Training 2 to 3 hours per week?
I found this interesting blog where this endurance athlete named Andy Magness claims to be training 2 to 3 hours per week since 2009 and has been doing some very amazing things. We can't really verify his training regimen, but if it is true, isn't that the most mind blowing thing you've heard??
http://threehoursaweek.blogspot.com/
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It is evident that this guys is very fit. 5min miles - really??? He mentions after his blog entries that he taught a yoga class or climbed as well, so it probably is more around 4-5 hours a week, but still impressive. His workouts look challenging.
I would be interested in reading the book by Carmichael about the time crunched athlete to see if it matches up.
Umm... no. (I've only skimmed his blog for 15 minutes, so I have little data to work from here.)
First of all, his goals are very different from someone who is trying to achieve a successful Ironman race. He wants to be fit and ready to go out an big adventures on a regular basis. So what does it take to achieve a good baseline fitness? Especially if you're in your mid-thirties with a lifetime of weight lifting, running, rock climbing and doing cool outdoors-y stuff ? 3 hours a week seems reasonable to me. It's what I did for years before coming to triathlon, when I was raising a family and working 60+ hours a week. A little weight lifting, a little swimming, a little biking, some brush clearing and wood chopping, and I was ready for any ski trip, multi-day bike tour or big hike I wanted to take on in my too meagre spare time.
What amazes me is you guys who have the same lifestyle and schedule I had 15-25 years ago, and still take on and succeed at Ironman in about 1- 2 hours a day. This guy signed up for Silverman, and then for some reason I haven't discovered yet, bugged out on the race. So his method has yet to be proven efective for IM.
BTW, there at at least two posts devoted to Endurance Nation:
http://threehoursaweek.blogspot.com...ation.html
http://threehoursaweek.blogspot.com...ation.html
I need more data. Kind of defies the "work works" principle.....
How does it work? ........without a minimum amount of "work" performed?
SS
@Brenda, yeah, it's clear that he's athletically very fast, fit, etc. You're probably right about that history playing a part here.
I'm not sure what I would do with the rest of my free time if I only trained 2-3 hrs a week.
Sounds very similar to the claims made by Crossfit Endurance founder Brian Mackenzie. Perhaps it may work for a few genetically gifted individuals, especially if they're fast runners, but the majority of folks who train this way have slow finish times or blow up at Ironman distance.
They also tend to claim that they're training on this strict low-mileage protocol but if you skim back through their blogs you'll see a lot of 70+ mile bikes and 5000 yard swims thrown in here and there (probably in a fit of panic) I pointed this out at one point on the Crossfit Endurance forums since I noticed that the last few race reports were either DNS, DNF, or painful slogs, and the forums were promptly taken down and all of the blogs were disabled. Hmmmm....
In any case, this guy might be one of the select few genetically gifted folks who are fast enough to train in little time. He's certainly a speedy runner. Often what happens though is people's first year at reduced training they are still relying on a backlog of endurance mileage that they've accumulated (assuming this guy has been an ultra-runner for awhile, that may be the case.) As that endurance fitness ebbs away, their times rise. Will be interesting to see what he can do. With the Ultra background, at least he knows pacing.