General Discussion Triathlon Talk » 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week Rss Feed  
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2016-05-10 12:56 AM

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Subject: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week
Just throwing this out there...

I have a client who is doing IM LP, 11 weeks away. he's missed 3 solid weeks of training due to family and work emergencies. Prior to that spotty training for the same reasons. Currently he can run a half marathon on little training at about 9:30 mi/min, swims 2000yds at 2:00/100 more or less.

Today he rode 3 hours on a trainer and did a 20 min walk afterwards...his legs were trashed from the 3hour ride.

He still wants to do IMLP and says he can do as much as I want him to on Fri/Sat/Sun.

Obviously he cant just cram in the training in 3 days a week, but i've come up with a plan that's basically this:

M personal trainer 45 min
T 45 min run interval
W 45 min bike interval
H off
F Swim 45 minute skill builder, optional 30 minutes rollers
S Long run (tempo) starts at 60 minutes, will build to 120 over next 10 weeks, Swim ~ 60 minutes, longer intervals
Su Long bike (tempo) starts at 3 hours, will build to 5 over next 10 weeks, but mostly 3 hr rides except the final 4 weeks.

Weekly hours for this plan start at 8hrs/week and build to 12, except race week which is 14.

How do you think this will go??


2016-05-10 2:30 AM
in reply to: AdventureBear

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Subject: RE: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week

How serious is this athlete going forward?  My gut simply tells me that training is a low priority and that they are looking for an easy way out by offering Fri/Sat/Sun.  I'd wager on spotty workout completion M-Th, and excuses why Fri-Sun are too hard.  But I hope I'm wrong.

2016-05-10 7:23 AM
in reply to: #5181001


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Subject: RE: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week
It doesn't sound like laziness or looking for easy way out...family and work emergencies seem pretty important to me and would take priority over training for lots of triathletes, myself included. Part of the challenge of tri is that we aren't all pros with unlimited training time...

I think that plan can be done although friday needs to be beefed up if you ask me, maybe remove optional from the rollers and maybe throw some intervals whIle doing that. If only going to use three days, athlete needs to hit all those 3 days HARD, right in a row, because there's ample recovery time in the days after. My 0.02.
2016-05-10 8:14 AM
in reply to: PBT_2009

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Subject: RE: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week
This person sounds a whole lot like me, and if I told a trainer they could do whatever they wanted to me on Fri-Sun, it probably really means that I don't think I can commit to any consistent work on Mon-Thurs. Now, personally I would recognize that limitation and bail on the IM, but I know there are others that won't do that and that's up to them. I don't see it going well, though.
2016-05-10 8:52 AM
in reply to: AdventureBear

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Subject: RE: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week

I agree with the others that execution Mon - Thurs is most likely going to be very spotty at best, but depending on his experience and expectations for race day, it's not impossible.

How experienced is he?  You mention he can do a marathon @ 9:30 pace, but how many HIM's and IM's has he done, and how fast was he?  How recently did he do them, and how many years has he been training?

The fact that he was trashed after only 3 hours on the trainer and a 20 minute walk concerns me.  Can he make a commitment regarding the quality of his nutrition and increased sleep each night?  (Say 8 hours?)

If he has the experience, was fast enough previously (say sub 6 in an average HIM and 13ish in an average IM), and is ok with a long day and only goal is beating cutoffs, it's doable.  If he's never done a long course tri, or has always been very slow, I don't think the odds are good for him.

 

 

2016-05-10 8:52 AM
in reply to: AdventureBear

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Subject: RE: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week

I don't think this will end well if he races.  Could be wrong but guessing he's going to miss more training. 

Definitely want to hear what happens.



2016-05-10 9:20 AM
in reply to: AdventureBear

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Subject: RE: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week
I'd echo the thoughts from the others so far... That seems like a bit much for an IM... maybe a HIM, but a full is going to stretch it a bit. That said, We're all for being ambitious around here. I would definitely try to squeeze in some more time in the Mon-Wed time. 45min is not that much and adding 15min to make it a full hour per day is not going to break the bank. And if he's like me when it comes to family, you might cut a workout a bit short to be with them so if you plan for 60 it won't be that big a deal if you only get 45 in. along those lines, there are also a ton of 1hr workouts on triathlete.com and I use those all the time to make up my routine since I'm normally doing 1hr/day during the week and longer on the weekends.

Another thought is to take that 60min and break it up into 2 workouts... 2 30mins workouts or a 45min hard interval and a 15min easy recovery in a diff. sport. that will get more time and allows for the effort level to come up to make up for the time deficiency
2016-05-10 12:08 PM
in reply to: AdventureBear


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Subject: RE: 12 weeks of Ironman Training on 3 days a week

With 11 weeks to go and the ability to already run a HM at 9:30 pace, he'll likely finish the IM. 


Will it be fun? Heck no! Will it be pretty? Uhh, definitely no! But odds are good that he can survive the bike and just walk the entire marathon in 6+ hrs or something like that.  If he's in it to say he's 'done it', that would qualify. 

 

Too bad he can't train 'for real', though - with 11 weeks, you can actually make some really good fitness progress to put up a respectable showing for one's genetic capabilities and background.

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