Beginner Triathelet's IM training plan vs "Be Iron Fit" plan

You are going to be spending upwards of 7 months training for an Ironman. Do yourself a favor and get something with a heart rate monitor regardless of the plan you choose. For long distance training, I believe it is probably the most important tool we have for "training smart".  Sure you can do all the training w/o one, but if you are working too hard, it can make a looooong day of racing.  Just ask anyone who has consitantly trained at a HR too high for a marathon and what happens 3 hours in.  Learn to train/work effeciently because your body can only work so hard before it say "enough already".  Don't work hard enough and you won't make improvements in your training (which doesn't effect raceday but I believe everyone hopes that through the course of training you get faster).

Good luck!

Great advice everyone, thanks!

I did my first IM on the BT beginner plan.  I trained for my second using the Be Iron Fit competitive plan.

I recommend purchasing the book, as mentioned for all the great advice and information in there.  I really liked the early part of the plan for it's regularity.  For instance, each day of the week has the same work out as the same day last week.  I liked the swim workouts.  Watch out though, it ramps up steeply at the end, and there are no recovery weeks in the last several weeks.  I ended up injured going into my IM.   I recommend the BT plans, esepcially for a first time IM.

So this year I'm back to one of the BT plans, and I like it better.

X2.  I used the same plan and felt more then ready come race day.  The nice thing about starting out in the advanced or competitive plan is that if it becomes to much you can easily drop down to the intermediate level, or the just finish plan.  The only negative is that I found the swim workouts to be rather lame and used swim workouts from BT or online Masters sites and even though it starts out rather easy the plan is long.  If I get the opportunity to do another full  I'll likely pull out the BIF book again.

As Jasha mentioned it's easy to follow as each day of the week just keeps building throughout the plan.  With my schedule (firefighter 24 hour shifts) this made it easy for me to plan on the longer days on off days as I had to move things around quite a bit depending on my schedule.

I did use a BT Silver Half Iron plan for my first iron distance and that worked well too. 

Im on the fence between Fink and the BT beginner Ironman plan.  Most of the BT plans here are really heavy on the swim volume. I might have to alter it because Im  weak on the bike.

Hi, I'm Andrea

I bought the book on Amazon eBook and I'm very happy. I'll start the " competitive plan" the next month.  I read a lot of review and the peoples are very happy with a good result. The swim will be a problem, but it's not a specific problem of this plan. I'm not a good swimmer. 

I'll use it for my 2th IM

My IM time is 13:06 in this moment. I'll use "Be Iron Fit - competitive plan" for the next IM and I'll start the first monday of december. I read a lot of good review and I talked with amy. I hope to reduce the final time, but I must learn to swim :D

( I bought the book from my kindle device )

I bought "be Iron Fit" the book form and used it. Loved it. I liked the book option better as it was easier to go back and forth between pages.