By Matt Koorey and Jeff “The Hammer” Devlin.

So you’d like to race a Half-Ironman? With everything you read on training these days, I would forgive you for thinking you have to risk your marriage or your job in order to be ready. With a full-time job, wife, kids, mortgage payments, the “more is better” approach just doesn’t cut it. In this article I’ll outline some guidelines that myself and Jeff “the Hammer” Devlin use both in our own training, and in coaching others. This plan is most applicable to the age-group athlete with 11.5-12.5 hours available each week for training, and for the final 8 week period leading into race day. In saying that, it’s also applicable to someone with 20 hours a week available for training. Understand, training is not about doing all that you can do, it’s about doing only what you can absorb.

I feel well qualified to relate to the position most age-group athletes find themselves in, having always had a full-time job throughout my fifteen years of racing. At times I have trained smart, and at other times I have trained like a fool. An extended period of such “foolish” training once gave my health an absolute battering and cost me a few good seasons of racing. My training philosophy has evolved over the years, and it is from my worst experiences that I have learnt the most. Jeff has been a world class, full-time triathlete/duathlete, and presently coaches athletes full-time with a growing family. He can attest to the fact that the real value of “full-time” training is not being able to train more but being able to recover more. Our philosophy is that a good training program should make you feel good, not bad. You want a time efficient training plan, one that gets results, keeps you healthy, and fits into (as opposed to takes over) your lifestyle. Interested? Read on.

We are assuming you all have a reasonable platform of basic endurance training to work from. To get started, you are going to need a heart rate monitor. If you don’t have one, GET ONE! Next, you want to find out your Anaerobic Threshold(AT) heart rate for the bike and run (I find it best to work off perceived exertion in the pool while Jeff prefers to occasionally performing test/time trial efforts). Think of AT as the maximum steady state heart rate and pace that can be maintained for a one hour “time trial” effort by fit athletes. If you have access to a lab that does stress testing and can determine your AT , we highly recommend it. Otherwise, you can record or get your average heart rate during a race or time trial of about one hour, preferably on a flat course. Usually, AT is 15 to 35 beats below maximum heart rate, depending on your fitness level. It is important to know your AT heart rate because it is from this figure that your heart rate training zones are best calculated. It is also likely that your bike and run AT’s will be different, with the run rates generally higher than those for cycling, sometimes up to 10 or more beats.

We are going to offer advice on building your program around key workouts. When you train using the key workout approach, the focus is on being ready for and recovering from these key sessions, as opposed to boasting about high weekly mileage volumes.

For Half-Ironman preparation we advise two key workouts per discipline, per week. One a Tempo/AT session, the other a longer session which includes extended efforts at or just below your goal race pace. The Tempo/AT day is designed to shift your AT upward and provide some specific training at close to Half Ironman race pace, whilst the Distance session does this and more by focusing on enhancement of your aerobic plumbing and ability to utilize fats as a fuel source. If your schedule allows, try and separate these workouts by at least two days.

For the swim, the Tempo/AT set should end up anywhere from 1000-1500m. Break it up into intervals. The less capable you are as a swimmer the more you should focus on shorter intervals such as 50m or 100m. In time, as you are able to maintain your technique for longer periods, you can extend the length of these intervals to 200-400m. A sample set might be 10-15 x 100m on 15 seconds rest between each. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) should feel like a 14-15 on a scale from 6-20 (6 being very easy, 17 being AT and 20 being a maximal effort). The effort should feel comfortably hard. Warm up and cool down either side of this set. Total distance may be 2000-2400m.
For the endurance/distance swim day, aim for 2200-2700m, depending on your abilities and available time. Warm up easily, then perhaps a set of 4 x 400m on 30 seconds rest at a steady, comfortable effort (RPE 8-11). Keep the effort steady and relaxed, not hard. As an example, my Tempo sets are at a 1:18 (per 100m) pace. So I would swim this set at around 1:27-1:30 pace.

For cycling, the turbo trainer is your best friend when it comes to time-efficient training, and is most useful for Tempo/AT work. In a 1-1.25 hour session build up to a 20-30 minute set at 94-97% of your current AT bike heart rate, either in the form of 2 to 10 minute intervals (30 second to 2 minute recoveries) or a 20-40 minute continuous effort. As an example, with an AT of 162, this would mean a range of 152-158. Be sure to warm up and cool down either side of this set.
The longer weekly ride could build to up to 10% longer than you anticipate being on the bike on race day. Perform the majority of the ride at 75-85% of AT (121-138 based on an AT of 162), with up to 40-60 minutes total within the session at 85-90% (138-146). I like to save the latter heart rate range for the longer climbs. This is higher level aerobic training, and is very important when you are training for longer events. However, don’t be tempted to do the whole ride in this upper end!

For running, a 1 hour run including 20 minutes at 94-97%% of AT heart rate will serve you well as your Tempo/AT session. As per the bike, use either intervals with short rests, or a continuous effort. For the long run, build up to 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. Even if you anticipate being out there longer than this on race day, use this as the upper limit. Trust that with correct pacing and nutritional practices will get you to the finish line in good shape. Run at 75-85% of AT, with up to 30 minutes within the workout at 85-90% of AT (some of this early and some of this later in the workout).

With the two key sessions as outlined as above, you will still need a third session per sport. We believe it is of the utmost importance that this workout doesn’t interfere with the quality of your “key” sessions. Much depends on your powers of recovery. If you lead a hectic lifestyle, work long hours, sleep less than you really should, etc., then don’t underestimate the toll this takes on you. In these circumstances it would make sense to keep the intensity at low aerobic levels (75-85% AT – easy to steady level of effort). Perhaps 2-2.5k of swimming, 1.5 – 1.75 hours of biking, and 50-60 minutes of running. We hesitate to recommend more than this (unless we are coaching you and know your body as well as our own) when you work and “live” full-time. Seriously, though, you are likely to race far better with a lower volume, “tailored” schedule as a result of better health and a balanced
lifestyle than by risking a trip into the depths of fatigue that you can’t get out of before race day.

We think, in general, most athletes train too much and too hard. Many seem to think that, because they have less time to train, then every session must be hard. Others tend to spend most or all of their time training at moderate intensities – a level that doesn’t feel “easy” yet doesn’t feel “hard” either. The problem with training too much at this intensity is that it is too high to teach your body to release and burn fatty acids, and not quite high enough to stimulate improvements in Anaerobic Threshold. Every session needs to have a specific purpose and this means “scaling down” your program to the essentials. What the essentials are for you will depend on your experience level and training history.
Based on the above, perhaps your week could look something like this;

So there you have it. A basic Half-Ironman plan for the working man or woman. Obviously there are many more specifics we could go into, but we know we’ve been cutting into that training time already! Build your program around your lifestyle with a focus on key sessions, and you’re on track to performing at your best. Next month, we’ll take a look at how to taper your training for a peak performance on race day. Until next time, have fun, and TRAIN SMART!