Revising the Training Plan

I've decided to re-structure my shorter term training/racing goals to hopefully make the Ironman training plan more successful. In a nutshell, I plan to work on my run fitness and endurance so that I can hopefully pull off a much better marathon at Ironman Coeur d'Alene ("IMCdA") next year than I did at Ironman Wisconsin (IMMoo) in 2004. Here's how the IMCdA goal stack up against IMMoo 2004:

Race Leg	IMMoo '04 Actual	IMCdA '07 Goal	Difference
Swim	01:10:33 (1:52/100m)	01:00:00 (~1:33/100m)	00:10:33
T1	00:10:16	00:05:00	00:05:16
Bike	06:01:21 (18.6 mph)	05:45:00 (~19.5 mph)	00:16:21
T2	00:04:34	00:03:00	00:01:34
Run	05:00:29 (11:29/mi)	04:22:00 (~10:00/mi)	00:38:29
Total	12:27:13	11:15:00	1:12:13

This is quite a lofty improvement goal, I know... particularly given the time commitment that I can reasonably put into this. However, these are best-case goals. Ultimately, I really only want to finish the race. So how am I going to do this?

Well... the first thing I've decided to do is to pretty much scrap this racing season as far as triathlons go. I've already signed up for one sprint race, but I'm not doing any other races this year, and certainly nothing longer than a sprint distance. Maybe I'll do another, late-season sprint, but I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that my summer will be focused on run-specific training.

What does this mean? Well, I'm going to do a LOT more running, and a less swimming and cycling. This doesn't mean I'll completely quit swimming and cycling, nor that I'll ignore their significance (I really like these two disciplines a LOT more than I like running, so I really can't imagine completely ignoring them). Instead, it means my overall volume and/or fequency of these two disciplines will be reduced, while my overall volume and/or frequency of run training will increase.

Because I like swimming and cycling so much, need to give myself some additional motivation to increase my run training. So, I've decided to target the Denver Marathon (October 15, 2006) to be my very first stand-alone marathon.

Principles of the original plan relating to intensity, volume and duration of workouts will continue. The only difference is that until after the marathon, weeks will be structured first around run training, and then around a long cycling session and a quality cycling session, and finally around short, intense swim sessions. More to come in later postings.