1/2 ironman training plan?

glevinso wrote: »

Capt_Apollo wrote: »

i guess i wish you would reconsider doing the half iron man right away. it takes a lot to build to it. and if you are dead set on that race, i'd just skip the sprint. no need. they are two very different types of triathons.

I am going to disagree here. Most of the time when someone reccos not jumping straight to a half iron, it is because the person asking the question is coming off the couch. With a full marathon under the OP's belt I would say the half iron is certainly doable. Personally I feel that a full marathon, despite being shorter, is a much harder event physically than a half iron.

The sprint race is good for practice and to experience transitions in a race situation.

i guess i can see both sides.

dee_thurman wrote: »

In looking at the race info it says you can wear a wetsuit if the water is 78 degrees or cooler. It also says that the lake is usually in the mid to upper 70's. It says you can rent a wetsuit and gives you 2 different places to rent them.

bike course aid stations offering

gatorade bottles
water bottles
bananas
pretzels
gel
ice

run - every mile

gatorade
water
pepsi
ice
gel
bananas
oranges
pretzels
pickel juice
broth
cookies
cool sponges

seems like pretty typical aid stations. my first and only 70.3 had a bike aid station that you passed four times. it was a two loop bike course, such as yours. i loved it, as i didn't need to carry quite as much liquids on the bike as i might normally because i could always get more. however, biking through an aid station can be tricky. don't stop, just slow down and go to the side. one good way to make sure a volunteer knows to give you a bottle is to be vocal and point at the person.

Both bike and run courses look "mostly flat". You will have a couple of mild rises on both courses, but nothing I would consider a real hill.

In-water start means everyone crosses a timing mat to indicate you actually did start the race, but then everyone treads water for a few moments and then your time starts when the gun for your wave goes off.

Wave starts are assigned, usually by age group. They will tell you what wave you are in, and it is usually color-coded on the swim caps. Makes it easy in case you forget. If your swim cap is purple, just hang with everyone with purple caps and go with them. Don't start with the guys in the previous wave wearing yellow, or the next wave wearing green

dee_thurman wrote: »

FYI - I am currently at day 192 for eating healthy and exercising. That gives you some sort of a feel of how long I have been active. I have ran a mini and a marathon in that time.

Depending on how seriously you are training, and what volume you are pushing, you might find you have to do some pretty funny things to maintain your weight. Right now I keep a jar of peanut butter on my night stand and sometimes need to grab some at 2am. I eat everything in sight. I eat pretty much constantly. I eat mostly healthy things, but I am at the point now where I can't afford to lose more weight but it is happening anyway. Bring on the beer and cheeseburgers because otherwise there isn't any way to get enough calories to keep myself from becoming a wisp of aerobic nothingness

I like 70.3 more than marathon, probably less pounding in training and the race.
My races have been just around $100 - probably because they aren't paying for the official "Ironman" moniker.
But even there, one in Branson I couldn't do was I thought $135 and was official.

I thought you said the marathon kind of went bad near the end. I'd examine that, if it was a matter of going out too quick and using up the limited muscle-glucose stores - it can happen even easier and faster in 70.3.
If it was a matter of being dehydrated, need to examine that too.

That's when the longer sessions recommended above what the training plan gave (I didn't like it either) gives you a chance to test foods/gels/water and timing. You can only absorb so much so fast, and for many too much sitting there causes stomach issues.
But not enough and you'll get the low blood sugar tiredness, and while you might eat enough to get over that - if you fell behind on carb intake at the pace you are going - you'll never make up for going too low in the muscles.

So not sure if you hit the first mental wall in the marathon, or the actual physical wall, if that was it when did it happen?
Do you use HRM for training?

I'd suggest rather than short sprint-tri, just look for a long or olympic or international distance race near you.

You could do that in the midst of training for the 70.3 once you hit those shorter distances in training.
We have a June/July Olympic and then Aug/Sep 70.3 - and that seems to work just fine, plenty of time to recover from shorter race and miss injury (hopefully), and enough time to taper down before next, and still keep increasing training for almost 6 weeks.

Hi Dee, I'm currently training for my 'A race' of the season - Windsor Triathlon, Olympic/Standard distance. I have only 5wks left and although I train all year round have been loosely following an 8wk plan I downloaded (it's very basic though just gives a sport & duration, doesn't prescribe what kind of session you should do, which is good for me as I know to mix up endurance and speedwork etc).

This wk I've been a bit 'off plan' as I raced a half-marathon Monday, so I rested Tue, rode 24mi Wed, swam 2km Thur, rode 30mi Fri. Today I raced 5km and did a special triathlon training swim session 2km, tomorrow a longer 44mi ride.

Sounds like you're doing good in your training keep the updates coming!