Half Iron to marathon training?

How long have you been running, where have you maxxed out as far as miles per week and long run?

The novice plan is adequate but extremely basic. If you have a year or more of running background, and can run five days per week, the Intermediate I plan might get you better prepared.

You would likely be in the minority with this opinion. For mpst people, a HIM would take longer to complete than a marathon, but the variety of activities are nowhere near as taxing as running the entire event.

I would also disagree with this statement. Certain aspects of fitness coming out of the HIM will be more than you need for a marathon, but you will not (in most cases) have the stamina to hold pace for 26 miles. That will only comes with runs much longer in length that needed for a successful HIM.

That's about the timeframe I had from my first HIM to my first Marathon.

I found a 10 week half marathon to full marathon plan and did that after a 2 week "break" from training. I had a week of recovery (I think I swam once - I was physically and mentally tired), followed by a week of whatever workouts I wanted to do, then got going with the training program.

My marathon went very well. I'm sure with longer specific training I could have gone faster, but I was happy with the results. 

Here are my thoughts. 

Assuming you are well trained for HIM you are doing big volume time wise. 

I am for example doing about 11 hours / week now.  If that was all running it would be 100 miles / week for me.  I've done marathons and 100 miles of running / week would KILL ME!  LOL.  Therefore HIM training should get the engine in greater shape than running alone. 

The problem is long efforts of the run.  Somehow you'll likely have to incorporate those longer efforts.  If I were you I'd try to keep the Bike and especially swim in there a bit so you don't actually go backwards in aerobic fitness (or total hours logged). 

I beg to differ...

I biked about an average of an hour a week, and maybe hit the pool once every two weeks during that 10-week period. 

Running 30 to 40 miles per week is a MUCH different animal than tri-training for the same amount of time. I don't think I stepped backwards in fitness, and the break from biking and swimming left me much more excited about them post-marathon!

Jason - I was thinking the same thing!!  I was reading through sorta wondering if there was going to be some kind of follow-up and wondering how the marathon went and then noticed the op of 2006...  Still a good read, I was interested in the opinions on where to begin certain FM training plans based on current fitness levels..and how to integrate them with tri training plans.

..James

I was in your shoes this time last year. I did my first HIM at the end of June of last year and my first marathon in September (and decided on a whim to do my first IM at the end of October). I essentially began a 20 week training plan for the marathon that included tri training in April of last year. I used a modified Jack Daniels plan that I wrote to incorporate swimming and biking. My peak mileage ended up being in the low 70's, and weekly mileage averaged in the mid 50's. I had little experience with distance sports, but built up over a few months to that mileage. I ended up missing a BQ by 34 seconds in my marathon, but still had a good experience.

You can look at my logs from last year to see how I attempted to balance things.