Marathon to Half Iron Man in 2 months - suggestions

[pierreflasse]

Dear all,

I am signed up to my second marathon on the 8th of April and my first ever half ironman on the 17th of June. To answer questions of fitness/experience, this marathon I'm aiming for around 3h30 mark. This will be my first triathlon of any kind, but I am a pretty competent swimmer. Currently on a training programme (bupa advanced marathon programme) of 5/6 runs per week for the marathon but this doesn't involve any swimming. I cycle every day about 5 miles to go in/out of work, so cycling is the least of my worries (I have completed cycling holidays of around 70 miles a day max so have experienced of longer cycling).

Any tips for the transition to the half iron man training, whether I should implement some swimming earlier into my marathon programme for the steadier runs.. any tips for a programme, any particular sessions, a good way to transition, etc.

Thanks everyone!!

[explorerJC]

Get cycling...
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[Mungo]

Get cycling...

+1

5 miles each way.... is not 56 at speed with no stops then a run.....

There is a big difference.

Good luck with the Marathon.
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[tin pot]

5 miles cycling a day isn’t worth much imho. What’s that, 20mins? It’s not worth the changing time imo.

Get cycling and pace your runs easy - you won’t be fully recovered from the race in April.

If you’re a good runner but have never run off a 56 mile bike, you’re in for a surprise - don’t aim for your half mara pace.
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Iron ‘17 16h11, '16 14h30
Half Iron ‘18 DNF, '17 7h39, 6h28 '16 5h53
Olympic '16 3h18 '15 3h33, '13 3h36
Sprint '16 1h17, '14 1h40, '13 2h01
Half Mara '16 2h04, '14 2h07
10K ‘18 50:31 '16 54:01 '13 54:46

[SGreg]

As above you just need to increase your Cycle distance.

But another BIG area to aim for is running OFF the bike, the first few times are quite an experience. get used to it in training. At least once a fortnight run off a long bike, it doesn't have to be far it's getting used to the transition. and every time it gets easier.



Also you say you are a competent swimmer, good start, but how is your open water?

[stenard]

I'd say it's not all that hard. I did the same last year, but with much less time (London at the end of April, with Cotswold 113 at the start of June - under 6 weeks).

I did one week of intense cycling, that was about it. It contributed c500km of the 1000km total I had done last year by the end of April. Done as part of a Algarve training camp middle of March. I did 150km total between mid-March and the end of April.

I did swim throughout though, as I didnt find that impacted my running. After London, I hardly did any running whatsoever. The run fitness from a marathon was more than enough to get me through a HM only a few weeks later.

OK, yes I'd done HIM's before, but my bike was nowhere near where it would have been had I been training for tri. That will be true of you too if you prioritise the marathon, but if you're comfortable doing back to back 70 mile holiday days, something I've never done, then I'd say you are easily as experienced a cyclist as is required to quickly get it up to a capable level.

Ultimately it depends on what is your A race? If it's the marathon, train for that and then do some intense cycling after. If it's the HIM, then I would suggest building in a lot of cycling to your training at the expense of your marathon time. Strangely, my A race was London (which I fluffed), and I then went and massively pb'd in the HIM.

[pierreflasse]

Thanks for the smashing advice everyone!

The marathon is my main race, I was on the waiting list for the lakesman triathlon in the lake district and got the HIM so thought why not. I think I'll start substituting in one swim a week over my small cardio runs - also I haven't actually every swum full on open water, but my girlfriend is from the lake district and so we're planning on doing a few swims up there for prep.

In terms of the cycling, I will have what - 10 weeks or so between the marathon and HIM race so I'll have time to ramp it up, but I'm going to substitute 1/2 of my long distance weekend runs for a long distance cycle. I've got a pal that does a 100-130km ride most weekends, if not definitely every fortnight (I live in Manchester so the peak district is just next door), so I was going to join him for one, then do some brick training and like a 10 min run after them.

Sorry really am brand new to this - have done most of my research on the topic across the last 24 hours as that's when I got the place. Thanks for all the advice! I've found a 10 week programme here and there that I might prop myself on just to give the consistency.

[Chrace]

Those 5 miles each way every day is bread and butter if used well. If you pootle along then it's junk but if you have a hill, incline, green-light-start or something then attack it at full pelt every day. 4-5 of those 30 second bursts, twice a day, works incredibly well for me. Add in a longer ride here and there so you don't get surprised about the distance.

Please note it all depends what your target is. If you just want to come along and have fun with no specific time in mind you'll ease through without much trouble (but the bike will surprise you a bit).

If you want to be fast it's a whole different kettle of fish...
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Where the mind goes the body follows.

[SGreg]

[jay clock]

I disagree with comments saying the 5 mile commute doesn't help. It won't be perfect, but I was commuting 11k each way three days a week on a Brompton prior to my 3rd IM, and with a long ride on Sundays as well it really helped

I would say you are a fast runner. practice running 6-8 mins then walking 1 min. A lot of decent runners mentally crumble in a tri when they have to walk the aid stations and the walking makes their brain feel like they have failed. So practice it

And practice nutrition

Do a few runs off the bike