There seems to be a fascination with minimal Ironman training recently. Many triathletes are busy people and, although they love training, they simply can’t invest the time that many boiler-plate training plans call for. I am consistently baffled at the hours many age group triathletes claim to put in. Certainly an Ironman race is a difficult event, but I don’t believe it’s reasonable for most normal people with full time jobs and families to execute consistent weeks of 15+ hours of training. I also don’t believe dozens of massive high-volume workout sessions can lead to physical adaptations beyond what a smaller number of strategically structured and placed sessions can. There is a limit to what a body can absorb and, beyond a certain point (especially for busy people), there are diminishing or even detrimental returns on time-invested. Eventually, something has to give.
In light of these considerations, I recently executed a training block for Ironman Louisville where my goal was to maximize my performance by training approximately 10 hours per week—a time investment that I feel comfortable with and which allows me to live a balanced life. I ended up going 9:18 at the race, which is fairly close to my potential. Obviously it’s not a world-beating time. The winner, Andrew Starkowycz beat me by over an hour, however the performance was sufficient to place in the top 1% of the amateur race and vie for a Kona slot.
I won’t go into nauseating detail about my training, however I want to convey certain principles I follow and integrate into my coaching philosophy that most time-strapped athletes can implement to become efficient and approach their potential in an Ironman on fewer than 15 hours per week. I should preface by emphasizing that this approach is not ideal for all athletes and that I might have gone faster on a bit more volume (and it isn’t exactly the approach we take with those shooting for Kona slots)--but it does demonstrate that a well-structured, low-volume plan can lead to good results.
1. Bike indoors and bike hard—most of your intensity should occur on the bike: The majority of your “high-intensity” work (upper Z3 and above) should occur on the bike (rather than the run) with the ultimate goal (at least early in the training cycle) of raising your threshold power. If you’re only riding four to six hours per week, a large portion of your rides should contain intensity. The idea here is to use the bike (which is the most important discipline in long course) to maximize the size of your engine. Get a power meter (I use a Powertap C1), figure out your FTP and do a bunch of structured riding. Sweet spot riding is excellent — 3X10, 2x20 min, 3x15 min etc. at 85-90% of FTP, along with strategically timed VO2 blocks (4x4min, 6X2:30, etc.). You can make exceptional gains with 3-4 rides per week. During the experiment, I rarely averaged (including warm up and cool down) under 75% of my FTP for an indoor cycling workout, including warm up and cool down. I limited key endurance or “long rides” to four hours with most of them being three hours or less----though each of these contained high-intensity work (almost always 2 hours above race pace). With this approach, I comfortably went 4:58 on a hilly Louisville course.
2. If you are going to sacrifice something, sacrifice the swim--albeit do it intelligently: I would've loved to have swam more leading up to IM Lou, but in this ~10-hour per week experiment, something had to give. Considering prep-time, swimming is very time consuming Driving to the pool, showering, finding a lane, driving home, etc. Fortunately, the IM swim is a tiny part of the race and the potential time loss from a mediocre vs great swim is fairly small. I averaged less than 2 hours of swimming each week and typically swam 2-3 times a week, which worked well considering I was already “proficient” and comfortable in the water. All swims were “high density,” meaning they were hyper-focused with clearly planned drill work and fitness-boosting main sets. I was ALWAYS engaged with my stroke and strove to swim with “perfect form.” Most of my swims were ~2,000-2,500 yards. Closer to the race, I made sure to get in longer swims of 4,000 yards for confidence and to ensure the endurance was there.
I do not mean to demean the importance of the swim, but it is important to remember that the delta between your best possible performance (i.e. swimming every day) and your half-assed performance (3 times a week) is alarmingly low. Once you reach a general level of competency, the ROI on time invested is low relative to the other disciplines. By focusing on getting in 2-3 good sessions per week, I was able to swim 66 minutes at Louisville – a by no means great time, but good enough for the time investment. The key if your swim volume is low, however, is to prioritize efficiency and ACTUALLY swim easy during the race. To have taken off an additional 5 minutes, I probably would have had to swim three times as much and burned more matches.
3. Focus on run frequency and don’t run too hard: Too many people think it’s not worth running for 20-35 minutes. This is silly. Apart from being convenient, more frequent runs allow you to sneak in greater volume with less wear and tear. You obviously need longer runs to be competitive, but by emphasizing frequency you can achieve superior fitness while minimizing injury risk. I averaged about 30-35 miles per week spread out over 5-6 runs, which the vast majority of these runs “laughably easy,” i.e. upper Z1/Z2. I typically performed a “long” run every 10 days or so, building up to 16 miles with the closing miles building to around tempo pace. To have run farther would’ve required too much recovery time and compromised my other training. I also executed, on average, one weekly run emphasizing Z4-5 intensity, such as hill work (early on), a tempo run/cruise intervals, or good old fashioned track intervals (800s, 1,000s, etc.). Even for Ironman, “speed” work is beneficial for forging the cardiorespiratory fitness that will get you to the finish line faster, and these sessions contributed to improvements in my overall run fitness, strength, economy and power. However, especially due to the outsized emphasis on cycling intensity, very easy running formed the foundation of my Ironman run preparation. I never let these intense runs compromise my other sessions, especially the key bike workouts. They were typically the least important of the "key" sessions, and in actuality, I adhered closely to the 80/20 principle, with nearly all of the 20 on the bike. This approach allowed me to stay healthy and run 3:05 on race day.
4. Get your nutrition right: It is absolutely essential that you take in enough calories to avoid bonking. Do not leave your nutrition strategy to chance. Figure out how many calories you can consume per hour during your big days (i.e. long bike rides, etc.) at IM intensity without vomiting and meticulously consume calories at that rate during the race. Aim for 300-400+ calories per hour (less if you’re smaller, more if you are larger and can handle it) and make sure that they sit well in your stomach. A lot of people feel that they need to consume solid foods during the bike leg, which is a load of BS. You can if you want, but there is no benefit apart from fulfilling your emotional desire to eat solid foods. Your body will simply waste energy breaking it down. Keep it simple by consuming liquids. Most of the fast people I know subsist on concentrated nutrition bottles. I personally use Tailwind (1000 calorie bottle behind the saddle and a 300 calorie up front to start) and supplement it with a couple Clif Mocha Gels with caffeine and Gatorade Endurance (my body processes Gatorade fine—make sure yours does too) on the course. I shoot for 400-500 calories an hour, which is a good target if you’re planning on liquid nutrition and can process nutrition well. I know a number of pros who aim for 500+ calories per hour, so the traditional recommendation of 60-90 grams of carbs (240-360 calories worth) should not be viewed as a ceiling.
Although by no means exhaustive, these four principles are a good start to developing an approach to Ironman that will get you faster with minimal time investment. For additional tips, check out The Working Triathlete book and other articles.
Conrad Goeringer is an Ironman Certified Coach based out of Nashville, TN. He is the founder of Working Triathlete and author of the book The Working Triathlete. His passion is helping athletes of all levels and with all schedules achieve their endurance goals. Reach out to learn more about coaching packages and for a free consultation.