Beginner 1/2 Ironman Plan Group (Page 148)

Hi all.  Haven't been posting much in here, although I started training for my second HIM a few weeks back.  Following along though. 

Your fear of swimming in the lake is not silly at all, it is a real fear for a lot of people.  Definitely try to get open water practice when you can--it helps.  There are some articles on the site re OWS as well.  Good luck!

No problems with breast stroking, whatever gets you to the finish line.  That being said....are you swimming straight 1000m?  You may want to break it up into intervals of 50 or 100.  That way you are working more on freestyle (although nothing wrong with throwing in some back/breast in there as well).  The other thing about breast stroke in an open water swim is that you run the risk of kicking someone--so stay to the outside if you can.  And as an aside--I hated swimming when I started, until I got a little better at it.  If you can join a Masters swim group I highly recommend it-it has done wonders for me!

ETA: Where are you located?  I'm in BC, not far from Vancouver.

Causes: Getting stuck in work on a beautiful day?, minor injuries that heal slowly, looking at other triathletes' race pictures

Symptoms: Distracting thoughts of biking or running, sprinting/jogging to deliver unimportant memos or messages to other people's offices, reminiscing with others about long training efforts, encouraging others to sign up for triathlons so they will finally understand your “sickness”

Hey Don. I'm in the same boat so I figured I would quote you and see if we get some opinions. Personally I think I'm going to keep at my current routine until the plan catches up but focus attention to the swim since that will be the biggest challenge for me.

I hope those more experienced than me will pipe up, but IMO, I would keep my training where it is at, and when the plan catches up, jump on.  This is assuming that you have worked your way up to where you are with some base, not bumped up your training to get to a race distance.  And yes, putting the focus on your limiter in the meantime is always a good idea!

quick question, this week marks the start of my 1/2 training. I plan on following the beginner half training plan....are the workouts meant to be 2 a days unless otherwise labeled as bricks?

As I was reviewing the workouts I saw some labeled as bricks...this made me wonder if this meant that others were designed to be 2 a days??

Hiya--I always tried to do a morning and a evening workout unless it specifically said brick.  That being said, if I was pressed for time, I would do them back to back.  I always tried to have at least 24 hours between hard or long workouts though.  Good luck!

Pretty much what bcraht said.  It's written to be 2-a-days and not bricks.  I don't have the motivation to wake up early enough to get my 1st workout done in the morning so I end up doing it on my lunch break then end up running or biking after work (usually on the way home as to minimize time away from the family).

Hello!

Is there a half ironman distance tri plan that anyone recommends for a newbie triathlete. I completed several sprints last year and this weekend I'm doing my first Olympic. I signed up for a long course tri in August.

Thank you!

There are multiple plans on the BT website.  Some free, some not.  I used the free plan the past 2 years and have had great success.

Thanks for all of your help everyone! First week has been great!

Next question...dont laugh

R: 40 minutes. 10 minute warm up, then do 20 second strides* before returning to RPE 3 pace. Repeat strides every 5 minute until end of run.

What does the '20 second strides*' refer to....I could not for the life of me find the explanation...maybe I am over thinking it but just thought I would check to see...

Here is a runners world article that describes "strides" pretty well:

http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/add-strides-your-next-run

True, indeed.  As long as you're not straining yourself too early I would take advantage of every group event you can find for multiple reasons.  First is the motivation of others if you start to get tired.  Second, other athletes are a great source of information and race tips (but be careful b/c there's always bad advice too).  Lastly, it's just more fun to have someone to share the pain with.

Does anyone feel like the number of long slow swims in this program is a bit excessive? Swimming is definitely my weakest discipline, so I'm somewhat out of my element here. But from BT and other forums, most of the "fish" recommend doing lots of shorter, faster intervals, and only doing things like 1000m or 2000m TTs once a month or so. It seems like now that I'm in the higher volume weeks of this plan, almost every week has intervals of at least 500m, and every couple weeks there is a 1000m or higher continuous swim. Is this just to build mental confidence, or is there a justification from the fitness side? Are you guys and girls sticking to the plan as is, or doing more short intervals?

Sorry if this has been covered already, but searching this thread is a bit daunting.

I've deviated from the plan on some of the swimming.  I like some of the shorter sets and ladders but usually break the long continuous swims into 500 yard sets.

I think the plan does these long swims to better prepare you to finish not necessarily to do it with speed in mind.

My schedule has also forced me to swim three times a week on generally set days.  I do one speed day of 50's or 100's, one day of long sets like 4 x 500, and one day in between like sets of 200 or 300 or a ladder like (300, 200, 100) x 3.  Always the focus is on improving form and efficiency in the water.

As a beginner I needed the mental toughness of the long swim, knowing I could do it without a problem, sure did help when you start that long race.  But as Pops said if you are looking for speed your best bet is to adjust the plan for your needs. 

Agree with Pops and Sportz...  My first year I needed the long swims to prove to myself that I could do it.  The following years I have done more intervals to work on speed.

I have done several sprint triathlons and one Olympic,  I just finished a 1/2 marathon without injuring myself and now am looking to work towards this half iron-man thing so I thought I would try this plan.  Little bit nervous about this.  Just trying to figure out the training scheduled.  Most schedules want you to take off on Saturday but I only have the weekends for long training days.  Not too much of a problem the first month or so of training but as hours get longer, I'll have to figure something out.

Congratulations on your accomplishments and your new goals.  I had to juggle around my off days as well.  Last year I ended up using Fridays as my off days and would just move workouts around to accomodate my family's needs and work hours.