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Comments
Id resign
or failing resigning - could you revert to the Fink just get round plan for 6 weeks?
10 weeks into Outlaw training as a newbie, I though I would do a top 10 learnings so far...
1. You can pay a fortune for a bike.
2. I now want an expensive bike.
3. By moving more you loose weight (10lbs so far ).
4. You go faster on your bike when you weigh less
5. By entering an ironman distance event you should become immune from colds.
6. I need an Imodium and toilet race strategy.
7. A fat @rse is good for swimming buoyancy.
8. Being able to swim just mean more people will go pass me on the bike
9. Cycling hurts your most sensitive bit. Now I know why HRH Chrissie is having a break.
10. My husband is capable of looking after the kids when I train.
Dusty old bean. HTFU
Seriously. Work is quite often like that for me with travel etc, and if I look ahead in one lump I get anxiety about how to squeeze all the training in and what will happen.
I now plan on a weekly basis at breakfast Monday mornings, and work on a daily basis around what needs to be done today. What do I need to do TODAY to achieve TOMORROW.
And +1 on what Siggy said. The Pirates were a figment of imagination till some tall bloke talked at me for 30 miles around the Surrey hills.
Have a look at the lady garden thread.... While you need to htfu you sit bones/ muscles, you should ( apparently) not be abusing your lady garden when you ride
Otherwise things just get unpleasant.
My missus uses an adamo / itm race saddle - they hammer the sit bones but take pressure off elsewhere.
Others use different saddles, but it can take a few to find a comfy one
Selle and terry used to do try before you buy......
3 1/4 laps of RP done. Garmin gave up 1/2 way around the first lap the bliddy park was so cold! So nothing to record for it!
Dusty, I've been thinking about your plight overnight. No my dreams were not full of you! You're so much a better cyclist than me, you're swimming's not bad (wait until I can beast you in the open water!) and you're running is ok. So HTFU, man up and get on with it. And if I don't see you on that start line and, obviously, get overtaken by you on the bike whilst you're giving me all that rabbit, rabbit you will be in big trouble mate!
Hey PS - How's the brick sessions going?
DB - I've no doubt you'll be able to get around Outlaw if nothing else, esp if your diary is clearer after the next six weeks. Any chance you can get in just a few key sessions each week over the next six weeks?
Its not a knitting club
Siggy - I was thinking along the same lines so come on Dustboy no excuses, you are doing Outlaw. If you did no training at all over 6 weeks you would probably still be a better cyclist, runner and swimmer than me. You might not get the time you are looking for but you'll get round I'm sure.
I had a breakthrough with swimming today. After 3 months of mostly drills I put it all together today and did the easiest 500m I've ever done. I could have gone on and done more but knew I still had to fit the drills in as they are obviously working.
I heard a revelation second hand from a top coach a few months ago:
The further forward you come out of the swim the more people you have to draft from. A top 10% swim place can save you something like 15 minutes by drafting on the bike.
By drafting, he didnt mean the illegal sort, more the fact that with say 500, 1000 (whatever number) cyclists passing you on the bike let youll be pretty much in a draft zone of some kind for most of the bike leg.
Really struck a cord with me as even without sitting on peoples wheels's youll get a pull as people pass you and benefit from the still air once they pull in and pull away.
So there in other words, there are apparently indirect benefits from being a better swimmer.
The new Triathlon magazine which replaced Triathletes World has a 12 week program to get ready for the Ironman, looks quite intense, but a team of folks I have spoken to a work, who have done the Outlaw did it on 12 weeks of training and they all completed it in between 11 and 13 hours, you need to be able to Swim 400 non stop, cycle around 2.5 hours and run 1 hr if I recall correctly and you are ready to take on the 12 weeks.
Just a thought I am thinking of doing it as I am struggling with work/ weather at the moment so doing what I can over the next 8 weeks by then the days will be longer and the weather better.
Thats the point, i.e. being overtaken means you are benefitting from the draft by the overtakee.
12 weeks training is cutting it a bit tight in my opinion, you'd need a good base of endurance to begin with then to knock out 11-13 hours.I'll wager the guys finishing in 11-13 hours after 12 weeks Ironman training either already excel at another sport or one discipline, or have been doing Oly's/middle distance for a few years? I just cant see how you could go from a base of 400 meters swimming and 2-2.5 hours endurance to finishing an Ironman in 11 hours or so.
i can't see many overweight middle age athletes doing that.....
They were not in a team they entered as individuals from a department at work, yes they were resonably fit, but nothing spectacular, they just focused very hard on the 12 weeks of work and it worked for them, I realise that most on this thread are looking for a steady time and I was not suggesting everyone who trains for this long will get these kinds of times, it was in the magazine and the experts say it can be done i dont for one minute think you can go from nothing to Ironman in 12 weeks you need some base as said, but if you are short of time, I was just looking at what I have read and trying to make a suggestion it would be a shame to have to pull out but that is down to the individual you know how fit you are and it would be a very foolish thing to take this kind of event on if you are not fit enough.
pcphil,
I take your point about being positive and what can be achieved in a a relatively short period. I think some people can achieve a lot in 12 weeks but the base before that is the key, also the commitment.
Earlier in this thread I was kind questioning the commitment and targets of those aiming to finish in 16-17 hours, i.e. questioning whether they had set themselves a high enough bar.
I guess its horses for courses and a lot of factors determine how much training people can do, how well they adapt to training etc etc. 11-13 hours could be done, but id say for many of the people starting out from low bases (at which this thread is aimed) then the level of achievement you described is a very high bar.
Beginers Triathlete has a 20 week program that started on Monday - although, as the first week is about 8 hours, I would imagine that you would need a pretty good base to start. I think 12 weeks is doable, but it would mean, I should think, that you did pretty much nothing else!
Barley - good point re the swim, but not much comfort to those of us who are poor swimmers and poor cyclists! LOL!
I dont' think it's a question of starting from low bases causing slow times necessarily Barley
Some of us just aren't fast!
Even at my fittest and fastest (and a lot younger and slimmer than now) when I was seriously well trained and focussing entirely on running, my running PBs were still only around 9 1/2 minute miling which for a lot of folk is just jogging..........I just don't go fast and I've come to terms with that....
Also my PB speed for the marathon is only marginally slower than that of my 5 miler..........
I've since discovered that the same applies to my swimming and cycling....
I have benefitted over many many years from a lot of top quality coaching at both my running and tri clubs and I am still slow.........it's just the way I am
PS - I not offended in any way by any suggestions that I am aiming low - I prefer to think that after decades of running, a few years of tri and a couple of half-ironman distance races that I know realistically where I'm going to end up - I would of course love to have an absolute stormer on the day do better than expected
I may be realistic about my speed but the reason I race so little is that I hate finishing in the last couple of people which I usually do and the reaction of some people to that....(and I do only mean some but I'm a sensitive soul under all the bluster!!)