I saw your post regarding your 100 mile bike and short run. That's impressive, but I will also clarify you really need to work on your fueling plan. If you are mentally prepared and feel you are physically ready, your body won't work the way you want or expect if you are not fueled right. Regardless if you train enough.

You also need to be prepared for how Lake Placid is bipolar with weather. Some years it is super cold and rainy, other years it is hot.

Work on getting your nutrition right-or at least better so that you are good on race day.

I'm looking forward to your race report.

I also will again stress you need to find some other races to do prior. Find a Sprint or an olympic to do, as well as a 70.3 You will want to have that race under your belt prior to the full.

Where do you live?

I am with you, if he wants to do it, he should do it.

Is it really more dangerous than playing football where kids can get life altering injuries. Or high school wrestlers losing weight at a time when they should be growing.

Personally, I think your time would be better spent chasing girls.

I think there’s quite strong opinions on those two things as well. I know I find the “making weight” thing extremely unhealthy and unnecessary.

Also to reiterate that a lot of the advice in this thread is to not do it unplanned and unprepared.

In Rhode Island

Ok I browsed through the replies. Here are my takeaways and advice for you.....

1) Bike fit is KEY. Take your bike, see if you can visit a reputable fitter (someone NOT affiliated with a bike shop) and get set up on your bike. Even add aerobars,. Lake Placid may be hilly but there are very very long stretches where aero is your friend. It will cost you $300 or so, but it will be a better spend than blindly buying another bike.

2) If your goal is anything more than "finish" for fun -- you need to follow a program. Going out and randomly gut busting out 100 milers whre you aren't fueling properly is not giving you the structured training you need and is going to put you at risk for injury. Any training cycle requires a build towards the race. Based on what you said you are doing right now, I think you are likely a little ahead of where some would be starting out their training.

3) Riding.....
- You asked "is 15 hours riding enough" - uh, for non-professional triathletes, many max out at 15 hours training TOTAL between all three disciplines let alone biking while managing full time work and other things. I would imagine you'd actually top out at something like 10 hours riding a week over three - four rides. These rides would be:
(a) up to 90 min HARD zone 4 workout (where you will spend up to about 2/3 max of the time in zone 4, otherwise spending time in warmup/rest periods and cool down)
(b) 60-90 minute Zone 3 or 4 workout (where you'll spend like 1/3 of the time in zone 3 or 4, otherwise rest is warmup/rest/cooldown)
(c) 60 minutes Zone 2 ride (optional)
(d) up to 5-6 hour long ride with majority in zone 2 (including efforts in zone 3)

4) Running- you are a strong runner, but you don't need to do the mileage for running that you would do for a "running only" event. You can run 4-5 days a week and manage just fine (remember all the cycling you will do and swimming).
Your runs would include....
(a) hard tempo efforts (probably like 1 hour up to 90 min)
(b) short zone 2 run off the bike (25min)
(c) ~60 min zone 2
(d) short zone 2 run off your long bike (25 min)
(e) long run
(f) - optional additional zone 2 short run

5) Swimming- if you have time to swim 5 days a week, that's good. But to be honest, not necessary. I would think if you can get in the pool 3 days a week it's fine. But just loping along isn't really beneficial. Just like the other disciplines, doing different speeds is important to build your strength.

6) NUTRITION. Your comment about riding almost 5 hours and all you ate was 2 cliff bars and some trail mix..... this is pretty much a recipe for disaster in long distance racing. You should be aiming for something like 300 or more calories an HOUR on the bike, aiming to try and get like 80+ grams of carbohydrates (minimum, more if your gut can handle it). Waiting to fuel afterwards is the wrong choice. The idea is to eat continuously on the bike and not wait until you feel hungry. (Your 2 clif bars + trail mix MAYBE totaled 300 calories, which is about 700-1000 calories short for that one ride).

I recommend you try and see if you can either purchase a full distance training program, hire a coach, or download a free one. There are free ones out there, but having a coach that will personalize is really helpful. For my first ironman, I used Mark Allen's online coaching. I now have a personal coach and prefer it. But be prepared to listen to them and don't go freestyling. ;)

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm planning on seeing someone for bike fit this week. I struggle to get past zone 2 on the bike sometimes, which I think is because my heart is stronger than my legs. I've talked to my neighbor about training, and I might be able to sit down with him and create a training plan, but he said that right now I should just be doing super low intensity stuff for the next few weeks before I start workouts. Do you think I would still be able to run a decent time in a 3k/2mile at the start of June? It would be cool to go sub 9 in the 3k, as I was quite close before. This is definitely secondary, an I'm just wondering more if it would be possible with the training I would be doing, not that I'm planning to train for it specifically. I'm planning to get some of the nutrition stuff that's provided at Lake Placid and train using that, but I just haven't gotten it yet.

If you are swimming 5 days per week in the morning and bike or run or a bike/run after school on weekdays and if you go for a 60 min swim +3-5 hrs ride + 30 min run every weekend take Saturday off and get 56 hrs of sleep, you will be just fine. On your long swim-bike-run days, take in one bottle of Gatorade and half an energy bar per hour, and in the bottle of gatorade add a half teaspoon of salt. Its going to taste salty, but that is fine. Now based on that you will be around 250 cals per hour enough liquid and enough salt to do this thing.

Everyone is overcomplicating this. Ironman is not that tough if you are healthy and athletic. If you do enough frequent training, a long workout per weekend, get sleep and learn how to fuel and dial back pace on race day, as long as you're just trying to cruise through you will be fine. If the pace feel too easy until mile 130 that's fine, dial back and go easier. As my friend Patrick McCrann said, "if you undercook the first 130.6 miles, you get a 10 mile drag race running race to MAKE up for taking it too easy". I don't think any of us has ever witnessed an age group who did that fast final 10 miles and regretted pacing the first 130.6 "mistake"

If you get 10 hrs of training in on weekdays and 4-6 hrs on Sunday, this is plenty of prep. I would skip two of those ten weekday workouts and just make Saturday a steady 80-100 min run day and nap as much of the day as you can and catch up on school work.

Wait you're friends with Patrick McCrann? That's crazy actually that you mentioned him. I was thinking about asking him for some advice.

Also, my long runs are about 2 hours usually (easy pace=16miles moderate pace=18miles). Should I extend these and slow down a little or just keep them the same. I usually do one every week or two, depending on my long ride and the weather (Also how much homework I have).

Feel free to send me a private message. I can email you some more specifics. I’ve been doing this for longer than you’ve been alive (LOL, first Ironman in 2005) and am happy to share some more detailed advice. I have a coach myself and had my best year last year.

I’m a ‘low mileage ‘ runner because I tend to be injury prone and I’ve been very successful at Ironman with a max run of 16 miles.

I don't tend to be injury prone, but I messaged you about more details.

2 hrs 18 miles is too fast because that is a 1:24 half marathon pace and your PB is 1:19. You need to run waaay slower and you don't really have to run 2 hrs NOW. It is Feb, not May. 90 min, 10-11 miles is plenty right now. You should be running at 8 min miles for all your volume running not 7 and certainly not 6. If you average 8 min miles in the Ironman, that is 3:30 age grouper hero status. Only something like 4% of the field in most local Ironmans run that fast. Slow your run pace down, and cut back on long runs NOW. You can get back up to 2 hrs runs (which is plenty) in May. Keep in mind that run training is only important if you want to get on an age group podium/KQ. If you want a steady finish, swim and bike is more imporant and enough running to jog your way to 16 miles without walking. Run training is only important for those racing the final 10 miles which as I mentioned is 4% of the field.

Do you think I should train running at all then?

Yes you should train running, but you don't have to do a lot of hard runs or long runs. Just a lot of base volume at your jogging pace which should be around 8 min miles. Save the energy for swim and bike training

Do you think it's possible to run a sub 9 3k with this training? I ran low 9s last year off of around 40 miles per week.

That's depend on you, actually, but you're never going to run at your full potential during ironman preparation. You can run a 3k for sure, but I wouldn't set any time goal, possibly

Ironman & a 3k are completely different ends of the spectrum.

Anything Is Possible, Reimagine Your Limits, and Reach For The Sky!

I appreciate your confidence in me, but I know that they are pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum so the 3k will probably come down mostly to how talented I am.

Yeah I've realised that now

You’ve communicated what you’re doing with your track coach all the “extra” training you’re going to be doing, yes?

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

No, I'm not doing indoor so I can train on my own.

I'm not a coach, and have no coaching qualifications, I am however, a very successful self coached age group triathlete, ultra runner and ultra cyclist. In this sport, you will be assaulted with psudo science and some questionable coaching advice. People will tell you that you need all sorts of kit, which is actually unnecessary (I have wasted far too much money on junk).


At 17 I had aspirations of being a professional windsurfer, and was already competing at a pretty high level. Around this age, I cycled from London to Bilboa in Spain with my brother (who was part of the GB U18 rowing team), 2 kids with bikes loaded with camping gear, passing pelotons of serious riders in the Pyrenees. Who says a young guy can't do endurance sports.

I agree with everyone who says don't set a target time, your first IM will be a learning experience, however, I suspect you could do a really fast time, but it's simply not worth putting the pressure on yourself.

You should consider riding on Zwift, doing some of the long distance races, 180km+, will be an eye openner, a big advantage to racing long on Zwift is that you can really nail your nutrition. Learning nutrition while riding outdoors is much tougher. Then when you have done a long race on Zwift, go for a 5 miles run at race pace - lets say 8mins/mile. Then do this every week

There's no need to give up a social life.... at least in the US you can't drink until 21, so that shouldn't be an issue (My best ever windsurfing result happened with a collosal hangover, not that I would advocate this technique).

The think that you lack is a base, it takes 4-5 years to really build a solid base, you are probably somewhere along the journey already, but only have 6 months, so really focus on base building, no smashing out sessions, no building ftp (yours is fine), just tons of going long in Zone 2 while fueling.

Your biggest challenge will be pacing, you'll start the bike way too fast, forget to fuel (because your body tells you that it doesn't want any), then you'll bonk hard on the run - being young, your body is not as effective at processing fat as an old guy like me. You are already way faster than you need to be, so really focus on going long and slow and fuel, fuel, fuel.

Once you have a race under your belt, you can look back at what went well, what didn't and start to focus on specific aspects.

Since I have no qualifications, I will not be offended if you ignore me. At least for me learning was a big part of the fun, and I ignored many people, some of whom I should have listened to

Rouvy over zwift for solo, non power focused rides. Zwift over estimates distance done, rouvy more realistic.. assuming you use a smart trainer

Zwift isn't that far off since riding is mainly in a big pack, there are very few times when you ride in such a big pack IRL. When using Zwift, I consider time and power as most important factors, distance isn't too relevant. I do a race most sundays, which is around 100-110 km, it always takes 2h20m +/- a couple of minutes, so is representative of a 70.3 in terms of time, but is about 15% higher in terms of intensity