The higher your fitness is, the less time you need to rest and recover.
Please do not treat my proposed
options as a dogmatic statement to blindly follow. There is a lot of possible options, and the choice depends primarily on your level of training.
The higher your fitness is, the less time you need to rest and recover.
You should do some speed training to improve your performance as well,
You should do some speed training to improve your performance as well, but proceed to it only after having
enough endurance to withstand the load.
but proceed to it only after having enough endurance to withstand the load. That speed training can be like this: 4 km swimming on Monday, 140 km cycling on Tuesday and 25 to 30 km running on Wednesday.
If you feel okay after that, you can include interval training in your plan and work consistently on increasing your power and speed.
If there is enough time and you feel strong enough, you can add swimming to your training program on cycling/running training days. For example, if you were cycling or running in the morning, you can swim in the evening.
If you are in good shape, you can do a double training set by combining cycling and running training. This is very useful,
as it teaches muscles to quickly adapt to the load change and switch from cycling to running without any trouble.
In a double training, you shouldn’t get yourself exhausted with a long running distance. To develop “muscle memory”, it will be enough to run from 3 to 5 km after the cycling.
The main thing is not to overdo it, not to overtrain. Rest and recovery are just as important as training. This is why you must rest and keep an eye for your condition. Working out must be something you enjoy, or you’ll fizzle out before long.
Remember that you must test yourself before Ironman: run a marathon, do an Olympic-distance triathlon and beat a Half Ironman.
The main thing is not to overdo it, not to overtrain. Rest and recovery are just as important as training.
Only after that, when you’ll have at least some sort of understanding what awaits you, you can try your hand at Ironman.
NUTRITION
An important factor in successful completion of Ironman is eating right.
The difficulty here is the huge number of options to choose from. It’s harder to choose what to eat than a bike saddle or running shoes.