Well not insults but is stw so perhaps inevitable…

Did a marathon last week and although a chunk slower than hoped (4.30 and wanted sub 4 hour) I think with a proper training plan I could go faster and despite the pain I quite enjoyed it.

Anyway a mate wants to do a half ironman next summer and wants to know if I’d be up for it. He’s fit-plays hockey at a high level and did Paris marathon in 3.40 so I’d end up fairly strong just trying to hold onto him in training. However, I have a few concerns.

First is money, about £200 entry fee plus wetsuit and pool fees. I’m sorting out a cross bike which I can run gears on but running gears through the winter is prob going to cost me more than normal.

Time is the other big concern, we’re both in our 2nd year of med school so there are stretches when we’ll be snowed under plus we shift to clinical work in easter and might have to commute.

Aside from that it’s all good, Im a half decent swimmer and mate is a former olympic swimmer so can help with that side and couple other mates are doing an Ironman next summer so can help with motivation in the dark winter months.

The obvious thing is to do a short tri and see how we like it but thought I’d tap the stw knowledge base looked at this already.

ta

I started doing tri’s a couple of years ago and the one thing you learn is that the actual race is the easy bit.
The hard bit is getting to the start line in a state that you know you can complete it in the time you want (or to just complete it).

The longer the distance the more time it takes to train.
If I were you I’d start of planning a year of shorter distances, sprints (400m swim, 14m ride, 5k run) or olympic (1500m, 25m, 10k) then look to do it the year after.
If you just want to get round then you need less training but given your comment of the marathon time I don’t think that would appeal.

It’s hard enough training for one event and putting enough in for a half ironman (70.3) takes some doing and just being able to do each distance is just the start – it’s a bit harder doing one after the other.

Either way it’s addictive – I do the races to give me motivation for the training which I love (and the toys as well)

For better info check out tritalk.co.uk – people with better and more info that I live there.

I did Ironbridge a few years ago (ok, it was 1994) in just over 6 hours, and I didn’t do any of the race distances in training. At the time, the race was the longest swim and bike I’d ever done, and I’d only done a couple of 1/2 marathons.
So don’t think you need to train for hours and hours. Just do what you can, but make every minute count. Good, quality training (in my view) is better than low intensity stuff, if you don’t have the time.

I was expecting you to be going into it without any running – if you’ve already run a marathon, then that’s the hard bit done. Certainly no reason at all why you can’t get round if your swimming is also half decent (I’m taking it as read that you can ride a bike if you’re on here).

Blimey that’s expensive though – £200 for a 5 hour event? Put’s the cost of some of the stuff I do into perspective – half as much money for a much more complex event.

It definitely doable on what you’ve said so far, just depends where you want to finish and where your at just now.What did you feel contributed to your marathon time? Also at £200 it sounds like your going for a WTC event, there are plenty more halfs that don’t cost as much.

That’s interesting about cost, think it is WTC-i shall look for a cheaper one. I think my training gave me the legs for 26 miles but don’t feel I did enough intense or speed workouts. I was doing bits and pieces until my exams finished so probably around 8 weeks or so of pre race training

(I’m taking it as read that you can ride a bike if you’re on here).

brave 😉

Impossible to gauge exactly what you need but if you didn’t bonk on the marathon then you may have a good aerobic base to work from. That wil be the key in completing the distance. Swimming is easier than folks think and you sound like you can swim a bit already, the bike is a case of finding a pace that will leave you enough in the can to complete the run and the run is a survival effort 😆 Generally you’d be looking at a winter/spring putting some easy miles in on the bike and learning to swim efficiently whilst keeping the run training you have ticking over. Think along the lines of 2 swim sessions,3-4 bikes with at least one being a long ride and 2-3 run sessions per week. You could follow this format right up to the race,adjusting to suit whatever you feel is lacking. You could combine the bike and run to form a brick session. The important part is to build up to it and watch out for the signs of overtraining, rest and eat well. As for other races maybe try a standard just to get the feel for a triathlon the shorter distances don’t really bear much relation to the longer stuff. Have a look round the British triathlon site and your looking for middle distance events.