Tri / Triathlon / Triathlons - do they float your boat?

£20 to ride 518 miles in 24hr. CTT and Mersey Roads provide much better value. Buy local! :)

The value you get from entering an Ironman event over another triathlon event is brand awareness.

For some many this means status.
For me it means less tedious conversations

Eg: co-worker: why are you alway is in the gym, come out and get
pissed, snort coke. tommy: I can't because im tapering for an Ironman
co-worker: oh.. thats cool, I think i know what this is... fair enough

This also increases levels of charitable fundraising that helps gain backing of the local authorities and community allowing racing on closed roads.

I will be expecting the event to exceptionally well run, given their funds and experience.
I just hope I don't find all the additional bs around it too nauseating

Are you targeting a Kona spot Ed?

Interesting (as a prospective Ironman(TM) entrant). Sadly I think I'll do at least one (like IM Wales in 2016) purely because of the branding/name/cachet/bucket-list aspect.

However, as an Audaxer I'm used to paying next to fuck all for a whole lot of time on the bike. £3 for a 200km ride. £30 to ride a 600km ride (with some food included) but, with the rest of the food required, it ends up closer to £60 for a fully packed 40h weekend. Bargain.

I guess there are enough devotees and one/two time suckers (like me) to keep the Ironman brand going at that rate. (TM).

It's posts like this that make me very sad about the demise of rep.

And while I'm here, amazing work @hats - top 35% sounds pretty solid and bodes well for better. I've only done a few duathlons and I've always had puzzlingly long transition times - like many multiples of everyone else's. I think I get very easily distracted.

@tommy No, I had a look just in case! My target is between 11 and 12 hours, 10.38 got a Kona spot last year in my age group, but that was with some pretty poor weather conditions, and the year before it was more like 9.45 for which the course would have to be largely downhill!

You can do any other similar distance event and tell people you're doing an ironman, the branding isn't important. And then you won't have to go to Wales or, worse, Bolton.

Last time I checked, the UK has more iron distance events than any other country, including the States, where they're all brand junkies and just want the M-dot. The nearest one is in Dartford. Spoiled for choice.

Something is swimming round my head - early this year, there was some guy talking about putting on an iron event in London this December, including an outdoor swim. It sounded really stupid, so was keen to get involved. Anyone know anything more about it?

^^ Indeed.

Eh? Lie... & hope the person isn't for some reason as informed as you.

Or worse still have to have the whole .dotm debate every time..
I might rather pay the £400

Timing worked, friends doing it, well run event.. Why not I thought, but each to there own.

Think Dartford is run at night.. Midnight.. Each to there own.

Last big day done, 2.5 hour bike, 40 min run, 2 hour bike, 40 min run, 1.5 hour bike, 20 minute run.

The final run was horrific, it took about 18 minutes to feel remotely comfortable, so I ended up doing another couple of minutes so I didn't finish on a low point.

Generally felt pretty comfortable all day, enjoyed being in full aero twat gear, and getting plenty of strava prs, I don't think I had a single roadie return a wave or a hello though!

Oof... sounds brutal! From the snippets of your training that I've seen you mention on here, the actual race should be a breeze.

Considering a return to IM next year. I agree with all the points on the previous page etc. but the IM branded european races I've done have been some of the most enjoyable sporting events I've ever done. I'd love to do Lanza/Nice/Switzerland/Austria but I'll probably end up doing Wales to save costs.

Half marathon done today at ironman pace, adductors felt quite fatigued but otherwise fine, a friend likened ironman training to baking a cake the other day, training is buying, measuring and mixing all the ingredients, taper is the moment you put it in the oven and race day is eating it! So my ironman is now in the oven!

Watching the itu world champs on BBC and having a snooze now!

Continued my bike heavy, swim less, run none training plan.

230km cycle with 3000 metres of climbing (finishing with chalkpit)
Bonked going up Toys.. but fueling plan should work on a shorter distance.

Job done.. sweet tapper.

Do you guys have coaches? If not, where are you getting your training plans? Ed, I've not seen the alternating training like that before. What is the idea behind it?

Hi Rocky.. i'm a little disappointed that you've found ed's training plan more 'alternative' than mine :(

I don't think either of us have coaches, most triathletes (even pros) don't.
But we are both members of clubs - which can offer cost effective structured training with other experienced triathletes.

There's wealth of training plans out there now, most around a six month time period.
Don Fink's is popular.

The idea behind repeat brick sessions is to make it feel more natural rather waiting for race day. Also running and cycling with fatigued muscles means you have to concentrate on form and the use core/secondary muscles.

Personally I don't agree with it.. Ideally training should only be done on fresh legs to reinforce good technique however in the real world; the days you want to cycle its raining and the days you want to run you an injury; so being able to mix it up is important.

I do have a coach, If I'm honest I don't know the theory behind it, he does explain stuff but I don't listen as he usually explains it when I've turned my brain off!

It's both a mental and physical toughness thing though, both accelerating fatigue, and having to get back on the bike and getting running when every part of you wants to stop is draining at first but after a while your mind gives up and muscle memory takes over and just goes...

Tapering has started, did a 33 minute 5k tonight, got a slow open water swim tomorrow, gentle 2hr bike on weds, another swim on Thursday and 2hr bike on Saturday. Which feels like a lot when I write it out but given that I've averaged over 15hrs a week on the bike alone for the last 3 weeks is a massive step down in exercise. We pick up again a little next week until Wednesday, then it's a massage, rest a bit of a course recce (swim the swim, drive the bike and walk/jog one lap of the run) and off I go!

Also though +1 to what was said above about joining a club, best thing I've ever done for sport, both in terms of competition, structured training, value for money, and just meeting a huge variety of people who are all great fun in their own way..

Who's your coach, if you don't mind saying? Currently doing 100+ mile bike rides and marathon distance runs fairly (well, relatively) comfortably, and seriously thinking about ironman next year. Don't have a clue how to get up to scratch on swimming though.

Run shitloads, bike shitloads, swim as little as you can get away with. There's your plan, wire me some pounds.

If your looking for a coach to develop training plans i'd recommend Nick Dunn - he is current (for a few more days) ITU Age group world champion 2013

But it depends on your goals and expectations on what your looking to achieve.

His website is below (also has training camps)
http://www.tricamp.co.uk/tri-camp-coaching

^^ Thanking you. I send you many pound by wire.

^ And cheers user (Tom/Tommy?), will have a look.

I'm coached by Tri Training Harder. They have several coaches but I like mine and I hear good things about the others too.

Is it worth it? I'm not sure.

Since I started triathlons I've done 3 IMs self coached and then switched to running ultras for a couple of years which I also did self coached. For most of that time I flitted between free online training schedules (predominantly this one) or for the ultras, a simple - home spun plan based on training time (i.e. I just ran as hard as I could for that day's allotted duration, peaking at 50miles/weekend). Last year, I decided to enter Challenge Henley about 4 months before the event and ended up getting a coach because I was (a) very time limited and (b) I missed having a coach from my rowing days.

I'm pretty sure that I'm now going just as fast as I was previously but that I'm now doing it on far less training. This is a good thing, but it's also expensive and I can't really afford it; doubly so when life gets in the way and I end up missing sessions. Every month I wonder about stopping the coaching but then again I do enjoy it. It's definitely a luxury though.

Faark... was just looking at races for next year and saw IM Mallorca. Looks awesome apart from the huge descent. You wouldn't catch me racing down that on a TT bike in a million years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psq1E_Tpp3s

#ThibautPinot

^^ Cheers for the insight. TBH, if it was just running and/or cycling, I wouldn't bother. But I'm really not sure how to make myself go fast over three disciplines, over that type of distance. Which is still kinda freaking me out. Though understand about the luxury bit- may see if I can find one who'll give me a full plan, and charge for a month....

Ramsey is out... pheww
http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/sport/11455825.Ramsay_out_of_Ironman_Wales/

^ if you don't like descending.. don't go to Mallorca but the one shown on the video is not a bad one. Recognise nick dunn at the start.. he must do that decent 4 times a week!