So How Much Training Does it Take to do an Ironman?

One of the common questions I get asked by people when they find out about my ironman obsession is "how much training do you do?"

It's always a tricky one to answer.  On one hand it varies according to the phase of training I'm in.  The week or two after ironman I'll be doing nothing.  Other weeks, like now (38 days out!), I'll be doing a fair bit more.  So I never really know how to answer it without either completely underselling the amount of effort and time that goes into it or scaring people off from considering that they might be able to take on the challenge themselves.

This morning, then, I decided to figure it out.  And the results were so interesting I had to share it.

It's actually quite a simple exercise, thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 910XT.  I've had this multisport watch for over a year now and on the Garmin connect website it was a 5 second job to run a summary report of all my activities for the past 12 months.  Here's what it spat out:

When you average it out over the year, you realise that what I'm doing isn't actually that daunting at all. I'll go through the relevant stats one at a time.

Firstly, I've done 348 activities.  Over 365 days that's less than one activity per day, on average.  In fact I've had 17 days over the year with no training - and St Pete would confirm that's probably about the number of times I've cooked dinner over the past year!!!!!  In reality I've had days where I've done two or three activities, but then there have also been more than 17 days off.

You get the idea.

During that year I've covered over 5106km.  That distance includes all of my swim/bike/running - and it also includes a standup paddleboarding session!  That's around 14km per day for the year or, overall, the same as a return trip between Sydney and Cairns.

The time I've spent training over the year is 422 hours 24 minutes.  That's an average of 1 hour 9 minutes per day.  Who can't do an hour of exercise each day?

My second favourite statistic is the elevation gain. Over the year I've climbed 69,785m.   That's 8 ascents of Mt Everest (from sea level).  Eight!  For someone who hates hills, it's a pretty cool feeling to know that over the space of a year I've done the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest eight times....wow.  Did I mention 8?

You get the idea.

My absolute favourite statistic, though is the calories burned.  Get this: 186,598 Calories. Now if there's one thing that helps me get out the door each day and exercise, it's this.  Food.  And I don't care what anyone says, there's nothing more satisfying than rewarding a long session on the bike, or a decent run, with an Angus Burger and large fries at McDonalds.  Or a coffee and a muffin.  Or a gelato on a hot day.

You get the idea.

Burning 186,000 Calories over a year allows me to indulge my psychological passion (food) while achieving my sporting passion (ironman).  And to put it into perspective, I could eat the following list every week and still not consume that many Calories:

• Grand Angus Burger
• Large Fries
• Hot Apple Pie
• Muffin
• Gelato
• Lindt Chocolate Truffle
• Slice of Banana Bread
• Latte (whole milk, daily)

(That little list comes to only 165,000 Calories for the year!)  Now before Coach Dave has a heart attack, never fear, I don't actually follow this weekly diet (except maybe the latte habit...), but it gives you some insight as to how a regular amount of exercise can really mount up into something significant over a period of time.

Forgetting about the food, though, the takeaway (boom, boom!) message here is consistency.  Afterall, if I said you could do an ironman on just over an hour of training every day for a year (and still have 17 days off over that year) you would probably never believe me.

But it seems you can.

Plenty to Reflect On

OK, so my blogging has been horribly sparse over the last couple of months.  I have no real excuse except for the fact that life gets in the way sometimes and other priorities take over.  It's not been from lack of enthusiasm, or from lack of training and, in fact, there have been at least four draft blogs that I started writing but which are now so out of date that it seems pointless publishing them.

As I said, though, training hasn't stopped and, if anything, it's been an interesting time for reflecting on the progress I've made in the last 12 months.  What a difference a year makes, so to speak.

So, some edited highlights -

Wellington Half Marathon:
St Pete and I went up to Wellington and I had high hopes of nudging a PB out of it.  Coach Dave, however, suggested a not so lofty goal which as usual was entirely sensible given it would be the first race of the season, or race in the off-season, and first race trying out the new running style.  So rather than a PB he suggested I focus instead on a good technique run.  So I did that, but still secretly really wanted to nudge my PB (yep, just a touch of stubbornness there!).

On the day the weather had other ideas.  It howled with wind and threw in a bucketload of rain as only Wellington can.  I did, however, put in a solid performance which included flashes of brilliance when I wasn't leaning into the gale force northerlies.  Eight kilometre splits (of 21) were at sub 6 minute pace, compared to last year when I only managed one kilometre split at sub 6 minute pace.  My overall placings (overall, age group, gender) were on average 12% improved on last year, so I came away very satisfied.

JD Duathlon:
Coach Dave suggested I do this event "for fun".  I was less enthusiastic.  A 2.6km run, 15.5km bike, 2.6km run is way too short (and fast) to be my idea of fun but, hey, who am I to argue with the coach?  So St Pete put up with my grumbling on the morning of the event and I did my best not to embarrass myself at the back of the field.  In the end the positives far outweighed the negatives - I maintained good form on the run (check out that photo!) and had a blast on the bike.  Being held on a motor racing track meant there was no traffic to contend with and a fantastic smooth surface so it was head down, aero position, going for it....hehe.

Swimming:
The last couple of months have been good for reflecting on my swim.  It's amazing how the mindset can change as soon as you've knocked off a 3.8km ironman swim.  That leg holds absolutely no fear for me now and I am totally in tune with the idea of finding another 15 minutes off my swim time next year.  I've found rhythm and power in my stroke and have gotten used to the feeling of exerting more power from my shoulders and arms while swimming.  Coach Dave suddenly hasn't got much to tell me when we have our group sessions and I'm enjoying the workouts much more. 

Biking:
My strongest and favourite discipline hasn't changed much.  I'm still happiest on the bike and noticing an improvement in my climbing.  A ride out to Sefton a couple of months ago had me shouting for joy as I crested a hill in the middle of pack.  It wasn't a big hill but last year I didn't have a hope of keeping up with the group as we climbed.  More recently we headed out to Kaituna Valley where the turnaround point is at the head of a reasonably steady climb.  And while I was not trying to be at all competitive, it was a very happy irongirl who made it to the end of the road (and top of the climb) in second to last place in the group (rather than last place!!!).  It's the small things that delight...

Running:
After a couple of hard months getting used to my new running style my perseverance is starting to pay off and I am feeling less and less like a penguin and more like a runner.  Others have noticed my improved form - more bouncy, less ploddy (!) and my speed has definitely picked up.  I am now managing to maintain around a 6.00 minute pace on my 10-14km runs whereas last year I was about half a minute slower per kilometre.  That half marathon PB is in my sights!

Weight:
Always a bone of contention, last year I resisted the idea of consciously trying to drop any weight before ironman.  It's been such a lifelong battle for me and I felt that my real focus had to be getting to the finish line no matter what my weight was.  Fuelling my body adequately in order to properly prepare it was more important than shaving off a couple of kilos.  In the end I lost about 5kg leading up to Taupo, which I certainly didn't complain about.  This time around, with a 2 hour improvement to focus on, I found myself mentally prepared to make a slight adjustment to my diet and see how much I could drop over the winter months before training ramps up again.

So St Pete and I downloaded an app onto our iPads called Tap and Track.  It's a comprehensive calorie counter which records all the food you eat and the exercise you do.  You program in initial data and what sort of weight goal you have, ie goal weight and how much you want to lose a week.  From that it gives you a daily calorie allowance and therefore provides you with the tools you need to make sensible decisions about what you eat.  Diets don't work and so I am not on a diet.  I've simply made a slight modification to my routine with the aim of dropping no more than half a kilo a week.  With the app I can, and do, still have my favourite chocolate.  I can still have McDonalds for lunch.  The only difference is I now know when I've done enough exercise to be able to enjoy those treats without feeling guilty or wondering if it's blowing my calorie intake for the day.   So my McDonalds Angus Burger, fries and hot apple pie is truly savoured guilt-free after a minimum 3 hour bike ride (for example).

So far it's working really well - I've lost 5kg since ironman and I don't feel like I've been on a diet, so there's no sense of undue restriction.  It's just a way of life, just like training is now a way of life.

Control, Cadence, Cuisine and Celebration

Last weekend's Sunday morning ride was all about the 4 Cs: control, cadence, cuisine and celebration.

Coach Dave had set me a 3 hour ride to do and the focus is now on simulating and practising actual race conditions.  And this is where the Cs came in...

Control was all about maintaining a steady pace.  I needed to find a pace that I will be able to maintain for 6 hours without trashing my legs or the rest of the body.  I've traditionally focused on maintaining a particular speed and, in particular, look to aim for a pace as close as possible to 30km/hr.  What happens, though, is that if you are on a slight slope, or if you hit a head wind, then you tend to trash yourself while you focus on maintaining your desired speed.  So I have to get out of that habit and ignore my speed. 

Dave suggested that a better measure would be maintaining a consistent heart rate range.  If I work out the heart rate range where I'm comfortable at then I'll be able to maintain that consistent effort all day and then come off the bike still in good enough shape to run.  I'm thinking at the moment that the optimal range for me is about 145-147 beats per minute, so the first focus of Sunday's ride was a controlled ride, keeping my heartrate in that "green" zone.

The cadence aspect had a similar goal.  Again, my habit has been to have a low cadence and this just loads up the legs too much.  So, again, the instruction was to forget about what speed I'm doing and focus on maintaining a light, high cadence of around 95 rpm.

Cuisine sounds like some sort of Michelin 3 star meal, but in reality this is simply nutrition on the bike!  (Just trying to keep to the "C" theme!) One of the big mistakes you can make in ironman is not eating enough or eating something that you haven't tried during training.  These long solo bike rides, then, also provide the opportunity to practice your nutrition on the bike.  It's important to trial different foods and make sure they agree with you and to get into the habit of knowing how much and how frequently to eat in order to maintain optimum performance on the bike.

My favourite cuisine on the bike has been One Square Meals (chopped into bite sized cubes), Gu Chomps and cheese and marmite sandwiches.  The One Square Meals are a Christchurch product (bonus to be supporting a local business!) and are easily cut up and eaten on the bike.  The Gu Chomps are like oversized wine gums, but chewier and stickier. 



And the cheese and marmite sandwich?  I came across that idea last year from another blog and while it sounds like an odd thing to have, it provides a great alternative to all the sweet stuff you usually end up having.  It is made with white sandwich bread, crusts cut off and cut into four bite sized squares.  I don't know what it is about it but I always feel noticeably better after I've had a couple of bites of the sandwich.

And then there's the liquid cuisine...  I have two bottles on the bike - a Profile Design aero bottle that sits between the aero bars right in front of me and one below in a cage on the frame.  The aero bottle has a straw sticking out of it so I can slurp up some water without getting off the aero bars.  In the bottom bottle I put some hydration fluid so I get some extra sustenance rather than just water.  The first couple of times I tried it I used Powerade and that seemed to work really well.  What I'm doing now, though, is moving to the isotonic sports mix that will be provided at the support stations in Ironman, and that is Horley's Replace.  Again, the key is to get used to it so that when you get given it on the course it doesn't upset the intestines...!

So I had control, cadence and cuisine all sorted out and headed out early Sunday morning for a solo jaunt around the Sefton block.  It was a gorgeous day - sunny, virtually no wind and not too much traffic.  As I headed back into town the fourth C came into play....celebration.

Andi is due to celebrate a significant birthday soon and so a social coffee ride was organised for the bike crew and I duly met up with them and we all headed out to sumner, via South Brighton, for a social coffee and muffin.

By the time I got back home I was pretty stuffed but very happy with the effort.  My solo ride, focusing on control, cadence and cuisine had produced the following stats:

Time: 2 hours 44 minutes
Distance: 77.4 km
Av cadence: 82 rpm
Av heartrate: 148 bpm
Av speed: 28.3 km/h

The coffee ride was another 55 km so my total distance for the day was 132km.  Fab ride and the lazy-boy nap was well deserved....and enjoyed!

My favourite spot after a big ride!