OMG 20 hour weeks? 
I’m starting to think I’ll never do a full Ironman 
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It is not about 20hrs/wk
Based on 1 in 3 recovery (for older athletes)
If you trained at the lower end of the range - the average is only 12:30 / wk
Also - at the higher end of the range - there are quite a few sessions that are classed as optional - that can be dropped or swapped for one of the core workouts.
If you left out the optional and just did the upper range of the core workouts you would average about 16hrs/ wk
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When I sign up for one, I’ll probably stick to TR LV plans.
Any substantial differences to Joe Friels plans?
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That’s my plan for 2022 as well.
I’m starting to think I’ve taken the sport too serious. I’m 44, married, kid, full time job. I need to remember I got into it to have fun and just be fit and healthy. I must learn to tell “competitive me” to just shut up and sit down LOL.
I think it will be good for me to take one season, and just (I cringe as I type this) do the absolute minimum I have to to complete my events.
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That’s my view also. For 90% of age groupers that have to balance training with family, jobs and other commitments, I think that’s the way to go. Of course no one will be crushing races and qualifying for Kona doing that, but that’s not really my goal anyway.
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Yeah you dont need to have an annual average like that to finish an Ironman. I averaged 8hrs this year up to October 4th. My peak week was 16h06 and a week I really enjoyed actually.
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That is a lots of hours! Same here, kids - sometimes virtual learning yeah, full time job. A year ago I had set out to do another local Sprint (obviously cancelled) with a few friends and target AG podium (was 3 secs shy 2 years ago), do my first HIM in 2021 and for my 45th birthday do a IM in 2022. Obviously, it all derailed this year. For now no set goals other than the Sprint that was deferred to Sept 2021 - which will also be a State Championship of tiny RI, ooohhh 
.
Current short term goal is to complete a full Sprint LV cycle - I seem to never keep compliance and never finished a full cycle - sans swimming and 3 times a week MAF running - coming back from a knee issue. I have added a third endurance ride to every week and just completed base + build.
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I’m aiming to complete the entire Outlaw series. Just started training for Nottingham Half this week! Though I’m skipping next week for the Centurion Running One Community event.
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Nice,I’ve heard good things about outlaw events, got the 70.3 in Wiltshire booked in as my first ever middle distance next September
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Ended up using my deferred IMStG entry for IMLP. I’m not super confident the race is going to happen, but I like having structure of a plan so going forward with an MV plan starting December. I will do a bit less run work (I don’t use the running part of TR plans anyway) until I’m confident the race will happen, and will do either a strength session or a mountain bike ride in place of swims until pools are open.
Not putting any other events in my plan, but planning to do a couple cool long rides around here when the weather warms up.
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Outlaw half notts and IM Copenhagen are still my main two races, hoping being a teacher I’ll be just behind nhs and care home staff when it comes to getting a vaccine
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Cape Town Cycle Tour - March 2021 - 109km sportive (A race)
Swartberg 100 - April 2021 - 170km gravel event (90 tar/80 gravel) (B race)
Challenge Cape Town - November 2021 - Middle distance triathlon (A race)
There should be 2 other 100km cycling sportives during the first half of the year too. And some local sprint/Oly tri’s towards the end of the year. (All of these are C races.)
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Looking good people.
I see a few single sport events in there - how do people feel about single discipline blocks?
I got good gains from marathon training, and then SSB/SPB MV but particularly for SPB running went slowly but surely out the window. Then it was a struggle bringing it back in.
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I’ve done single sport focus blocks in the past, trying to maintain the others can be a bitch.
I’ve done run focus training for ultras, with just a couple of bikes and swims per week
and swim focus when training for a marathon (10k) swim race - swim focus blocks were easier to maintain the others than run focus
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Yeah, this is my 5th season with TR and I’ve got no spring event for 2021 for the first time in a couple of years, and run is still my weakest sport. I have London Olympic 8weeks before Barcelona, Oct 3rd.
But as per last year I’m thinking run focus again, winter/spring then bike, then bike focus summer for the autumn Ironman,…problem was I couldn’t run through SPB which is probably why my IM Run failed again.
This would probably look like:
- RLRF half marathon + Olympic LV Base/Build → SSB MV → SPB MV → FD LV Build
The other option is to do the bike focus first, try to get to a 290 FTP in spring and maintain it through summer, while building run and swim:
- SSB MV1 → SSB MV2 → SPB MV → Olympic HV → FD LV
1 is basically learning from and tweaking what I did this year
2 is a whole new approach and doesn’t focus on my weak run…lines up my races better though
I’ve successfully completed one, Outlaw Half Holkham and it was my best ever race 
I also attempted the full that same year (2019) and the roads flooded, so all I could do was a very grim swim and a miserably wet marathon 
They did their best in the conditions. Can’t fault their organising! Comparatively cheap too, but I guess they don’t need to service nearly a billion dollars of debt like a certain more famous full distance tri brand 
Hope to see you there I should be at the back of the queue for a vaccine (quite right, too) but hopefully they are planning on running it without universal vaccination being a condition.
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i did a full IM on 5 hour weeks… granted it was IM UK which is hard and took me 13 hours but my 70.3 training is roughly 6 hours/week, sleep deprived and nearly always dancing the line of overtraining. To be fair though I’m in the 5 hour finisher category… so an aggressively mediocre athlete
I wish i had the time to do 4-5 hour long rides at the weekend
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Ill be at Outlaw Half Notts as well.
Doing the Edinburgh Marathon a couple of weeks after that, a 50km ultra run in July and then the Aberfeldy Middle distance tri in august
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Great phrase
If youve done a lot of long rides and a few IMs Im not sure theres a lot of value in 4-5h rides. Great if you can get them, but every week for 2-3 months? Nah.
Im experimenting with track focus running (short distance training) and SSBLV
After the Building block i had, SSBLV doesnt seem too hard…