Completing an Ironman triathlon and earning a private pilot certificate (2021)

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19 points·Skywalker415··4 comments

I know nothing of Ironman training. I have trained to be a (slow) marathon runner, and I am really shocked at how low his running miles were. He said he was running between 2 and 12 miles for each run. He mentions a bone bruise that I guess severely limited his run training. Only two tiny runs between March and October! I would not think his bike and swim training would be able to compensate for near total lack of runs. He must have a fabulous baseline of fitness to complete a marathon and the rest of iron man like that.

Absolutely astonishing that he was able to finish. Maybe fuelling really helped him.

I’m training for an Ironman later this year. Surprisingly, the longest run I am scheduled for is 2:45. When I did my half- IM in ‘21, I never ran for more than 2 hours.

It takes a good aerobic base just to finish, but a lot of it is mental training too. For instance, some of the bike workouts are ~6 hours. On a stationary bike (the article mentioned a Peleton), it’s a mental game.

Nailing race day nutrition is incredibly important to prevent cramps.

But when it’s finally race day, you just kinda have to trust your training plan, trust your preparation and I just kinda zoned out during the race.

There are diminishing returns on training runs over about 90 minutes. For most people, having consistency and overall volume will far outperform one big impressive run every so often.

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