IronMan Louisville 2008 pre-planning

Ok, it has been about one month since the end of IronMan Wisconsin and another eleven months until I toe the starting line to participate in the IronMan Louisville 2008. So far I have spent the last month just chilling and getting things done that I had put on hold over the last year or so. My workout schedule has been un-scheduled with lots of cross training and small workout days. I think the longest run that I have completed in the last month was a four miler a few weeks back. I have only been on the actual road with my road bike three times and on the trainer a few more times. I have not been in the water since IronMan Wisconsin – need to renew that pool membership soon.

So, where does that leave me at this point? Well, my plan is to relax and take a few months off after the IronMan and just get back to enjoying the workouts again and trying a few new cross training items. Last year I started my training the day after the IronMan Wisconsin 2006 (didn’t participate in the 2006 IronMan) and did not stop until I completed this year’s IronMan. This year I’ll do it a little bit different, but I do plan on using the same workout schedule that I did last year. I will be adding in some weight training to increase my upper-body strength, but I still need to do more research on the Internet to find a weight training plan that will work for me and my IronMan training.

Last year I used a modified version of the Trifuel.com IronMan training schedule. I basically took that schedule and just made it longer to extend it to the entire year of training. Then when I got to the summer, I switched off of this schedule into a plan that I created using a combination of other IronMan schedules that I found on the Internet – this worked great.

I basically had four phases to my training for IronMan Wisconsin:

1. Learn to swim – I spent months in the pool just trying to get were I could make it more than a couple of laps. It took me three months just to get my breathing down – once that came, then the rest came pretty fast. Open water swimming began at the end of May 2007 and I swam the rest of the year in the open water, mainly in the waters of Lake Michigan.

2. Build the endurance – I used the Trifuel.com schedule, but I did not do any speed or tempo training – strictly slow and long. This lead up to the 2007 Green Bay Marathon which I completed in May.

3. Learn to ride the bike – after the Marathon, then all my focus was to get time on the bike. I had been riding the bike on the trainer all winter, but I needed the road experience. Ended up riding around 1800 miles in 2 ½ months with 3 rides on the IronMan course for the full 112 miles.

4. Learn to compete in Tri’s – prior to signing up for the IronMan, I had not participated in a triathlon. So, the summer of 2007 I participated in a Sprint tri, Olympic tri, Half-IronMan tri, and of course the IronMan.

This year will be a bit different – I’ll probably spend most of my time in “Build the endurance” and also much more time cross training to keep everything fresh and fun.