Racing Ironman - The Six Hours Per Week Training Plan!

OK so I’ve just read that the winner of my age group in Ironman UK (in a time of 9.59.55) trained for an average of 14.5 hours per week in 2013.  Finishing in 28^th place in 11.07, I was intrigued to see how my stats compared.

Having had a quick look at my training log it’s easy to understand the 67 minutes difference!!

In the 31 weeks from January 1^st to August 4^th, I trained for a total of 208 hours (and 20 minutes!).  This works out to an average of 6 hours and 43 minutes per week.  That’s almost 8 hours per week less than the winner! 

2013 Training Totals

	Hours	Distance (K)
Swim	41:20:00	129
Bike	83:00:00	2482
Run	84:00:00	1052
	208:20:00	3663

I averaged 80 minutes of swimming, 2 hours and 41 minutes on the bike and 2 hours and 42 minutes of running.  That equates to 129k of swimming, 2482k on the bike and 1052k of running.

Wowzer!  I thought I had done more than that!!

2013 Weekly Averages

	Time	Distance (K)
Swim	1:20:00	4.2
Bike	2:40:39	80.1
Run	2:42:35	33.9
Total	6:43:14	118.2

Looking back through my training log a bit further, I managed half of the weekly volume that I was doing in 2011, and 2.5 hours per week less than I did last year. 

2010 – 2013 Weekly Averages

	Swim	Bike	Run	Total
2013	1:20:00	2:40:39	2:42:35	6:43:14
2012	1:30:03	5:17:08	2:29:20	9:16:31
2011	1:18:06	8:43:46	2:55:41	12:57:33
2010	1:30:15	4:56:00	3:03:14	9:29:29

The figures have been skewed slightly, in so much as March's total was a little more than 10 hours for the whole month! That said, no month saw more than 40 hours of training, with most months accumulating between 30 & 40 hours.

Don’t get me wrong here, this is a lot of training for somebody whose life has changed completely.  I now have three daughters (aged 4, 3 & 1 when they ‘arrived’ in March).  Training has not been a priority, but a luxury.  That said, I was able to train consistently throughout most of the year – just keeping the sessions short and higher paced.  Lynn made sure I was able to have some time on most days to add to the stinky kit wash pile.

On this level of training I was able to do a PB in Bala Middle (despite lots of cramps) and complete two Ironman races in 2013, The Outlaw in 10.44 (with lots of vomiting on the run) and Ironman UK four weeks later in 11.07.

Planning for next year has already started, with two races already entered (Outlaw Half and Ironman UK).  Planning a training schedule which allows for some more longer sessions without compromising on family time is the next trick.