The ol way vs EN way

cgres123

I was in the pool this morning doing my transition swim and my 2 other Tri friends were too. Something I notice is that the whole group of them are training and their training is off the hook.

 Our IM isn't until the end of October with some of the Tri group doing the HIM portion. The HIM group is training like they are doing an IM the IM group has been training for 4 weeks now with up to 3.5 hour long rides 1.5 and longer runs.

Last year I would have been right there banging it out with them, cause I'm an Ironman....

Some part of me wants to jump on in there too.

 I think I'll finish my transition period and jump on in there later with about 17 / 16 weeks to train for an IM is plenty , don't ya think ?

kurshing

We have a 20 week IM plan. Jump in that, sure. Just make sure you get YOUR work done, and don't just cruise around with them in zone 1 all the time!

Coach Rich

@DL: as I do season plans for folks, I'm having them do the Short Course plan until about 12-14wks out, then dropping them into the IM plan. When you do that, load up the 20wk IM plan 12-14wks out and just follow that.

Within the SC plan, probably a good idea to increase the length of the long ride to ~2-2.5hrs and the long run to 1:15-30. In other words, as an IM athlete is just a very good thing to rack up week after week of those long even distances and those are pretty easy to handle in most people's schedule for most of the year, especially during the season. Just add Z3 time to the SC long ride and Z1-2 time to the SC long run

Paul Hough

I can't imagine starting IM training so far in advance. I stay fit year round aka what Coach Rich recommends, so only feel the need to do the 12 week plan...and it's hard. Just this morning I was wondering which was harder, the IM race, or the training? I shut my life down for the IM run-up...can't imagine doing it longer than 3 months. Rich is always cautioning about the danger of burn-out if you start too early ... amen to that!