by Alex R Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:47 am
That hypothetical person is part of the reason behind this site. You just can't ask those questions on there.
I think it is entirely plausable for you to do the IM distance. Those times, I am not so sure. Infact, for your first IM I would suggest not locking yourself into any time goal that is faster than the cut offs. The run is just not something you will be expecting. You will hear carry on about the 36km mark of the marathon in a run only event as where it gets hard. IM gets hard at the 150km mark of the bike and you are a long way from home still. A 6:40 half would have me thinking about a 15ish IM. Just for pure comparrison, I did a 5:56 then a 13:51 at WA 6 weeks later followed by a fair bit of training then Port in 11:15? I don't recall. Could have been 11:45 actually. Either way, my point is that the first one is just about getting there and getting the experience to be able to then start thinking about time. My first one, my aim was to run the first 4 hours and if close enough to home, keep running. Unfortunately it took me 4 hours to go 30km and walked the last 12 in 2 and a half hours.
So, what I would then do is to think if I could train to be able to swim 3.8km, get out and ride 180km then run 42.2km. Think what sorts of things you would need to do to be able to achieve this.
As far as the swim, you are in great hands with Trent. I try and swim with him once every couple of months for some stroke correction and then back to the Cycos thing. If you can, try Tuesday mornings at Yeronga with Cycos. You could tie it in with a ride to and from as I recall you bike commute and that would be a pretty worthwhile day.
For the bike, 180km is a fair way. You are on 100km rides now and for my second IM I did a longest ride of 115km. My second IM was the second time I had gone 180km on the bike. What you need is a method to ride your bike 180km and be able to run as far as possible off it. I am not saying don't ride 180km in training but don't get tricked into thinking you have to. I would think more about time. A long bike of 6 hours will do. 6 hours is a long way. Do that twice maybe with a little run off it so yoou are aware what it feels like to run off it and can have a go at putting fuel in straight off the bike to see what works gut wise. I have destroyed a very good IM before by taking too muuch fuel the first 10 minutes and went from Hawaii contention into the alien space ship 10 minutes later.
As for the run, a 4:30 is running the whole way. Not running fast but a moderate jog will take you that long. My first open marathon was 4:34 and I ran the whole way. If you have got off the bike behind your 6:30 goal split, suddenly you have a whole lot of pressure on that run. I really can't stress enough to forget a time goal on race 1. What I do suggest is that you run the river loop at some stage. 37km of undulations. This will give you a fair idea of what it is like to run a marathon without haaving to do so.
The biggest thing here though is motivation. Getting up every day. Staying in the pool the last 15 minutes. Not cutting the corner home on the longer runs. Do this for 4 months and you will be fine.
Now that I have finished being such a negative nancy, I say if you want to do it, go for it.