I’ve entered my first triathlon in 10 years! Iberman 70.3
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Last modified: January 8, 2014
my first triathlon in 10 years
I don’t usually do things on impulse, but as soon as I saw there was a half distance Triathlon (half Ironman distance that is) in Ayamonte in Spain, in March. I just grabbed the opportunity. I’m not fat, and I’ve been doing some bits and pieces of training, so I think 10 weeks is sufficient to get into okay shape. Obviously I’ll be a bit of a school boy and make lots of mistakes, but that’s also the reason I want to get going a.s.a.p.
my first triathlon in 10 years
I’ve been fantasising about racing Ironman for years… Literally it’s been something I’ve thought about very seriously since even before I was a pro cyclist. And there no better way to start down a new path that to… just get on with it. I need to sort out a lot of things, shoes, wetsuit, TT bike, etc. But I’m not too concerned. I have an ordinary road bike and for the time being that will do. Shoes, I’ve got cycling shoes and if I have to spend an extra 30″ in transition, it’s not the end of the world. Sure I came 16th in the BUSA’s (British Universities) in 2004 with little idea of what I was doing, an ancient aluminium giant road bike, an old pair of cycling specific spd’s… Mind you, times are different, I might struggle, but what the hell.
training wise
less is more? Probably
Triathletes do enormous volumes, professional doing way over 30 hours per week. This to my eyes seems unnecessary. As a pro cyclist, where events last days and weeks, I’d very rarely do this. Maybe two weeks in the year would be that busy.
More than 30 h a week is very hard to do and absorb. Simply put, if that volume of training has quality, you’re over training. It doesn’t matter if it’s distributed over three sports, to your cardiovascular and neurological systems, it’s one and the same.
I need to train to go fast
Although there are three sports, I’m approaching the three as a whole. With a lot work at tolerance in cycling, primarily technique in swimming, since that’s my main problem with it and speed (power) running where I’m struggling to get on top of the speeds I need to be running at, but can feel it coming… feel great going along at 18 kph to get a whole load of pains in stomach, especially after swimming.
Weekly training volume is going to be about 6 hours cycling, with about 3 h at tolerance. 5 hours running, (~75km) with a lot of time working power (2h) and 5 hours swimming of which about 1hr will be tolerance, some tiny bits of power work -I can’t sustain more at the moment.
I’ll post my actual training here, starting next week.