The Ironman Training 2022 Thread

Training
1489

Yeah, I think full-distance training is a whole thing on its own. I’m a single 20something and full-time selfish prick and even I’ve struggled with committing to the training even though I think I’d probably be more competitive at that distance.

That’s a really impressive result for 11 hours per week though- congrats! Always sucks to miss a nice round number, but to get that close on your first is a pretty big achievement in itself. (Also I’d love to swim like you one day!)
Enjoy the family mornings- you can always get back to hammering the training once they’re older :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

1490

@TG333 Thanks for the report, it’s a great result despite your own expectations. That 14s is infuriating. I know the feeling, My 100m TT PB is 4:30:05 (I missed the turn on a roundabout).
The family thing will be running through more than a few minds here and on the 1000’s of other competitors. You are far from alone but I doubt it feels like it. I’ve been struggling to ave. 5hrs a week (partly injury affected in for my 70.3 and managed 6h 16. There is so much potential there.

I’ve already decided not to put any race in the future after the school holidays. The only exception will be IM Wales. My 2nd starts full Time in two weeks, I’ll drop to Olympic next year. I doubt I’ll lower my expectations though. Getting all deep and meaningful, whatever you do, it doesn’t have to be forever.

I’m trying to convince myself as much as anyone else.

1491

HI everyone! Long time lurker on this thread - thank you so much to @JoeX for organizing and to everyone for sharing your progress and race reports. Super cool.

To date, I’ve mostly been into the cycling side of things but being in Lake Placid during Ironman weekend got me thinking that I’d like to shift into triathlon. I’m hoping to eventually build towards a full distance IM in a few years….and generally build more versatility and variety. Plus, much easier to take a swimming and running habit while traveling than cycling :slight_smile:

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about coaching and would love to hear your perspectives on a few questions:

  1. How have you all decided for yourselves whether to work with a coach or to follow a prescribed plan?
  2. If you have worked with a coach, how did you find one and specifically how did you weigh someone who is local to you vs. a remote coach? I live in NY and we have a bunch of local coaches, but also tons outside of here.
  3. I know I’ll need help with running and especially swim technique. That would be a point in favor of a local coach…but unfortunately in NY there aren’t that many pools and from what I hear they are fairly strict about not allowing coaches so I may end up using video anyhow. How do you all get feedback on your form and technique for running and swimming? (Thank you for the discussion above re the remote swim coaching outfit in CA)

Thanks so much!

1492

Welcome aboard!

The topic of coaching is pretty complex. You can have different coaches for different purposes and the solution depends on what you need. One thing that is very likely to be effective for an adult onset swimmer is a swim coach to help you build the basics of good swim technique. That the one area where toiling away with no third party feedback will likely result in frustration and painfully slow progress. On the upside, once you understand the basic elements of good swim technique you won’t need a swim coach all that much.

Beyond that a having a coach can mean someone writes your training plan and is available for questions or someone is highly involved in your training life, discussin sessions, talking you up, providing constant feedback and keeping you accountable - and everything in between.

Reading through this thread you’ll plenty of athletes doing extremely well self coached, using TR plans. Requires sufficient self motivation and the willingness to make decisions yourself.

My personal anecdote: I’ve gotten into triathlon self-coached and did okay on cookie-cutter plans, but reached a plateau after a few years. Figured that doing things differently would be a good idea and found a local guy (our dads frequent the sauna together back home, apparently) who offered tri coaching. A certified PT, top age grouper a while a go and gace him a try. We plan my season together and he writes my monthly training plan. He is available for questions and feedback, but I hardly make use of that. For all intents and purposes he could be remote, I guess in our case it was just easier to built trust knowing we hail from the same region and could meet up if that was necessary.

Re:Swimming - Masters teams are probably the best way to have a coach on deck without breaking the bank. Apart from that you can get a lot of okay to good feedback on the internet on videos of yourself. I absolutely loath slowtwitch, but for video feedback it’s a good place, r/swimming can be useful too. Beyond those free options there is also Tower26 and Effortless Swimming (and probably a few more) who offer remote video analysis. And finally, a swim clinic, ideally couopled with a training camp or even family vacation.

1493

Hey, if you’re not selfish in your twenties then you’ve missed your chance :wink:

Joking aside, I just wanted to say that yes it’s true some people do sacrifice a lot for IM training and that’s a hard choice no one here is criticising what you choose to do. But there are plenty of people with stressful jobs and families that train for Ironman without damaging relationships.

IMO: Once you have got to a level of fitness where you can finish an Ironman, you can maintain it on much less training. There are plenty of MOPs who can do it on half their maximal training.

My first Ironman I did sit down with the wife and say “I want to do this thing, it’s going to wipe me out for 6 months. Are you ok with that?” And it sure did. I wasn’t training indoors, I wasn’t using TR, I was falling asleep with my face in a pie after cycling home fairly frequently. In a word, to describe the task “mammoth” would probably be it. Up to 12hrs+ in a week on the bike alone fairly regularly.

These days (6yrs later) I’m not kidding you, maybe myself, but I could finish an Ironman any day. …It’s my ego that wants to be faster, or not race at all.

Stealth training; cycle to work, short runs at lunchtime, getting up three hours before the family, these things all “hide” the training. But it was TR and indoor training that got me down to 5-6hrs on the bike, with room for swim and bike, and yet still getting faster bike splits.

There’s nothing quite like the communal fear of walking to the start line or the individual elation of coming down the red carpet. It’s epic whether you are winning, setting a PB or evading the final cut off. You are screaming to the world “I am alive!” with every pore of your body.

Rest. And breathe. :slightly_smiling_face:

1494

Well this got me all jacked up again lol

1495

It is The Way and The Light, you are welcome :innocent:

I don’t rank my hobby that highly against my other outgoings and commitments.

A triathlon coach is someone who wants me to succeed, embues me with confidence, phones me up at 6am on Monday and says “How are you enjoying them intervals? Ha ha!”. An online plan and a few emails doesn’t do that for me. TR gives me structure and progression.

I’ve had coaches for running and swimming. Both were great and inspired me to succeed.

I have wondered about a cycling coach but a childhood of causing trouble on a BMX and six years of TR I think the gains for me would be minimal now. Pacing and aero position are the Big Rocks, so if these are new then a coach getting you through that would be valuable.

1496

I’m not sure if you’ve already made a purchase, but I have these from Castelli - https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Castelli/Free-Tri-Short/I0DV

They’re by far and away my favourite shorts to ride in (I find myself wearing them for rides instead of cycling-specific shorts), even with one of the thinnest chamois pads that any of my shorts have. I also race in a set of Castelli socks that are very comfortable and stay in place!!

Pretty decent sale at Sigma too.

1497

Has anyone done The Lakesman (uk)?

Ive just signed up for the Full in 2023.

1498

Can’t be anything but over the moon with how my first Ironman/Ironman Canada went with the (expensive) cherry on top of a Kona qualifying spot. :flushed: I very likely would have done this race much earlier in my triathlon journey as this is the race that inspired me to take up the sport. Unfortunately, my first year of triathlon just so happened to coincide with Ironman Canada’s last year in Penticton after 30 years in 2012 and the desire to do my first Ironman anywhere else was extremely low. That was until yesterday when I finally got to experience The Legend and I’m so happy to have finally checked it off my bucket list. I guaranteed wouldn’t have had the day I had yesterday without a decade of learning the sport (and all 3 of the individual sports) and gaining experience along the way so I guess the stars aligned for me in that way. Now I have about 13 months to prepare for the other legendary race of the sport in Kona, October 2023!

1499

Well done, congratulations!

1500

Fantastic! Well done :medal_sports::hibiscus:

1501

congrats! can we get a race recap from a Kona Qualifier? Paces, power, nutrition, etc. The Kona series the guys do on the podcast have always been my favorite episodes. I love to know the specifics of what it takes on race day to get to the big island!

Congrats again

1502

I second this request for a race report from the legendary @wyku

Congrats!!!

1503

As requested by @teamsuchevich and @Michael_Tate here’s my Ironman Canada 2022 Race Report. :grinning:

TL:DR stats first:

Swim: 1:08:00 (27/152 M4044, 231/1585 OA)
T1: 3:14
Bike: 5:13:21 (4/152 M4044, 17/1585 OA)
T2: 4:58
Run: 3:12:49 (2/152 M4044, 11/1582 OA)
Finish: 9:42:40 (3/152 M4044, 15/1585 OA)

55 2023 Kona Slots up from the normal amount of 40 which made for 5 slots available in M4044, none of which rolled down. I think I would have still got my slot even with the old amount of slots though.

Swim:
The water was too warm for wetsuits all week leading up to the race (wetsuit “optional”, meaning if you wore one you wouldn’t be able to claim AG awards or KQ spots). The weather really cooled off (about 23-24°C instead of 7-10° higher) on Saturday before the race with strong winds which helped drop the water temp a couple degrees so any stress over having to swim without the wetsuit (and in crazy waves) went away on race morning with the cooler temps and calmer winds. It was a rolling swim start and I lined up in the 60-70 minutes group. I have never been super comfortable in open water and have had a couple of panic attacks at races in the past so my general mantra is just to keep as calm and controlled as possible and just make it out unscathed. I didn’t feel like being in the mix of bodies so I kept to the outside and didn’t end up drafting off anyone–not great for a fast time, but kept me relaxed. Had some calf twinges come on during the back half and kicking a little more seemed to help rather than not kicking, as I think I wasn’t just focused flexing my feet to keep them straight with more kicking. A few minutes slower than I thought/hoped I’d be even with the relaxed effort, but I made it through and that’s always the #1 goal.

T1:
Ran into issues with my gear bag rope getting caught in my helmet visor when I dumped out by bag. I had to give it a couple yanks to dislodge it and ended busting the visor off its clip when I yanked it out. I thought it was broken since there was already a small crack around the clip before, but I was thankfully able to get it clipped back in. I put socks on as I always do and put my bike shoes on, which I don’t normally do, but there was conflicting messaging about whether we were allowed to do it and I didn’t think it added much time in this case either way.

Bike:
Probably went out a little harder than I should have, but I was feeling good and still kept things in control. There was tons of people coming out of T1 and up Main St. which also gave a nice boost to start the bike. HR was a little high, but that was to be expected and I just let it gradually come down over time without too much focus on it at this point. I live in a pancake flat area so training for the ~1900m of climbing for this course is impossible out on the roads, so I did a lot of indoor rides of the course–once on Fulgaz which was terrible as it got stuck at a resistance level early on and I didn’t get any grade changes throughout 90% of the ride, and 3 times using a non-video version on Rouvy as it was both the correct course and had the correct elevation profile. This also gave me opportunity to practice my nutrition strategy based on the location of the aid stations on the course map–this ended up being very helpful and I was basically able to recreate it on race day. No real issues on the bike other than the unexpected long grind back into town with a headwind at the end that I thought I would have got a little more recovery on. Only got passed by one person that I didn’t end up repassing and came into T2 right after him.

T2:
Really had to pee after getting off the bike which added a couple minutes in T2. I haven’t been able to mentally or physically bring myself to piss myself on the bike lol. I guess I don’t take it that seriously… I also switched to a fresh pair of socks and I had switched back to regular laces in my shoes instead of elastic ones as the round elastic laces really start to hurt the top of my feet after awhile (up to a half marathon is about all I can take) so I took the slight time hit tying them up in favour of comfort.

Run:
Felt good heading out on the run after the world’s longest pee. There was a steep hill almost immediately after starting the run, followed by about another 4km of mostly uphill on a crusher dust/gravel trail through vineyards and the bluffs along the lake–really nice part of the course! I ran the 1st part of the hill, but walked the 2nd steeper part to keep things in check. HR was a little higher than target, but not a lot and I was staying in my target HR zone. It wasn’t as hot as it had been, but it was still very warm and there was zero cloud cover so the sun was blistering. I started putting a cup of ice in my hat at each aid station and later added an ice cube in each hand between aid stations to help control the heat–I normally wear a visor when racing, but I switched to a hat specifically for this reason and I was really happy I did as it worked great! It was steady running keeping a 4:30/km average pace until about 34km when my hamstrings started twinging a bit–not too unexpected for me. I thought I’d try taking on some cola (Pepsi in this case) to try and get a boost at this point in the run, but when I slowed down to drink it my left hamstring locked up! I had to stop for a little while and try to stretch it out and release it before I could even start walking again. Eventually I got walking then shuffling and finding some sort of run stride that I could use to keep more lock-ups at bay. Basically had to manage my effort the rest of the way to keep the cramps at bay (and some GI issues near the end too). This actually made the output effort easier since my HR dropped as I couldn’t run as fast–I had hoped to bring up the effort on the last bit instead, but you can only play the cards you’re dealt. With the energy of the crowd along Lakeshore Drive I was able to get moving decently again for the last stretch into the finish and become an Ironman for the first time!

Overall thoughts:
I stayed positive throughout the day with no negative thoughts of hating it or not wanting to do another one or questioning my life choices which was a win! I really wanted to enjoy the day and I think I did that. Having a lot of people out across the course cheering everyone on was awesome and helped keep the energy up as I could give lots of smiles and thumbs up’s to everyone. It was a long road to get here and made even longer due to the pandemic delaying the race twice, but it was worth the wait and I highly recommend the race to anyone looking for an Ironman to do!

YouTube video of the day is here:

A nice write-up of the day is here:

Nutrition:

  • Pre-race was 2 pieces of toast with PB&J, 1 bottle of 3-scoops of Gu Roctane Lemon Berry w/1 tsp of Sodium Citrate after waking up, 1 partial bottle with 1-scoop of Gu Roctane Lemon Berry shortly before the swim.
  • Bike started 1 bottle of Gu Roctane Lemon Berry w/1 tsp of Sodium Citrate before switching to on-course normal Gatorade until Special Needs. 1 Hammer Gel Flask with 5-oz of Maple Syrup + 1 tsp of Sodium Citrate with ~1-oz swigs every 15-20km or so. Special Needs had a frozen bottle of Gu Roctane Lemon Berry w/1 tsp of Sodium Citrate and another 5-oz of Maple Syrup + 1 tsp of Sodium Citrate. Same frequency of swigs of Maple Syrup and switching to Gatorade once my Gu bottle was gone (~1 bottle per hour).
  • Run was 2 more Hammer Gel Flasks with 5-oz of Maple Syrup + 1 tsp of Sodium Citrate and I also had a BASE salt tube. I took ~1-oz swigs every 4km or so. I ended up spilling the BASE salt tube all over my hands around the 6-7km mark, then the lid got all mucked up and wouldn’t close well, and eventually fell out (I think it was almost empty anyway), but it’s hard to say if that mattered in the end–managing the heat with the ice kept my typically high sweat rate down a bit too. It was VERY salty giving a lick on the tongue from the tube and it wasn’t sitting that well with me so I kinda paused on taking it anymore anyway.

Training Build-up:
Here’s what my Intervals.icu chart looked like from Jan 1. to race day:

IMC-2022_35_Weeks
IMC-2022_35_Weeks2115×1051 166 KB

I mainly focused on the last 12 weeks, but had a 2-week vacation in the middle of it that derailed things a bit. I wasn’t as fit as I would have been had the race happened last year, but I was much more prepared with nutrition especially so I think that really helped lead to the great day I had.

I also got really close to the targets I set on my TR calendar at the start of the year! :grinning:

20220831_150115
20220831_1501151920×2560 264 KB

20220831_150514
20220831_1505141920×2560 237 KB

1504

Ironman Canada was my first full distance Tri and it lived up to everything I expected and more.
Was 10th out 31 in my age group with a 14:17 (1:17 swim / 6:33 bike / 6:10 run).

Am experienced swimmer and open water does not bother me, but the crowds and trying to swim around/through/over people was a new challenge. On the bike, targeted a relative low intensity to save it for the run (.7 IF), only occasionally looked at power meter. After having flats in all season, it was a lucky day and got none. Still haven’t figured out how to pee on the bike :frowning:

Trained for and did the last leg as run/walk. If I ran the whole way would have certainly been injured.

Nutrition: used Marten 320 in 6 bottles (3 at start, 3 at personel needs). On run just went by feel, but if had too much gatorade it was making me get side ache.

Overall, happy with the the finish especially given the low volume plan I used.

1505

I’m going to have to try Maple Syrup + 1 tsp of Sodium Citrate

1506

Works great! It does get a little weird on the run with all the jostling though, like it gets frothed up. Still works, but not quite as nice as when fresh or in the bike. I also add just a little bit of water, basically topping up the flask from the 5oz mark to the top.

ETA: I try to chase each swig with water as well to help balance things out. That doesn’t work out as well on the run with aid stations being at different points compared to my schedule, but sometimes I’d grab an ice cube or two from my hat if it ended up being too long to the next aid station. :joy:

1507

I believe it’s mandatory at IM Canada

1508

Anyone has recommendation on sodium pills or alternatives?

When I was running I would use salt pills on marathons if weather was above 60… worked well always…
Last long event I did I had issues with cramping on the run (something that never ever happened when I was running marathons). So I think I need to add some sodium, but I am not sure what the cool kids are doing now days.