abinkley
New York, NY
Male, 29
I am a lawyer in NYC and recently raced my first Ironman Triathlon in Switzerland. I started training in Oct 2009 and raced in July 2010. The distances of an Ironman are a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and a 26.2-mile run (a full marathon). My overall time was 10 hrs, 56 mins, and 53 sec. My splits were: swim 1:14:08 / bike 5:28:38 / run 4:06:30 (the remainder was time for transitioning between disciplines). Prior to the Ironman, I had never swum 2.4 miles before, nor run a marathon.
So, I think this varies from person to person. I have heard a lot of people say it takes a month to be fully recovered from a marathon, but that is obviously quite different from just getting out and running again. I went hiking in the Swiss Alps for a week immediately after the IM, and I was really slow moving, but had great natural baths to help me recover (but I think how you feel the day after an IM varies person to person and race to race. I just got very lucky that I felt so good after mine. The best sense of recovery time I have is that I did a bike race 5 weeks after the IM and did the same race this year. Even though last year I was in MUCH better shape than this year, I was significantly faster this year (for example, about 1 minute faster in a 16 minute time trial), which goes to show that I was probably nowhere close to recovered 5 weeks after the race...
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Amazingly enough I never thought about quitting. I actually had an ideal race from a pacing and diet perspective, so it never became an issue. The worst came with about 8 miles to go in the marathon when I thought "This is awesome... but I never need to do it again." The hardest part physically was definitely switching from the bike to the run, when my legs started cramping a little bit. I averaged about 9min/mile in the run, but my first mile was over 10 minutes because I had to get used to being on my feet again.
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To be totally honest, at times it was easy and at times I struggled. I raced the ironman in the summer of 2010 and you may recall the world is in the depths of a recession in 2009. As a corporate lawyer this gave me ample time to train ;) There *were* times that is was really hard though, getting home at 10pm, going for a 15 mile run, and getting up at 6am to swim was a tough slog. I think having a goal and a solid (but flexible) training plan was key for me. Without a goal I never would have trained that much, but if my training plan was too rigid I probably would have gotten frustrated a quit. I took each day as it came and just trained as best I could!
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Anyone? No. Most people? Definitely. When I went back to my hotel a few hours after my race was over there were still a few people out on the course who were definitely going slow but fine. I think anyone who is determined enough could get off the couch and train enough to do an Ironman probably within two years.
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That's a great question. A lot of people do walk or start to do the "ironman shuffle" during the marathon. Thankfully I managed to avoid both those things. There were times I was going slow enough it might have looked like I was walking, but I never shuffled! I really attribute it to having trained well for the bike, so when I got off the bike I actually felt pretty good. The bike was easier - you are sitting down the whole time, so how hard can it be! I did get off my bike at one point, but that was just because I thought my breaks were rubbing. Besides that I stayed put the whole ride.
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I actually didn't, but that would have been fascinating! I was in Switzerland, so didn't have ready access to a scale (and probably wouldn't have thought of it if I did...). I have to imagine I lost at least 5-10lbs of water weight, but the more amusing part was that in pictures over the next week I looked EXTREMELY swollen (and therefore pudgy...).
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Two things. First, I had been riding my bike a lot and was looking for a new challenge. Second, I have always been very into extremes, seeing how far I could push my body (when I was in high school I rowed as far as the rowing machine would let me, just so I could have the satisfaction of having done it). When I thought about doing triathlons I knew that I wanted to do an Ironman.
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