Iron Cross

How to Train For a Half Ironman

What is a Half Ironman?

In the event you have graduated beyond the world of short course triathlon, you could be  looking at upping your training regime and racing experience beyond the Sprint or Olympic distances to the Half Ironman distance.  What considerations should you think about and how should you train for it?

A Half  Iron is obviously just another distance of multisports racing – it’s not necessarily a Herculean feat since it has the word “Ironman” contained in the title so don’t let that intimidate you.  In the Sprint Tri, you swim for 1.5km, bike for 20km, and run for 5km – Not too scary of a proposition for a beginner triathlete.  In the Olympic version, you swim just shy of a mile (.93 miles), cycle for 24.8 miles, and then pound the pavement.  If that wasn’t grueling enough, the Half Ironman means swimming for 1.two miles, cycling for fifty-six miles, and running for thirteen.1 miles (a half marathon).  The next mainstream competition that's harder than this is the “full” Ironman, which is swimming for 2.4 miles, cycling for 112 miles, and running for 26.2 miles. (I call this “main stream” since there are other even longer distance triathlons known as “ultra-triathlons”.

Any athlete serious about racing in a multisports race or someone that really wants to test their skills and endurance should consider working their way up to the Half Ironman event.  While competing and finishing a Sprint or Olympic event is a feat in itself, not many people seriously consider the Ironman distance – it is truly a large commitment in time and effort!  So, planning to compete in the Half Ironman allows you to push yourself to the limit of endurance without sacrificing too much of your time and other life commitments

If you're ready to step up the training for a Half Ironman, it's good to first of all pace yourself in terms of your training.  Many athletes just double their existing training schedules which is not the best way to approach the requirements.  Any experienced triathlete can tell you that for any race – regardless of distance - you need to not only just improve your endurance but your speed and your strength as well.  Depending on your own strengths and weaknesses you might need to either work on core and overall strength specific to the swim, bike and run or even slim down so that you can go the distance without carrying any unnecessary weight.  Weight training specific to the triathlon disciplines is also important, but obviously not pushing huge weight in the gym which is not functionally useful for swimming, cycling or running is not efficient use of your time – triathletes are not bodybuilders!  Many people training for longer events like the Half Ironman invest in various tools to help their performance and maximize their training time, for example: a bike power meter (ie, a Powertap or Computrainer), heart rate monitor, running pace monitor (like a Polar or Garmin) so they can track their training output over certain distances under different types of training intensity and guage any fitness gains (or even losses suffering from overtraining or fatigue!).  It’s also beneficial to train with a swim coach or masters swim club to help improve your stroke in the water or a run group to keep you on track and motivated.  A personal trainer that specializes in multisports can also determine if you need to focus on anything specific that will help your performance on race day – which may include psychological barriers and not just the physical requirements (general race anxiety, fear of open water swimming, fear of failure, etc etc can be a huge limiter for performance.)

Training for and racing in a Half Ironman Triathlon could very well be one of the most challenging things you'll ever attempt, but when you actually finish you'll see it's likely one of the most rewarding.

 

Iron cross - Crucified for your sins

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