There are many options today when it comes to building up your triathlon skills enough so that you can one day take on the Ironman Triathlon.
It has become the norm for beginner triathletes to start out their triathlon career by trying a Sprint Triathlon, Olympic Distance Triathlon, and Half Ironman Triathlon before taking the leap into the Ironman Triathlon.
Many people believe this is the only way they will ever become an Ironman and often having so many options confuses the issue.
ALL OR NOTHING
Actually, when it came to triathlon in the early 1980′s, there were virtually no short triathlons in North America. The reality was that if you wanted to become an Ironman, there were no shortcuts and it was the Ironman or nothing.
Many people got turned onto the sport by watching Ironman Hawaii in Kona on Wide World of Sports.
People who could not swim, hadn’t been on a bike since they were teens, or perhaps had never run more than a few miles at a time were inspired to take on the Ironman. It’s surprising just how many of these people succeeded in their Ironman Journey despite their lack of experience in one, two, or all three of the Ironman disciplines.
DESIRE IS THE DRIVING FORCE
The key ingredient to Ironman success is desire. A desire to reach that finish line no matter what it takes. In the early days what people lacked in experience and ability they made up for with a will to realize their Ironman dream.
The clarion call of the Ironman challenged them and even today the power of this mystical attraction has compelled many people around the world to take on the Ironman challenge.
DO YOU NEED TO WORK UP TO THE IRONMAN DISTANCE?
Of course not.
It’s been proved over and over that it’s not necessary to crawl before you can walk when it comes to the Ironman. You can go directly the start line of the Ironman Triathlon without ever doing so much as a Sprint Triathlon. Out of necessity, that’s exactly what many aspiring Ironmen did in the days when there were no other options.
Sure you can spend three years or even more working your way up to the Ironman distance, but it is not the only way to get there. Some people just don’t have the time or do not have the desire to do all the shorter distances. They want the Ironman finish line and that’s all.
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THAT FIRST IRONMAN?
There is no preparation plan for doing an Ironman with no shorter races before-hand that is “one size fits all”. The amount of work you have to do to get there depends on the ability you have when you begin your Ironman journey.
For instance if you are a swimmer and especially an experienced “open-water” swimmer you have a huge advantage. If on the other hand you have to learn how to swim from the very beginning time will have to be spent learning the basic front crawl before working on the endurance necessary to swim 2.4 miles in the open water.
Can it be done? Sure it can. If you want it bad enough you will learn how to swim and it will be nothing but a minor stumbling block on your journey.
If you stay focused on your goal it is quite possible that in five or six months you can learn how to swim from scratch and get yourself up to the Ironman distance. If you have a few marathons in your background this is also a huge advantage as you will have the beginnings of an endurance base and will some idea of what to expect on race-day. Pretty much everyone knows how to ride a bike and often it’s just a matter of getting used to riding a lighter, faster bike than you have ever been on.
Perhaps you have to lose 40 pounds or quit smoking. So what?
These are all minor challenges that can be overcome if you want to become an Ironman badly enough. So really, the amount of preparation necessary is truly different for everyone and the amount of time it will take all depends on where you are in life.
The point is, regardless if you have a lot to do or not so much to do, you can go directly to the Ironman if it’s what you want. It’s not necessary to do 5 or 10 or 15 shorter triathlons if you simply don’t have the time or inclination.
THE SPIRIT OF THE IRONMAN TRIATHLON
So many people believe that they have to swim thousands of laps in the pool, bike 100 miles over and over again and do a 20 mile run every weekend if they want to be able to finish an Ironman Triathlon.
For months they will train themselves into the ground with little regard for rest.
Often the importance of technique is lost on them as they keep pounding out mile after mile risking injury, physical break-down, and over-training that will make their Ironman Triathlon attempt much harder than it has to be.
FIVE KEYS TO FIRST IRONMAN SUCCESS FOR THE BEGINNER TRIATHLETE
Say for example you are going to prepare for one year for your first Ironman. There are many things along the Ironman highway that will determine the outcome for you, but here are five things to remember.
1) From the very beginning you must get it into your head that rest is your friend and is an essential ingredient to your Ironman Triathlon success. In the early months it is the wise beginner triathlete who is training for their first Ironman Triathlon who takes at least 2 days and even 3 days rest per week. There is no need to be training 6 or 7 days a week and all it can do is hurt your chances for success.
2) There is no point in doing long distance training when you are 10 or 11 months away from your Ironman. This serves no purpose and is better left for the second half of the training year. That’s the time to begin to ramp up your training.
3) The early months of your training should be spent learning proper technique in the art of swimming, biking, and running. It’s essential that you learn to stress your body as little as possible on the day of your Ironman because it is a long day out there. For example, a poor swimming stroke will tire you out and by the time you finish the swim you will have lost a ton of energy and you still have 112 miles to bike and 26.2 miles to run.
Learn how to GLIDE and RELAX in the water. Look into “TOTAL IMMERSION” swimming and it will help you immensely with your open water swimming.
4) Don’t believe for a second that you need the best of equipment and have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars in order to become an Ironman. It is your heart and desire that will get you to the finish line, not a $6000 bike and $600 wetsuit.
Take a sleek looking Ferrari and put a Volkswagen engine in it and all you have is a great looking car with no heart. But take a beat up Volkswagen and put the Ferrari’s 12 cylinder engine in it and then you have an ordinary car with a big heart that can do great things. It is “your” 12-cylinder heart that will dictate your success not the used $700 triathlon bike you are riding.
5) Experiment, experiment, experiment. That’s what you do all year as you prepare and try out different food and drinks that agree with you as far as training and recovery. Many, many people have put their heart and soul into their Ironman Triathlon training and then not fueled themselves properly race-day and it spelled disaster.
What works for other people might not work for you. There are many choices out there when it comes to replacement food and drink and it would be really smart to try them all under training conditions until you find what works best for you.
When you find that perfect combination of food and replacement drink then that’s what you should use on race-day and nothing else.
Tags: sport, Triathlon