Shortest Ironman Training Possible?!

Triathlon Forum
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So, I’m in a bit of a predicament… I signed up for Ironman Austria quite some time ago, started training, all was going well. Then ‘unfortunately’ I was offered a new job I couldn’t turn down. I took the job, and have been pulling 80 hour+ weeks ever since. This means that my training has been all but on hold for the last 2 months or so, putting back to square 1.

My question for the wisest of you slow twitchers, in a perfect world, what would be the absolute shortest amount of time to train for an Ironman, with the goal of finishing?

Some information about me: I am 25 years old, 5’10", 65kg, I would consider myself to have an above average base fitness (if that counts for anything at all), and my job has been opening a restaurant, so on my feet all day every day (again, if that counts for anything at all) if you need to know anything else, ask.

There is 12 weeks until Ironman Austria, and my schedule is clearing up a bit… I have not booked my flights and accommodation… Should I cut my losses and not go? Should I give it my best shot? I really want to do this, but I just want some informed opinions on whether it is even possible.

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You schedule is: “clearing up a bit”? Does that mean still 60+ hours?

It seems like you are setting yourself up for a long awful day.

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By clearing up, I mean ~50 hours a week… I’m completely alright with having a long awful day, providing there is a majority chance of it not ending in failure…

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At this point, with no base, there is no plan that will have you fully prepared for an ironman in 12 weeks.

If you want to suffer a whole lot (and drastically increase risk of injury), I have seen a story about a guy who did an IM on zero training. He finished…

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Your biggest problem is the taper period. Its not like you get 12 weeks and then a taper period. You really only have like 8-10 weeks to train and then you have to shut it down to prepare to race. There is not much time left but you could give it a shot.

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At a minimum be able to swim 2.6 miles. After that it’s how miserable do you want to be? You could bike for days, just make the cutoffs. And can tell from your question, you already plan to jog, walk, walk some more, then walk some more before jogging again. Just my opinion for what it’s worth, less than 2 cents maybe, but you’d probably be more likely to finish than they guy who had plan to race/ run the whole thing and run out of gas on mile 21. I also don’t recommend this strategy though.

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Kind of depends on how much training you got in before the 2 months off.

If you can’t cycle…you ride.

If you can’t run…you walk

If you can’t swim…you drown.

Make sure you can swim!!

With that said. Anything is possible. Depends on how bad you want it!!

Good luck in making the decision!

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Gale Bernhardt’s 13 weeks to 13 hr ironman…google or use search on slowtwitch…was asked just a couple of weeks ago
.

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Being on your feet all day may actually be a negative. It may provide some base of fitness and may help with general toughness, but makes it that much harder to recover when/if you start training hard.

My advice: forget it. You’re 25. Come back when you’re ready. Why do something and be miserable? Just to say you’ve done it? It will be a lot more meaningful and enjoyable when you’ve done the training.

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Gale Bernhardt’s 13 weeks to 13 hr ironman…google or use search on slowtwitch…was asked just a couple of weeks ago

I think that plan assumes a current base for at least sprint/Olympic distance races… we’re talking almost zero training over the past two months. It’s going to be tough to ramp up that much over such a short time.

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I did most of my training for my first Ironman over 12 weeks. At the start of last year I basically couldn’t swim and I had no road biking experience, although I have been a runner for several years and have completed a couple of marathons. I spent most of the year having swimming lessons, running and biking (though really not enough biking at all). I was building it up reasonably well but then I got hit by a car while biking at the start of October and was unable to do any training whatsoever for the whole of October and November. When I picked it back up at the start of December the furthest I had ever biked in my life was 80k and my swimming was still pretty poor. Like you I really, really wanted to do the event. I got a really great coach on board who wrote me a plan that got me to the finish line. The training during those 12 weeks was extremely tough at points (especially building up the biking endurance) but I had a really enjoyable race in the end. I was slow but all I cared about was finishing since it was my first one and after having the accident. My biggest training week was 21 hours when I had time off work over Xmas but I think the average was around 10-12 hours a week. I also got really sick with the flu one week so really I only had 11 weeks in total to get it together.

I am no expert but based on my own experience if you are really determined to do it and you really do have enough time now then I think you can do it. You will need to be really disciplined over that time. If you can then maybe getting a coach on board to really focus your training and give you that extra support will help.

Good luck

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Ok, a little more info required.

Have you trained much in the past?

Yes! Your job being on your feet all day means something!

I am going to go against the grain here, but my thoughts.

You need to get swimming and long, by race day all you need to KNOW is ‘I can swim the swim distance, no problem’ So get in the pool and start doing long sets. Build up to some long continuous swims, as soon as open water arrives, get in it!

Bike - You DONT have time to do just long bikes. But you need to do 1 or 2, to prove to your mind you can stay on a bike for 4-5-6 (delete as appropriate) hours. Comfort is key here. Once you are happy with that one bike then you need to get some bike fitness. DONT just use your hours up each week going out for long bikes. You just need to KNOW you can do it on race day.

Build you bike fitness with the least possible time to train. In my mind, thats sweetspot all over. do 3-4 days of sweetspot, then rest. hour or so at a time, building to 2x40 min blocks or similar. This will make the best use of 5-6 hours cycling a week.

Running, DONT run long. If you work all day on your feet you just don’t need to do. Every few weeks do a 2 hour or so run, off road, as a testing to KNOW you can spend that time on your feet.

Your ability to do your ironman will depend little on your running ability now, its all about how well you survive the swim and how strong you are on the bike.

sorry, I have highlight KNOW a lot in there, but the simple reason is, you CAN do this, any human can, you are built for endurance. you just need to KNOW you can. Go get em dude!

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Your biggest problem is the taper period. Its not like you get 12 weeks and then a taper period. You really only have like 8-10 weeks to train and then you have to shut it down to prepare to race. There is not much time left but you could give it a shot.

A four week taper is on the extreme end of things and is only likely for someone doing very large volume over a very long time, which is not the OP. I question whether a four week taper is ever appropriate, actually. For the OP to have any hope he’ll have to do a much shorter taper.

I guess it depends on how deep the OP’s base was before the break in training. If it was pretty deep he could work really hard and get through it. If a total loss of fitness, then not a good idea.

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So, a few of you suggested that drowning was often fairly detrimental to ones ability to finish an Ironman, I took this and went to a pool for the first time in ~6 months.

I swam 4km, I swam 4km not very quickly (~1:30:00), but I swam it quite happily.

This is encouraging to me.

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Thank you for sharing this, it makes me feel quite a lot more confident in my ability to finish! 10-12 hour average sounds completely doable.

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So, the more information you require:

Have I trained much in the past? In an Ironman sense, not really. I’ve done plenty of Olympics and Half marathons, with what I consider a reasonable degree of success, Olympic PB being 2:18:** and Half PB being ~1:30:00

A few of you have said drowning will be counter productive to my ability to finish the Ironman, so I went to a pool and swam. I swam 4km, slowly, ~1:30:00, but I swam 4km relatively happily. So next step is to get into some open water.

The rest of the advice seems completely reasonable, and achievable.

I really appreciate your input!! (and everyone elses)

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You can easily do it. But as others have said, your in for a long day just mentally prepare for it.

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17 hours is a long time. You obviously can swim so you probably won’t drown. You could probably finish even if you did nothing between now and race day. Racing an IM to the best of your ability is hard and requires a lot of training. Just finishing? Not so much.

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I’ll go against the grain and say any job that is > 40 hours a week is not a dream job, because the point of life is to live and not work. :slight_smile:

Good luck on your IM!

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I disagree with most comments here.
You can easily finish the race in a good time (Sub11). I have a very busy work schedule, travel included and thus only manage to get between 8-10hrs/week in for IM prep.
I just completed IM Los cabos, which is a way thougher race than Austria (yes, I have done it), in 10:50.
You have youth and good fitness on your side, just believe in your capabilities and go for it. As long as you pace yourself correctly you will finish ahead of most others.
12 weeks is plenty of time…Good luck in austria it’s my favorite IM event. :slight_smile: