First IM in 2010

[Melinda Crooks]

Hi there,

I am hoping to do IM MOO in Sept. 2010, and had a question about pre-IM program fitness. In 2005, I got really bad tendinitis in my knees, and have been recovering ever since. Essentially, I was unable to work out and gained some weight. Prior to injury, I was doing triathlon competitively at the sprint and olympic distances, and also completed a full marathon and a number of half marathons.

Recently, I have been taking boot camps (3 hr/week at high intensity) and doing hiking and 30 min run/walk sessions through the summer to get my weight under control, have lost almost 20 lb (almost back to my "racing" weight), and my knees have been doing surprisingly well *knock on wood*. I am looking at the 36-week ultra training program, and if I do IM MOO in 2010 would need to start it in January (I think). So I am going to spend the fall building up my base to about 8 hr/week following a free sprint/olympic training plan I found online. Do you think this will be enough for me to be able to start the ultra training plan in January? I am not in nearly as good of shape as I was when I was racing, but feel like my goal isn't unattainable. I just wanted to see if transitioning to the ultra program from such a short training base would injure me or be too strenuous.

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

[Fabrizio]

Hi Melinda
from my point of view, if your objective is doing an Ironman and especially if you are out of a tendinitis, you should concentrate on long distance training and at least for this season forget about short distance training, it is too hard on the body, and it does not help much on a race of more than 9-10 hours. what you should build for an Ironman is speed at aerobic threshold let's say 75%-80% and not working too much and too long above the lactate threshold.
I think Mike ultra program is perfect if you follow it from the beginning as the base phase for an Ironman is fundamental, on raceday you will have to work for a long time at a hart rate level that will allow you to finish strong and enjoy the race.

when I trained for my first Ironman following Mike's programme I was always afraid I was not doing enough, I also wanted to prove myself all the time and trained harder (in terms of intensity) than needed, I also raced many short distances. So on race day after the first 10km of the marathon I was done and I finished IM Nice in 11h36 (with a marathon in 4h30) with a bad taste in my mouth as I knew I could have done better.
this year I came back and changed the way of training, I followed Mike's programme again without overdoing and really focusing on strenghtening my speed at aerobic threshold 75-80%, if I check my training log of last year and compare the one of these year I can see that my top speed remained more or less the same, but my speed at 75% improved a lot, so I did a great IM in Nice improving by 1h 4min my time finishing in 10h32 and a marathon in 3h45m (placing in the first 10% overall) I also improved my bike time of 20 min but most of all I was feeling top shape after the bike and enjoyed the race from start to end

I wish you a great training
IM is a great race and a way of life
and remember there are no can't in Ironman and anything is possible
ciao
fabrizio

[Melinda Crooks]

Thanks so much for the advice, it helps me a lot to hear about your experience with the training program. Good job on your huge PR!!

[Mike Llerandi]

Hi Melinda,

I think your approach makes perfect sense, and yes, you can start the Ultra plan in January with plenty of time to get ready for IM-Moo -- 8+ months of steady work is plenty!

Have fun with it!

Mike