First Ironman

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I’ve been training 12-16 hrs/week for the last 2 years

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If you were training 12-16 hours per week for two years, you must have done quite well. Did you qualify for Kona?


ETA: Nevermind. I see your result now. . . . .

Seriously, congrats on the race. It's a hell of an accomplishment.

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I am definitely gonna do another one though. Might finish the year out with a half, do another half in the spring and then do another full at the end of next year.

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I did a little stalking of you, and it seems like you must have a running background - or at least be most comfortable running. If you're going to do another ironman, you need to spend a lot of quality time in the pool.

And if you truly are spending 12-16 hours training per week (which I highly doubt), you have the potential to really knock a ton of time off of your races if you focus your training on your weaknesses.

Your bike needs work. There is a TON of opportunity for time savings there. Again, with the amount of time you apparently have available for training, if you focus your bike training, do some really quality training, you can knock a LOT of time off of your race there.

And your swim is as bad as mine was when I was doing triathlons (the reason I stopped racing triathlons - I am not good at swimming and didn't enjoy it enough to put a ton of time into it). Live in the pool and on the bike for a while. Run enough to stay fit.

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I know you didn't ask for advice but Inomm started the unsolicited :) so I'll piggyback.

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Guilty as charged. Sorry, Andy! kritra is right, 12:37 is legit.

Besides, I really am not in any place to give triathlon (or any fitness) advice right now. It's been a couple of years now since I was competitive in anything endurance-related. Having kids took any will I had to train. I don't want to be away from them for hours on end during weekends . . . . yet

I swim Masters with Tiger Aquatics MWF at 5am and Will Jones with 4D Racing writes my workouts. I did win a Bodybuilding competition 7 years ago though, so I’m still working with a 5’8” 200lb frame. And although I’m lean and “look good” it doesn’t help the speed, especially in the pool!lol

No, Kayla, the swim coach at TAQ writes them for us every morning when we show up. Will will write a few the week or two before the race, but he mainly leaves the guys who go to a masters programs swim workouts to the masters coaches.
I’ve come a long way with the swimming. I used not be able to swim a straight 50!lol But I still have a long way to go and unfortunately 5am is when I do all my swims and the only time I might sleep in a little later and miss a workout!lol

Congrats. That's an incredible accomplishment. I started training for one then I realized I will never be able to run that far without injuring myself.

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It’s weird how that point in a half Ironman I’m running at like a 7:16 pace instead of my regular 6:40 half marathon pace, but in the full 8:30 and 9:00 miles are all I got left!

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Running has always been my weakness. But I was running 11 minute miles and felt like I couldn't move faster. It's also crazy how I felt like king of the world at the end of the bike. I was blowing my expected times out of the water and cut back on the bike hard to save myself for the run. I was like 25 watts under my power that I trained with at the end of the day. Was really a nutrition thing where I just felt sick, but after about 8 miles, everything was gone. I went from thinking I'd be at around 11.5 hours to working hard to beating 13 hours. And it all came down to the run.

The race isn't the worst thing in the world, but the training is just too much. I'd love to do one again, but I'd just have to have a 6 month window of nothing. And I'll have to run a 3:45 or under full marathon with a huge running base to attempt again. I can swim sub 1:15, can ride at a 20mph average......but none of it matters when I can't run for sh*t.


Sounds like you have some low hanging fruit on the swim. But otherwise, I think you'll make a huge improvement just based on the experience. I think I could be in the same exact physical shape and shave 20+ minutes off of my time just making a few different choices.