1/2 ironman training plan?

dee_thurman

My training plan doesn't call for me to practice biking and then running as soon as I am finished biking. I plan on doing a sprint marathon 10 weeks into my training but shouldn't I practice this a few more times than just the sprint marathon?

sarabushby

Oh gosh yes. Practice a brick session at least once a week surely. After your long ride would be good, just do say 15-30min run straight away with a super quick transition from one to the other to get the most benefit. This is what I'll be doing tomorrow morning. Yuck.

If you get the chance to try a duathlon race at any stage over the next 20wks that would also give you valuable experience.

dee_thurman

I am going to do a sprint triathlon as my trial run before I do a larger triathlon later. I am one of those people that I have to practice bricks if that is what I am going to do in the race.

bradcfairchild

I've enjoyed all of your comments on this topic. I searched for people doing Ironman events to see what they were up to. Great job on the Marathon. Sounds like you jump in with both feet. "Total Immersion", is a great book to read for triathlon swimming. Swimming with a local swim club can help a lot. If you can already swim a mile you will only get better using the techniques in that book. I keep my own spreadsheet for training. It's a place to start making intentions and goals. This time I started at the date of the event and work back to see what I need to do to get close to ready. I'm doing a half Ironman in less than 2 weeks. May 7 2016 in St George, Utah. I've been training for it for about 2 months so it's been a steeper curve to get the miles in. My longest run was14 miles, biked was 44, I haven't got in the water yet. but I am using a body glide machine which strengthens those muscles a little. I am a little worried if I will be able to run after the swim and the bike. I've not done any brick workouts and probably wont in the next 2 weeks. I kind of signed up and am using the half as motivation and a check to see where I am at for the Ironman in August. I had some unexpected back problems I needed to work through. Good luck with your training and goals.

glevinso

dee_thurman wrote: »

My training plan doesn't call for me to practice biking and then running as soon as I am finished biking. I plan on doing a sprint marathon 10 weeks into my training but shouldn't I practice this a few more times than just the sprint marathon?

A marathon is a 26.2 mile run. Not sure what you mean by "sprint marathon".

jacksonpt

glevinso wrote: »

20 weeks? To just complete? Sure I think you can pull it off considering you have the fitness base of a full marathon under your belt. Have you swam in open water before? It is not really anything like swimming in a pool going back and forth staring at a black line.

Definitely work on the bike though. The road bike is a good tool for the job (in fact most half-iron races specifically will disallow anything other than a tri or road bike). You have the aerobic base, but building to a 56 mile ride will take some effort. It will be a challenge but one you should be able to pull off.

The real trick, though, is being able to get off the bike and still actually run well for 13 miles. That is the real challenge of any triathlon though.

I cannot emphasize that point enough.

dee_thurman

Glevinso - I meant to write a sprint triathlon.

Brad - I have looked online for programs to train for a half ironman. I do not think I actually swim or run the actual distance that I will have to go on race day. I will swim more distance on a specific day but not all at once. It works more on building up speed after longer warm ups and cool downs. It gets close but you don't actually swim 1.2 miles. I will bike over 50 miles multiple times. I will only run around 10 or 11 miles at one time. It has me swimming biking and running 3 days a week. Since it is my first triathlon I really have nothing to compare it. I will post the link below. If you want, tell me what you think?

dee_thurman

http://www.trinewbies.com/tno_trainingprograms/tno_HIM.asp

dee_thurman

Sarabushby - if you don't mind my training schedule is above. If you don't mind, tell me when you would bike/run or swim/bike or do all 3 within the training program?

glevinso

dee_thurman wrote: »

http://www.trinewbies.com/tno_trainingprograms/tno_HIM.asp

Seems somewhat reasonable. Fairly swim heavy, but that isn't a bad thing at all. I see no benefit to those 60 minute "walks" in there however. Not sure what the point of that is.

I definitely recommend getting at least one shorter race in like the sprint tri you mentioned. It really helps to learn how to transition in a race situation.

I don't see any bricks or transition runs in that plan. I personally am not a fan of brick workouts (where you do a full bike ride and a full run workout back to back). However throwing in a few transition runs after your long bike ride can be very beneficial. I differentiate a transition run from a brick - A T-run is really just 2, or at most 3 miles of a run off the bike, not a full "workout" like a 6 mile run or something like that.

This does seem a bit light on the long runs though. I would recommend, since you have a base of already running a marathon, to get your long runs at the end of the plan well up there. Even getting to 15 or 16 miles. There is also nothing wrong with doing a few over-distance bike rides (60-65 miles) near the end of the plan.

sarabushby

Hi Dee, seems like a solid plan, I've never yet stepped up to half distance myself so can't really say I'm in a good place to give advice! I run after biking/spin as often as convenient, not far though, only 2-3km usually as I cram it in between two spin classes for example. It gets your legs used to the shock of trying to run off the bike though.
I'm surprised how short the swims are in the first section of the plan.
My current training is more intense than this but yet I wouldnt have the confidence to take on a half-distance. Std/Olympic is enough for me this year!

dee_thurman

glevianso - I agree about the transition bike/runs. I also agree about the longer bike rides but I it looks to me like that there isn't much of a taper towards the end before the actual race. In my marathon training there were full two days off before the race. You only ran 8 miles as the long run a week before the race. This plan has you biking 50 miles (almost the whole distance a week before the race) That doesn't seem like much of a taper. I am giving myself plenty of time (18 weeks) I think that there should be more of a taper towards the end of the program... Don't you?

dee_thurman

Any idea what decent times are for biking and swimming?

I swam 1000 yards in the pool today.
I biked 20 miles yesterday.

I don't really have an idea what a decent time is for swimming in a pool or biking on a good paved trail in normal conditions with very little hills.

Any help?

glevinso

dee_thurman wrote: »

glevianso - I agree about the transition bike/runs. I also agree about the longer bike rides but I it looks to me like that there isn't much of a taper towards the end before the actual race. In my marathon training there were full two days off before the race. You only ran 8 miles as the long run a week before the race. This plan has you biking 50 miles (almost the whole distance a week before the race) That doesn't seem like much of a taper. I am giving myself plenty of time (18 weeks) I think that there should be more of a taper towards the end of the program... Don't you?

For what it's worth I don't really taper much for any big race. I have a full Ironman coming up in 2 weeks and I am not going to start actually anything resembling a taper until half way through next week. In other words, at most I get 9 days of "easy" ahead of a full Ironman. Unlike a marathon where you are running upwards of 60-70 miles a week and beating yourself into a pulp, you don't beat yourself up all that badly training for long distance triathlon. You build your endurance mostly on the bike so that your body doesn't get too broken by longer and longer runs.

I am not a fan of tapers at all for long distance triathlon. You simply don't need it the way you do if training only for a marathon. I will also put out there that most marathon runners are not running enough miles to really need a full 3-week taper. When I am training for a standalone marathon I give myself only 2 actual weeks. The last time I was training for a full open marathon, I ran a full marathon 2 weeks before running the actual race I was training for. The first marathon was just conveniently happening the day I needed to run my last 22 miler, and then I jogged the last 4 miles really easy. Then ran my race for time 2 weeks later.

So I actually like the amount of "taper" your plan gives you

glevinso

dee_thurman wrote: »

Any idea what decent times are for biking and swimming?

I swam 1000 yards in the pool today.
I biked 20 miles yesterday.

I don't really have an idea what a decent time is for swimming in a pool or biking on a good paved trail in normal conditions with very little hills.

Any help?

This is impossible to answer. What are your goals for race day? My idea of a "good time" and anyone else's is going to be drastically different. It is all dependent on what you are aiming for.

Do you want to win the race? Win your age group? Come in the top 50% of your age group? Just finish? Just not be last?

sarabushby

Sorry @dee_thurman I agree with @glevinso it's impossible to say what 'decent' is. You could take a look at the previous results for the race you're aiming at, check out the finish time and splits for people in your age group if you want some kind of benchmark. Bearing in mind of course pool swim & OW swim are a different kettle of fish.

In the pool our sprint race distance is 400m so 437yards, our faster tri club folk might get that down to between 5-6mins, most ppl will be 7-8mins and then those who are newer or do less swim training 8-12mins? So a typical time for 1000yds maybe 20mins? Not sure that's any help mind as it can vary so much.

LindzMiche

dee_thurman wrote: »

Any idea what decent times are for biking and swimming?

I swam 1000 yards in the pool today.
I biked 20 miles yesterday.

I don't really have an idea what a decent time is for swimming in a pool or biking on a good paved trail in normal conditions with very little hills.

Any help?

Depending on what race you do too.. you need to be mindful of cutoff times. You will get pulled off the course if you are slower than what they set up as cutoff times. I'm sure a lot of people can finish half irons.. but within the cutoff time may be a different story.

Djproulx

As others have said, the answer to the "decent time" question depends on not only your goals, but also factors such as the terrain, heat, etc. When putting the 3 disciplines together into a race day performance, fueling and pacing also come into play.

dee_thurman

As far as times go, I am not really interested in finishing in any place other than just finishing the race. However when I I start the race I don't want to be towards the bottom. What are the average times for swimming in a pool while training or biking?

dee_thurman

sarabushby - thanks for the swim times - that gives me what I was looking for.