Ironman Training Plans

Racing Ironman? Team Sirius has the best training plans targeted to the Ironman distance.

Training for an Ironman

Training for an Ironman is a challenging yet rewarding undertaking. There are many aspects that you need to consider before starting your journey to cross that Ironman finish line and there are many pitfalls and common mistakes that people make on the way. Here are just a few key things to help you reach your goals and make your Ironman journey as enjoyable and fulfilling as possible.

Mindset

Mindset is the key to get you through some mentally and physically hard, long hard training days. Be prepared by also training the mind using positive self talk, meditation. These processes will help you learn to manage your own emotions during training and ultimately help you to reach your potential on race day. Mindset is one of the most talked about but least practiced aspect of Ironman training and racing. Building mental aspects into your training plan will exponentially increase your enjoyment and your level of performance.

Avoiding Injury

Listen to your body to learn the difference between pain from physical exhaustion and pain from a potential injury. It will take time to be able to distinguish the difference. Be smart. You are always better to take a few days off if you feel a potential injury than to push through. You won’t lose any significant fitness be being cautious and taking a few days off. On the other hand, a 3-6 week injury break will be a much bigger set back from reaching your goals.

Nutrition

Nutrition is integral to being able to back up day after day. Make sure you eat enough complex carbohydrates, good fats and lean protein. Replenish glycogen stores after every workout with high quality products. Many athletes use Ironman training as an excuse to over indulge with their diet. There is never any good reason to eat low quality food, or eat more than you body requires. Everyone is different so try to find the best balance for YOU. Be careful about which advice you listen to as everyone has an opinion on nutrition for Ironman training. Make sure the advice you take is from experienced professionals.

Grey Zone Training

Do NOT get stuck in the GREY ZONE. Train your high end aerobic system by doing hard intervals but also make sure your easy days are very easy. This will allow you to recover to be ready to hit it hard in the hard workouts to get the most benefit from your training. It is very easy with Ironman type training to get stuck in the grey zone and waste hours and hours of training a week at sub optimal intensities. Often ego can be the culprit and will stop many people from doing their easy sessions easy enough, and in turn they will not be recovered sufficiently to do their hard sessions hard enough.

Choosing an Ironman Training Plan

There are hundreds of Ironman training plans to choose from online but not all training plans are created equally. Like most things only a small percentage of them will be well written and comprehensive enough to maximize your potential. Even fewer of them will be based of decades of experience in racing at the highest level but also from coaching hundreds of athletes.

Coaching Experience

Choose a plan written by an experienced coach who has a proven track record. Coaching Ironman athletes is a very difficult exercise. Because of the nature of Ironman racing the feedback cycle of training vs results is very long. For example most athletes will only race one or two Ironman events in a single year. This means a coach needs many many years of experience coaching athletes before they can truly understand the cause and effect relationship between training and performance. Choose a plan written by a coach with decades of experience rather than months or years.

Find a Tribe

Whether its online or in person, find a tribe or a group that embodies a culture that resonates with you. If you can find a tribe that all train with the same training plan or at least a training plan written by the same coach with the same principles you will be able to discuss and learn from other members of the tribe and avoid the simple mistakes you will inevitably make on your own or if you train with other athletes working off an entirely different set of principles.

Practicality

Make sure the plan is suited to your work and family commitments and can be adjusted and simplified to make it work for you. Training for Ironman should not mean you have to compromise your family and work life. In fact a good training plan should enhance your life in all aspects.

Philosophy

Many athletes take a training plan without understanding how the key aspects of the plan are designed to work together and mix and match things that undermine the plan as a whole. Make sure the overall plan and individual training sessions are aligned with your own training philosophies and you understand them and can commit to them 100%. This doesn’t mean the plan cannot be tweaked to suit your own schedule, but the underlying philosophies must still be adhered to.