Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Overview of Ironman Training
Ironman and Lifestyle
Ironman Specific Fitness
The Training Week
The Annual Training Plan
Mechanics of Day to Day Training
The Training Log, Training Variables and Intensity
Holistic Training

Part II: Specifics of Ironman Training
Training the Ironman Swim, with stream swim drill videos
Training the Ironman Bike
Bike Fit and Equipment Selection
Braking and Cornering
Climbing Hills
Training and Racing the Ironman with Power
Training the Ironman Run
Rest and Recovery
Sport Specific Strength Training
Core Strength and Flexibility
Sports Nutrition: Body Composition, Weight Management and Recovery
Training Nutrition Summary

Part III: Racing the Ironman
Ironman Execution
Mental Focus and Skills
Ironman: Principles vs Plan, published in Inside Triathlon Magazine
Ironman Pre-Race Talk (audio files)

*Note: Unlinked sections are only available with the purchase of a Crucible Fitness Ironman Training Program, for only $3.80 to $6.50 per week! The complete document is over 70 pages.

Introduction
I’ve been an Ironman-specific triathlon coach since 2001. I specialize in training, racing and coaching the Ironman distance. During that time I’ve worked with all manner of Ironman athletes and have shared Ironman coaching ideas with Joe Friel, Gordo Byrn, Ken Meirke, Kevin Purcell, and many, many talented and experienced athletes. I firmly believe that Ironman coaching is a specialty within the field of triathlon coaching. In my experience, the ideas and techniques of short course racing and coaching (Sprint to Oly, maybe Half IM) do not translate well “up-stream” to Ironman training. Through my own coaching and training experience, and through sharing resources with these excellent coaches above, I believe I have a very good handle on Ironman training. I’ve put these elements into practice in your training plan and will explain them to you now.

Part I: Overview of Ironman Training

Ironman and Lifestyle
If you read the testimonials from my athletes or spend any time on my discussion forum, you’ll find a common thread: Ironman is just a game and you need to make the training fun. You should take care to fit your training into and within your more important personal commitments and your lifestyle. You owe it to your family and to your sanity. In fact, the primary reason why I’m about to go into such great detail about the theory behind your training plan is so that you can adjust and flex your schedule to meet your real world commitments.

One of the very first assessments I make of an athlete when we begin to discuss working together is “where is this person’s head?” If they are putting boots to the floor at 5am and “training” for a race 9 months out, I tell them they are in a very dangerous place, at risk of mental and emotional burnout months before the race. I’ve seen it time and time again. The solution is to adopt the training as an integral component of your lifestyle. How do you do that?

View your fitness as a vehicle to do cool stuff. Put cool stuff on the calendar and schedule your training around it.

There is more to this sport and to this race than writing The Man a check for $425, booking hotels rooms and airfare, and then celebrating that fitness for just one day. Enjoy the progressive increases in your fitness by scheduling progressively more challenging, fun and exciting training events. Talk your friends into doing them with you and have FUN. Today is November 22, 2004. I’m racing IMCDA’05. Want to know what my training plan is? I’m racing one to two half marathons per month through February. In March I’ll do a fun training camp with good friends on the Wildflower Course and then race Cali Half. I’ll do another WF training camp in April and then race Wildflower Long Course. Along the way I’ll train with my local athletes and follow a more detailed training plan to support these fun events. But the last two weeks of May I’ll live one of my dreams: running and cycling solo along the Grand Circle, 800-900 miles through the National Parks in southern Utah and Arizona. IMCDA will just be gravy at the end of my season!

My point: don’t get lost in the numbers, workouts and other details in your training plan.  It’s all about crossing a finishline, earning the title Ironman, and having a helluva lot of fun in the process!!

Ironman Specific Fitness
This training plan is designed to build your Ironman-specific fitness, or the vehicle you will drive over 140 miles on race day. You build that vehicle with one purpose in mind: to not slow down on the run.

Let me say that again: the purpose of Ironman training is to build the fitness required to simply not slow during the marathon, after swimming 2.4 miles and cycling 112. Why do we have such a humble goal? If you’ve finished an Ironman you know it’s not that humble!

However, consider these points:

• If you have a “bad” swim, you will probably only go about 5-7 min slower than a good swim. Swimming “fast” may only net you about 3-5 minutes.
• If you have a “bad” bike, you may only go about 15-20 minutes slower than a good bike. But cycling “hard” may only gain you 10-15 minutes.
• But poor swim or bike pacing or fitness can express themselves as an implosion on the run. If these combine to slow you down by only 2 minutes per mile in the last 10 miles of the run, you’ve given up 20 minutes. And if you’ve been there you know that it’s not hard for the race to find those 2 minutes for you. If you’re reduced to walking those last 10 miles (15-17min/mile pace), you’re now giving up 6-8 minutes per mile or, 1-1:20.

When you apply this lens to what can happen during the race I believe it makes it much easier to focus your training goals: to develop the fitness required to not slow down during a marathon, after a 2.4 miles swim and a 112 mile bike.

So let’s talk about our training goals for each sport:

• Swim: to develop excellent technique. Concurrently, develop the endurance required to maintain that excellent form for 2.4 miles. One race day, swim efficiently for 2.4 miles, get out of the water sooner and set up the bike.
• Bike: achieve excellent body composition, flexibility and core strength to allow us to assume the optimal aerodynamic and comfortable riding position (free speed). Then develop very, very solid aerobic cycling endurance. Concurrently, if appropriate, increase power at lactate threshold, yielding a faster bike at all exercise intensities. On race day all of these elements combine to get you off the bike sooner and fresher than your competitors, setting up the run.
• Run: develop excellent running form. Apply excellent body composition to this form, allowing you to run more frequently with less risk of injury. Just run, week after week. Develop the mental and physical toughness to simply not slow down.
• Execution: yes, this is the fourth sport in the Ironman. I’m amazed at how many people apply so much energy to train for the race but comparatively little to learning how to execute the distance. Every training event is an opportunity to learn and Crucible Fitness has a ton of information to help you.

What does this imply for your training?

• Are we going to worry about drilling ourselves at the Master’s swim workout, to get faster? No. We don’t care about speed, we care about efficiency. Working one-on-one with that Master’s coach is a better use of your time.
• Are we going to worry about hammering with our short-course buds on the weekend? No. The combination of your Ironman training volume and their high intensity will leave you shelled. This leads to sub-optimal training sessions, injury, missed training sessions and inconsistency.
• Are we going to worry about track, tempo runs or other “go-faster” run training? Probably not. Remember this: you are NOT training for a marathon.

You are training to not slow down for 26.2 miles after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike. In my experience, traditional marathon training (track, tempo runs, etc) does not work when applied within the context of Ironman training volume. The recovery cost of these sessions is too high and begins to compromise the quality and consistency of other training. The Ironman run course is littered with 3:00 marathoners walking 4:45-5:30’s because they trained for a marathon, not an Ironman. It’s also littered with 4:00 marathoners walking 5:30-6:00 because they thought that the key to a faster IM marathon was traditional marathon training. Rather, you set up that faster marathon with excellent swimming form, body composition, running form and cycling endurance, allowing the 4:00 stand-alone marathon to run a 4:20 and pass the 3:00 marathoner.

The Training Week
Please read Event Based Volume. This was one of the very first training articles I wrote and it has been published in Inside Triathlon Magazine. It’s just very basic, commonsense guidance for how to approach your training volume.

In summary, DO NOT chase weekly volume totals in your training. Focus on:

1. The character or details of each training session. Do they support your goal to build Ironman specific fitness?
2. The length of your long bike and run sessions, building progressively towards your goals of a 2-2.5 hr long run, a 5-6 hr long bike, and a 4k swim.
3. Fit your other sessions around these key sessions.

You overall goal is consistent training. It’s better to execute a less than perfect 80% plan 100% of the time, week after week, then to follow an unrealistic 100% plan into a brick wall of injury or overtraining

Here is how I use these principles to schedule your training week:

• What is the appropriate length and character of the long run?
• What is the appropriate length and character of the long bike?
• What is the Quality Cycling Session for the week?
• Can I schedule 36-48 hours between these three key sessions?
• Within these four priorities above, can we get in 4-5 run sessions per week?

After a gillion weekly training schedule permutations, this is the one I’ve found to work best:

Monday: Your focus for the day is FORM, not fitness. We chose Monday as it serves as a recovery day after the weekend. This running form session is very important. Do not skip!

Tuesday: “Quality” means that we use this session to accomplish the goals of the training period. If we want to increase your pedaling efficiency, we do drills. Increase power at lactate threshold = lactate threshold intervals. These sessions are usually interval based and structured like a swim or track workout: Warm Up, Main Set, Cool Down. The total volume of the session is not important, only the successful completion of the Main Set.

Wednesday: Drills in the early season evolving into shorter, faster interval sessions.  The run is an aerobic, base building session, preferably on a hilly course to build muscular endurance.

Thursday: Long run, building to 2-2.5 hours. GREAT idea to start/end your run at a pool so you can follow it with a 10-20 minute recovery swim.

Friday: longer intervals. The maximum interval lengths you’ll see from me are about 5-7 minutes longer. Rather slog through 1k repeats with poor from, I have you swimming with excellent form, faster, for shorter distances.

Saturday: 3-6+ hour long bike followed by a 20-30’ brick run. Bonus if you can start/end this session at a pool so you can follow it with a recovery swim.

Sunday: Flex Day. This is an opportunity for a second long bike or long run, depending on our objective for the week. I’ve found that towards the end of the season athletes have the endurance to run 2.5hrs and ride 5-6hrs in the same week, but the volumes of these respective sessions begin to interfere with each other. At this point we go to a Bike Week or Run Week format. For example:

• Run Week: 1:45-2:15 Thursday run, 4-5 hr Saturday long bike, 1:30-1:45 Sunday run.
• Bike Week: 2:00-2:15 Thursday run, 5-6 hr Saturday long bike, 3-4 hr Saturday long bike. 

Note: For Beginners, Sunday is an Off day, not Flex.

What’s not on the schedule?

• A day off! In my experience athletes who follow this schedule above and give themselves permission to adjust session training volumes and intensity according to how they feel may not need a complete day off. The strength of this schedule is that I’ve taken a lot of care to build recovery into the schedule, not waiting for an off-day to rest. My athletes all report the ability to hit week after week of consistent training without the pressing physical need to take a day off. HOWEVER, if you feel you need to take a day off, TAKE IT! 
• The “other” sessions that are highly dependent on personal schedules, individual limiters and time constraints, namely, core strength, flexibility and strength training. We’ll cover those later in this document.

 The Annual Training Plan
This section available with purchase of a Crucible Fitness Ironman Training Program

Mechanics of Day to Day Training
This section available when you purchase a Crucible Fitness Ironman Training Program

The Training Log
When you purchased this training plan you received a free trial account, with all the TP.com features activated. After this trial period is over the account will revert to a Training Log only account, with many features turned off. You can still use your training plan without purchasing a full subscription, but I highly recommend you maintain the full account. I’ve been using TrainingBible.com (now TrainingPeaks.com) since the very beginning. It is an excellent tool and the programmer, Gear Fisher, continues to add more and more features to the site. They are simply too many for me to list or explain. Please use the Help menus on TrainingPeaks.com to learn more about the functionality of our account.

Training Variables
I manipulate three elements within your training plan:

1. Frequency: how often you swim, bike or run in a week. At a minimum, you should swim or ride at least twice per week, and run at least three times per week. These are minimums and certainly less than ideal. Your training plan is built around three swims, three bikes, and four to five runs per week.
2. Training Volume: I measure training volume as a function of time, not distances. You will run for 1:45, not 10 miles. Why? Your body understands time, not distance. I run 7 miles in an hour and your run 8. But all our bodies know is that we ran one hour. This is big shift for many athletes to make, particularly former runners, but it is critical. However, near crunch time you may see a 100-112+ mile ride, as I do want you get in the miles for the ‘been there, done that’ effect.
3. Training intensity: how hard you exercise during the workout. Usually measured by heart rate, Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE or PE), pace or watts.

Training Intensity
I’ve found it useful to bounce around between different methods for measuring intensity. But in general, the more aerobic the session is the more I prefer to use the subjective measurements of PE and heart rate. However, as the intensity increases I prefer to use pace (swim or run) and watts (on the bike). I highly recommend you use a heart rate monitor to get the most out of your training plan.

 Here is how we are going to use it:

1. In my experience, if you are coming back to training after a long lay-off it is best to give your body 6-8 weeks of consistent training before you do any testing to determine your training zones. During this early preparation phase you’ll primarily use the RPE scale on the table below.
2. After 6-8 weeks we’ll conduct a time trial to determine your heart rate training zones. From the time trial we estimate your lactate threshold heart rate and then then use this to determine your training zones (Zones 1-5). Throughout your training plan I will refer to training intensity in both RPE and heart rate zone.
3. 3-4 weeks after this first test we’ll conduct another test, to refine/confirm your training zones. Going forward you’ll continue to refine your training zones until you are comfortable with using them to tell you a great deal about what your body is doing.
4. After this second round of testing your heart rate zones will be pretty well established. Going forward we rely primarily on races and key training events to assess your fitness.

Crucible Fitness Training Zones

 *Note: please consult the Help menu in your TrainingPeaks account for information on setting and displaying your training zones within your TrainingPeaks training log.

Training Abbreviations, Terms and Other Jargon

Holistic Training
As you can tell, I'm a Big Picture guy. I like to teach you the big stuff before we move to the little stuff. The following is something I wrote after a very successful IMWI'02, as part of my annual year-end debrief of my training and coaching season.

My thoughts turned to "what can I do better next time," and specifically what I need to work on during the off-season. My talents, training, and implementation are very similar to most top age groupers. "Training," and everything that goes in that word, has been my focus. And like most athletes I have difficulty applying consistent attention to the small details. These small details are nutrition, flexibility, strength training, core strength, and mental skills (race-day decision and execution skills). Wouldn't it be more efficient if we could learn to apply ourselves to these details consistently, year round?

In other words, the most efficient training method is a holistic approach toward reaching our athletic potential. Rather than applying the majority of our focus toward "training," the more efficient method is to develop the plan and habits that allow us to also work on the small details as best we can, concurrent with our "training." I will explain these ideas in terms of cycling, since the sport has such a large money investment component.

The holistic approach views training as a system, consisting of the bike/rider machine and everything that goes into making that system faster and more efficient. The following is a list of time/money/focus investments. While these are presented in a ranked or chronological format, a holistic approach will address each of these components simultaneously.

The Holistic Approach

1. Knowledge: your first and most essential investment should be in learning what you're doing on a bike and how to do it better and faster. Learn how to build a better engine and to apply that power to the bike more efficiently.
2. Power Measuring Device: while this may be an expensive option for the beginner, I think its proven effectiveness should bring it to the top of anyone's list. Simply put, if you are not training with power, you are not training as effectively and efficiently as you can. Given all of the options available to blow your cash, a power measuring device is your best investment, particularly if you have a long term view of the sport.
3. Aerodynamics: your bike is actually a bike/rider system. To move this system forward you apply power to the rear wheel. As the system moves forward, forces apply resistance. These forces are weight, rolling resistance, and drag. Of these, drag is the most significant. The component of this system with the largest aerodynamic drag is YOU, not the bike. Therefore the most efficient route to reducing the drag of this system is to improve the aerodynamics of your body. Improving your aerodynamics consists of four components, the first three of which are applied simultaneously:
   • Flexibility: develop a realistic plan to improve your flexibility. Your desired end state should be an improved ability to assume a more aerodynamic and powerful riding position. Carry over benefits are improved range of motion and possible decreased injury risk in the other sports.
   • Core Strength: this is an important but often neglected component to applying more power to the pedals in this more aerodynamic riding position. Carry over benefits are improved power transfer in the other sports.
   • Nutrition: as it applies to aerodynamics, improved nutrition means getting your gut out of the way so you can assume a more aerodynamic riding position. More important carryover benefits are improved body composition (very valuable on the run) and improved maintenance/recovery nutrition.
   • Bike fit: after having improved these three components, you have increased your ability to assume a more aerodynamic riding position. Your next step is to invest time and money on proper bike fit.
4. Strength Training: Cycling is commonly believed to be limited by the muscular system rather than the aerobic system. Most often the aerobic engine is there but the transmission (leg muscular system) is the limiter to applying this engine to the pedals. A comprehensive strength training program, followed consistently, will improve the athlete's ability to apply power to the pedals and utilize more of their aerobic potential.
5. Mental Skills: when the gun goes off, your performance is dictated by how well you apply your fitness to the race. This is a function of race day decision-making and execution skills. The athlete develops these skills by:
   • Reading race reports and learning from the experience of others. I'll use the military as an example. A military professional is, above all else, a historian. We learn our craft by studying the experiences of other military professionals in war. A leader is presented with a tactical situation. The leader orients himself to possible courses of actions, makes a decision and then supervises the execution of that decision. What were the results of this process and how can we apply these lessons, should we face a similar tactical situation in the future? A race report provides the exact same learning opportunity.
   • Practical application of these skills in races and scheduled race rehearsals. These events are opportunities to "war game" ideas, theories and skills. Each smaller event is an opportunity to refine our tactics for the larger event.
6. Selection and purchase of better gear: in an effort to maximize our return in the bike/rider system, we have concentrated our initial investments in the least expensive but most important component: the rider. Only after we have reached some level of our potential does it make economic sense to invest in more expensive options: the bike and other gear.

In summary, I will now describe the Team Crucible Holistic Method to Improved Cycling Performance :-)

• Apply the first and largest investment toward improving your knowledge of all things cycling related, specifically how to maximize the performance of the engine. This learning process is constant and continuous.
• Purchase a power measuring device to ensure that this knowledge is applied to your training in the most efficient and effective method possible.
• Formulate and implement a comprehensive plan to improve flexibility, nutrition, core and leg strength. Desired end state is improved rider aerodynamics and power generation. The final step in this process is applying these improvements to the bike by investing in proper bike fit.
• Concurrent with all of this is a structured program to improve race day decision-making and execution skills. The tools available are racing, race rehearsals and reports.
• Somewhere near the "end" of this process, invest time and money in the most proven gear available.

With a little thought and planning you can apply this holistic training method to swimming and running. Develop and implement a plan for the small details, as they relate to the unique requirements of each sport.

Finally, I would like to introduce a very important training tool: the Geekometer. Essentially, this entire article is about forming and implementing a plan to work on lots of little things. Your level of planning and implementation should reflect your athletic goals, desired lifestyle, and personal value system.

Just where do you want to be on the Geekometer? Rather than follow the plan of your favorite pro, set realistic expectations for yourself. Above all else, your plan should be realistic and individual to you, given your goals, lifestyle and an honest assessment of your ability to follow through with a plan. Whereas my plan reflects a goal to someday win my age group in an Ironman, your plan may reflect a goal to continue to eat a dozen donuts a day and still fit in your size 32 jeans. It's all good. Each plan conforms to our unique values and we each have realistic expectations of our ability to execute the plan.

 End Preview

Interested in what you've seen so far? The complete document is over 70 printed pages long and is the sum total of over three years of Ironman coaching. Where else are you going to find training plans of this caliber with this level of support for only $3-6 per training week?

The complete document includes these additional chapters and is only available with the purchase of a Crucible Fitness Training Plan

Part II: Specifics of Ironman Training
Training the Ironman Swim, with stream swim drill videos
Training the Ironman Bike
Bike Fit and Equipment Selection
Braking and Cornering
Climbing Hills
Training and Racing the Ironman with Power
Training the Ironman Run
Rest and Recovery
Sport Specific Strength Training
Core Strength and Flexibility
Sports Nutrition: Body Composition, Weight Management and Recovery
Training Nutrition Summary

Part III: Racing the Ironman
Ironman Execution
Mental Focus and Skills
Ironman: Principles vs Plan, published in Inside Triathlon Magazine
Ironman Pre-Race Talk (audio files)

Purchase your plan today!

**Prices are effective Nov 10, 2004.  Crucible Fitness reserves the right to change prices and terms for any service without prior notice.