No matter the athlete, especially when considering an IRONMAN, we train to achieve a stimulus to get a response or adaptation. We do this to effect and hopefully improve pace and effort at which we can sustain in the race. 

 

Hours or duration is a much more reliable measure of performance than pace. It takes terrain, athlete ability, break down into account. 

 

For example, take Jan Frodeno. He doesn’t train at race pace over 112 mile bike to achieve results. He also doesn’t train to go a certain time in the race. So to translate that for how it might work for our athletes, in an hour and a half run you might run at a 9:45 pace in Zone 2, while another athlete might run zone 2 at 12 min pace and another athlete might run zone 2 at 7 min pace. 

 

Obviously each athlete would cover different distances, but the key here is that the global stress for each athlete is relatively the same if done properly. We would not ask the athlete who runs 12 min pace to cover the distance faster, or run longer as the stress would be far different than the prescribed workout. 

 

We don’t define how to train for a certain time. We train by stressing the body to achieve adaptations which make you go faster. And we do this is varied ways over weeks months and years. 

 

In most basic terms, if the best way to train for an IRONMAN was to go ride for 6 hours at 18.5 miles an hour and then run 26 miles at 9:45 pace, then we would be out of a job very quickly!

 

To achieve this we do a mix of work. 

• Endurance: easy supportive and aerobic work
• Harder intervals including strength endurance work
• Very hard intervals above threshold 

These are all aimed at making you a better athlete and play an important role in the puzzle. 

 

Lastly, if time is the end all be all then find a nice downstream swim, a bike with a tailwind, and a very flat run course. Time doesn’t take into account conditions on the day such as wind, heat, choppy swim, nutrition, aero position, tires on the bike, transitions, hills, and so on.  

 

I would encourage you to focus on the process of becoming a better athlete by shifting mindset away from outcomes and results. Focus on the session and doing it well by getting proper sleep and eating well. Emphasis on those things will make you faster- not training for a certain time. We rarely see athletes succeed who go into a race season and say: I want to go 11 hours in an IRONMAN. There is nothing actionable about that plan. Athletes that are process-driven such as "I am improving my swim speed by spending more sessions in the pool" or "I am spending more time in the gym to get stronger" will use these actions to lead to better outcomes. 

 

Sometimes we train slow, much slower than IRONMAN pace and sometimes we go much harder than IRONMAN pace. All of these elements have a place. 

 

Hope this helps for context!