Mario and Marc are two European guys living in California who started doing triathlons last year. Before having ever actually done a triathlon, they signed up for Ironman Switzerland in July 2010. This blog documents their journeys from complete rookies of the sport to try and become Ironman finishers.
This is the first week I managed to complete all eleven workouts scheduled in my plan.
Drinks = 0
Workouts = 100%
The non-drinking binge definitely helps getting up early in the morning. Now the goal is to have a life while training.
My mileage for the week:
Swim: 8.2 km (about 5 miles)
Run: 14 miles
Bike: 30 miles
Weights: 2 MT [...]
Functional Threshold Heart Rate Test
Distance: 2.14 mi
Time: 20 min
Avg. Pace: 9:18 mi/mile
Avg HR: 185
I followed up on last weeks functional threshold heart rate (FTHR) test for running with a cycling test today. A 30 minute warm up for a good 8 miles brought my heart rate 165 BPM. Following was a 30 minute ride at [...]
I did my first Ironman swim test set today.
After 200 warm up and 4×400 with 10 second recoveries, I swam a 500m time trial – here are the times for my five 100m stints:
1 – 1:39 min
2 – 1:43 min
3 – 1:47 min
4 – 1:55 min
5 – 1:37 min
Average Time (= T-time for future workouts): [...]
The first month of training is complete, ending in a series of tests: functional threshold, swim and bike time trials (trainer, road and ramp).
Base training so far has been fun overall. My two biggest issues have been pacing (keeping my heart rate in zones 1&2) and time management. I only completed about 80% of the [...]
amp Test without a Power Meter.
A ramp test consists of progressively more difficult stages lasting from 3-4 minutes. It is usually performed on an indoor trainer in a controlled environment. An indoor trainer like theCompuTrainer that can function as an ergometer is ideal, as it allows one to increase the resistance in a controlled and [...]
Following the Trainer Time Trial, a road time trial was next. Same rules, stay 9-11 bpm under my FTHR and ride 8 miles as fast as possible. To my surprise, I shaved about 6 minutes of my bike-trainer time out on the open road: 24:51 for the 8 miles.
Here are the details:
Distance: 8mi
Time: 24:51
Avg HR: [...]
Aerobic Time Trial (ATT). Warm-up about 20 minutes raising heart rate to the 3 zone. Then ride 8 miles on a flat course on the CompuTrainer at 9-11 bpm below your lowest 5a zone heart rate. Exactly! Record time.
This time trial was supposed to be done on a CompuTrainer, but I was able to make [...]
Functional Threshold Heart Rate Test
Distance: 2.14 mi
Time: 20 min
Avg. Pace: 9:18 mi/mile
Avg HR: 185
I did my first functional threshold heart rate (FTHR) test today with suprising results. I performed the running test per Joe Friel – doing a 30 minute warm up, followed by a 30 minute run at the highest maintainable heart rate. The [...]
Now that I got my new membership at TriFit LA, I was able to make use of their awesome indoor pool. It’s only three lanes wide, but there was nobody there today. Plus, it was actually raining like crazy in LA so swimming outdoors would have been no fun.
Regardless, I haven’t been in the pool [...]
I am contemplating between a 20 week or 24 week training plan for this Ironman. Looks like Marc will be going with a Joel Friel plan which he got at TrainingPeaks. I read a couple of books from that guy, and he seems to be the man when it comes to triathlon training. Either way, [...]
