Five Months and Counting

Five months left before Ironman Austria and if you ask my honest opinion, I would say that training is going well but I don't know if it is ever where you would truly like it to be.  The funny thing is, the full Ironman is so daunting that I am not even worried about the half Ironman that is a little over two months away!

I began my journey with the idea that I would be a self trained athlete.  I figured I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do... a lot of swimming, biking and running.  Well, it turns out I wasn't wrong but dramatically underestimated the amount!  I have been reading a lot of books including "The Well-built Triathlete" and the "Triathletes Training Bible" and putting together a training plan over the last few months.  My most recent investment was the "Training Peaks" software.  In my personal opinion, this is a must for the self trained athlete.  The trick is, you have to be brutally honest with yourself about your limitations and overall fitness and you have to diligently log every work-out.  With the help of my training peaks software I have put together this "new" overall plan.

Four week Preparation (completed)

- 40h0mins of training

Four Weeks Base 1 (in the midst)

- 50h30min of training

Four Weeks Base 2

- 53h45min of training

Four Weeks Base 3

- 55h30mins of training + IRONMAN 70.3 Florida

Four Weeks Build 1

- 53h30mins of training

Four Weeks Build 2

- 51h15mins of training

Two weeks Peak Race Time

- 31h of training + IRONMAN 140.6 Austria

So there you have it:

327h of training in 26 weeks plus an estimate 6+ hours of racing for the Half Ironman and 12+ hours of racing for the Full Ironman. 12h30mins of exercise/wk on average with recovery weeks equaling 8h30min and endurance building weeks equaling 17h30mins.  Daunting...

If you want to see what I am considering recent "cross training" check out a movie from our time in Colorado here: (I recommend viewing in 1080p)