest with yourself: only you know if you're pushing too hard, if the miles start becoming too much. 

A small anecdote: a friend of mine who doesn't have an athletic bone in his body and looks more like the doctor he is than an athlete decided to do a HIM for his first triathlon, IM for his second--with the IM coming about 16 months after he started training.  He wasn't aiming for a sub-10 hr IM but he managed to finish both.  Train hard, train smart, get the sleep and nutrition you need and you'll do fine.  Good luck!

Edited by Brownie28 2009-08-08 10:10 PM

I would say Go for it, but if you miss your mark don't be discouraged!! I have aspirations of BQing. I thought I would have BQ'd by now, but college weight gain and Ironman training wrecked my running mojo for a while. I'm not stopping til I do . To already be averaging 19.5 mph is amazing. I wish I could average that!

You are no crazier than I.  My first tri was an IM and I'm a clydesdale.  It sounds like you are in pretty good shape.  I say go for it!!!

Edited by BobL 2009-08-08 11:05 PM

Whats your hurry??

Sounds like a recipe for injury.  I am sure it is possible, but why not work up to OLY this year then 70.3 and then IM in 2011?  I am a newb, but going from Sprint to OLY in one season in 7 weeks has been alot of work.  If you have any outside commitments (spouse, kids, job, life) then that rapid of a climb in one season might lead to some major burnout.  Just think it through and if it works then go for it.  But there is no shame in taking it slow.  After all this is an endurance sport.

From nothing to IM often takes around 2 years to do comfortably.  But it looks like, although you are just starting triathlons taht you are not coming from nothing.  It is hard to say what your fitness level is as we do not have that information.  You have a strength in the swim and it looks like you are a faster runner, average bike.   So once you are properly trained and if you nail your nutrition, and if you pace yourself properly then I would guess you might be in the 11:30 ish range for an IM.  But there are alot of ifs in there.  The big one is how carefully you build up and building up without injury.  If you got a coach that might help, otherwise you really need to follow the rules about not adding too much.  The swim shouldn't be a problem for you and the run is probably duable for you if you do not overdue it, but it takes a while to build the bike up to the point where 112 miles does not impact your run.  If you end up having to walk it will cost you hours not minutes in an IM. 

We would need to know how many miles and paces you have been workout out at to have any predictive ability regarding just how much of a stretch it is from your current fitness level.  Two years would be conservative, a year and a have would be decent, a year is typically pushing it, but that depends on things we don't know. 

Personally I went 3 months to sprint, 7 months to Oly, 3 months to HIM, 10 months to IM.  Some go faster, many take more time and build speed before going long.  I guess the big guestion is what are your long term goals?  If you want to go to Kona, then it will take a few years and a lot of work, best to work on the based, build speed then go long rather than go long, build a based and then work on speed.  8).

Edited by Baowolf 2009-08-09 2:40 PM