Half Ironman training?

[tuggyruns]

What does a schedule look like for this? How long in advance do you start training? (no this is not an April Fools joke).

I am seriously considering Augusta Half Ironman (sept 28)

[woowoo]

I'm starting my training next week for an August 11th race so you have plenty of time. My training will max out at 13 hours a week (I think). I'm training with a group of people through an endurance gym in Chicago, but I know several people that have done the training on their own.

[Susie]

Last year I did a 16 week plan; this year I am doing a pre-built 12 week plan with a coach. My current plan is 6h:25m total in week 1. One of my biggest weeks, week 9, is scheduled to be 15h:30m, which includes a 3 day "training camp" weekend.  So that's roughly the range.

I haven't done a marathon, so I can't personally compare, but it's the most frequent comparison I hear to HIMs. I hear people say that a marathon is harder than a HIM on race day, but HIM prep is a lot more time consuming.

[katinthehat]

You. Crazy.

[katandkevin]

I did a 16 week palm last year.

[tuggyruns]

Apr 1, 2014 15:12:01 GMT -5 katinthehat said:

You. Crazy.

Bahaha! This. And I know it. 

I'm considering training with our local tri club, it's pretty big but I just need to see if it works out for me logistically. 

[kams]

Apr 1, 2014 15:09:47 GMT -5 Susie said:

Last year I did a 16 week plan; this year I am doing a pre-built 12 week plan with a coach. My current plan is 6h:25m total in week 1. One of my biggest weeks, week 9, is scheduled to be 15h:30m, which includes a 3 day "training camp" weekend.  So that's roughly the range.

I haven't done a marathon, so I can't personally compare, but it's the most frequent comparison I hear to HIMs. I hear people say that a marathon is harder than a HIM on race day, but HIM prep is a lot more time consuming.

I can't bold what Susie said bc I'm on my phone, but the "race day is easier than a marathon but training is more time consuming" was very much my experience.

I had been at the 10hr/wk mark for nearly a year, and then I cut out a few hrs of things like body pump & redirected some of that effort to s/b/r in the smaller volume weeks and peaked at ~14 hrs.

I didn't follow a particular plan. More so, I just did my masters swim 3x/week, long run rotating between 10-12 miles every week, and was sure to get at least a 2/2:30 ride in every week until the last 6 weeks or do where I did several 3hr ride/30 min run bricks. ETA: I shouldn't say I didn't follow a plan without qualifying that a bit - I was paying close attention to a few different plans to be sure I was doing enough. I don't want it to sound like I didn't respect the magnitude of that distance, because I put in a lot of work during that training period. But, I shuffled so much that it was sort of a wash as to being really "on a plan."

I raced 6 sprints and Olympics in the 9 weeks leading up to it, which was why my training was sort of thrown together wherever it fit.

I wouldn't recommend doing what I did, although I had a lot of fun, and recovered quickly enough to race another long course 3 weeks later. I would, however, recommend racing a few Olympics first, if you haven't already.

Augusta is a nice race though, from what I've heard. Swim bike mom has at least one race report up from that course.

[tuggyruns]

Apr 1, 2014 15:25:08 GMT -5 kams said:

Apr 1, 2014 15:09:47 GMT -5 Susie said:

Last year I did a 16 week plan; this year I am doing a pre-built 12 week plan with a coach. My current plan is 6h:25m total in week 1. One of my biggest weeks, week 9, is scheduled to be 15h:30m, which includes a 3 day "training camp" weekend.  So that's roughly the range.

I haven't done a marathon, so I can't personally compare, but it's the most frequent comparison I hear to HIMs. I hear people say that a marathon is harder than a HIM on race day, but HIM prep is a lot more time consuming.

I can't bold what Susie said bc I'm on my phone, but the "race day is easier than a marathon but training is more time consuming" was very much my experience.

I had been at the 10hr/wk mark for nearly a year, and then I cut out a few hrs of things like body pump & redirected some of that effort to s/b/r in the smaller volume weeks and peaked at ~14 hrs.

I didn't follow a particular plan. More so, I just did my masters swim 3x/week, long run rotating between 10-12 miles every week, and was sure to get at least a 2/2:30 ride in every week until the last 6 weeks or do where I did several 3hr ride/30 min run bricks. ETA: I shouldn't say I didn't follow a plan without qualifying that a bit - I was paying close attention to a few different plans to be sure I was doing enough. I don't want it to sound like I didn't respect the magnitude of that distance, because I put in a lot of work during that training period. But, I shuffled so much that it was sort of a wash as to being really "on a plan."

I raced 6 sprints and Olympics in the 9 weeks leading up to it, which was why my training was sort of thrown together wherever it fit.

I wouldn't recommend doing what I did, although I had a lot of fun, and recovered quickly enough to race another long course 3 weeks later. I would, however, recommend racing a few Olympics first, if you haven't already.

Augusta is a nice race though, from what I've heard. Swim bike mom has at least one race report up from that course.

Awesome insight kams ! Thank you! I haven't done an Olympic distance tri, but I have done several sprints- def want to get the Oly distance in before Augusta...if I decide to do it.

[kams]

Apr 1, 2014 15:40:36 GMT -5 tuggyruns said:

Awesome insight kams ! Thank you! I haven't done an Olympic distance tri, but I have done several sprints- def want to get the Oly distance in before Augusta...if I decide to do it.

I think that, because of the nature of triathlon training as opposed to running, you rarely if ever do all 3 sports in a single brick session, so the confidence and nutrition isn't really nailed down quite as easily without racing (although, nutrition is diff for me in an oly vs 70.3). I mean, I suppose you could do your own olympics by yourself in training, but racing is so much more fun . ~6 hrs is a long time to be out on a course if you don't feel pretty secure with your abilities on race day.

I am not, by any means, the most experienced on the board, so hopefully some others will have some input. I did really love the half distance, and look forward to getting back to racing those.

[Susie]

Apr 1, 2014 15:51:26 GMT -5 kams said:

Apr 1, 2014 15:40:36 GMT -5 tuggyruns said:

Awesome insight kams ! Thank you! I haven't done an Olympic distance tri, but I have done several sprints- def want to get the Oly distance in before Augusta...if I decide to do it.

I think that, because of the nature of triathlon training as opposed to running, you rarely if ever do all 3 sports in a single brick session, so the confidence and nutrition isn't really nailed down quite as easily without racing (although, nutrition is diff for me in an oly vs 70.3). I mean, I suppose you could do your own olympics by yourself in training, but racing is so much more fun . ~6 hrs is a long time to be out on a course if you don't feel pretty secure with your abilities on race day.

That is a good point re: nutrition.

I kind of eased into it a little more because the year before my first HIM, I did a half iron aquabike - 1.2 mi swim + 56 mi bike, which was about a 4 hour race for me then.  Combined with running experience up to 13.1, that gave me a pretty good idea of what I'd need to do nutrition wise for a 70.3.  The nutrition angle is one to really, really pay attention to though.  It's pretty make or break.

[tuggyruns]

Great points!

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