Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Decisions, decisions....

Should I train for an Ironman off the bat or have a season of shorter races first?

The above question is what I am giving thought. By racing a season of shorter races first, I can work on building my base slowly and improve speed/performance. This would allow gradual swim improvement and speed over the course of the year.

The original/current plan is to sign up for IM Louisville or IM Florida Fall 2009. This would give me 16-18 months of training....very do-able. What I might do is a sprint tri or two in Tulsa next Spring, then maybe a 70.3 in the summer, then my full IM in Sept or Nov.

This is week 6 of my Base Building Phase. I am up to 6-7 hours of training weekly. It's a mix of swimming, biking, running, stretching, and weight lifting. I am trying to hold back and ease into the training to avoid injuries.

Overall things are going very well. The new bike (which I need to name) is very fast and I love riding it. Swimming remains my focus as I have the most room for improvement with swim technique/efficiency. I have my third swim lesson this afternoon at TCU. My lung capacity/endurance in the pool is pretty weak right now, but I am swimming much more flat and smooth.

This weekend will be a de-load weekend since I'll be in Saint Louis on a family reunion. I'll do some light training in the pool and gym at the hotel, but will use it as I time to enjoy with family and recover from the past 5 weeks of hard training.

3 comments:

Risan said...

You should name your bike SPEEDY.

What do you mean by shorter races? Like half iron man? I would think doing the races would be beneficial as part of training, because you can train in the pool all you want, but when it comes to a race things are very different. Training is just you, but racing you have to work to pace yourself when others are faster or slower than you.

Ben said...

Thanks for the bike name suggestion. I agree that the races would be a valuable part of training.

By shorter races, I meant sprint distance (like Claremore) and Olympic distance. I would do an entire year and race 4-6 races, then next fall/winter start Ironman training.

Anonymous said...

How about Wind, Wild Fire, Quest, My Ride,