Let's Talk Ironman Texas

[taratru]

I was all DO IT!!!! until the part of no race in February.

WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

(Totes kidding of course. You gotta do what you want to do. I know you can do the full and think you should.)

[zoidberg]

Omg!!!

[joenali]

Aug 15, 2013 16:03:47 GMT -5 katinthehat said:

But, if it's your first one, you also won't have anything to compare it against!

And it's flat. Flat flat flat. You can walk some of the swim.

And it's in Houston

Flat doesn't equal easy. When it's flat you are in the same position for 112 miles. That can be very fatiguing.

[trigal]

It sounds like you are having the right conversations. A couple of more thoughts...

Every Ironman is hard. All of them. The chart Susie showed you is strictly based on average times. A slower time does not make a race harder. It means it's slower. Florida is pancake flat, but pedaling the same position for 112 miles is hard. I think it's harder than climbing 5000+ feet in Lake Placid. But, it should be faster.

A friend of ours did his first (and only, so far) Ironman when his daughter was 4 or 5 (no other kids). He would get up to ride at 5am on Saturdays so that he was done by 10 or 11. The rest of the day was family time. No naps. Family time. And early to bed. He spent a lot of time on his trainer too. And, he did the race knowing that he wouldn't be doing a second one for a while. That was the deal he made with his wife.

A training tip...You don't have to do both the long ride and long run on the weekend. In fact, I'd move the long run to the middle of the week. There used to be the philosophy that you should get used to running on tired legs. The newer thinking is that this is how you get injured. Do the long run on Tuesday or Wednesday. You also don't need to do 20 milers. My longest run for this Ironman was 14 miles. And I ran (with walk breaks) the entire marathon. It can be done.

You don't need to be doing 20-hour weeks. If your workouts are focused, you can be efficient. Most of my runs were an hour and most of my rides were 2. The only real exceptions were my long rides and runs. My swims were 45 minutes to an hour.

If this feels like the right time for your family, then go for it!

[joenali]

Aug 15, 2013 19:17:34 GMT -5 trigal said:

It sounds like you are having the right conversations. A couple of more thoughts...

Every Ironman is hard. All of them. The chart Susie showed you is strictly based on average times. A slower time does not make a race harder. It means it's slower. Florida is pancake flat, but pedaling the same position for 112 miles is hard. I think it's harder than climbing 5000+ feet in Lake Placid. But, it should be faster.

A friend of ours did his first (and only, so far) Ironman when his daughter was 4 or 5 (no other kids). He would get up to ride at 5am on Saturdays so that he was done by 10 or 11. The rest of the day was family time. No naps. Family time. And early to bed. He spent a lot of time on his trainer too. And, he did the race knowing that he wouldn't be doing a second one for a while. That was the deal he made with his wife.

A training tip...You don't have to do both the long ride and long run on the weekend. In fact, I'd move the long run to the middle of the week. There used to be the philosophy that you should get used to running on tired legs. The newer thinking is that this is how you get injured. Do the long run on Tuesday or Wednesday. You also don't need to do 20 milers. My longest run for this Ironman was 14 miles. And I ran (with walk breaks) the entire marathon. It can be done.

You don't need to be doing 20-hour weeks. If your workouts are focused, you can be efficient. Most of my runs were an hour and most of my rides were 2. The only real exceptions were my long rides and runs. My swims were 45 minutes to an hour.

If this feels like the right time for your family, then go for it!

Interesting!! I always like to see how others train. I think since I had time over the summer to train a lot I did. And when I was too tired I would scale back a run or skip a swim, since that is my strongest leg. I don't even know the distance of my longest run, but I do know it was 3 hours!! Sometimes I did my long runs or long rides on Monday during the summer, since every other weekend I have SS at our house and didnt want to be away for hours on end, since i see him so infrequently already. So you do have to plan for family time, that is for sure!!

[chw57]

I'm so grateful for your insight, trigal! I did all my weekend workouts super early on weekends when I was training for wildflower, so that I could have more family time.

I hadn't thought about doing a long run mid-week but I love that idea.

[trigal]

Aug 15, 2013 19:23:18 GMT -5 joenali said:

Aug 15, 2013 19:17:34 GMT -5 trigal said:

It sounds like you are having the right conversations. A couple of more thoughts...

Every Ironman is hard. All of them. The chart Susie showed you is strictly based on average times. A slower time does not make a race harder. It means it's slower. Florida is pancake flat, but pedaling the same position for 112 miles is hard. I think it's harder than climbing 5000+ feet in Lake Placid. But, it should be faster.

A friend of ours did his first (and only, so far) Ironman when his daughter was 4 or 5 (no other kids). He would get up to ride at 5am on Saturdays so that he was done by 10 or 11. The rest of the day was family time. No naps. Family time. And early to bed. He spent a lot of time on his trainer too. And, he did the race knowing that he wouldn't be doing a second one for a while. That was the deal he made with his wife.

A training tip...You don't have to do both the long ride and long run on the weekend. In fact, I'd move the long run to the middle of the week. There used to be the philosophy that you should get used to running on tired legs. The newer thinking is that this is how you get injured. Do the long run on Tuesday or Wednesday. You also don't need to do 20 milers. My longest run for this Ironman was 14 miles. And I ran (with walk breaks) the entire marathon. It can be done.

You don't need to be doing 20-hour weeks. If your workouts are focused, you can be efficient. Most of my runs were an hour and most of my rides were 2. The only real exceptions were my long rides and runs. My swims were 45 minutes to an hour.

If this feels like the right time for your family, then go for it!

Interesting!! I always like to see how others train. I think since I had time over the summer to train a lot I did. And when I was too tired I would scale back a run or skip a swim, since that is my strongest leg. I don't even know the distance of my longest run, but I do know it was 3 hours!! Sometimes I did my long runs or long rides on Monday during the summer, since every other weekend I have SS at our house and didnt want to be away for hours on end, since i see him so infrequently already. So you do have to plan for family time, that is for sure!!

Yes, it's nice to have summers off to train! Unfortunately, it also limits us to only a few races. But, the heaviest weeks of training were in May and June, so it wasn't quite the same. 

[trigal]

Aug 15, 2013 19:30:23 GMT -5 chw57 said:

I'm so grateful for your insight, trigal! I did all my weekend workouts super early on weekends when I was training for wildflower, so that I could have more family time.

I hadn't thought about doing a long run mid-week but I love that idea.

My pleasure!  I've been surrounded by Ironman for the past ten years, either racing, spectating, or volunteering, so I've learned a lot.  Making the sacrifice of super early workouts is necessary for the family time.  Again, since we don't have kids, it's a little easier for DH and I.  However, when he races and I don't, he tries to make adjustments so we have more time together.

The mid-week long run is awesome!  I would do it immediately after work.  I started it when I realized that my weekends were just too packed, especially Sunday.  I'd go to church, then run, then grocery shopping, then do my schoolwork (I'm a teacher).  It was so crazy that I wasn't getting anything else done around the house!  Moving the long run accomplished two things.  I had a little more time on Sunday.  I often did a trainer recovery ride and a short run.  When I'm on the trainer, I can get laundry done!  And, my long runs got stronger.  I was on fresher legs and I'm seeing the benefits.

[katandkevin]

Aug 15, 2013 19:30:23 GMT -5 chw57 said:

I'm so grateful for your insight, trigal! I did all my weekend workouts super early on weekends when I was training for wildflower, so that I could have more family time.

I hadn't thought about doing a long run mid-week but I love that idea.

This is how my schedule is written. I have my long run on Wednesdays and long ride on Saturdays. I like having it broken up. The rest of my workouts are about an hour. I think my longest training week the total time is 17 or 18 hours.

[1confused1]

IMTX was my BIL's first Ironman and it was SO AMAZING!!! Yes, it was incredibly hot, but he killed it. The water is warm, the bike is flat, the run is a flat loop. And, considering triathlons are not typically spectator friendly, this one is the opposite of that. We saw him at the swim start, bike transition, run transition and finish. And then there are bars and restaurants along the entire race course (minus the bike), so the crowd support is amazing. We went back for the final couple hours and it was amazing.

So, do it if you think you can. If I've ever considered an Ironman, this would be the one.

[chw57]

Aug 15, 2013 23:55:35 GMT -5 1confused1 said:

IMTX was my BIL's first Ironman and it was SO AMAZING!!! Yes, it was incredibly hot, but he killed it. The water is warm, the bike is flat, the run is a flat loop. And, considering triathlons are not typically spectator friendly, this one is the opposite of that. We saw him at the swim start, bike transition, run transition and finish. And then there are bars and restaurants along the entire race course (minus the bike), so the crowd support is amazing. We went back for the final couple hours and it was amazing.

So, do it if you think you can. If I've ever considered an Ironman, this would be the one.

The crowd support (and the single bike loop) is what pretty much sold me on IMTX!

[shauni27]

obviously I am no where near doing an IM (and quite honestly the idea of doing one sounds like the most unappealing thing to me ever), but to all of you Ironman Athletes--and those of you HALF Ironman Athletes, you are all seriously fucking awesome. kams I think you are capable of doing it, though it sounds like a lot of work, energy, commitment from everyone in the family. Think it over.

This makes me want to come down to Houston to spectate and have a H&F G2G!

[kams]

Thanks for all of the input. I'm going to spend the weekend thinking about it, and talking with a few of my friends that are doing imtx.

I'm definitely loving the long run mid week and the long ride on the weekend.