IM training on 10-12 hours per week
I like racing. I don't like all the training for an Ironman though. It's too time consuming and takes me away from family, work, etc. Basically, I don't want to train like it's a part-time job anymore. Training for IMTX was a chore for me this year because I just didn't want to do 15-16 hour weeks. I "retired" from the full IM distance after IMTX this year because I wanted to go back to a more manageable training schedule. HIM and Oly distance training. Max rides of 2 to 2.5 hours. Max runs of 1.5 hours. Max swims of 30 minutes. That kind of stuff.
It got me thinking. Could one effectively train for an IM on 10-12 hours per week and still finish in PR type form? Obviously, the training would have to be pretty intense.
I was thinking the schedule would look something like this:
M: 1 hour run, 30 min swim
T: 1 hour bike
W: 1 hour bike, 30 minute run
Th: 2 hour run
F: 1 hour swim
Sat: 4 hour bike
Sun: 1 hour bike
Comments
Now, on to your actual question...
Depends on what you have to do to PR. What I mean by that is if you have done one or 2 IM around 13 hours and you are capable of doing a 11 hour IM, then I completely think you can do your proposed training and PR. If your PR is already low 10:XX, then I think it is a different story. Also, if it is your 3rd or 4th year of triathlon training racing, i think it is totaly possible, if you are in year 10, it's likely going to be harder. Thridly, it depends on what your past training has been like. If you did 10 years of zone 1/2 only training, I bet one season of high intensity work would do wonders, however if you have already been doing intense workouts for the last few years you will not see the same response.
All that said, I have a decent IM PR and am of course trying to go faster this year. Not exactly what you are saying but I am only going to be over 12 hours a week for 6 to 7 weeks of this year. Until now I have been around 10-12 every week so far. I'm about 7 weeks out from IMWI and am doing my biggest week yet which is going to be about 13.5 hours. I will likely not go over 16 at all this entire year. A couple of things to keep in mind, I have held about 10 hours a week traning for at least 4 years now with no break more than 2 weeks (i.e. consistancy is key). Also, i have a history of beginning able to build up for a marathon or 70.3 in only 4-8 weeks and do pretty well, so I'm working on trying that approach for IM. I'll let you know in Sept if it works.
Sounds like you got a little post IM crash & burn blues. Nothing wrong with your logic. HIM's and Oly's are super for us mere mortals that are looking to rock the tri life without abandoning family/work. But, remember, nobody says you have to go Full every year, or every other year, or whatever...you don't have to retire from the full distance, just do what feels right for right now. I think you can rest assured, thanks to the WTC monster and all of these great indies popping up, that there will always be a good race of any distance just waiting for you to sign up whenever you're ready!
Good luck,
C
The difference between the HIM and IM plans is not huge at all. 30 minutes on the long run and a couple extra hours of cycling on the weekends. The rest of the program is pretty similar. You'd probably want to swim a bit more.
For a HIM, it's a Thursday long run that goes up to about 90 minutes, a Saturday long bike that goes up to about 3 hours, and a Sunday bike around 2 hours.
For an IM, it's a Thursday long run that goes up to about 120 minutes, a Saturday long bike that goes up to about 4.5 hours, and a Sunday bike that gets up to about 3 hours (with 2 long days, which are race sims).
Other than those workouts, the rest of the week isn't all that different between Oly, HIM , and IM. So, the real question isn't how many hours per week, but can I fit 10 or so weeks of that type of training into my life?
I'll be going into my 4th year of racing next year and that would be about 2 1/2 seasons with EN. I'll also be 42 years old next year.
My longest training ride leading to IMTX was 4.5 hours (about 95 miles) and I did IMTX in 5:17 and felt great on a very hot day.
@ Chris H: I got burned out by IMTX before the race even started. I really, really dislike riding a bike for 5+ hours or running for over 2 hours. I don't mind sucking it up on race day... in fact I enjoy race day... but I don't want to do it week in and week out.
@ Rich: I'm a top-20% swimmer. 1:05 at IMFL and 1:10 at IMTX and 32-34 minutes at the 70.3 distance. I would say my training history has been 50/50 for swims of 2x or 3x per week.
In summary...
I like doing an Ironman.
I don't like training for an Ironman.
I'd think about doing it with a compressed training regimen...
But I don't want to be unprepared.
I finished IMCDA in 11:57:45 on 12-14 per week. That was with Freils plan until April when I joined EN. I joined EN because of the hope that it didn't take 14+ hours per week to perform in an Ironman. Now I am not a FOP'er but am happy with my performance at CDA. I love the Ironman experience and if a MOP'er is all I will ever be then so be it. That being said, after IMAZ this year I am going to take 2 weeks off and then join Dec OS and go through an entire OS then a full 20 week plan to IM Canada, I want to see what a true EN year can do for me. I am going to do minimal racing and really focus on IMC.
Bob - I sounds like the subtext here is you are asking yourself if you want to race another IM. And you are going about asking the question in the right way: "Do I want to do the training I will need to do in order to have a race result which satisfies my inner task master?"
I'm not going to tell you what the answer is for you, as you're the only one who can do that. But I'll share my own thought process for "retiring" from stand-alone marathons after my fifth one. I discovered after the fifth one (my second round at Boston) that I just didn't like doing the amount of run training required to achieve the times @ 42.2k that my 5k times predicted I should do. My point is 10/14/18 hours is not the issue, for me at least. What matters more is whether I'm eager and willing to put in whatever level and volume of effort I think I need to get the result I want. Endurance sports are a pretty simple value proposition, in my opinion. You get out what you put in. If I run 25-35 miles a week, I just barely qualify for Boston; @ 50-55 miles per week, I run 15-20 minutes under my qualifying time. And I'm sure I'd improve even more if I went 75/week. Sounds good, but I don't want to run 55 miles (much less 75) a week. End of story.
I just went thru an experience which demonstrated to me just how much training time and effort is requried for me to get the results I want. After 5+ years of averaging a shade over 700 hours a year (just under 14/week), with the 12 weeks before an IM being in the 14-20 range, I was forced to not train at all for 3 months, then slowly build to 10-12 hours during the 3 months before IM CDA, with 2 20+ hour week tossed in at the end. The result was 2 hours slower than the last year. It made me so mad I've re-committed to a proper build up for IM AZ, not in terms of hours, but in terms of specificity - I need to re-build my ability to swim, and I need to strengthen my biking. I'm looking forward to it, not dreading it like I did when I trained for my last marathon.
The questions you have to answer, then, are: what kind of racing do I want to do, what are my performance expectations, and am I willing to do the work required to meet them? All the answers have to be in synch to move forward.
Pretty much the issue. I don't want to register for a race, only do 10-12 hours of training/week and it not be enough. I think it's kind of crazy talk though. I have a good base built up and efficient and intense training should get me to whatever goal I'd set. I like Patrick's idea of making it a challenge though. I love a good challenge.
My schedule is summer equals low key training, averaging 5 hours a week or so. Winter is OS and 5-10 hours a week, Spring is ramp to IM with a block of 6-8 weeks in the 12-18 hour window. On average for the year, under 10 hours. To me, if it's fun, go for it. If it's not, don't.
For most of the year I think like I'm in the OS mode with shorter, more intense stuff. If I can get it longer runs and bikes, great; if not, oh well. Ditto with the swimming. I'd like to do more, but it doesn't always work out and that is OK.
Tom,
See the 15 hour a week thing, even for one week, is just not going to work for me ever again. I hate it. That 10-12 hours per week isn't going to be a yearly average, it would be during the 12 week IM training.
Thinking about it more, I think my proposed plan above (as far as time is concerned) would get me through an Ironman without much issue and within my goal. That 10-12 hours would need to be at an ass kicking intensity. Not that EN training has any fluff in it but I'd need to ramp it up some more. Riding for 4 hours at 80%, things like that. I'd also need to chose one of the "easier" IM courses like IMFL. I wouldn't attempt IMSG or the like on 10 hours a week training. :-)
I'm almost willing to make a guinea pig experiment of myself.