Nothing…keep doing what you are doing. You’ll be fine.
/s
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You’re both hilarious.
To bring this back to being serious, I find it useful in those instances to remind those people that think they can sign up for an Ironman and do a couch to Ironman training plan with no endurance background that serious bikers and serious marathon runners generally look at Ironman athletes as “nuts.”
I also like to remind them that even though they think that they can put in 12-14 hours a week because that’s what the training plan says, it doesn’t mean it will only take up 12-14 hours a week. That’s only the time your watch is running. There is pre-workout, post-workout, equipment maintenance, research on the sport that a new athlete is going to really need to do. Figuring out logistics for their race, rehabbing injuries, prehabing injuries, spending half a day on the couch because you’re just too tired to do anything else. A 12-14 hour a week training plan, especially for a new athlete that hasn’t gotten efficient at all those other things, is really like 20+ hours a week IMO. It’s taking on a grueling part time job that will actually cost you a fair bit of money!
EDIT:
Amateurs study training plans. Professionals study logistics
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Sometimes it feels like it’s harder to keep up with the clothes washing than the workouts.
To also be serious, whilst I think people do need to take the scale of the race and training seriously, I do believe almost everyone can take part and finish an Ironman race. And some people are so fit, have such an athletic history that it isn’t nearly such a life change to take part or even compete at the front end. The diversity of athletes is part of the appeal.
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I think most are discussing fulls but I did my last half on the following in the 6 months leading up to it:
11-20 swims, probably avg 2500 yds each. I manually track these and from march to may (race) seem to have not noted any, but garmin shows 11 nov-march going to assume I swam a few times before the race so rounding up.
39 rides, mostly trainerroad rides, including some ramp tests and couple 30 minute spins. Not sure exact but avg was over an hour but under 1.5 hours.
5 runs… all about 3 miles ~25 min each and I had to go pretty much to the 6 moths out to even find 5.
Rounding up ( a lot) that was about 2.5 hours per week.
5:08 finish @ about 230 lbs (can’t seem to find my notes). Athlinks says 231 out of 1539 overall…
Can you go couch to that kind of finish on that little training? Probably not. Am I suggesting that people try it, also probably not. Would I try a full on that? nope… Is that the first/only half I have done on that little or even less… definitely not.
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I think the big question I have for you would be, what is your endurance background? It seems that it’s the people that have years of endurance in their background can seemingly hop off the couch and throw down some pretty great numbers. (Big reason why in my snark post I made the poster somebody who ran track in middle school instead of cross country in high school)
I think seeing some 29 year old former D1 cross country runner who’s now 40lbs overweight on instagram hop off the couch and do an Ironman on 6 months of training make people with no such background think they can do the same.
As ambassadors of the sport I personally think we need to be aware of the athletic backgrounds of people when we say “you’ll be fine” or “you’re screwed” to people coming in with their ambitious goals.
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Thank you. I have his book so will look at the 10k progression. It is just such a weird one to try and workout. Both volume and workouts
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I pretty much followed the TR plans for Holkham last year and it went ok. But my FTP has not changed much in 2021 and so i am looking to see if polarized will work for me.
I will probably switch to a TR plan for the Outlaw in March and will continue doing my own running until then. I havent swam at all since Holkham so need to get into the pool soon.
I am looking forward to Outlaw though and am doing the Grafman as a warm up to it and will try and get in a local sprint and Olympic in as well.
My training for the 2022 triathlon season kicked off this morning with a TR ramp test, after enjoying the past 3 weeks “off-season”.
First time back on the tri bike in nearly 2 years. FTP down 18W vs my road bike. But I’ll happily take it. Think that will improve quite a bit over the next few weeks.
I used Plan Builder to plan the next 24 weeks up to my A-race in June, IM70.3 Durban. Also on the cards between now and then, 3 road cycling events, a 170km gravel race and IM70.3 Nelson Mandela Bay which I’ve got down as a B race.
Been on High Volume plans the past 2 years, so sticking to that. I’m going to use the TR plan for bike only. Swim workouts I have to change to fit in with my life (logistics and scheduling) which means that I’ll be doing shorter swim sessions, but more often: 4 swims in the week, 1 on the weekend.
For the run, I’m going to sub one of the 4 weekly runs for a strength & conditioning session. My goals for triathlon have changed a bit, and going forward, I really just want to do enough running to be able to finish a 70.3 comfortably and remain injury free. So my plan will be to do the absolute minimum run training in order for me to be able to do a 2hr run leg.
@JoeX when the 2022 thread opens, please add me for roll call for:
- IRONMAN 70.3 NELSON MANDELA BAY - 3 April 2022
- IRONMAN 70.3 DURBAN - 5 June 2022
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My background falls between middle school track and D1… Competitive swimmer from 6-18, raced bmx and then mtbs in my teens. Outside of gym class maybe ran 50-100 miles in my life until I wanted to try a sprint when I was 29, which was also first time back in the water since HS and actually using the road bike I bought 6 years before. The example above was my 12th half and was 39, so yes there was some background and that wasn’t off the couch.
My partner has done 3? now I think, all on about 4-5 hours a week, no endurance background at all but healthy. Rode bike in law school from apt to campus, ran 2 or so times a week at a brisk 11-12 minute pace for 2-3 miles. Did “swim” in HS but in the team needs some numbers on the roster capacity not competitively.
My dad has now down 5 or 6, did technically miss cutoff on his first due to a crash, but finished. He was sub 7 hours at the same race I noted above (at 65). Also has done 1 full. Competitive swimmer through HS, did get into cycling in his early 20s but not competing, then did nothing for 40 years. I haven’t seen his full work out history but from what I have glimpsed I wouldn’t be shocked if his avg for 6 months from a race was in the 3-4 hours a week range. Sure he probably had some motivated 10 hour weeks but also many 0-2 hour weeks.
In both her case and my dads case, despite seeing me race I still think they went in with the benefit of ignorance is bliss. My partner much prefers finishing at 7 or so hours than she does finishing at 6:30 and having spent 5 more hours a week training, it doesn’t bother her to slog it out all day. So while we do need to consider background we also need to consider what someone’s actual goals are. My dad is slightly more interested in getting faster, but also glad to be healthy, active, and finishing. I hate running, it is not unusual for me to do more miles on race day than I did in the 2-3 months leading up to a half. I know I could have knocked 15-20 minutes off most of my races if I just ran at all period. Not done drills or anything fancy, just literally put my shoes on. (I’ve come off the bike in first in olys only to end up high teens, top 10 in a few halfs to end up 30-50th). I accept that my dislike of running will be reflected in my results, I still enjoy racing.
As ambassadors we have to be aware that what others want is not the same as what we want. We don’t need to scare them nor do we need to give them unrealistic expectations.
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I think there is also a GINORMUS difference between a 70.3 and a 140.3.
I really think most people can complete a 70.3 if they know how to swim.
Granted, it might take them 7-8 hours, but its very achievable with a few hours and off the couch with some training.
Now, a full distance race is a different beast. I am not touching that with a 10 foot pole. Ive done marathons and I have ridden 100 miles before. I do not want to put the training require to do that back to back. Granted, I would have more ambition than “just finish” a full distance event.
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Welcome back 
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Exactly. I get irritated when I see people who with no background in the sport sign up for a long distance race. Then I get irritated at the people who tell them no problem you can do this. Sure you can but you will most likely be miserable. The problem with these types of people is that they will most likely be one and done, I don’t want you to do just one triathlon, I want you in the sport for the long run.\
I have seen well known and resepected athletes and coaches get lambasted for suggesting that this is not sensible.
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I see what you did there 
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That really annoys me at all.
Someone on a facebook group the other week was asking if they could do all their bike training on a spin bike and then just rent a bike for a 140.6 with zero background in any endurance event and I got all sorts of flack for saying it was ridiculous.
I also get flack for telling people that they should actually respect the swim because people die in ironman swims
apparently having a heart attack in the water is just down to chance
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And probably the loudest ones are the ones that have never done it.
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Oh man… It’s so funny when people who are comfortable in the water really think swimming a mile is a not big deal…
I’ve always say… If you can swim, then you should be ok… It will definitely not be fun, and it will be painful, specially if you don’t prepare, but as long as you can get out of the water alive then you should be able to finish a triathlon… At least sprint to MAYBE 70.3
Think some of us are getting carried away with how hard / special LD triathlon is here, in my opinion.
I certainly ‘jumped in’ with a full distance as my first triathlon. Having finished playing football only shorty beforehand, I had little to zero experience in endurance sports other than training for about 8 months in the way in to the race. And it was fine, I had a grand day and finished in a pretty respectable time (under 12 hours).
I train a lot more these days, go much faster and take the whole thing a lot more competitively. But to think that I would’ve ‘annoyed’ anyone seems a bit bizarre.
If someone just wants to finish a ‘regular’ IM in under 17hours then it isn’t that hard. Agree that for a total non swimmer the swim cut off is the most likely failure point of the day. But after that, if you keep making forward progress you’ll probably be just fine.
Now, talk to me about my club mate who had never done an IM before but went around telling everyone he planned to beat me in a race we both did last year…… that’s annoying! (He didn’t 
)
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you’re right, as a cyclist I thought that, as a triathlete I still think that, when I become one… I will still have that belief, but. I will BE one.
The event doesn’t scare me. Shoe-horning in the training scares me.
edit: My wife already thinks i’m nuts so I’m half way there.
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I think that’s more than halfway 
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