Ironman 2012

iPete

So with the forum down I've been having a go at learning to run again, odd after years of cycling!

Anybody else daft enough to have entered an IM event?

SCR is really suffering :evil:

essex-commuter

iPete wrote:

So with the forum down I've been having a go at learning to run again, odd after years of cycling!

Anybody else daft enough to have entered an IM event?

SCR is really suffering :evil:

I have friends that do Iroman's, pretty hardcore. I'm contemplating doing a half.

cougie

Lots of resources here http://www.pirateshipoffools.co.uk/

'Normal' people doing Ironman races.

cjcp

Did an IM-distance one - The Longest Day - in 2005.

Never again. The training takes up a ridiculous amount of time.

You'll get lots of info from Tritalk

hells

I've done a half IM, that was pretty hard, especially in the tail end of a hurricane. I want to do a full IM but I know I really need to work on my swimming, I am only just staying within the swim cut off times at the moment. It would be less of an issue with a lake swim than a sea awim.I also want to run a few more marathons 1st to build my confidence up. My advice would be to spend the most time on your swim unless your already a very good swimmer.

iPete

Cj already on tritalk but always good to get some perspective off the high mile commuters on here! To be honest I'd not bother with the training if I wasn't doing the cycling on my commute!

hells, what I was afraid of, not doing any swimming yet, to much of a PITA without a car around here. Plan on nailing my running first & after 3 weeks its coming on really well [apart from feeling sick for the last 2 hours ]. Hopefully get loads of swimming in during the Crimbo break, if I can't nail that, I'll never get a sub 12. [ok sub 13 is more realistic] :twisted:

See the cut off is 2 hours 20, managed a 36 minute mile [1500m] at my first and only Tri this summer, so should hopefully be able to scale that up at the same pace.

The Running Man

Did a half IM in 2003 and really enjoyed it.

Did the 1.2 mile swim in 40 mins and then just over 3 hrs for the bike and under 2 hrs for the run. I’ll confess the last 2 miles of the run were tough but then if it was easy everyone would be doing them 

The trick if there is one is getting out of the water reasonably fresh which means making sure your swim technique is tolerably good. If you’re fighting the water (and the people around you) you’re wasting valuable energy that you’ll be desperate for by the end. I made a conscious effort to cruise through it and then eat as much as I could on the bike and try to recover a little so that by the time I started the run I wasn’t completely depleted.

My plan was always to do a Full Ironman but I read The Rules and moved away from the dark side : remember that a bike ride may NEVER be preceded by a swim or followed by a run

  

Gussio

The Running Man wrote:

My plan was always to do a Full Ironman but I read The Rules and moved away from the dark side : remember that a bike ride may NEVER be preceded by a swim or followed by a run

  

Velominati? One of the best cycle blogs out there....

The Running Man

Yep!!

UndercoverElephant

If Ironman 2012 anywhere near as bad as Ironman 2, I certainly won't go and see it.

HebdenBiker

I did Ironman Austria in 2006. If your aim is merely to finish inside the cut-off, then this is completely achievable by a mortal.

Beware - there is so much b0ll0cks talked about triathlon because it does attract those who obsess about training numbers, kit, course profiles, whatever. There are a lot of blaggers and a lot of show-offs.

To finish an Ironman inside the cutoff, it's all about muscular endurance, so:

1. Make sure you can swim 3800m in about an hour and a half, in open water wearing a well-fitting wetsuit. Oh and don't do breaststroke or you'll knacker your knees and kick everyone on race day.
2. Ride your bike. A lot. Start with 3-hour rides and work upwards from there, maintaining average speed of 16mph, never dropping below 15mph average on windy/hilly days. On race day, the cut-off times are the same whatever the weather and whategver the gradients.
3. Be finishing half-marathons in under 2 hours. This will set you up for a five-hour IM marathon, using a run/shuffle/waddle strategy.

Kit you will need:
1. Tri suit
2. Wetsuit
3. Road bike/helmet/shoes
4. Running shoes

Don't be sucked into buying more than you need. I got round IM Austria on a 2nd hand Giant TCR I bought for £300. Of course if you WANT tri-spoke wheels and an aero helmet then good luck to you.

iPete

I'll be adopting Velominati after IM! unless for some reason I get addicted, saying that, my running has reached the point that I'm getting massive endorphin rushes :twisted:

HebdenBiker thanks for the advice, thankfully I've all of the kit I need [no pointy helemts or TT bikes for me].
Going to go with tri shorts only and decide my top half on the day for each leg after the swim. Don't plan on doing many of these so have sub 13 in my head but I think with the right training I could get close to sub 12.

Riding a lot already thanks to the commute [20.5 miles each way] and aiming to run a sub 1:40 half marathon in April. Its my swimming thats the big unknown at the moment!!

ex-pat scot

Tempted...
My commute's the same as yours, plus I can bang out marathons in 3:00 -3:05 pretty routinely.

However I have absolutely NO swim technique, stamina, style, muscles, kit.

It's on my long-list of things to do. With quite a few other things. Practical stuff (family, finances, spouse reluctance) rather than inertia is keeping me away from most of them.

essex-commuter

HebdenBiker wrote:

I did Ironman Austria in 2006. .

My friend did this in 2006, he finished in 9.20 qualifying him for Hawaii. Hawaii all booked, 20 hours training a week for 4 months, then 3 weeks prior to flying out he was hit by a car while bike training...smashed his knee to bits. He fully recovered but never rode a bike again, he just runs now (marathon 2.40).

cougie

Oh thats gutting ! The poor guy !

I've done 7 IM races now - and yes its very doable.

As mentioned above - you need to be able to crawl, and buy your wetsuit in a proper shop. It needs to be a good fit, or you are just lugging water around with you.

Theres no real need for speedwork in your workouts, unless you're seriously slow.

Plenty of miles on the bike are probably the key - thats the longest part of the day. And you can walk/march a marathon well within cutoff.

Which IM is it you've entered ?

Clever Pun

HebdenBiker

iPete wrote:

I'll be adopting Velominati after IM! unless for some reason I get addicted, saying that, my running has reached the point that I'm getting massive endorphin rushes :twisted:

HebdenBiker thanks for the advice, thankfully I've all of the kit I need [no pointy helemts or TT bikes for me].
Going to go with tri shorts only and decide my top half on the day for each leg after the swim. Don't plan on doing many of these so have sub 13 in my head but I think with the right training I could get close to sub 12.

Riding a lot already thanks to the commute [20.5 miles each way] and aiming to run a sub 1:40 half marathon in April. Its my swimming thats the big unknown at the moment!!

I like your enthusiasm and your ambition.

To go sub-12, every second will count and you'll won't be able to afford to be casual about any of the disciplines. Unless you have a background in competitive swimming, I'd suggest that, unless you have a lot of time to completely re-learn the sport and build your stroke from scratch using professional tuition, you should accept that 1:10 or so is probably the best you will do. This will see you out of the water firmly in the pack. The run - a 1:40 HM time may lead you to a 4:20 or so IM run, if you are very motivated in your training and on the day, bearing in mind you'll be doing it with 112 bike miles in your legs. Add on 10 mins for transitions (keep it very, very simple, hence trisuit) and we're up to 5:40. This leaves you to do a 6:20 bike leg. It depends on the course, but at Ironman UK last year a time like that would have put you in the top third of the field. Or an 17.7mph average for 112 miles on a hilly course. Ironman really is "all about the bike".

Of course I'm estimating your swim and run times wildly, but basing them on experience from my own times.

I wouldn't rely on your commutes to build the necessary bike fitness. You need to know how it feels to ride, and ride, and ride, at race pace, up and down hills, into the wind, in the aero position, for hours and hours on end. As I say, it's all about muscular endurance. You need to be putting in a long ride, which gets progressively longer, each weekend. Then you need to get off the bike and run. That's called a brick session! They are absolutely essential because running with bike miles in your legs is a very weird experience. You need to train for it.

If you're planning on racing IM next summer, do some early-season Half IM races, such as the Trentham Big Half. If you can go, say, sub 5:15 in that race (the bike course is very flat), you may be on for a sub 12 Ironman.

edited: arithmetic fail

SimonAH

I salute you, but you are all very very mad.

cjcp

Sub-12 very do-able. I did close to that in wet conditions and on what can only be described as six months of half-@rsed training.

The swimming was fine; actually quite enjoyable. The wetsuit helps enormously because you have that extra bouyancy.

The bike: not that enjoyable. It was wet, my back hurt and I was a bit slow.

The run: horrendous. It was on an old railway track, it was raining so we all had to dodge puddles, and both knees went just after half-way.

Fcuk that for a game of soldiers. Never again.

coopster_the_1st

This topic made me think of this YouTube clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03dFMG8 ... r_embedded

iPete

cougie it's IM Bolton, next July.

Really useful info all, more so than tritalk!

Fortunately I cycled to Rome last summer (80 mile a day average fully loaded for 18) so have a good idea of long rides. More recently I rode London to Bournemouth 109miles, 6 hours 9 mins rolling, 6:45 with breaks and ferry. Average was 19mph at 90 miles so I'm confident I can ramp up the cycling with some more rides like that.

Its becoming very clear that I need to work on my swim, I'd be very happy to do a 1:10!

Doing brick work already, it'll be 20mile cycle home tomorrow, 15 minute eat/drink/change onto 10 mile run.

HebdenBiker

iPete wrote:

cougie it's IM Bolton, next July.

Really useful info all, more so than tritalk!

Fortunately I cycled to Rome last summer (80 mile a day average fully loaded for 18) so have a good idea of long rides. More recently I rode London to Bournemouth 109miles, 6 hours 9 mins rolling, 6:45 with breaks and ferry. Average was 19mph at 90 miles so I'm confident I can ramp up the cycling with some more rides like that.

Its becoming very clear that I need to work on my swim, I'd be very happy to do a 1:10!

Doing brick work already, it'll be 20mile cycle home tomorrow, 15 minute eat/drink/change onto 10 mile run.

Wow - you are certainly motivated then. Given your times I'm sure you'll reach your goal - good luck. Oh yes and TriTalk - there are some real peckers on there! Not including Cougie, who is a good chap

iPete

MEGA BUMP

Fuck me, it is done. In a few days when I can walk again normal life can resume

Official result:
Swim: 01:23:23
Bike: 05:46:07 http://app.strava.com/rides/14194260
Run: 04:28:31 http://app.strava.com/runs/14221849
Total: 11:57:00
Overall: 235/1500

Pretty handy on a bike when I need to be. Always good fun and must have raised a few eyebrows on my allu roadie, shallow rims, mtb helmet and spds as I cruised passed 500 people in all sorts of aero kit. 8)

gabriel959

its not about the bike!!!

notsoblue

iPete wrote:

MEGA BUMP

fark me, it is done. In a few days when I can walk again normal life can resume

Official result:
Swim: 01:23:23
Bike: 05:46:07 http://app.strava.com/rides/14194260
Run: 04:28:31 http://app.strava.com/runs/14221849
Total: 11:57:00
Overall: 235/1500

Pretty handy on a bike when I need to be. Always good fun and must have raised a few eyebrows on my allu roadie, shallow rims, mtb helmet and spds as I cruised passed 500 people in all sorts of aero kit. 8)

Congrats! Nice work fella!

essex-commuter

Amazing achievement, a big congratualtions from me.

pitchshifter

That's a great run time considering the heel problems. Paced it spot on by the looks of it as well.

The big question - Would you do it again?

pangolin

Wow!! Well done!!!

essex-commuter

pitchshifter wrote:

The big question - Would you do it again?

Surely that was a qualifying time for Hawaii no?

pangolin

You got 3rd overall in the 50k Strava segment that was a whole lap of the IM route?!

EKE_38BPM

Good work. Looks like you got some good times once you were out of the water.