Beginner 1/2 Ironman Plan Group (Page 105)

I'm doing all my runs outdoors - can't take the dreadmill.  Impossible to bike outdoors right now, we have the most snow we've had all winter, the roads are either covered with ice or sand.

Planning on doing my first HIM in the fall.  I've narrowed it down to three Branson, Austin and Redman in OKC.  Have any of you used this plan in the past?  Did you feel prepared?  Did you add any extra runs or biking days?  Right now I'm leaning towards Branson and I'm a little concerned about the bike course and only doing 3 days of biking a week.

Hi Grace, which HIM are you training for?  Sounds like your training is going well.  I think everyone suffers at times with motivation especially with HIM training because there never is really much of a break from it.  Once you start the plan your key to success is consistency and that is tough when other things come up or you just don't feel like getting out there.  Anyway, keep up the good work.

Running outside is not a problem around here but I just do not like biking outside when it is cold and I hate the sand and road grime flying up on beautiful bike.  I don't mind the trainer so much but I haven't gone beyond 90 minutes either.  When Spring comes I'll get out and do some longer rides.

One of the things I learned last year was that rides longer than the plan calls for really helped me out.  I stuck to the plan through my HIM and had about six weeks to ramp up my riding for an IM.  I did weekly rides of about 65-70 miles.  It was these rides that seemed to really push me to a new level.  This year I think I am going to ramp up my long rides in a similar way during the latter weeks of the plan.

I run outside throughout winter as well.  I have a 16 miler scheduled for Sunday, hoping for a little warmer weather, but will take it as it comes.

Week 1 down, and I made 60% of the workouts.  Having a hard time getting enough bike in, though I'm only in week 1.  Question.  I am way more run focussed until May 19th marathon.  My HIM is August 6th.  I plan on riding as much as possible up till the marthon, but do not see myself getting all the long rides in, and a lot of the other rides are on a spin bike until the weather is warm enough to ride in the morning before work.  After may 19th, I will not need a long run over 13 miles anyway, and am wondering if May 19th to August 6th is enough weeks to train on the bike to finish HIM in your opinions?  Prior to the winter, I was up to 30 mile rides at 17mph for my long ride, and really am limited with biking experience, very much a beginner.

Motivation: achieved. I PR'd on both my 4 mile run this week AND my 3 mile run. Granted, the 3 was supposed to be 'easy - don't do it with a friend if you can't be relaxed' Oh well - I'll slow it down next week.

I did bike outside once - and then we were hit with 10 inches of snow the next day! Ah, New England SO beautiful though. I skied in it at the local mountain the other night and was in awe and filled with gratitude the entire time. (I counted this as a swim  - I also shoveled for 45 minutes)

I emailed the local bike shop and there will be no group rides until the weather is warm and agreeable - so I think I'll bike an hour at home on the trainer tomorrow and then drive 40 minutes away to where the YMCA hosts a 60 minute spinning class.

I am in Week 6 of HIM training - my HIM will be on June 16, 2012.

Additional motivation came in the form of my 6 year-old's journal - check out her favorite athlete :D

No. NV is beautiful today..have a run and swim today and a group ride tomorrow.  

I was surprised by the amount of swimming I needed to get done too.  I'm a pretty slow swimmer and there is no way I will get all the drills done in the estimated time.  I'll just have to plan accordingly.

Day #56 complete.

Need some advice here:   Thus far I have not missed any workouts, I confess to being a bit OCD with this 1/2 plan and take great pleasure in 'ticking the boxes' each day.

In the past week or so, Ive been a bit 'loose' about not doing the workouts ON the prescribed day.  My journal has lots of notes like "shorted the bike 30 mins" or 'ran an extra 30' or 'did the swim tuesday instead of friday' and other weirdness.  It's getting hard to manage with all the arrows and scratched off stuff with 'reminder notes' and such.    

This week I'll be in Miami (read: no bike) so I've been biking a ton as I know I'll be only running / swimming next wk.

DO you just 'move around' in the plan and cross 'em off without regard to date ?  Do you write down what you actually did and cross out the prescribed workout ?  

My goal is to be better in days 60-120 (starts next wk!) to keep it easier to manage and reduce that nagging 'what did I miss' feeling.  

Myself, I can only get to 5 out of 7 days anyway, so there's strike one against me.  Then I missed a day due to attrition last week, strike 2.  Then I did not get to the long bike on the weekend.  I fugure, it's only the 1st week for me, I have already done the base volume at week 20 for the last 2 months, and I'm going to get better as the plan progresses.  I moved the 4 workouts around last week, and moved all of them around this week as well.  I am going to continue to move them as my schedule and comitments dictate and do the best I can.

It sounds like you've done well by doing most of the work.  After next week, you'll be back to normal and work it out.

I move them ALL around.  Swims have to be Monday, Wednesday Saturday when my swim squad is.  I don't like to do anything before swimming or I cramp so I have to cram bike and run to the other days.  I do the big workouts on the weekend - usually run saturday, Bike Sunday but even that has been known to move!  I do however tick the whole week off so that's my aim!

I also move everything around. It helps me to print two weeks of the program at a time and spend about 15 minutes per week looking at what makes sense to me with my schedule. I'll take things into considerations like, if the plan says I need to do two certain workouts in a row. I'll note all of these things - write the day and time I'm going to do each workout right on the paper (or write something like 'YOGA' right over the prescribed workout if I'm subbing) and then I proceed to check off in one grand, satisfying check, each workout as I complete them It is my own version of OCD 'hope that helps.

I think it would be near impossible to do every workout exactly as described in the exact order as the plan.  Nor do I think that it necessary to do so while still holding true to the plan.  While triathlon is very important to us it can't dictate your entire life and compromises sometimes have to be made.. 

I have an Excel worksheet that I preload the entire 20 week plan into and then adjust it for my schedule.  As the weeks progress, stuff comes up each week that force me to change workouts.  It is not a big deal and I look at the weeks as blocks of work that I need to complete one way or another.  If I'm tired I might cut a bit off the workout and if I feel really good I might add a bit.  I think it is important to listen to your body especially as you get a little older.  I don't think you need to sweat the details as long as overall workload is done and you understand what the goal and key workouts for the week are.

Next item up:   Swim pace @ mid-point of the plan.    

For those of you roughly at the half-way point, how'd the 1,000 time trial go in the pool ?   I have zero swim background, just leaned how to swim and breathe last summer.   I know my technique sucks, and I'm working on that thru private lessons and also my weekly tri class at our local fitness center.

Tri coach says, "shoot for 18 minutes or less", swim coach told me "you're probly a 25 minute guy".    I'm neither offended or flattered by either.  I did mine today and logged a 22:30, far from impressive.

For those of you in 1/2 way at this point, how did that compare to yours ?   If you goal is to "finish a half ironman respectably" and nothing more, is this acceptable ?    How much will it improve in the coming 10 weeks ?

Glad to hear this... because it is the approach I'm taking.  I sat down and took the 20 weeks and loaded into a calendar on Active.com, moving the workouts around to fit around my weekly schedule. 

I start my week on Sunday and end it with my rest day being Saturday.  It works well, making the last day of the week your rest day, because if something comes up on Thursday that prevents you from doing your workout (like it did this week), you just move that workout to the rest day at the end of the week.  If my rest day would have been earlier on Monday, I would have not worked out two days this week.

I consider myself a pretty good swimmer. My 500's are around 8:35 last time I checked - which was a long time ago - and I can swim a mile in about 30 minutes. 1,000 in 18 minutes seems on the faster end to me. I'm looking forward to hearing more responses myself...

Today my plan calls for 200 WU, 20 x 75 at RPE 5 after 75 minutes of running (which I will do 20 min. on my own, 35/40 with group, 20 on my own) prior to swimming. Tomorrow is an extra rest day, and Wednesday I'm subbing Yoga for a swim. Intriguing - a build on expectations but lighter on overall load. I'm just going to smile and follow the plan!

How did your 1000 play out?  Did you go out fast and struggle towards the end?  Did you pace it pretty conservatively?  The range of 18 and 25 minutes is pretty wide for your coach's predictions.  What is your normal training pace for longer swims?  I think the 1000 tt is a lot like running a 5k where pace is so important and if you don't pace right your time will suffer.  On the bright side, we get to do the 1000 three times so the first one is more learning and the second should be faster.

If your goal is to finish respectably, this will certainly get you there.  Your time would equate to 45 to 50 minutes for the 1.2 which would be a great start.  If you will be wearing a wetsuit, that could save you a minute or two over pool time.  The key to the swim is to just get through it without incident and not overly tax yourself.  In a six or seven hour race, 10 minutes one way or the other will not mean a whole lot. 

I had done my 1000's at about 17:50 last year and this year hope to be closer to 17:30.  My first one is in a week and half. 

Sounds like a pretty tough day.  Hope it all goes well for you.  The Yoga sounds like a good idea.  I feel like I'm getting pretty beat up and swapping some lower impact work would be a good thing.  I'm ramping up for a marathon in four weeks so ran a half marathon Saturday and ran one the Saturday before.  I am very, very tired.

The 20 x 75 is interesting.  I am kind of wierd about numbers and could never do a set involving an odd number of lengths like three.  Its an even/odd number thing for me.  When I adjust the volume on the remote control it has to be on an even number.  Not sure how I got involved in a sport that has three legs!

I guess I'm weird too.  Whenever I see 75's in the workout plan, I just do 100's - it's just too weird stopping at the shallow end of the pool.

Of course, there is always the dilemma when there are 75's in the plan and you are in a 50m pool!! 

So had my wisdom teeth extracted today and wanted to share a funny story.  They hooked me up to a blood pressure and HR monitor right before giving my anesthetic and after 3 seconds all the alarms go off.  Technician tells the dentist that my heart rate is alarmingly low (41 bpm).  Dentist turns to me and asks, "Do you do alot of running?"  "I'm training for Ironman races."  Dentist responds to the technician, "Set the alarm for 30 but just watch to see if he turns blue."

He then made me repeat 3 times that I would not train for 18 hours because I had come in with compression socks and running shoes already on...

That is alarmingly low considering you're about to have teeth yanked.  Just sitting in the chair would add 150 bpm for me.