How hard is an ironman?

Non-Running

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3 years ago 03/10/2021 7:15pm EST

re: Ironman deliberator

the hard thing about an Ironman is being able to do the necessary training in the buildup. That is assuming you prepare properly. It is not uncommon for Ironman athletes to be training 12 or 15 or even 18 hours/week. Swimming is my weakness and the thought of being in choppy surf for 2.4 miles scares the hell out of me. If you want some idea of what an Ironman might feel like go on a very long bike ride (40 or 50 miles at 18 to 20 mph should do) then immediately after you get off your bike go for a 5 mile run at your current marathon race pace. This kind of "brick" is a weekend staple of many folks prepping for a long course triathlon

3 years ago 03/16/2021 4:03pm EDT

re: whattheheck

That’s quite a naive assumption - for one: it’s akin to running two 4:30 marathons back to back. Yes if you can run 2 marathons back to back at 4:30 to 5 hr pace then you’ll get round. But to just throw times about is actually ludicrous. 15 hrs Ironman is NOT 4hrs 30 mins of running.

2 years ago 07/06/2021 1:43pm EDT

re: Ironman deliberator

If it's so easy as many people seem to think, how come when i did one last week, around 400 entrants didn't make it (out of around 1600 starters)? Maybe they went to the school of letsrun and just thought as a half decent runner they could walk out of the door and finish an IM :)

2 years ago 07/06/2021 1:49pm EDT

re: Ironman deliberator

This is all relative! No more difficult than putting in the effort to train and run a marathon. Just extrapolate your training across 3 sports. Anyone can do an ironman, question is how fast.

2 years ago 07/06/2021 2:28pm EDT

re: Iron-girl

Mostly +1 Running fitness certainly helps with the run portion and is a huge "leg up" on the bike... but swimming is all technique. When I was running sub-1:20 half marathons, I was still god-awful in Tri swim portion, often being dead last or nearly so in many triathlons - despite stroke improvement classes and hundreds of hours of pool and open water practice. When you suck at the swim, it's a double whammy. If you're a mid-pack swimmer, you get carried along by wake, so it's less effort. As a back of the packer, you work much harder. If you can half-arse the swim, a decent runner with a few marathons notched would have a mental advantage and do well. Most folks doing Ironman are checking a bucket list and not particularly fit. You see beer-belly body types on course and finishing.

Iron-girl wrote:
If it's so easy as many people seem to think, how come when i did one last week, around 400 entrants didn't make it (out of around 1600 starters)? Maybe they went to the school of letsrun and just thought as a half decent runner they could walk out of the door and finish an IM :)

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