The IRONMAN Training Conundrum – how to fit your long ride into a busy schedule.
Triathlon training takes up a lot of time. In his latest article, Coach Philip looks at different ways of fitting in the all-important long ride in an IRONMAN training programme.
There is a lot of literature and anecdotal evidence to make it clear: the biggest bang for your IRONMAN training buck is to have a good bike time. If you can make the swim cut-off, there is more time to gain on the bike than in other areas. If you allow 8.5 hours to walk a marathon, then the 8.5 hours for the swim and the bike is short but possible. Therefore, finding time to improve your bike is an easy way to make your race day more manageable. If you want to perform, then a strong bike will be critical. (Don’t forget the saying: biking for show, running for dough! You still need to be strong in the other areas too!)
The tricky part of IRONMAN training is fitting all the training in. For an average triathlete, making the leap from short course to middle distance is not that significant; the swim distances are about the same, and most people do run sessions that last for an hour, so adding an extra 30+ mins isn’t too bad. If you were to go for a long ride at the weekend, 2-3 hours could see you riding from 50-90km on a good day! That step up isn’t too bad. However, a long ride for an IRONMAN could be double or triple that duration. How can you fit it in?
Three methods are worth exploring for athletes when doing regular long rides is impossible.
Regular short rides
This is similar to our high-frequency running strategy with ultra marathon runners. Little and often can add up.
If you can ride to work, even if it is only 8km, that would be 80km of additional riding throughout the week. With a longer 2-4 hour ride at the weekend, you are already building good bike mileage for the week.
Big Weekends
Training time is often sacred. However, choosing way in advance of your race 2-5 big weekends where you will put your focus on training is a great way to schedule training mileage, build confidence and not frustrate too many of your family members.
Big weekends are great as they can be at home or abroad, and you can remove everyday distractions and train without feeling bad about training.
The big commute
The fun part of IRONMAN training is that suddenly it becomes totally reachable to ride extraordinarily far for social occasions. Say you have a friend's gathering about 2 hours away by car. Most of the time, with traffic jams etc., that trip will be about 70-150km away. If you get out 2-3 hours earlier, you can get to the function and have fitted your long training session in. This can work for many different social occasions, and sharing roles with your significant other can be an excellent way to fit in your training. Better yet, if you both want to get the training in, one rides there, and if it is a day function, the other rides home!
Don’t sweat it
The other, less ideal option is not to sweat it and skip the really long ride altogether. Ride shorter as usual at the weekend and focus on the other two sports where time constraints impact your training less. It won’t set you up for a great bike race but will enable you to get the most out of your training time, leading to an overall better outcome.
Philip is the founder of Tri Training Harder LLP. He’s a British Triathlon Level 3 coach, and has been coaching for over a decade and is involved with mentoring and developing other coaches.
Philip has have coached athletes to European and World AG wins, elite racing, many Kona qualifications, IRONMAN podiums and AG wins.
Alongside the conventional development through many CPD courses, he has also been fortunate enough to work alongside experts in the fields of Physiotherapy, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, Psychology, Biomechanics, Sports Medicine. Putting this knowledge into practice he has worked with thousands of athletes to various degrees, from training camps in Portugal and around Europe, clinics in the UK and online coaching.
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