6 hours training a week are enough for preparing Ironman amateur athletes

Abstract

Introduction

Training volume is one of the main parameters which coaches and athletes use to regulate the training load in triathlon and in other endurance sport. The training volume depends on the distance the athlete is preparing for. In case of the Olympic triathlon distance one should train from 300 to 600 hours a year. To prepare for the Ironman distance the athlete should train twice as much (from 600 to 1200 hours a year).

Not every amateur athlete can complete this training plan. Trying to follow the recommendations which allow them to finish the ultra-distance competition some athletes get the overtraining syndrome, miss trainings and underperform in key trainings. It is quite common with amateur athletes who have a family and work 6-8 hours daily. Such athletes often have to sacrifice their sleep trying to include the recommended training volume into their schedule. This leads to additional fatigue.

Methods

Considering the latest scientific researches in sport science I developed an Ironman training program according to which 300 training hours per year are enough..

Results

The program was tested on 4 amateur athletes (beginners in sport), who successfully finished the Ironman Copenhagen 2016. Two of them even got into top 15% of the overall ranking. And the fastest of my athletes finished the race sub 10 hours.

Discussion

These results make one think of reconsidering the existing methodology of amateur athletes training. Still, more statistical evidence is required.