Minimalist Ironman Training, by Matt Fitzgerald
19 June 2009
You can prepare for a successful Ironman triathlon with a program that has an average training volume of only 12 hours per week and a briefly-maintained peak training volume of 16 hours. And by “successful” I don’t mean finishing alive. I mean covering the distance as fast as your genetic potential allows. In fact, I believe that many triathletes can race a faster Ironman by following a well-constructed 12-hours-a-week program than they could with a higher-volume approach.
There are five specific reasons a minimalist approach to Ironman training can work just as well as, if not better than, a higher-volume approach.
1. Swimming performance is all about technique, not fitness
Very little improvement in swimming performance comes from building swim fitness through hours of training. Almost all swimming improvement comes from technique refinements that often occur instantaneously. You should swim-train for an Ironman in a way that encourages and accelerates technique refinements instead of in a way that concentrates on building fitness. Get one-on-one stroke coaching from a qualified swim coach, study freestyle technique (youtube.com is a good source of technique videos), fiddle with your stroke, use swim aids that encourage technique development and perform technique drills for body position, rotation, efficient breathing, a strong pull and efficient kicking. Use intervals and sustained swimming primarily to ingrain technique and secondarily to develop fitness.
2. The swim just isn’t that important
To complete the swim leg of a Hawaii Ironman as fast as your inner talent allows, you would have to train in the pool two hours a day, six days a week, or thereabouts. That’s what it would take to shave off every second possible. But the swim accounts for only about 10 percent of the time it takes to complete an Ironman. And you can get at least 90 percent of the way toward your fastest possible Ironman swim split by swimming just one hour a day, three times per week. So why not do that?
Read more in the full article about the other three reasons why the minimalist approach to Ironman training can work just as well as a higher-volume approach.
2 Responses to “Minimalist Ironman Training, by Matt Fitzgerald”
June 20th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
[...] webmaster wrote an interesting post today onOfficial Blog of TrainingPeaks» Blog Archives » Minimalist Ironman <b>…</b>Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:53 pm
This is a great work done by you
I am really impresed.
Adam
workouts