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2018 Challenge: IM x 45
Don't be fooled by the title: no one is doing 45 IM's in 2018. God knows I barely did 2 in 2017 (my first two).
Next year two big things will happen: 20 year wedding anniversary and I'm turning 45. I have been thinking on a good challenge to commemorate my 45th trip around the sun I have decided to complete the equivalent distance of 45 Ironman races during the year. This would entail 108 miles swimming, 5,040 miles cycling, and 1,179 miles running. It's not going to be easy but it's doable; it's a true challenge.
Why am I posting this? I just want to be held accountable, and what better way than to put it out there. Once it's on the forums, it's official. I will keep a mile log that would be updated on a monthly basis to track my progress.
Next year two big things will happen: 20 year wedding anniversary and I'm turning 45. I have been thinking on a good challenge to commemorate my 45th trip around the sun I have decided to complete the equivalent distance of 45 Ironman races during the year. This would entail 108 miles swimming, 5,040 miles cycling, and 1,179 miles running. It's not going to be easy but it's doable; it's a true challenge.
Why am I posting this? I just want to be held accountable, and what better way than to put it out there. Once it's on the forums, it's official. I will keep a mile log that would be updated on a monthly basis to track my progress.
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Comments
As an aside this definitely shows the IM skew towards cycling and running.
- First off, does this take precedence over training for any particular "A" race? In other words, are you willing to sacrifice fitness specificity and injury risk to meet this goal?
- Is it doable?...very much so. Most years that I have trained for triathlon (since 1999), I averaged 150+ miles swimming (max 200), 5000 cycling (max 5735) and 10XX running (max 1095). But all of those were within the context of specific training plans I was following for, mostly, Ironman racing.
- I would suggest that if swimming is a particular weak spot for you, that 108 miles in a year is insufficient for improvement. I tended to under train in swimming (I was a competitive swimmer in HS and college), and suspect that one needs more than what I would routinely do for IM success.
- If you have already been near your targets in the last month or two, I for one would support defining the "season" as whenever the OS starts. EG, my seasons usually start first week of December. The benefit of that is, the season ends soon after my last race of the year (this year was an exception).
- Finally, setting goal/targets is motivating, and fun when you meet them, as well as getting you out the door on days when you don't want to go.
In this spirit, I am already targeting 2018 kilometers running between my 68th and 69th birthdays (April 9 17/18). Two weeks shy of eight months in, I am on pace with 1604/2018 km (996/1254 mi)@Al Truscott I love how thorough your comments are. They always make me think one step further. My "A" race for 2018 will be IMLOU in October so the challenge and the training should go hand in hand. I will follow your advice on the swim, since I have a lot of work to do in terms of technique. Finally congratulations on your running challenge. Not easy to keep posting miles in this rainy weather.
@Shaughn Simmons Making a comparison is not easy since I was on the sideline for most of 2017 recovering from surgery and other medical issues. That brought all the averages down significantly. I hope this challenge serves as a baseline for future years and also as a way of collecting enough data for better analysis.
As January comes to and end it's time to check the progress
Swim: 7.5 Miles - 4:33:00 - 6.94% of the goal for the year
Bike: 360.94 Miles - 18:44:40 - 7.16% of the goal for the year
Run: 81.72 Miles - 14:07:51 - 6.93% of the goal for the year
Starting weight: 217.3 lbs
Current weight: 208.6 lbs
Feb Swim: 7.8 Miles - 4:35:00 - YTD: 15.3 Miles representing 14.2% of the goal for the year
Feb Bike: 362.34 Miles - 19:50:15 - YTD: 723.28 Miles representing 14.4% of the goal for the year
Feb Run: 87.04 Miles - 14:08:23 - YTD: 168.76 Miles representing 14.3% of the goal for the year
Interesting notes (at least interesting for me)
Swim: 4 seconds faster per 100 mts in Feb
Bike: Average speed went down by 1 mph, but elevation gain increased by 29% (more than 4,000 ft over Jan)
Run: Average pace went from 10:23 in Jan to 9:45 in Feb
Starting weight: 217.3 lbs (01/01/2018)
Current weight: 203.4 lbs (02/28/2018)
Finally @Paul Hough I'm still a little out of pace but I have a strong feeling that the training plan will take care of it. Thanks for posting.
April was awful. Part vacation, part infection, part leg pains, and part surgery resulting in 1 mile in the water, 132 miles riding, and 55 miles running. As of the end of April I have completed the equivalent of 10.33 IM swims, 10.51 IM bike courses, and 11.3 marathons.
The only highlight for the month was that I completed the Tacoma Half Marathon in an unexpected time. I have never been a fast runner but I have a good diesel engine that will take me to the finish line. I have only break the 2 hour mark on a half once and I wasn't expecting to do so last Sunday. I would have been happy with a 2:05 - 2:10.
I meet a bunch of triathletes at the starting line and one of them was the 2hr pacer. I told her I would keep up with her as much as possible but if I needed to go easier I would. The first seven miles (very flat) it was easy to keep the 9:00-ish pace with a controlled heart rate bouncing between Z2-Z3. Miles 8-11 had 95% of the elevation of the course and I couldn't keep with them as the HR started to go through the roof.
Using the EN protocol, I eased and kept within my range. I have always finished the races wasted, no energy, and nothing left for the final part of it. I almost thought that the concept of pushing it at the end was an urban myth, or like a unicorn, or the Loch Ness Monster. As the end of the race approached, I realized that keeping the HR under control, making wise decisions, proper hydration and nutrition, allowed me to have enough in the tank to freaking race the final 2 miles (mostly downhill). It's the first time that my last two miles are the fastest miles of the race. I was able to sprint to the finish line and for the second time broke the 2 hour mark (1:59:04).
Now its time to get back and bring those numbers up. Next report in 30 days.
I am confident once the training ramps up for IMLOU, I will get closer to the goal. Thanks for following!
It is the beginning of a new year and a time to reflect on the previous one. I have the final numbers for my 2018 - 45 IM challenge and have to admit that came short from the goal. Despite not reaching the goal, 2018 was still the year with the highest numbers on all three disciplines. Here are the results:
I have not set any specific goals for 2019, but I would like to increase the numbers a little bit. Maybe 100 miles swimming, 5,000 on the bike, and 1,000 running.
@Jorge Duque While you did not make the goals as you point out you did make increases in all three disciplines which will help in the long game. I'm not one to talk as I struggle with weight but any goals for the last column?
@Gordon Cherwoniak Hey brother. How are you? You know the drill as well as I do. The goal is always there. I am always trying to drop weight and it seems I can do it for a short period of time (Look at the first three months) and then I go on vacation (April, June) and screw up everything. October was terrible; after finishing IMLOU I went crazy with the food (11 lbs in a month!!!), by the end of the year and thanks to "The Hoff Challenge" I was able to bring some of those back.
I love food, I love to cook, and I need to find a way to cook smaller portions. I want to go down to 200 lbs. I don't recall when was the last time I weighted that. The lowest I can remember is 205 three years ago. I will be racing IMTX and would like to do some challenging rides during the summer so weight management is going to be key.
Are you still trying to do the 70.3 under 6?
@Jorge Duque Good for you keeping your eyes on the dashboard. Consistency in training and continuous improvement are twin avenues to success in pretty much anything. Last year I challenged you to aim a bit higher in swimming, and would do the same this year. A jump from 700 >> 1000 miles = 42% increase. A similar bump in swimming would be to 120 miles. While I'm of the opinion that, for 1000 miles of running, 135-175 miles of swimming would be a better match, best to bite off only what you can chew.
Another way to approach it is to look at your race results, and see where you are weakest relative to your age group. Aim to give that discipline the most attention. And if it's swimming, it may be stroke improvement as well as volume boost.
Another thought: increasing running intensity and/or volume carries the highest risk of injury. A 40% boost right off the bat might be a set up for problems. Think of increasing by at most 10% a week until you get to 85 miles/month, no matter what that ends up being for the year. Again, *consistency* in running will trump actual volume in the long run. Once you hit that 85 mark, then you can safely add in the extra miles whenever you are training for a half or full Ironman (or even a marathon if you are so inclined this year).
@Jorge Duque Thing are going, well actually starting up again. After I had to pull the pin on my 70.3 I basically did not train much and was eating way too much. So here I am again trying to turn things around once again with the added challenge of training around my 21 month old and a wife with a broken humerus bone.
I still have the 70.3 under 6 as a target and was part of a four year plan. This was not necessarily a Kona qualifying plan and I now have three years left. Not sure I'll get to a 70.3 this year but it's about consistency across 12 months as I actually want to race (relatively speaking) an IM in 2020 or 2021, thinking sub 12 IM off the sub 6 70.3. I figure once Brody turns 5/6 the window on IM's will close for awhile.
Of course this come down to commitment and consistency on my part something that has not materialized in the 17 or so odd years I've been doing triathlons.
Thanks for asking I should revisit my yearly planning and my now 3 year plan.