Hi there,
I will be starting training for IM Lake Placid (July 24, 2022) in a few weeks and am wondering if there are any specific plans that folks have successfully used in the past?
This will be my first Ironman, and my current FTP is ~200watts. I weigh 155lbs. The course is hilly (6600 feet), so ideally I’ll gain long, sustained hill-climbing power throughout the training.
Thanks!
I did the half there training with the half distance plan, the bike went great. This was before plan builder was available. Will be using plan builder for the full there next year. If you follow the plan climbs will not be an issue.
I did the full distance low volume plan and it made me fit enough for a good first finish under extreme weather conditions (40°C).
I had a soft lead in to the plan of 5 months of z2 training, but found the overall intensity of the plan too high. I’m sure, adaptive training will help here a lot.
If I did this again, I’d not run longer than 2,5h and be a bit more conservative with running intensities.
If you are starting from the couch, don’t do the TR plans. You‘d be better of with an even more z2 centric approach. For a healthy finish, I‘d recommend a weekly average of 7 training hours over 12months before starting with IM preparation.
Climbs during an IM bike leg are only a matter of right gearing. If your gears force you into consistent threshold power during the climbs, you’ll be fast, but not able to run the marathon. (Unless your goal is sub9).
Success stories abound in The Ironman Training 2021 Thread of people using TR plans to prepare for a full IM. There are as many opinions on how to modify or supplement the plans as there are participants in that thread, but consensus is that the full base-build-specialty protocol, even low volume, will reliably get you to the finish line.