Learned:
* You can't just sign up for an ironman like a few months beforehand. Ha. What is the plan for that, a year ahead of time?
* Um - they cost ALOT of money!! Wait can I pay to swim, bike and run for 1/2 of a day??
* I want to be an ironman and I think I will do one eventually. But since I'm planning on having more kids?? I don't know if this is going to happen in the very near future.
Want to know:
How long does it take to train? How many hours a week do you train?
Where did you find assistance to know how to train?
How can you get sponsored for one of these things? Can someone pay your entry? Ha!
i just did my first olympic last weekend, have done many sprints. i can not even comprehend the FULL. I have a half in my site with in next 2 to 4 years....once my kids are in school full time.
ReplyDeleteDepends on your goals... you can get by and finish on prob ~13 hours/week of training... for about 6 months prior to the race... The people who are competitive and win train pretty much year round and upwards of 20 hours/week in the months leading up to the race. Buy Training Long by Gordo Burn if you want a good book about Ironman training. And good luck getting sponsored. ;)
ReplyDeleteI was terribly undertrained and underexperienced going into mine and still had a blast. I know if I were to do one now I'd prepare differently with a goal of more than just finishing, but for the first one it worked okay.
ReplyDeleteAs for the kids, I've got no advice :) I know that I probably won't be doing another one before we have a kid, but it'll probably be on the agenda in the couple years after.
Our training plan is 36 weeks, although that starts with a very good build up fro the previous year's which, when we finished, we stopped working out for a few months. :) We train on average 15 hours a week - at our peak, it's more like 20. Most days include two workouts (or should I say, two disciplines) and we take a rest day. I won't lie and say it's easy... the training is the hardest part by far!
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of plans online that you can purchase, and many athletes have coaches.
As for sponsorship - very few pay for entry, but free product is the best way to go! :) Scour the internet, there are opportunities everywhere. Or just contact the companies you enjoy and see if they have any ambassador programs. :)
I don't know how people do it with jobs and kids. I will say that... :) If you have any more questions, let me know!
I have the Going Long book if you want to borrow it. Let me know and we could meet up at a park or something with the kids. With regards to training, I was clueless training for my first and I got by on very little training (and I realize this now after reading blogs!). My biggest week was 10 hrs and when I averaged my training hrs over the 7 months leading up to the race it was only 6 hrs/wk (but I did have a few wks of zero hours when I had a total mental break down and needed a real break from training).
ReplyDeleteLike Michelle said, you could just finish an Ironman on little training. But with kids, I would wait until they are either in school or at least preschool so you have some scheduled alone time that you won't feel guilty about. And if you plan to work and train for IM, well plan to get up EARLY.
ReplyDeleteSince getting into this tri stuff and looking into Ironman, I am blown away at the costs and process. AWESOME but CRAZY!
ReplyDeleteI got pregnant when I was about 1/3 of the way through training for my first IM :) It was kind of a bummer to have to back out of it. I had to adjust my thinking to viewing it as maybe my future birthday present to myself for my 40th bday or something (I'm 32). Before that I just don't have the time because although I could get someone to watch Naomi while I work out, then I'd come home exhausted and have to be "on" as a mommy and that's too much for me personally!
ReplyDeleteI did a Half IM before and LOVED it. I think I trained ~10 hrs/week at most (maybe 12 once or twice?). I spent maybe 5 mos training for it, after establishing a base. Used a free training plan I found at trifuel.com (that was for full IM so I just modified it). As for the $$... call me crazy but I just did a homemade course! Not for everyone but it was great for me - totally free and I had a couple friends join me. Lots of fun.