The Ironman Training 2022 Thread

Not on the list anymore as I’ve been MIA but going to try and get back on the roll call.

July was a alright month. Coming off CdA 70.3 at the end of June, I took it a bit easier at the start of the month. Then ending up getting covid which pretty much shut me down for a while. Finally the last week of July I was able to get a good amount of training in at 13 hours for the week. Starting my build now towards 70.3 Worlds which is 13 weeks away. Will have Washington 70.3 in the middle as a test race to see how things are going before Worlds.

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July

Swim; Planned 13:45 h completed 5h
Bike; Planned 17h 30min Completed 12:30h
Run Planned. 13 h Completed 6h 30 min
Total: 24hrs

I lost the first week and a half of July to knee injury off the back of my 70.3 race.
Now, the school holidays… this gets ugly. This whole balancing family and training is a lot harder as they get older.

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Hi everyone!
Best of the legs and worst of the legs over here. Started off with some of the best numbers I’ve seen in a while and just feeling really consistently strong and fresh. (Not to mention what would’ve been my first open win had i not missed a lap :confounded:)
Fast forward two weeks and I’m in the hole getting slapped with the RED-S book. Still good to train given I can get back up to a healthy weight range but goddamn if I don’t feel like an absolute turd 24/7. I’m signed up for a sprint duathlon this weekend but might be a non-starter given the current state of threshold RPE.
Also just got ahold of insurance-funded sparkly new dentist bike so one of these days I might actually have to get it together.

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July was dominated by my race at Ohio 70.3 (scroll up for the race report). Kicked off the month with a day-date century with my wife (her first). Two more big weeks and then taper for Ohio. A bike heavy recovery week with a big bike weekend to finish July. The taper week and recovery week were really bike heavy in terms of time, but no intensity, in order to hit 1000 miles in July for Trek’s Strava challenge. I’ll do anything for a water bottle :slight_smile:. 9.5 weeks until my A race of the year, so into the heavy IM training.

The Numbers:
wk 26: Total: 18.5 hr, Bike: 12.2 hr (5 rides), Run: 4.5 hr (4 runs), Swim: 2 hr (3 swims)
wk 27: Total: 19.5 hr, Bike: 11 hr (5 rides), Run: 5.5 hr (5 runs), Swim: 3 hr (4 swims) - Big Week
wk 28: Total: 12.5 hr, Bike: 9 hr (5 rides), Run: 2 hr (3 runs), Swim: 1.5 hr (3 swims) - Big Week, Small Weekend
wk 29: Total: 14 hr, Bike: 10.2 hr (7 rides), Run: 3 hr (4 runs), Swim: 1 hr (2 swims) - Race Week
wk 30: Total: 15.25 hr, Bike: 14.75 hr ( rides), Run: 0 hr (0 runs), Swim: 0.5 hr (1 swim) - Recovery week, bike heavy w/ big weekend

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Thanks for roll call @JoeX

July was a bit of a mixed bag. I was ready to go for Outlaw Full Distance, but life happened and I had to withdraw with two weeks to go. I decided to ‘semi-taper’ and then go and have some fun.

First, I went full send for a few hours on the bike and set some new PBs on my favourite roads, and put together some nice days back to back. Then rested for a day or two and decided to go for a marathon PB. Came in at 2h 56, which I was happy with - a 5min PB and no real run specificity & a 40km bike the day before!

Focus has now switched to Weymouth 70.3… Fingers crossed I finally get to race!

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2:56 marathon… NICE

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It felt pretty good, I must admit. I think in a race environment I would have pushed a little harder on the second half, but was consistent with my pacing throughout!

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Thanks for checking in! Yes, training is going well, especially on the bike (thanks, TrainerRoad). However, starting to feel a bit under-trained on the run. I know through this build and specialty phase my fitness will continue to improve, but definitely feeling like I should drop from the mid-volume tri plan to the low-volume, and sub in more running volume. Although risk of injury and body breakdown become bigger factors, I think it would significantly help my confidence. Thoughts?
My longest runs (ever) are all in the 10 miles range. I can run a half marathon today, if needed, but it’s gaining that confidence to be able to hold a decent pace, even with run-walk-run, after the swim and bike.

Generally speaking people don’t need to run very much at all when also doing a lot of swim and bike too. 3/week is a good minimum upto 4, time and intensity to vary by individuals strengths and weaknesses.

Personally I’ve always struggled to run consistently more than 3/week for more than a month or two when tri training, some people go as far as running 6/week on a 3 short, 2 medium, 1 long basis. I’ve struggled to swim and bike 2/week on top of that but some people can.

The tri plans will build up your long run so I wouldn’t be concerned about that part.

:clap:

Hi @JoeX thanks for keeping this going.

Prep for Copenhagen is still going well. I had a bit of a timing issue, initially I would have ended my final block 3 weeks from the race, leaving me with a recovery week into taper 1 into taper 2. Coach and I discussed and decided to do a 5 week block with a shortened recovery in the middle instead leading into taper 1. My weekly volume is still very low, not touching 13hrs once, so I figured that would work - and it did.

I am now in my final week before I begin my taper and everything seems to fall into place. Did a final big ride at target power for 4.5hrs on Friday, which felt nice. Then did a 30k pace test run on Monday. That did not feel as nice, but reminded me how important pacing will be. It’ll take all my willpower on race day to not run faster than 4:50min/k until k30. By then, I surely will not want to run faster anymore. Swimming is alright, feeling fairly confident. I’ll use the space in my schedule freed up by less running and biking to up my swim volume in the final 3 weeks.

So far I am grateful for a solid preparation with few interruptions. I hope I can ditch COVID for three more weeks as it is the only thing possibly standing between me and the finish line.

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Hi @JoeX

I have had a fairly consistent July, did manage to catch a 48 hour bug, but at least it didn’t put to much of a dent on the training schedule.
I have managed to consistently get the longer runs, rides and swims in each week, nice to be back at the lake! Im down to the final 3.5 weeks of training now, and taper to the event. Fingers crossed, I know this one is going to be tough, and at this stagenot sure how forward I am looking to it! :smile: :smile:

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Is anyone in for IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea at the weekend? If so see you there. It should be a great event with a strong pro field too. My goal is within 5% of pro winning time for a pro card :crossed_fingers:

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Good luck and you can do it.

Thanks for the reminder Joe.

First, I’d like to thank those who earlier in the thread provided me advice regarding doing a Full with less than optimal/sporadic training.
Second, as a follow-up to that, I won’t be doing the Full as the schedule has gotten even more wacky…more on that below. Summary of June and July…

June
Total Time: 43:57:21
Total TSS 2,765
Swim 5:43:10 - 14,105km
Bike 27:00:56 - 748km
Run 11:13:15 - 103.5 km

July
Total Time: 21:59:02
Total TSS: 1,396
Swim 5:29:00 - 13,612m
Bike 3:53:05 - 107km
Run 12:36:58 - 107.5km

For July, I had originally planned to take the bike along with us on our work-cation, but my work piled up which would have made time for riding minimal. So I left it home and did what running and swimming I could.

I’ve received more work for this fall (which is GREAT as a self-employed person) requiring time and travel, which will make consistent training even more precarious. For this reason, I’m thinking of bagging any racing or structured training this fall (no 70.3s) and just ride/run/swim base (Z2, Z3) to build a gargantuan aerobic base for next year. I’ll be back in 2023!

Good luck everyone!

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I’ll second this…spent most of July on a coast with lots of short-moderate hills, minimal humidity, ocean breezes, and temps in the 75-85’s. The running was FANTASTIC and I really enjoyed running up 500m-1500m hills with pitches of 7-15%. Normal amount of perspiration. Every run I could have gone farther but always cut them to get back to work. Felt wonderful.

First run back in Florida, 30-40m in I am beat…drenched in sweat (i.e., dripping; socks/shoes full of sweat), overheated, feeling miserable. It sucks.

Thinking I’m either going to buy a treadmill or do runs on the treadmill at the local gym.

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bahahah… GA is not much better and feel your pain for sure.

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Go go go! Won’t be there but I’ll make sure to keep an eye on the tracker!

Just training for the good ol Half-Marathon to redeem myself from the “failed” but completed HIM Muskoka
Feels so much more relaxed to be only focusing on a single discipline
Toronto Waterfront HIM here i come!
Also now looking at next years Tri options for A race

Requirements:
Early season (July and prior)
Half iron distance
Venue @ Driving distance from Toronto (less than 8hrs)

I’m looking at the Memphremagog half distance
or the Tremblant 70.3 currently.
I don’t think i wanna redo Muskoka this soon
Not sure if i want to cross the border

Toledo has the glass city marathon an I think also half marathon… It’s south of Detroit. Maybe 1 or 2 hrs south.

It usually has good weather

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