Iron man a realistic dream

It's certainly doable but I wouldn't try to rush it. I would use 2018 to build your fitness for longer distances with maybe a HIM towards the end of your season. For a HIM, I've used the Triathlete.com HIM plan (Matt Fitzgerald) twice and it's worked out well. This site has training plans as well.

For an Ironman, you'll need to get your swim sorted out...3900 meters of breast stroke will be slow and probably painful to your knees and to your competitors' heads. Get some lessons and work your way up in distance. Most of your intervals should be short (25-200) so you can concentrate and maintain form. You can build endurance, even with short repeats, by reducing the rest between send offs.

It is realistic if you can devote proper time to training.  

Most ironman training plans are 20-26 weeks long culminating in long runs of 3 hours and long rides of 6 hours.  You can expect peak weeks a month out from the race of nearly 15 hours training.  Can you fit those into your life?  If so, it's realistic.  

Now these plans ASSUME you start the plan able to do 2000 yard swims, 1-2 hour runs, and 2-3 hour bike rides.  Rule of thumb is to build no more than 10% per week, so it takes over 2 months to double your current workouts.  

You can spend half a year building up to that endurance and then a 20-week plan puts you in position to do one in a year.  Given you indicated your weight in stones, there aren't too many December races in the UK.  You could be ready for a late-season race using an aggressive plan.  

Get some swim lessons.  Front crawl is actually more efficient than breastroke when done properly. Most likely, you need to slow down and ROTATE when you breath rather than lift your head (which causes your feet to sink).  

I'll reiterate...build slowly to avoid injury but it can be done even in 2018.  If it's truly a goal, make it happen and don't put it off.  

Edited by McFuzz 2017-12-24 11:44 AM

Thanks for getting back to me

Yes I have definitely got the time to be able to train, basically I am going to cycle to and from work 5 days a week (20 miles each day) and swim at 6am for an hour a day while I build up my fitness and techniques. I'm glad you guys think this is possible and I think I'm going to aim for a half iron in 2018 and a FIM in 2019 which I think will be more realistic. I have set my heart on it now so it is going to happen, I want to be able to say I've done an iron man as well as being healthy at the same time

I'm no one to give advice, but I'll do it anyway. You will have to get fit enough to start a training plan. I used an oly plan long enough till I was able to start my HIM plan. Worked well.

Keep us informed on your progress.

Good high level goals!
You will need to work on fitness weight loss and endurance so give yourself time and make/get a good plan going.

It is certainly do able. It will require a good deal of commitment on your part. As others have suggested, you will need to develop a base level of fitness and by your description you will need to focus some effort on your swim. The swim concerns most triathletes and is their weakest event. Not all, but many. I would challenge you to focus a lot of effort up front to focus on the swim to the point it becomes your strongest event. Here's why: I'm capable of holding 1:30/100 swim pace, but I usually hold 1:50-2:00/100. This might seem counterintuitive, but I exit the water fully warmed, and with a heart rate about 140 bpm, I feel awesome! And ready to attack the bike. While many only hope to survive the swim, I treat it as a warm up for the real events the bike and run. This is where time is to be made! I have no anxiety for the swim and it just sets a great start for the day.

You have outlined some great ideas! Biking to work everyday is a great plan. One of my training partners does this. He makes it a point to ride every chance he gets. He went from being a back of the pack rider to being the fastest on the bike in our group triathletes. He did this in one year! I still need work on my bike. I average around 17mph on long rides (over 50 miles). My goal is to push this to above 20. It will take dedicated effort on my part, by doing just what you have proposed to do; getting on the bike everyday.

Biggest thing with carrying extra weight and just beginning: start slowly. Too much mileage in any of the disciplines ca. Cause overuse injuries that can and will sideline you for months. I would suggest the following: swimming, seek a coach who specializes in teaching adults. Teaching children and adult swimming is markedly different. A crack that is familiar and better yet a triathlete is even better yet, because generally triathlete swimmers have a different focus than other swimmers. If you want more info message me and I'll be glad to break it all down for you. Biking, ride to work one day and see how you feel the next day and the day after. If you feel good, do it again on the third day. If you are still sore or have some discomfort, give it a few more days. Strive for 1-2 rides the first couple of weeks, a good bike fit, is money well spent. Make sure that the bike fitter understands that bike fitting is a dynamic process and it may take more than one session to get you comfortable on the bike. It took me two sessions over 6 months, and then some minor tweaking here and there to be able to knock out rides of 50 miles or more. Running, begin with walking! Start with an exploratory walk. Can you comfortably walk 1 mile at an easy pace? If so continue on to three miles on that same walk. How do you feel the next day and the day after that? If you feel good, hit it again, but now walk briskly, you should be sweating within 2-3 minutes. How do you feel at 1 mile? If good move on to 3 miles and again listen to what your body tells you. If you are sore, give it a day or two especially in the beginning. When you are able to get 2 three mile brisk walks in a week, then start by slowly adding some running in, walk a mile and then jog/run a 1/4 mile or even a half mile then brisk walk for another mile. Slow incremental gains are where the money is. If you try to do too much too soon, you run the very real risk of an injury that will sideline you for weeks and then you will be starting all over again.

Of course it's realistic.
Weight wise, you're about where I was 2 months before I signed up for my first ever tri...4 months out.
Tri experience wise, you're a year or two ahead of me when I raced my first race.
I was under 200 when I did my first race, but my weight and racing are not related in any way. I race because I can and I like to. I lost weight because I was unhealthy.

2013 first race (shorter than Olympic)
2014 first Olympic
2015 HIM
2016 nothing more than an Olympic, I got a little nutso about "training" for the HIM and decided to never do a full because I'm prone to obsessiveness
2017 that didn't last long. did Louisville IM

Also, I'm 46. You probably have a few years on me. Starting at age 40+, it's a lot harder to come off 300+ lbs.

I'll echo what others said. Step #1. GET IN THE POOL. I was a confident swimmer, but not a competent one. I could swim any distance. Of course, it was freestyle for 50 meters, breaststroke/dog paddle/etc. for another 50 meters....rinse and repeat. I was that way up until the winter of 2014 when I decided to do the HIM. Probably 7-8 months out. I started hitting the pool consistently 2-3 times a week. I wasn't doing "sets" and all that. I needed to learn how to put my head in the water and go....and go....and go...and keep going. It's probably the same for you. Not so much a "fitness" problem to solve, but a mental game to solve. Just like anything else, even a mental game needs practice to perfect.

My swim times went from "LOTS" to top third against my AG. Statistically, I'm a much better swimmer than any of the other bits. And, I'm sure I'm not a particularly "good" swimmer. I'm just good at putting my face down and going until it's time to get out. It's a huge confidence builder. When you completely stop worrying about the swim and it starts to feel like a "warmup" for the rest of your day, lots more seems possible.

I'll also echo the Matt Fitzgerald plans. At least, the "Super Simple" ones. He calls them "super simple" for a reason. They allowed me flexibility to still continue focusing on my weight and fitness and still have plenty of "finish confidence". When I trained for the half, I never did the "prescribed" sets, say for swimming. Or did "tempo runs" vs. "moderate pace"/etc. I just did the mileage/time. I know, I know....but I was still managing weight. For the full, I followed it not quite to a T, but to maybe an R.

Oddly, I found the leap to the half far more intense. I went super nuts on not missing training days and would obsessively rearrange my schedule and life based on weekend weather forecasts, family weddings, vacations, trips, etc. Not sure why the full training didn't seem as bad. Maybe because I don't recall having to rearrange my life more than once or twice through the process. We had cooperative weather all summer and nobody decided to get married and we vacationed at a beach and I took my bike...AND....it fell during a 'recovery' week. And I guess, everything became sooooo routine, I became such a robot and just did what needed to be done. Maybe it's just because I was constantly bombarding my body with endorphins at levels I never considered possible. Also, I could eat pretty much whatever I felt like.

Get in the pool and keep the rest of it up and you will conquer this stuff. They say anything is possible. I can confirm this. I can also confirm that finishing a full IM (if that's you're jam) is worth it. So worth it, I'll probably never do another that length if that makes any sense. Not because it was painful/etc. I'm a bucket lister for that distance. I had my high. And it was the high I was looking for. I'll just hang on to that, and have fun not spending so much time by doing the shorter races.

If it's your jam, it's soooo doable. And soooo worth it. And you're already pretty far down the path. Baby steps, though. Forget the IM now. Set the HIM goal. And re-evaluate from there. You got this thing.