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Lately I've been seeing quite a few ads for Ironman training plans that preach the "smarter not harder" approach. I saw a plan this morning with only 10 hours of training per week. While trying to wrap my mind around that, I was reminded of one of my favorite scenes from "Something About Mary"...
Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?
Ted: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the exercise video.
Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.
Ted: Right. Yes. OK, all right. I see where you're going.
Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?
Ted: I would go for the 7.
Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.
Ted: You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?
Hitchhiker: If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".
Ted: That's right. That's - that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?
[Hitchhiker convulses]
Hitchhiker: No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.
I seem to recall not too long ago there was a program that capped at 13 hours per week. I guess the logical path to a better program is to come up with less. Actually, I think I should throw a question mark at the end of that sentence instead of a period because I don't actually believe that statement.
I have no idea what a 10 hour week looks like but I can create one...
MON - SWIM: 1 hour, BIKE: 1-2 hours (2-3 hours)
TUE - RUN: 1-3 hours (1-3 hours)
WED - SWIM: 1 hour (1 hour)
THU - BIKE: 1-2 hours, RUN: 30 minutes (1.5-2.5 hours)
FRI - SWIM: 1 hour (1 hour)
SAT - BIKE: 3-5 hours, RUN: 30 minutes (3.5-5.5 hours)
SUN - OFF
Ok, so I've already come up with a problem. If you take the shortest workouts on Monday through Friday and then add in the long bike on Saturday, you hit 12 hours. I could pull out two hours but I don't think I'd be comfortable with anything less than what I have above. With three of each discipline, I consider this to be a "maintenance" plan. What I mean is that I will get fit but I doubt I'll get faster. Less would not work for me. And the biggest flaw I see in a plan limited to 10 or even 12 hours is that it lacks any of the big day or big weekend training I like.
Continuing down this path though, if I were design a four week block, it would look something like:
WEEK1 - TOTAL TIME: 12 hours
MON - SWIM: 1 hour, BIKE: 1 hour
TUE - RUN: 1 hour
WED - SWIM: 1 hour
THU - BIKE: 1 hour, RUN: 30 minutes
FRI - SWIM: 1 hour
SAT - BIKE: 5 hours, RUN: 30 minutes
SUN - OFF
Actually, I just erased everything beyond the first week because I hate it. Now that I've had a chance to have a look at a week that would accommodate a long bike, I realize a 10 hour week probably doesn't have a long bike. No long bike?!? I hate it even more!
Let me plot a week I'd feel comfortable doing:
WEEK1 - TOTAL TIME: 13 hours
MON - SWIM: 1 hour, BIKE: 1.5 hours
TUE - RUN: 1 hours
WED - SWIM: 1 hour
THU - BRICK -- BIKE: 1.5 hours, RUN: 30 minutes
FRI - SWIM: 1 hour
SAT - BRICK -- BIKE: 5 hours, RUN: 30 minutes
SUN - OFF
WEEK2 - TOTAL TIME: 13 hours
MON - SWIM: 1.25 hours, BIKE: 2 hours
TUE - RUN: 1.5 hours
WED - SWIM: 1 hour
THU - BRICK -- BIKE: 2 hours, RUN: 30 minutes
FRI - SWIM: 1.25 hours
SAT - BRICK -- BIKE: 3 hours, RUN: 30 minutes
SUN - OFF
I know I said I was going to plot one week but I decided to plot a second because I wanted to tweak it once more. After looking at this for a couple of minutes, I've determined that I can design a week with 13 hours. I feel like I'm playing "Name that Tune". "I can design that week in 13 hours or more."
With 13 hours, I can tweak each week to have swim, bike and run focused weeks while not compromising the other disciplines. Each week contains three of each discipline which I think is the minimum for me.
That brings up another interesting point which I'll call the "best bang for your buck theory". The comment I hear most often is that swimming more is a waste of time because your time could be better spent on the bike. The logic behind this theory is that the swim is the shortest of all three disciplines. I used to fall into this camp but I've switched over to believing that swimming more is better.
Yes, the swim leg is the shortest but when I'd only swim three days per week, I would come out of the water completely demolished. Swimming 4 days per week helped with that and got me a little faster. Swimming 5 days per week made coming out of the water effortless and my time increased a little bit more. If I had an elite swimming background, I might get away with swimming three days. I have an elite NOTHING background and I need all the help I can get. :) Swimming more makes the bike and run easier.
I could tweak the above plan once more and add more swimming for that swim focused week.
SWIM WEEK - TOTAL TIME: 13 hours
MON - SWIM: 1 hour, BIKE: 1.5 hours
TUE - RUN: 1.5 hours
WED - SWIM: 1 hour
THU - BRICK -- BIKE: 2 hours, RUN: 30 minutes
FRI - SWIM: 1.25 hour
SAT - BRICK -- BIKE: 3 hours, RUN: 30 minutes
SUN - SWIM: 45 minutes
I'm happy. :)
The final flaw I'll point out is that even with a 13 hour week, I am still missing my beloved core as well as any weight training. But I like 13 hours! Anything less and I think I'd be looking at 70.3 training.
That was a fun exercise. Now onto a 30 hour week. :P
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