ASK 220
TRAIN FOR IM IN ONE YEAR
Q Can I train for, and race, an Ironman in a year? Philip Rowland
A Well, anything is possible and a year is a reasonable amount of time to prepare for an Ironman, but it does depend on your starting point. So, let’s look at some considerations before you commit as, ultimately, the question is not ‘can you’ but ‘should you?’
What are the bare minimum performance levels that you need to get around the course? See table below… The times above are your absolutes; if you’re to make the final cut off, you have to hit all these along the way. The question is, where do you sit on those ranges? What are you currently capable of? You may come from a running background and can run a marathon in 4hrs easily, but if you can’t ride fast enough to make the 10:30hr cut-off, you won’t take one step on the run course.
Considering that most Ironmandistance training programmes last from 16-40 weeks, this leaves you enough scope to get fit for one within a year. But we need to look beyond
