Ironman Triathlon Training vs Sprint Triathlon Training (2007 vs 2017)

September 1st of 2007 (10 years + 3 days ago) I was getting ready to race Ironman Wisconsin. I posted on my blog about the decision to KEEP training for IM WI through knee issues. In that post, I also shared my training numbers for the 6 months leading up to IM WI (March-Aug, 2007):

• 80,558 yards swam, 4,100 yards was the longest
• 1,228 miles biked, 107 miles was the longest
• 260 miles ran, 13.1 miles was the longest (damn knee)

I was pretty proud of those numbers. They were simply to "get me through" an Ironman. (I would train and race with a very different goal when I do my next Ironman - maybe in 15-40 years.)

This year, I only did duathlons and sprint triathlons. And HERE are my numbers for March-Aug 2017 while training for these short races:

• 86,370 yards swam, 2,200 yards was the longest
• 1,164.75 miles biked, 42 miles was the longest (1,229.42 if including trainer time)
• 412.58 miles ran, 9.47 miles was the longest

The bike number is all outside miles and doesn't include 3 hours and 14 minutes of trainer time, which (averaging 20 mph) would add 64.67 miles, and that would put my 6 month total this year at 1,229.42 miles biked, or 1 mile farther than during Ironman training 10 years ago. Swimming is a bit farther this year, and running is about 60% more.

THIS is why I was able to have such a good year racing triathlons! I put in the work! MORE work than when Ironman training - a race that lasted 13x longer than most of my races this year!!

Back with some long run weekend training updates soon. As well as a recap to a decent August.