Minimum training to finish IM (Page 5)

Patrick E - 2012-05-22 9:06 AM

bryancd - 2012-05-21 9:39 PM  Not offended, no in the least. It's just at then end of the day we all have our own motivation and goals and there is not right or wrong. My life became so much simpler when I stopped giving a crap.

Perhaps the most profound and intelligent statement in these five pages of posts!

Especially since it is an opinion shared on an internet forum...

Keep up the good work, and keep in mind when crunching the numbers for an IM put in your worst case scenario times and add an hour.   When dealing with any long race there's a 50/50 chance thing are not going to go your way.

This basically sums it up.

I've never done a full Ironman, but if someone put a gun to my head and said "go out there and finish" - I'm sure I could.  

FOR ME - that kind of defeats the purpose.  However, for someone else, it may be satisfying just making it across the line.  Nothing wrong with that.

I don't think a person who puts a ton of sacrifice, blood, sweat, and tears into finishing an ironman is any better than someone who is naturally gifted and can do it with next to no training.  And vice versa.  

We're all different creatures and all have different reasons for doing the things we do...

I've not plowed through all 6 pages of this thread but I like the question and think it is very appropiate for a beginner triathlete board.

I think people tend to make an IM larger than life and convince themselves they could never do an IM because it requires a ridiculous amount of training...and depending on the person, that simply is not true.

The idea that suggesting a "minimum" might get someone hurt is both sad and amusing.  I know we live in a nanny-state where we try to protect simpletons from hurting themself but if someone is looking to do the 'minimum training' they just need to know it comes with the caveat that injuries and minimum training are directly proportional.  OTOH, DNF is alway an option. 

I did both my IMs at about 10 hrs/week....and had I been 75 lbs lighter, I could have easily done it on much, much less. 

When someone tells me they did IM what I'm most impressed with isn't the fact that they did the race.  It's the fact that they had the drive and dedication to do the countless hours of training.  To me, IM is about way more than what happened on one day.

That doesn't mean the OP doesn't deserve a congrats for finishing regardless of how it prepared or his motivations for doing the race.

I just read through 6 pages.. wow, that took longer than expected 

It's all good and to each their own.  I, like others, just dont care what others have going on.  I love to train.  A "race" is just something along the way that I decide to do as a natural result of doing all the training.  It's not what I love for though. 

What I live for..  Is my son watching me and seeing all the time I put in to training.  And at my first olympic race, as i crossed the finish he ran up and threw his arms around me and told me how proud he was of me..  somehow I dont think it would have felt the same had I just done it with no real effort or training in my rear view.  But that's just me.  And that's what I live for.

I'm thinking of a parallel with a reverse timeline: marriage. It's not about the wedding day, it's about the marriage. Culturally we go bananas for the day, but rarely lift up the day to day that makes the real bond. But, when you get to the point where you celebrate the years, people do tend not to ask "oh, how was the wedding?" They ask what the secret is to longevity in a relationship.

Of course, that said, when I get to 140.6, I'll invite everyone, buy the trinkets, take the photos and yes, get (another) tattoo. (With 14 already, it only makes sense.)

Did you read my post in this thread?

Personally, I think it is cool to find our capabilities and limitations and you can't really do that w/o living out on the edge sometimes.  I wanted to know how far I could bike w/o fuel so I experimented and found that I could bike about 75 miles w/o anything other than water.

I also it's good to read about what others have done as it opens our minds to what we can possibly do.  I finished a 14:30 IM at 256 lbs.  I post that not to brag but to show other big men that they don't have to get down to 180 lbs before doing an IM. 

"What one man can do, another can do."  That's a great line from "The Edge" and is one of my mantras in life.

Sorry to side track, but thanks for putting this up.  In the relatively short time I've been in the forums it's the first time I've seen it.  It was a question that had been gnawing at me.  Nice to know I have the pace, just gotta work on that whole distance thing.

Oh good, more popcorn.... Game on!

Me too. It's OK to fail. It's OK to "just see what happens". And I agree with you... I have always told myself, if one human can do it, this human can do it... can I run a marathon, certainly. Can I S/B/R 140.6, most definitely. Can I finish a IM off the couch in 17 hours.... not sure. Can I win a marathon, no I can't. Can I win my AG at a tri... not hardly. There are many things that other men can do, that I never could. One man won 7 TDFs, does not mean I can.

But for a guy that has a history of long endurance events, that completed a IM by the skin of his teeth and needed medical attention afterwards with hardly ANY training put in to it... for him to "give hope" to "others" that they too can do the same... laughable. False hope is not true hope.

He knew he could do this when he toed the line... because he has done it before and worse. For anyone else that does not have a clue because they never have, to follow this lead, sounds like $600 down the drain at the least.

Now we can all have an opinion on what a IM means to us and what we are in it for and why we do what we do.... but he posted, to give hope to others without full disclosure of his history.. that they too can do what he did. Sounds like he has experience and natural ability on his side. Perhaps "others" might want to know that.

This is kinda the equivalent of doing an MMA fight and telling everyone you hardly trained for it and anyone of the street can do it, then mention passively you were a Golden Gloves Boxer.