# Couch to IRONMAN in 12 Months | Ep 549

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 30 Jul 2025, 29 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/105624836/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-6-17%2Faf5c05e2-5027-5c85-e108-511d26bfaa1c.m4a

Does the idea of going from "Couch to IRONMAN" in 12 months sound absurd to you? This week, Coach Rob is sharing his framework & roadmap that has helped numerous Team Oxygenaddict athletes successfully achieve just that. Here's the link to the interview with Team Oxygenaddict athlete Allun, who went from complete beginner to Ironman Wales finisher in less than 12 months: https://youtu.be/BWqwp8EVdyc * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Like what you heard in this show? Join hundreds of other age group triathletes making the most of their limited training time, training with Team OxygenAddict! http://team.oxygenaddict.com - The most comprehensive triathlon coaching program for busy age groupers. Book an application call to see if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming season here: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ Register to watch our FREE IRONMAN Accelerator webclass and learn how to dominate your first IRONMAN in as little as 6-8 hours training per week: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/ironman-accelerator * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply click this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:02] Hello and welcome to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.
[0:06] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors, Precision Fuel
[0:08] and Hydration. You can get 15% off your first
[0:11] order with the code Oxygen Fuel 25.
[0:13] Welcome to the show everybody. I'm your host coach, Rob Wilby
[0:16] from Team Oxygen Attic Triathlon Coaching, and every week we'd
[0:19] bring you an episode of this podcast to help educate,
[0:21] motivate and inspire you. On this week's episode, I'm
[0:25] going to be talking about the idea of going from couch to Iron
[0:28] Man in 12 months. If you're currently sitting on
[0:32] the couch wondering if it's even possible to go from zero fitness
[0:35] to finishing an Iron Man in a year, then hopefully this is
[0:38] going to be the episode for you. I'm aiming to walk you through
[0:42] how to go from not having done anything to completing your
[0:46] first Iron Man in a year, even if you've got no background in
[0:50] in swimming and in biking and in running.
[0:53] And I'm aware that that might sound like a crazily high
[0:57] aspiration, but more and more athletes are coming to us and
[1:00] asking to do this, to go from no background at all to complete An
[1:03] Iron Man. And we've helped a few people do
[1:06] it this year. I possibly wouldn't have thought
[1:08] it was previously even possible, but they managed it.
[1:12] And so we decided to put an episode together to talk to the
[1:15] people who feel exactly like that.
[1:18] And honestly, I might have been there in that position as well a
[1:21] couple of years ago, but we've had athletes that have done this
[1:24] with us over the past year and it's been amazing to see.
[1:28] And I feel like the sport is changing and that's what I want
[1:31] this episode to talk about. Iron Man used to be a thing that
[1:35] triathletes did after they'd been in the sport for two years,
[1:39] four years, six years. It was the pinnacle of pinnacle
[1:42] of their training. I can remember really clearly
[1:45] when I started training for multi sport events way back in
[1:48] the late 90s, one of the guys said to me, you see that guy
[1:51] over there, he's done an Iron Man.
[1:53] And it was a kind of it, it was the peak and the pinnacle of the
[1:56] sport. And it was something that was
[1:58] assumed you need multiple, multiple years of training to
[2:01] do. And I'm seeing that shift.
[2:03] I'm having more phone calls from athletes who want to be coached,
[2:06] who are saying I've got no background in in either swim or
[2:09] bike or run in some cases in any of them.
[2:12] I've got this crazy dream to do an Iron Man.
[2:14] Do you think it can help me? We've worked with several of
[2:18] these people to this point and got them through their first
[2:20] Iron Man in a year and it's just been inspirational and it's
[2:22] opened up for us. I think a whole new area of
[2:26] athletes who they haven't come from a swim, bike, run
[2:28] background, but they're absolutely taken with the idea
[2:32] of Iron Man. They don't want to go through
[2:34] the traditional learn to run, bike, swim, do a Sprint, do an
[2:38] Olympic, do a 70.3, do it over several years.
[2:42] They want the big experience all in one year.
[2:44] So I want to be the person saying to people, do you know
[2:48] what? You've got big dreams.
[2:50] Let's go for it. Let's jump in and let's support
[2:52] you as much as we can. So this episode is going to be
[2:55] talking about this. So first, if you've if you've
[2:58] not heard or seen me before, my name's Coach Rob will be I work
[3:00] for a triathlon coaching company called Team Oxygen Addict.
[3:04] I've been professionally coaching athletes for triathlon
[3:07] and Iron Man for over 15 years. And in that time we've coached
[3:10] close to 1000 iron men and women to their first iron finish.
[3:15] So we've got plenty of experience doing this and I
[3:19] think we're one of the best companies out there for helping
[3:21] people to do this. And the reason we are is we help
[3:25] real age groupers train around their real busy lives.
[3:29] We don't give people a, a dumbed down version of a prose training
[3:33] plan. We build the training plan from
[3:35] the ground up, working into working in around the fact.
[3:39] You've almost certainly got a job, you've very probably got a
[3:41] family, very probably got kids. You've got real life around all
[3:46] of these other things. And Iron Man trains got to fit
[3:48] in around it rather than the other way around.
[3:51] So again, when I started, I was told you need to be doing 2025
[3:55] hours of training a week. We've seen lots of people
[3:58] complete the Ryman on a lot less than half of that training
[4:01] consistently. So I just don't think it's the
[4:04] case anymore. So that's my starting point.
[4:07] Before you really jump in though, if you are preparing for
[4:09] your first time and there's a link in the show notes down
[4:11] below that I've got a free online training seminar.
[4:13] I think we'll get some taste of it today.
[4:16] It's 30 minutes of your time and guarantee you'll massively
[4:18] increase your chances of success on Ironman race day.
[4:21] So click through, that's free to watch.
[4:23] There's a whole load more information in detail than I can
[4:25] go into today on on this episode.
[4:28] And I'd also love it if you'd subscribe to the channel.
[4:31] And you know what, if you like this, if it helps somebody out
[4:33] that you know, please forward it on to them.
[4:35] Please feel free to do that. The more people we can spread
[4:38] this out to, the more people we can help.
[4:40] And it actually helps the growth of our show and helps the growth
[4:43] of our company as well. So everyone's pretty much a
[4:45] winner. So first up, who's this episode
[4:48] for and why is it possible? So I'm really talking to
[4:52] complete beginners today. I'm talking to people who maybe
[4:56] you've got some triathlon experience, maybe you've done a
[4:58] Sprint, maybe you've been a runner or a biker or a swimmer,
[5:02] but you haven't done multi sport yet.
[5:04] But also maybe you haven't got any of those backgrounds at all.
[5:07] Maybe you can't swim yet, maybe you don't own a bike yet, maybe
[5:11] you haven't been for a run yet. Now for those of you who have
[5:15] got some triathlon experience, I'm going to say you can
[5:17] definitely complete your first Ironman within a year.
[5:21] For those of you who've never started yet, I'm going to say
[5:25] it's the same thing, but with the caveat it might take you a
[5:28] little bit longer. I'd encourage your conversation.
[5:30] Again, there's a, there's a link in the show notes to book
[5:32] through to a call with us. If you're not sure, if you've
[5:35] really got no athletic background whatsoever, let's
[5:38] have a conversation and I can, I can honestly give you some
[5:41] feedback on where I think you are and how long I think it
[5:43] might take you. But I'm going to say this, if
[5:46] you are, if you are relatively able bodied, if you are not very
[5:51] overweight, if you've got some kind of sporting background and
[5:54] either swim or bike or run, I think you can do this in a year.
[5:58] So that's the, that's the people that I'm aiming this at it.
[6:01] Someone who's maybe seen an Iron Man happening on TV or the
[6:05] Internet, or maybe you've even seen it happening.
[6:08] You know, I spoke to a friend of a friend the other day, 70.3
[6:11] Bolton was happening in their town and they've just been out
[6:13] shopping and they saw it happen and they were totally taken by
[6:16] it. And they went from never having
[6:18] heard of the event before to to wanting to do this thing.
[6:21] So again, if that's you, great, let's jump right in.
[6:26] I think there's some common doubts here and the doubts tend
[6:29] to be am I too old, Am I too busy?
[6:32] Am I too unfit? Am I too overweight?
[6:35] Now, all of those might be possibly true now, but in a
[6:39] year's time they won't be true. If you do something to change
[6:43] it, you're certainly not too old.
[6:44] I've worked with athletes up to the age of 80 to complete an
[6:47] Iron Man. If you're unfit, we can do
[6:50] something about that. If you're overweight, we can do
[6:52] something about that. If you're really busy, well, we
[6:56] can certainly help you find a way to carve out the time to
[6:59] make some space to exercise every day.
[7:02] And I think ultimately that's what this is all about.
[7:05] It's less about completing your Iron Man and it's more about
[7:09] building the habit of doing some exercise everyday so you make a
[7:13] step change in your life. Now the Iron Man will possibly
[7:16] be the outcome of this, but the real outcome will be a massive
[7:20] increase of fitness, a massive effect on your health and
[7:24] longevity of your life. So there's just positive things
[7:28] coming your way. I mentioned a little bit earlier
[7:31] having worked with athletes who who have never done anything
[7:34] like this before. We've recently published an
[7:37] episode about one of our athletes called Alan.
[7:39] He did Iron Man Wales in September of 2024 and he did it
[7:44] because he went to visit Tenby on the weekend.
[7:46] When it was happening, he had no idea it was happening.
[7:48] He saw it and he just said that looks amazing.
[7:51] He stood out for hours cheering people on on the marathon.
[7:54] He had no background in swimming, biking or running.
[7:56] He didn't own a bike at the time.
[7:59] He he couldn't swim a length of the swimming pool.
[8:01] But he was so inspired by it, he entered the event 1st and then
[8:05] he contacted us and said, I've entered this event.
[8:07] I watched it this weekend. I want you guys to coach me.
[8:12] And my honest reaction at first was, wow, this is a big ask.
[8:16] I'm never going to say to somebody, no, you can't do this.
[8:18] But I was thinking that's a big ask to go from No background at
[8:22] all, not owning a bike, not been able to swim at all.
[8:25] But column was as good as his word.
[8:27] He committed to the training process.
[8:30] He was all in from day one and the trainee didn't take over his
[8:33] life. But every day he carved out some
[8:35] time for training and it started out at being 10 to 15 minutes a
[8:39] day to 20 minutes to 30 minutes to 45 to an hour.
[8:43] Across a period of six months. He gradually got better.
[8:47] He started doing some training on the bike, on a gym bike, in a
[8:50] gym when he didn't own a bike. He started by aiming to swim one
[8:54] length of the swimming pool, which he managed to complete.
[8:57] He started by going out for walks and then introduced some
[9:00] jogging breaks into the walks and then gradually extended the
[9:03] period of jogging. And across the 12 months we
[9:07] worked with Alan, he got to the point where he finished I'm on
[9:10] Wales. He got his finish, his medal.
[9:12] He was absolutely delighted. We've just republished as I put
[9:16] a link in the show notes. If I can get my editor to work
[9:19] some magic, maybe if I point here, who knows, maybe a link
[9:22] will appear to it. Maybe it won't do.
[9:24] But you can go back and search for it in the in the YouTube
[9:28] search bar or in the podcast search bar.
[9:30] And it would be relatively recent.
[9:32] I'll replay that one because I just think it's such an
[9:34] inspirational story and if Alan can do it, there's every reason
[9:41] that a large number of you out there who are sitting and
[9:43] listening to this and I'm wondering if they can can do it
[9:46] as well. The question is really, are you
[9:48] motivated and will you make the time to do it?
[9:51] And if the answer to those is yes, you can go out there and
[9:55] complete Ryman in a year's time. So fingers crossed.
[9:58] We really want to break the myth that Ironman is for elite
[10:02] athlete. If you get chance to go out to
[10:04] see, I'm on Wales, I'm on Leeds at 70.3, Swansea or Bolton, you
[10:10] will see. And I had this experience
[10:11] actually myself, my, my father was a very accomplished cyclist
[10:15] and when I did my first triathlon he came along and he
[10:19] said to me afterwards, I really thought you were biting off more
[10:21] than you can chew. You weren't a very good swimmer,
[10:23] son, you weren't. I wasn't particularly good biker
[10:26] at the time as well either. But he went along and he said I
[10:28] was really worried that you weren't even going to complete
[10:31] the swim. But having seen a lot of the
[10:33] athletes who were taking part, he came away from it really
[10:35] inspired and said there were people there in a lot worse
[10:38] shape than me and they were completing the 70.3 and he
[10:42] actually got himself back into cycling.
[10:45] Certainly he never took part in any triathlons, but it was the
[10:48] thing that inspired him to take up cycling again and for another
[10:50] 10 years between the ages of 60 and 70.
[10:54] It was a competitive time try list again.
[10:57] So I'm really encourage you if you get the chance to go and see
[11:00] an event, just go and see because it will be so inspiring.
[11:06] So let's talk about breaking down the next 12 months into
[11:10] phases. There's going to be the first
[11:12] phase, which is your, your sort of your new training habit
[11:15] phase, getting used to doing some activity every day.
[11:17] Then there's going to be a second phase, which is going to
[11:20] be starting to really try to build fitness.
[11:23] And we'll, we'll do that on the bike.
[11:24] That's the safest place to do that.
[11:26] We'll really focus in on sports specific training going to be
[11:31] your Iron Man specific build. And then the fourth phase is
[11:35] going to be the race peak build. And in terms of time, we're
[11:38] probably looking at about 3 months for the new triathlon
[11:41] habit, about four months for your bike power build phase,
[11:47] three months for the Ironman specific build as we get our our
[11:50] sessions to be long enough that you can complete the session.
[11:54] And then about four to six weeks of a really specific Grace Peak
[12:00] training phase. And then we'll go through and
[12:02] break all of these down. OK, so phase one, if you are a
[12:06] complete beginner to all of this and you, you don't have a swim
[12:09] or a bike or a run background, this is going to be the most
[12:12] important phase for you. And it's what we're going to
[12:13] focus in on more today. And I think what I'll do in the
[12:16] future, I'll create more of these videos.
[12:18] I'll talk about a, a nine months to Iron Man and a six months to
[12:22] Iron Man and a three months to Iron Man kind of plot for people
[12:25] who picked us up at different points.
[12:26] But for now, the first three months of your 12 months to Iron
[12:31] Man, it's all about building consistency of training and
[12:35] getting yourself used to moving your body initially 3 times a
[12:39] week and built to the point where you can do some exercise
[12:43] every day, six days a week. So if you're not doing anything
[12:47] at the moment, the place to start is to do something one day
[12:51] and then have a rest day, something the next day, then
[12:53] have a rest day, something a third day and then have a rest
[12:56] day. So you're doing 3 sessions and
[12:58] you're having four rest days and gradually will increase the
[13:02] number of sessions across time and across that three months
[13:05] will get you to the point where you can do something every day.
[13:09] And again, the sessions only need to be short because the key
[13:12] here is under no circumstances are you going to end up overly
[13:16] tired or sore or injured. That's your guiding principle.
[13:20] First, do no harm. Make sure you don't give
[13:23] yourself an injury. Make sure you don't give
[13:25] yourself soreness. Make sure you stop a little bit
[13:28] short of what you think you can do so you're ready to train
[13:31] again. So we start with three times a
[13:33] week. We extend it to the point where
[13:35] by the end of this three month block, you're training 6 times a
[13:38] week. Now, what's this training going
[13:40] to look like? Initially, it's just going to be
[13:43] movement. It's going to be going out for a
[13:45] walk. It's going to be gently getting
[13:47] on an indoor bike in the gym and riding an indoor bike.
[13:50] It's going to be getting yourself into the swimming pool
[13:52] and see if you can swim a width of the pool, a length of the
[13:56] pool. Start to pick up the skills that
[13:58] you're going to need. And if you can get in the habit
[14:01] of doing this up to six times a week, then the rest of it is
[14:04] going to be easy. And I really do genuinely mean
[14:07] this. To go back to Alan's example, he
[14:09] couldn't swim a full length of foot crawl when he started with
[14:11] us. So he would do half a length and
[14:13] then he would breaststroke to the end of the lane.
[14:15] And then he would come home and he would he would watch videos,
[14:18] he would learn about drills, he'd study how to breathe, he
[14:21] would learn about the catch and learn more about the stroke.
[14:24] All of that stuff can come, but to start with, just get yourself
[14:28] to the pool and go for a swim. Even if it's swimming
[14:31] breaststroke to start with, it's still enough to get you in the
[14:34] water. Even if you're running sessions
[14:36] of walks to start with, it's still enough to get you going.
[14:39] And the same with the gym bike. You don't need all the equipment
[14:42] to get started. Let's just get you moving and
[14:44] across time. You will then find that you are
[14:47] training on the bike twice a week, you're doing some kind of
[14:50] walk or run twice a week, some kind of swim twice a week, and
[14:54] that way you've got the triathlon training habit ready
[14:57] to go. That makes my job really, really
[15:00] easy. I can layer on top of this the
[15:02] more structured training. If you're already in the habit
[15:05] of doing this every day, we can build on top of this.
[15:08] So what else can you do? You can do a couch to 5K.
[15:12] You can gradually increase those short swims.
[15:14] You could do spin sessions at the gym.
[15:17] You could find your old mountain bike and go out for a gentle
[15:20] ride around on your old mountain bike.
[15:22] Doesn't have to be full on serious Iron Man training to
[15:26] start with. Start with what you can do, not
[15:29] with what you think a professional should be doing.
[15:32] So just do what you can, where you are, with what you got.
[15:36] And my biggest tip here is that progress often isn't linear.
[15:41] You often don't go from being able to swim one length it it
[15:47] doesn't follow the pattern of one length, 2 lengths, 3
[15:50] lengths. What will happen is something
[15:52] will click in your swimming and all of a sudden you'll be able
[15:54] to swim for 400 metres again. With Alan's example, he couldn't
[15:58] swim a full 400 metres when he started with us.
[16:01] We couldn't do our usual fitness test with him and that's OK.
[16:04] We worked with him to the point where he could do a full 400
[16:08] metres and at that point he watched his 400 metres times
[16:11] come down. But those first three months
[16:13] were just about getting in the water, so the progress often
[16:16] isn't linear. You might find you can't swim 50
[16:19] metres yet until you can. You can't swim 100 metres yet
[16:23] until one day you can. It won't be as hard as you think
[16:28] it possibly will. In order to get better at this
[16:31] stuff, that's what I want you to think on.
[16:33] Focus on the habits over witnesses to start with.
[16:36] So those first three months, by the end of it, you'll be you'll
[16:40] be running, you'll be biking, you'll be swimming three times a
[16:43] week and you'll be ready for much more structured training.
[16:47] OK, so that takes us into phase two.
[16:50] Now for those of you who are are entering, let's say probably
[16:55] you're entering a summer Iron Man 12 months away is obviously
[16:59] starting now in the summer. So you've got three months of
[17:02] summertime to do things outside, great time of year to get
[17:05] started. And it means as we go into our,
[17:08] into our bike fitness building phase, we'll be moving into the
[17:12] winter in terms of the winter months.
[17:14] Even if you're not, even if it's not the winter time in terms of
[17:17] the weather, it's still a great time to focus in on doing
[17:20] structured bike training indoors.
[17:23] Now, I'm a massive, massive fan of training indoors on the bike,
[17:26] whether it's initially spin classes, eventually getting your
[17:29] own indoor trainer on your own bike and doing those training
[17:32] sessions indoors. The price of indoor trainers has
[17:35] come down massively these days. The accessibility to things like
[17:39] Zwift or Training Peaks Virtual. If you've not heard of those,
[17:43] lock Them up. Wonderful training programmes
[17:46] that help you really dial in exactly the right intensity of
[17:50] training so you can make the most progress in the shortest
[17:53] amount of time. It's fantastic from a coaching
[17:55] point of view because all of these apps sync up with the apps
[17:58] that I use. I can see everyone's workout
[18:00] data and know exactly how hard they're working and help them
[18:03] refine that if it isn't quite right.
[18:05] But athletes get given the exact target in terms of pace or heart
[18:09] rate or power zones. So we can be absolutely sure
[18:12] that there's no wasted training time whatsoever.
[18:15] So in our in our, in our fitness build phase over the window,
[18:19] we'll focus on most of the hard fitness work being done as
[18:23] structured training indoors on the bike.
[18:26] We will have our run training mostly be easy running during
[18:30] this phase. So again, you're not going to be
[18:32] hammering yourself with the running.
[18:34] We'll gradually extend the length of those runs.
[18:36] A lot of them will have walk breaks in because what you'll
[18:38] find is we call it the the bike run Halo effect.
[18:43] The bike training has a massive effect on your run fitness,
[18:47] almost like the kind of the glow of a Halo that you see above a
[18:51] St. That's the way we think about
[18:53] it. The glow of your fitness from
[18:55] bike training extends over your running as well, and it really
[18:59] does have that effect. Doesn't seem to work the other
[19:01] way around. Runners don't seem to be able to
[19:03] transfer the fitness to the bike anywhere near as well as people
[19:06] who are fit on the bike can transfer that onto the run.
[19:09] So all of the bike training has a massive positive effect on
[19:13] your overall cardiovascular fitness.
[19:15] So that's awesome. And with our swimming during the
[19:17] space, we're really going to focus on swim drills, we're
[19:21] really going to focus on improving your swim form before
[19:26] we look at improving your fitness.
[19:28] Our phrase for this is form before flow.
[19:30] If you can improve your swim form, if you can improve the way
[19:33] you grip the water, your swimming fitness will follow
[19:37] from that. And it's almost as though you'll
[19:39] get fit as a by product of practising good technique rather
[19:43] than thinking you have to smash yourself in the pool every day.
[19:47] So that's how our second phase goes.
[19:50] Our third phase is our Iron Man specific builds training.
[19:55] This is about 3 months long. And what we're going to do here
[19:58] is we're gradually going to extend the length of our longest
[20:01] sessions in swimming and biking and in running.
[20:04] And we're going to build them to the point where they approach
[20:08] some cases, they don't get to the actual distances you'll face
[20:11] on race day. So we'll build you to the point
[20:13] where you can comfortably swim. 3.8 kilometres.
[20:17] We'll build you to the point you can bike 180 kilometres.
[20:20] We won't have you run a full marathon distance in training,
[20:23] but we'll build you to the point where you run about 3 hours in
[20:26] training. No matter how fast or slow you
[20:28] are, we won't go further than three hours.
[20:31] The reason for that is simply you just get too tired and you
[20:34] won't be able to train again the next week.
[20:36] But as we build the length of those sessions really sensibly
[20:41] and most importantly, as we build in recovery into these
[20:43] training blocks, your fitness will increase step by step by
[20:47] step and you'll be able to adjust to doing a little bit
[20:50] further the next week. Then we'll have you recover and
[20:54] then you'll go back to being able to go a little bit further
[20:56] each week again. So in our IMAD specific build
[21:00] phase, we will extend the length of these longest sessions and
[21:03] you'll find that what was unachievable last week is
[21:07] achievable this week. We'll also during this phase
[21:11] start to introduce some open water swims so that you get used
[21:14] to the idea of swimming in open water and probably swimming in a
[21:17] wet suit. And then that brings us to the
[21:20] point where we are ready for our our race peak training, if you
[21:24] like. That's what we refer to as the
[21:26] last four to six weeks before race day.
[21:29] You've got yourself to the point where you can swim 3.8 K, you
[21:32] can bike 180K, you've run three hours.
[21:35] At this point we start to put it all together.
[21:37] We'll have you do some runs off the bike or brick runs as
[21:40] they're called. We'll have you do some big race
[21:43] simulation weekends where you're essentially going to do a
[21:46] shorter but condensed broken version of an Iron Man across a
[21:49] weekend. And eventually we'll bring them
[21:52] all together so that by race day weekend, you'll be ready to go
[21:55] and do all of this all in one day.
[21:57] It'll include the taper period where we reduce the amount of
[22:01] training in the lead up to race day.
[22:03] And the overall effect is you get really fit.
[22:06] We help you recover and then on race day you're feeling fresh,
[22:09] you're feeling fit and you're ready to go to complete your
[22:11] Iron Man. And really once we've done all
[22:14] of this and once we've worked on your ability to eat and drink
[22:18] and have the right amount of carbohydrate and electrolytes to
[22:21] keep your body balanced as you're moving, you will be ready
[22:24] to go for Iron Man race day. So that's your road map.
[22:29] There's your four part road map for how the training will work.
[22:33] Now let's talk about some pitfalls, common mistakes that
[22:36] we want you to avoid. The first one is assuming that
[22:38] more is better. The really common thing I see
[22:41] with the Taipei Type A personality, the really inspired
[22:45] person starting out on this, is they're going to try and do too
[22:49] much too soon, often end up really tired and sometimes end
[22:52] up with a niggle or an injury. So don't assume more is better.
[22:56] Following the structured plan is really, really important.
[22:59] We don't want any massive jumps in volume from one week to the
[23:02] next. Keep things really sensible.
[23:05] Now, you heard me refer earlier to our our Bike Run Halo idea.
[23:10] You're not trying to be a fit swimmer and a fit cyclist and a
[23:14] fit runner. You're trying to be a fit
[23:15] Ironman triathlete. And these sessions will have
[23:18] positive effects on each other's.
[23:20] If you've got friends at a running club, you might hear
[23:22] them talking about going and doing speed work and hard run
[23:25] intervals, and you might think you need to do that.
[23:28] You don't. For Ironman, there's a crossover
[23:30] fitness effect from your biking and your swimming onto your
[23:33] running. Actually doing hard run
[23:35] intervals is one of the most dangerous things you can do as
[23:37] an Ironman triathlete because works on the wrong aspect of
[23:39] your fitness and it isn't going to help you for race day and it
[23:42] puts you at a massive risk of injury and possibly illness as
[23:46] well. It's going to derail your
[23:47] training. Consistency is the thing that's
[23:49] going to get you through. Next mistake is not prioritising
[23:54] recovery. When I build a plan, the first
[23:57] thing I do is put the recovery day in there, programming the
[24:00] rest and recovery sessions and fit the actual training around
[24:03] it. If an athlete's missed a session
[24:06] and we've got to decide what to do, the first thing I'll look at
[24:09] is where do the recovery sessions fit in around this
[24:12] knot? How can we cram in another hard
[24:14] session? Often it's better to make sure
[24:16] you prioritise from recovery, especially if you're really
[24:19] tired from work or from family or from illness or from lots of
[24:23] travel. Often trying to add more
[24:25] training on top of that would just blow you apart.
[24:28] So recovery is the thing to be prioritised.
[24:32] Next, you're going to need a community around you, and
[24:34] frankly, you're going to need some good guidance around you as
[24:37] well. You can piece this together
[24:39] yourself from information in books and on the Internet.
[24:42] You can massively shortcut your road map to this by having wise
[24:45] counsel, by having someone who's going to give you a coaching
[24:48] plan and he's going to tell you exactly what to do and give you
[24:51] advice on how to change things when real life comes up and gets
[24:55] in the way. So last words of encouragement
[24:59] from me then at this point, you don't need to be perfect in
[25:02] order to do this. You don't need to be super fit
[25:05] right now in order to get started.
[25:08] If you've got a dream of doing an Iron Man, I encourage you
[25:11] just get yourself out there and get started.
[25:14] Go for a walk around the block, get yourself down to the gym and
[25:17] get on a gym bike for 10 minutes tonight.
[25:19] Get in the pool and swim a length of breaststroke, start to
[25:23] turn yourself into someone who's done a swim and a bike in a run
[25:26] this week. And that's the first step in all
[25:29] of those people, those men and women you see doing a 70.3 or an
[25:33] Iron Man, they all had to start somewhere as well.
[25:37] And a lot of them started from the same point that you're at.
[25:39] It just it doesn't feel like that to you right now.
[25:42] So if you think you can do it, if you want to give this a go
[25:46] and you just have the willingness to try, you
[25:49] absolutely can. I'd love to hear stories about
[25:52] this in the comments. If you're someone who's got this
[25:54] kind of background, then you've got yourself, you've either
[25:56] tried an Iron Man or you've completed an Iron Man.
[25:58] Please leave a comment down below.
[26:00] Really help out people who are not sure if they've got the the
[26:03] bravery to get started up. You will become a different
[26:07] person as part of this process. You will find that within you.
[26:11] If you're the person who's finding you can't get started on
[26:14] things like this, usually just by getting started you'll have
[26:18] made a change and you will become a different person in 12
[26:21] months from today. You could be an Iron Man if you
[26:26] want to get started. Love to have a chat with you If
[26:29] there's a link, like I said, you can go away and watch our free
[26:31] training webinar. If you're interested in
[26:33] coaching, there's a link in the show notes to book a call and
[26:35] have a chat with me. If this video has helped you,
[26:37] please leave a comment down below.
[26:40] I would absolutely love to hear from people who've decided
[26:42] they're going to make that change.
[26:44] I'm going to give a shout out to the sponsors of our team,
[26:47] Precision Fuel and Hydration. They have got what I consider to
[26:50] be the best solution for electrolytes, hydration,
[26:55] carbohydrate feeding, both education and products
[26:59] absolutely critical to your Iron Man's success, that you get the
[27:02] right amount of carbohydrates in that you get balanced
[27:05] electrolytes and then you get your hydration right.
[27:07] It honestly is as important as getting the right training done.
[27:11] And over at the Precision Fuel and Hydration website, you'll
[27:14] find that there's a tonne of free information to educate
[27:16] yourself on how important all of these are.
[27:19] There's great examples of pro athletes and other age groupers
[27:22] and what their strategies are. You can then go away, build your
[27:25] own strategy. You can even buy their products
[27:28] as well. You don't have to use their
[27:29] products. I highly recommend using their
[27:31] products because I think they're awesome.
[27:33] They're also a fantastic bunch of people.
[27:34] You'll see them all the Iron Man events.
[27:36] They are really a wonderful community and I highly advise
[27:39] you to support the the companies essentially that are helping the
[27:44] support and production of the podcast.
[27:47] So to wrap this podcast episode up, here are some discount codes
[27:50] and deals for you. Over at Precision Fuel and
[27:52] hydration.com, you can use the code Oxygen Fuel 25 for 15% off
[27:57] your first electrolyte order. And at teamoxygenaddict.com, I
[28:00] think we've got the most comprehensive triathlon coaching
[28:03] programme specifically designed for busy age groupers.
[28:06] If you're looking for coaching for Iron Man or 70.3 Triathlon
[28:09] this year, please get in touch. There's a link in the show notes
[28:11] to book a membership call with us and see if you'd be a good
[28:14] fit for joining the team. So remember links in the show
[28:17] notes so you don't have to remember them.
[28:18] And until next week, have a great safe training and racing
[28:22] week. All the best if you've got a big
[28:24] Iron Man. Coming up this weekend.
[28:26] I'm coach Rob Wilby and you've been listening to the Oxygenatic
[28:29] Triathlon Podcast.

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