Return to training after IM

Hi all, I know there are some quite experienced IronMan finishers out there, I am doing my first this year (IMCH) which is July 25th and I was wondering after the event how long is a reasonabe time to have off without training? The reason I ask that that I am considering the Dublin Marathon (25th October) so I would only have about 12 weeks between IM and Dublin to train, less however long it takes to recover from IM. I was planning on having an entire month off but now Dublin is in the equasion, was wondering if that could be halved or should i just wait another year for the marathon? Cheers

depends on how fast you recover and if you get injuries but thinking about it a lot of people who did IM and some who did double IM last july and august did the JW Ultra in the september which was 30 miles.

It will also depend on how hard you are going to race the marathon.........you should retain a lot of your fitness even if you rest for a couple of weeks and then start running again

good luck

I'd not have a whole month off. One of our gang did two IM events on consecutive weekends in very respectable times.

Typically I take half a week off or so and then I'm keen to get back out there, just for fun rather than hard training. My legs are always a lot better after an IM than they are after a Marathon.

Ok thanks, I'll give it some more consideration. At least I'm glad to see that I'm not completely out there with the idea

As already stated a lot depends on how quickly you revover.  I think you deff need to take at least a week off though some may go out for a loosening bike ride, walk or swim towards the end of that 1st week?

You can perhaps get back to light training the 2nd week and build up during the 3rd week. 

You will feel back to normal a week after the Ironman, the thing you wont notice until you push your endurance is that you'll have underlying fatigue for 4-8 weeks.  How quickly you get over that will depend on how conditioned your body is to endurance training and events.

With a 12 week gap id say you can get in some decent marathon training weeks 4-10 before you taper, aiming to re-peek around week 8/9.

Steteches and massage can also help the recovery cycle so dont forget that.

Having said all the above I know of a couple of people that have found that they re-peek 4/5 weeks after an Ironman with little more than just rest and light training. 

Thanks Barlist, I think i will see how i feel as the IM training picks up, and provided i avoid any injuries then I think I'll give it a go.

I did IMCH and paced Dublin last year and it worked out fine (even did an ultra  up a bloody mountain the day before Dublin). You will almost certainly be able to "do" it. The key is deciding if you want to "race" both. If you're not used to doing lots of races back to back the only way you'll be able to decide this is to give it a go. get back in the pool as soon as you stop aching after the IM, cycling shortly after that and I guess most people can run gently wihin 2 weeks. Leave the long sessions and the hard sessions off the adgenda until you're feeling really strong again. I'm fully convinced that it's not jsut training but only hard training that causes most injuries.

Thanks smiley lady. I'm going to do it! I just have to do some bl00dy training now. For both of them. Still they're ages away

hopefully 5 weeks is plenty of time between IM's.........

It had better be!