Ironman peeps

[chw57]

I'm not getting a coach for IMTX (which I may end up regretting...) but I'm trying to decide between Beginner Triathlete and Be Iron Fit for a 20 week plan (I'd start at week 10 of Be Iron Fit).
I'm currently doing about 8 hours a week of swimming/biking/running, so I feel like my base is okay to start one of the plans in late December.  Which would you recommend? I feel like I'm not ready to write my own plan.
(kams, coconutbug, joenali, trigal)
Thanks!

[joenali]

I LOVED Be Iron Fit. I did end up tweeking a few things as the plan progressed. There is a 60 minute run every Friday that progresses to 90 as the plan goes on. I often was very tired on Friday, so I would still run, but not necessarily 90 minutes. You have to save yourself for your long weekend workouts. I also tweeked some of the long rides here and there. Like it calls for something like several 4 + hour bike rides in a row on your long weekends. You need some recovery time, so if you have to drop down to 3 hours it's not a big deal. The one thing I learned is that you have to listen to your body, if you are exhausted , drop down the minutes a little. Those weekend workouts are so important, you don't want to be tired.

I also think some of the swim workouts were a little boring, however, I used them while I was working just because they were already written and I didn't have to search for or think of a workout. But as soon as summer hit, I started doing my own swim workouts.
I did the competitive program.

[coconutbug]

I don't know if I can really recommend a plan, when I rarely actually stick to my plans or end up modifying them quite a bit. But I think I ended up reading several books, including Be Iron Fit, and using that cobbled together with the 36-week IM plan at opentri.com (which I think is also on trifuel.com somewhere). Good luck!!

[kams]

I'm starting in late December, too, with a mostly-Be-Iron-Fit plan. I'm modifying my days, in that Tues will be long runs, Sat will be long ride, and I'm swimming masters instead of his workouts (will add time as needed to masters workouts).

I keep looking at it and thinking to myself, "is this enough?!" I know I'll be singing a different tune in late March!

I'm being guided, but not necessarily coached. We can freak together .

[joenali]

Nov 20, 2013 22:48:20 GMT -5 kams said:

I'm starting in late December, too, with a mostly-Be-Iron-Fit plan. I'm modifying my days, in that Tues will be long runs, Sat will be long ride, and I'm swimming masters instead of his workouts (will add time as needed to masters workouts).

I keep looking at it and thinking to myself, "is this enough?!" I know I'll be singing a different tune in late March!

I'm being guided, but not necessarily coached. We can freak together .

It's enough!! You've got to start small and build! Your body will get thorough race day when you build!!  

[trigal]

The goal is to finish, right? So you need to train to finish. For my first IM, I set benchmarks for myself. By a certain date, I needed to ride 100 miles. I worked my long rides up to that. I did long runs mid-week and I never ran more than two (maybe 2.5) hours. (For IM #3, my longest run was only 14 miles and it was my fastest race) I only swam 4000 yards once before race day. All other swims were 2500-3000 yards.

Everything else was about getting in the miles and/or transitioning from bike to run. You don't need to do the same kind of running as if you were training for a marathon. Being strong and efficient on the bike will be a huge benefit for the run.

[chw57]

Nov 21, 2013 6:05:24 GMT -5 trigal said:

The goal is to finish, right? So you need to train to finish. For my first IM, I set benchmarks for myself. By a certain date, I needed to ride 100 miles. I worked my long rides up to that. I did long runs mid-week and I never ran more than two (maybe 2.5) hours. (For IM #3, my longest run was only 14 miles and it was my fastest race) I only swam 4000 yards once before race day. All other swims were 2500-3000 yards.

Everything else was about getting in the miles and/or transitioning from bike to run. You don't need to do the same kind of running as if you were training for a marathon. Being strong and efficient on the bike will be a huge benefit for the run.

This makes me feel so much better!