IM thoughts

I do time for everything.

Makes planning easier for everyone as they know how long you intend to be gone for. At the start you may not do the whole wim sets. (I never do) but dut hopefully you will quickly get to the point where the swim cut-offs son't worry you.

We can't come up with solutions to all your time problems - it is up to you to find them. We all have different time pressures and different solutions.

But they can be found.

M.eface

phew that's great to hear so 1hr at a time for the swim.

I was going to say if qeek 1 has a swim which would take me 90+ mins then I wouldn't stand a chance

Don Fink's Just Get Round plan has 1600m swim sets for the first ten weeks - might be worth investing in the book as it has some good time management ideas too.

Pix I have swim sets, turbo sets and long bike sets that I can send to you to give you an idea of the sorts of stuff I did.  From that then you will be able to decide whether you are up for it or not.  Oh you will need an HRM for best effect too   Though perceived effort works

I have a mad HR Rio. Have seen 203 in a race and in training without being at chucking up stage. Used to give up trying to train to HR as I was always walking (or crawling) as I run, well used to run!, easy in the 180s

Would love to see what you have,

LMH is that the Iron Fit book? I have that!!

It is Pixie - well worth a read. If you're time limited check out the Just Get Round plan - but read the rest too!

If you have a naturally high HR there's no reason not to work to the figures - Don Fink's zones are based on percentages of max so as long as you know what that is you can work within them.

Do you have a turbo? Invaluable in the bad weather - and helps with time management, not to mention mental training.

When is your HIM?

Thanks for the mail Rio I'll have a look/read and wibble!!

LMH My summer reading is the Fink book and also Going Long which will ever scare me out of this idea of make me want to do it more!!

I do have a turbo but not used it properly becuase it feels so high being some 4-5" off the normal height and it scares me! But I do need to use it I know.

The middle distance I would like to do is September. It's small and local so entries don't close until the end of August meaning I have a chance to see if I can get fit enough to do it without dying as it's after I get back to school.

At present as a new teacher who has done little exercise in 18mths I'm shattered because A) it's long hours, B) I'm not fit and C) I'm overweight. The plan is to work damn hard over summer to get fitter and hopefully lose some lard which will then make school easier for me and training.

If I do Outlaw we have enrichment week the next day so no normal teaching meaning my exhaustion won't impact on the job as such! Perfect timing!

What I need to do is see if I can fit the training in from where I am now to do it in 2013 or if I have to wait.

I want to do an IM because it's the ultimate challenge, I really want to say I DID THAT! I'd love to be fit enough to do it but at the same time the money, the time, the training scares the hell out of me.

Damn *spots clock* must get to work - thanks guys

I'd worry more about where my peak four weeks fitted in than about the week after Pixie - that will take care of itself!

true but knowing when it falls means I can work backwards in the term dates to see when that will be!

As HC says its more about before than after (though it will be better if you don't have to race straight back to normal work) for both a full and a half.

The turbo will be fine   As long as it is stable it is really quite hard to fall off it (though it has been done).  You will get used to it.  Just don't think about it and as you don't need to put your feet down during the work out it won't matter if you are six feet off the ground.

Off to play in the mud on my old bike followed by studying training plans whilst hubby is at work. This will allow me to see A how bike unfit I am for potential HIM in Sept and B work out when the hard weeks fall. Got a horrid feeling it may be the stressy time of year

Hi Pixie

Glad to see you're interested

I too work in a school, am overweight and not particularly fit (by sports standards) and really struggle with motivation to train too being a lazy beggar  but as you know I managed to get round Outlaw a couple of weeks back  

My peak training weeks also coincided with the busiest time at work for me and also days when instead of being office based I was on my feet for 12 hours at a go..... it wasn't ideal but if you want it somehow you manage to sort something out!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do and hope to see you soon

IronPodds that's really encouraging to hear - how long was your peak week(s) and what time did you do at Outlaw? I'm just wanting to finish!

Did a slow muddy ride which taught me ;-

1. If you are yawning before you go out & almost fall asleep over a brew then you will quickly tire off road
2. thick splashing muddy puddles may be fun for the 1st 30mins but after 60 they aren't
3. tired itchy dry eyes + wind = sore watering eyes and trying to cycle with 1 eye closed is not good. Next time wear bike glasses

I was just a finisher EP (5th from last in 16 1/2 hours!!)

Difficult to say how long the peak weeks were as what I had planned (and I sort of wrote my own plan ) and what actually happened failed to coincide generally......

My ideal week was 3 run, 3 bike and 2 swim and in the peak weeks I was probably looking at something along the lines of:

Mon Eve - 5 mile tempo run with running club
Mid week - either OW or drills swim + 1 other run (either hills or longer 8 - 10 mile run) + 2 short bikes (either turbo or approx 1 hour outside)
Sat AM - 6 hour bike (very slow around 12 mph)
Sat PM - hour's coached swim with tri club
Sun AM - 2 1/2 run partly with running club

However I never managed all the sessions and both my longest bikes and runs fall well short of what would be recommended by most....

Most importantly though was that I did my own plan (with some help from my mentor and tri club mates) because I needed one which didnt' scare me and which I had an idea I could manage to do 90% of it 90% of the time.....

Pixie if you really are time challenged and not sure about being able to finish the whole distance you could always try it out with a section of a relay.

Damn looked at the Fink book ... Just finish maxes at 10hrs so now I'm starting to dare to think I could do this

Hmmm did I say that?

no not a smiley face IronPodds 'cos it's gonna hurt and then I'll do what I've done at every tri and marafun "hmm I could have done that better ..."