If nothing else, I suspect were you actually to manage a consistent nine hours every week, you won’t be far from the Ironman norm. It would be interesting – were triathletes completely honest – to collect statistics on training hours versus performance; the majority of those on the course, the middle and back of the pack, probably won’t be averaging much more. I know from the athletes I coach that much of the year is spent averaging only a few hours over this, not a huge stretch above.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Postscript
I found Russ Cox's post about minimal Ironman training extremely interesting. I think you'd have to add on a couple hours per week to translate from elite to back-of-pack (i.e. running 2 hours at 6-minute pace would need to be converted to more like 3+ hours for 10-minute miles to cover same weekly distance - ditto for biking), but the central observation is very much to the point:
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3 comments:
Interesting but in my running life I have always found difficult to follow a program not based on my possibilities. I remember how many times I tried to prepare a marathon under the 3h30' and how many times I had to give up 3/4 weeks before the event for some injury or health problems (flu, bronchitis ecc).
I suspect
that life, including family and work play major parts in keeping many from hitting all their training bogeys each week.
Hi,
Saw the link to my blog (thanks) and thought I'd add a comment.
The minimal plan was really targeted at all the searches I see for that term. It's not really ideal in the sense that Ironman needs time on feet at some point in preparation, but I thought I'd look at what might be acceptable if you really can't spare the time. If someone can (and wants to) train for longer then I'd certainly encourage them to.
I'd agree how well you run (or bike, or swim) off this sort of plan would very much depend how well you'd trained/raced in the past. For the slower athlete this plan is going to result in a tough, long day, for the faster athlete it likely lets them get round in one-piece.
Thanks for reading,
Russ
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