Hi Dan, Thx for the videos, I enjoy and can learn from them quite well (f.e. using trainingpeaks). So because you asked in the vid. Avg trg for me for my first IM was about 3-4 months with an average of around 9h30 hours per week sports. CTL at the start of the race was 85 and finished with a time of 12hr57. Considering nonwetsuit swim and heatwave, this CTL vs race performance is quite near. Keep making those vids grtz
Hi Frederik, thanks so much for your feedback, especially sharing your own numbers! Huge congrats on your performance! I/ve just finished my second Ironman and will be doing another how much did i train video ;)
Really helpful stuff Dan. I completed the 70.3 Weymouth in Sept (just about scraped through - 7hrs 40m) with some very unstructured training. After watching one of your previous VLOGs on Training Peaks I downloaded a 70.3 training plan and subscribed to the the service and personally think its brilliant. Love the way it syncs with my Garmin. One month in with the training and my progression has been really good. Would highly recommend. Really appreciate the heads up and thanks for doing what you do bud :)
they are making changes to the course in Staffordshire..who know, maybe they'll remove the hill you had to climb 3 times on the run :) Did you see my race video from Staff this year?
Very insightful video, thanks for that. Gives me confidence for my first IM next year. I already average about 10hrs/week training, but very unstructured. Seems like I don‘t necessarily have to increase my training quality, just add some quantity and structure :-) Amazing time results, too.
Thanks And best of luck for your first IM next year. which one are you doing if i may ask? btw i just released a part 2 video from the learnings of my second Ironman..
Excellent finish time, I am preparing full distance in Cork, have 32 weeks program similar time and distance training. I think you were in excellent form to complete it below 11 hours.good job. Surprised about how much you have trained indoor bike. Would great to see what training you did, as winter s approaching.thank you.
Great videos, Dan. I really enjoyed following as I trained for my first full Ironman this past year. My TrainingPeaks CTL seemed to miss the mark, however. I went into Ironman Mont-Tremblant with a CTL of 56 (which would indicate 14-15hr race time) and I completed in 11:53. I'm wondering if maybe it was because I didn't wear my HR monitor for all workouts, or because I wasn't using TrainingPeaks until the last 100 or so days before the race.
+Michael Looke wow very exciting. and i agree, very easy to get hooked :) but that's not a bad thing is it? Best of luck with your journey. enjoy!!! 🙅♂️
Hi Dan, very good report, it´s always interesting to compare all those metrics of different athletes but it´s hard to find, so thanks for that. Your numbers seems to me pretty low for the race day performance thats was very good. I´m going to race a half ironman distance in 3 weeks time, my CTL is around 110 with almost 9hr/week average, but I feel that I´need much more CTL for a full IM distance.
thanks Eduardo, I can only expect transparency if I live by example ;) and I am with you.. not a lot out there. Anyway..I think purely looking at CTL is prob. not correct, that's why referred to my athlinks profile and the video on my background. How many years have you been involved in endurance sport. I am convinced that matters. your CTL of 110 with 9hr/average is impressive. You must be doing quite some high intensity /quality workouts. Which race are you doing in 3 weeks if I may ask? Also when you say 110 may not enough for you for a full distance, what's your target?
I´ve been involved in tri for the last 10 years or so, I´m 42, I´m not a fast triathlete but I try to do a little bit of everything to get better. I´m going to race www.triatlonparacas.com, it was the only one race that we had here in my country Peru, but now we also have Ironman 70.3 Lima which is held in April. I´m using Training Peaks for a couple of years, in fact I used to train with Matt Fitzgerald´s Plan for half IM distance but now I´m a selfcoached athlete, so at this moment I understand how TP works and have set my thresholds correctly (1:50 swim, 232W FTP bike, 4:50min/km run). During a regular week I hit bike/run thresholds for around 20-30min, and also a litte bit of vo2max (12-15min). On the weekends I spend 3h on the bike, 1:30 on the run. That´s how my CTL is 110 now, but this is my peak. What happen is that, despite that high CTL my PR is just 5:34, it seems that it´s a "small engine" problem :-). My goal for Triatlon Paracas is 5:25, I hope all this training block would be enought to get another PR. My last full was IM Brasil 2012, 13:50, poor result, I was injured, but at that moment I didn´t know about power, threshold, Training Peaks and so on, I think now that I would do it better but that´s when I feel that I would have to train a lot more to do, lets say 12h. Well, it was a very long comment :-). Thanks again Dan, very interesting channel, I´m always keeping an eye on your content.!
that's a great and super interesting answer, thanks for that! I think you've been doing amazing. Please give yourself more credits ;) It's easy to get caught up in numbers and performances, but in the end it's great that you're out there and keep your body moving!
I am actually surprised it is not as much training as i was expected. I have 4 marathons and 1 ultra marathon done so far and it took me on 6-8 hours (on average in week) just to run so 12 hrs for ironman does not seem so much and your finish time is under 11 hrs. Have done mtb racing in past but have 0 swimming background.
Very nice review Dan. I am curious if you will use a Matt Fitzgerald plan for 2018. I would also be curious why you took the plan you did instead of the Triathlon Plans from trainerroad?
+Stuart Whipkey hi Stuart, very good question. i haven't decided on next year's training plan. i could apply the same one but a different level if i wanted to. target a better time. this off-season i want to spend some time reading more about the different training plans and then make a call. regarding the trainerroad question, i took some of the bike workouts and applied it to matts plan, according to what phase i. was in. its nice to have good trainingpeaks integration, i need to check if trainerroad has plans in trainingpeaks. thanks for the feedback Stuart. great to have you on board here!!
Dan Noz - unfortunately TR plans are not in TrainingPeaks. You have to input everything manually! It is one of the reasons I am thinking of buying one of Matt’s plans even though I love TR. one last question if I may, do the activities in Matt‘s plans show the IF, TSS, etc already in TrainingPeaks (the target values for the workout)?
Stuart Whipkey only swim show a tss in the planned section. for runs and bike u only see the planned time. the rest you got to take out of the description. I'd wish it would workouts included that I could load straight into my garmin, but that's prob to new of a feature.
I was honestly thought you were spending double the time in training when hearing your results from the IM! As I try to get into DL racing, I swim a minimum of 4km a day for 6 days a week (swimming is my weakness) on a easy week.
+tomwtri a friend of. mine is a sub 60 swimmer. most of his sessions are around 2k, but hard intervals. i know about your swimming workouts and don't think there's any harm in doing what u do!
Dan Noz it's different for everyone as everyone comes from a different background. Hopefully one day I'll reach the level where every workout is 2km, that sounds really nice haha
Hi Dan. Were you happy with the Matt Fitzgerald plan for your IM? Would you recommend it and which one did you use please? Good luck with the next race👍👍
This is incredible. I'm very interested in undertaking an ironman, and I'm very much in the camp of going long. I can comfortably complete the cycling element, and broadly capable for the run too. One of the large ironmans in England is Nottingham in August. Do you think I could train and compete in an ironman (no real time element, just completion) in the 6 months Jan-August? Cheers for the thoughts, much appreciated.
Hi James, first of all thank you for taking the time to watch the video and leaving a comment. It makes me very happy to read your message. I assume you're talking about the Outlaw event, correct? Long story cut short, I could easily go ahead and say "If you can dream it you can do it", however giving you any advise without knowing anything about you is dangerous if you ask me. I am though very happy to help you. To do so I'd need to know a bit more about your background. Feel free to message me on slack (a messaging app where i am setting up a space for fellow triathlon / youtube friends to connect) and we can take it from there. Cheers Dan join.slack.com/t/dannoz/shared_invite/enQtMjgxNjc3NTEwMTAwLTk4ZGExMWQ5NTlhNWQzMjk4ZWZkNzE5Y2ExMjdiM2FlNjcxNjFjMGYzZThjYWE4ZmUyMTc1YWMyNDdjOTNhYTM
+stijndeklerk my nutrition during my training was horrible to be completely honest and i know its something I need to work on (currently on a diet). i just had too much pizza and chocolate. Besides using gels on longer rides I didn't take any protein or supplements. I only made sure to rehydrate straight after my runs and have a banana :) any advise or. good Literature is very appreciated.
Hi Dan, Great videos! Just curious, what was your FTP leading up to your ironman? I'm about 4 weeks away from my first half ironman and trying to get an idea on power numbers for the bike :) Cheers
A very insightful video. Would you do a similar video after this year's Ironman, and compare how training went compared to your first full distance IM please?
hi Peter, the data has been collected again. just need to do the a race in 2 weeks :) to get the final numbers. please keep in mind comparing races is always tricky, especially two different courses. even the same location in two different years is dangerous due to temperature, participants etc. but long story short there will be another one :)
+Bretzky thats a good one buddy. the answer is yes, but :) i am quite pleased with the amount of hours i managed to train besides a full time job, which and that's very important i still put higher priority on :) also i feel i have learned a fair amount now and its been a great start to improve further. slowly get your body used to the increased training load, especially for the first one i guess. who knows how my body would have handled 15 hours a week. i did feel very tired a lot of. times, both physically and mentally. but don't get me wrong its been amazing experiencing mind and body transform.
consistency has been key 🗝 Bilal. if you look at the performance management chart you can see there's no real dips. been training almost every day but no structure. similar level of tss every day.
Dan Noz i was interested in hours thatt you did because you had such a good result. This Video convinced me of buying a training plan myself. Im doing a 70.3 next year and try to get faster.
ideally chest strap! def. more precise than wrist... I've got the garmin one that came with the 735XT. Wrist is kinda ok for indoor cycling, but running has to much delay
![My 5 Biggest Ironman Triathlon Mistakes [So you don't make them in your race]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GCP9Q5IpJd8/mqdefault.jpg)
Just started watching your channel because I’m preparing for my first triathlon (I’m 17 years old). A big thank you for the information!!!
pleasure Thomas.. enjoy the journey. what race are u doing?
Thank you dan, this is very useful and insightful information
Hi Dan,
Thx for the videos, I enjoy and can learn from them quite well (f.e. using trainingpeaks). So because you asked in the vid.
Avg trg for me for my first IM was about 3-4 months with an average of around 9h30 hours per week sports.
CTL at the start of the race was 85 and finished with a time of 12hr57. Considering nonwetsuit swim and heatwave, this CTL vs race performance is quite near.
Keep making those vids
grtz
Hi Frederik, thanks so much for your feedback, especially sharing your own numbers! Huge congrats on your performance! I/ve just finished my second Ironman and will be doing another how much did i train video ;)
Really appreiate the video Dan, gr8 stuff!! Thank you.
Really helpful stuff Dan. I completed the 70.3 Weymouth in Sept (just about scraped through - 7hrs 40m) with some very unstructured training. After watching one of your previous VLOGs on Training Peaks I downloaded a 70.3 training plan and subscribed to the the service and personally think its brilliant. Love the way it syncs with my Garmin. One month in with the training and my progression has been really good. Would highly recommend. Really appreciate the heads up and thanks for doing what you do bud :)
+Mike Heath that makes me really happy to read. huge congratulations on weymouth. what's next on your race list?
Cheers Dan, Weymouth 70.3 again (to actually compete this time!) and maybe 70.3 Staffordshire.
they are making changes to the course in Staffordshire..who know, maybe they'll remove the hill you had to climb 3 times on the run :) Did you see my race video from Staff this year?
Dan Noz ha! Hopefully :) yes saw your video on Staffordshire - looked like a boiling hot day!
Very insightful video, thanks for that. Gives me confidence for my first IM next year. I already average about 10hrs/week training, but very unstructured. Seems like I don‘t necessarily have to increase my training quality, just add some quantity and structure :-)
Amazing time results, too.
Thanks And best of luck for your first IM next year. which one are you doing if i may ask? btw i just released a part 2 video from the learnings of my second Ironman..
Great video Dan. This will definitely help me on my biggest endeavor next year. Thank you. 👍
+Nuno Mariz hi nuno, which race are you going to do next year? glad this video could help.
IM Zurich. So it's time to make some planning.
+Nuno Mariz amazing that is end of July, plenty of time left :) wishing you best of luck and thanks for being here on this Channel :)
Excellent finish time, I am preparing full distance in Cork, have 32 weeks program similar time and distance training. I think you were in excellent form to complete it below 11 hours.good job.
Surprised about how much you have trained indoor bike. Would great to see what training you did, as winter s approaching.thank you.
Great videos, Dan. I really enjoyed following as I trained for my first full Ironman this past year. My TrainingPeaks CTL seemed to miss the mark, however. I went into Ironman Mont-Tremblant with a CTL of 56 (which would indicate 14-15hr race time) and I completed in 11:53. I'm wondering if maybe it was because I didn't wear my HR monitor for all workouts, or because I wasn't using TrainingPeaks until the last 100 or so days before the race.
Very good insight 👍 thank you for posting.
+Michael Looke pleasure Michael, glad I could help. what are you training for this year?
Dan Noz getting ready for my first 70.3 Port Macquarie in May. I’m hooked on the Tri life now, I’m new to the sport but loving it! 👍
+Michael Looke wow very exciting. and i agree, very easy to get hooked :) but that's not a bad thing is it? Best of luck with your journey. enjoy!!! 🙅♂️
Dan Noz Thank you Dan 🙏 I’ve jumped on instagram and found you! Like connecting with positive and motivated like minded people 👍
Hi Dan, very good report, it´s always interesting to compare all those metrics of different athletes but it´s hard to find, so thanks for that. Your numbers seems to me pretty low for the race day performance thats was very good. I´m going to race a half ironman distance in 3 weeks time, my CTL is around 110 with almost 9hr/week average, but I feel that I´need much more CTL for a full IM distance.
thanks Eduardo, I can only expect transparency if I live by example ;) and I am with you.. not a lot out there. Anyway..I think purely looking at CTL is prob. not correct, that's why referred to my athlinks profile and the video on my background. How many years have you been involved in endurance sport. I am convinced that matters. your CTL of 110 with 9hr/average is impressive. You must be doing quite some high intensity /quality workouts. Which race are you doing in 3 weeks if I may ask? Also when you say 110 may not enough for you for a full distance, what's your target?
I´ve been involved in tri for the last 10 years or so, I´m 42, I´m not a fast triathlete but I try to do a little bit of everything to get better. I´m going to race www.triatlonparacas.com, it was the only one race that we had here in my country Peru, but now we also have Ironman 70.3 Lima which is held in April. I´m using Training Peaks for a couple of years, in fact I used to train with Matt Fitzgerald´s Plan for half IM distance but now I´m a selfcoached athlete, so at this moment I understand how TP works and have set my thresholds correctly (1:50 swim, 232W FTP bike, 4:50min/km run). During a regular week I hit bike/run thresholds for around 20-30min, and also a litte bit of vo2max (12-15min). On the weekends I spend 3h on the bike, 1:30 on the run. That´s how my CTL is 110 now, but this is my peak. What happen is that, despite that high CTL my PR is just 5:34, it seems that it´s a "small engine" problem :-). My goal for Triatlon Paracas is 5:25, I hope all this training block would be enought to get another PR. My last full was IM Brasil 2012, 13:50, poor result, I was injured, but at that moment I didn´t know about power, threshold, Training Peaks and so on, I think now that I would do it better but that´s when I feel that I would have to train a lot more to do, lets say 12h.
Well, it was a very long comment :-). Thanks again Dan, very interesting channel, I´m always keeping an eye on your content.!
that's a great and super interesting answer, thanks for that! I think you've been doing amazing. Please give yourself more credits ;) It's easy to get caught up in numbers and performances, but in the end it's great that you're out there and keep your body moving!
I am actually surprised it is not as much training as i was expected. I have 4 marathons and 1 ultra marathon done so far and it took me on 6-8 hours (on average in week) just to run so 12 hrs for ironman does not seem so much and your finish time is under 11 hrs. Have done mtb racing in past but have 0 swimming background.
Very nice review Dan. I am curious if you will use a Matt Fitzgerald plan for 2018. I would also be curious why you took the plan you did instead of the Triathlon Plans from trainerroad?
+Stuart Whipkey hi Stuart, very good question. i haven't decided on next year's training plan. i could apply the same one but a different level if i wanted to. target a better time. this off-season i want to spend some time reading more about the different training plans and then make a call. regarding the trainerroad question, i took some of the bike workouts and applied it to matts plan, according to what phase i. was in. its nice to have good trainingpeaks integration, i need to check if trainerroad has plans in trainingpeaks. thanks for the feedback Stuart. great to have you on board here!!
Dan Noz - unfortunately TR plans are not in TrainingPeaks. You have to input everything manually! It is one of the reasons I am thinking of buying one of Matt’s plans even though I love TR. one last question if I may, do the activities in Matt‘s plans show the IF, TSS, etc already in TrainingPeaks (the target values for the workout)?
Stuart Whipkey only swim show a tss in the planned section. for runs and bike u only see the planned time. the rest you got to take out of the description. I'd wish it would workouts included that I could load straight into my garmin, but that's prob to new of a feature.
Excellent. Very informative Dan, thanks👍
Pleasure, glad you liked it!
I was honestly thought you were spending double the time in training when hearing your results from the IM! As I try to get into DL racing, I swim a minimum of 4km a day for 6 days a week (swimming is my weakness) on a easy week.
+tomwtri a friend of. mine is a sub 60 swimmer. most of his sessions are around 2k, but hard intervals. i know about your swimming workouts and don't think there's any harm in doing what u do!
Dan Noz it's different for everyone as everyone comes from a different background. Hopefully one day I'll reach the level where every workout is 2km, that sounds really nice haha
you're absolutely right. He's also been doing it for years and years. On a different note..i don't think i'd survive one of your workouts ;)
Genau so mache ich es auch!
+Triaby - Triathlon mit Baby wünsche dir. Viel Erfolg in Roth und freue mich sehr dich virtuel zu begleiten :) machst du noch nen 70.3 vor Roth?
Awesome video
Hi Dan. Were you happy with the Matt Fitzgerald plan for your IM? Would you recommend it and which one did you use please? Good luck with the next race👍👍
very happy, i am currently on the 80/20 advanced one. works very well so far for me.
Hi Dan great video! Curious to know if you included any strength training at any point before or during your plan? If so, how often?
+Samuel Cervantes thanks samuel. no strength training at all during those 24 weeks.
This is incredible. I'm very interested in undertaking an ironman, and I'm very much in the camp of going long. I can comfortably complete the cycling element, and broadly capable for the run too. One of the large ironmans in England is Nottingham in August. Do you think I could train and compete in an ironman (no real time element, just completion) in the 6 months Jan-August? Cheers for the thoughts, much appreciated.
Hi James, first of all thank you for taking the time to watch the video and leaving a comment. It makes me very happy to read your message. I assume you're talking about the Outlaw event, correct? Long story cut short, I could easily go ahead and say "If you can dream it you can do it", however giving you any advise without knowing anything about you is dangerous if you ask me. I am though very happy to help you. To do so I'd need to know a bit more about your background. Feel free to message me on slack (a messaging app where i am setting up a space for fellow triathlon / youtube friends to connect) and we can take it from there. Cheers Dan join.slack.com/t/dannoz/shared_invite/enQtMjgxNjc3NTEwMTAwLTk4ZGExMWQ5NTlhNWQzMjk4ZWZkNzE5Y2ExMjdiM2FlNjcxNjFjMGYzZThjYWE4ZmUyMTc1YWMyNDdjOTNhYTM
Intresting thanks, did you change your nutrition during your training plan, did you increase your recovery protein intake or work on fat adaptation?
+stijndeklerk my nutrition during my training was horrible to be completely honest and i know its something I need to work on (currently on a diet). i just had too much pizza and chocolate. Besides using gels on longer rides I didn't take any protein or supplements. I only made sure to rehydrate straight after my runs and have a banana :) any advise or. good Literature is very appreciated.
Hi Dan, Great videos! Just curious, what was your FTP leading up to your ironman? I'm about 4 weeks away from my first half ironman and trying to get an idea on power numbers for the bike :) Cheers
+Bruce Hancock thanks Bruce and best of luck. which race are u doing in 4 weeks? my ftp was 290 at a weight of 172pounds (78kg)
Thanks Dan. Im doing the Busselton Half Ironman in Australia, my first triathlon ever actually haha
just checked out this years race video on youtube. Looks amazing. Keep me posted how it went! EXCITED :)
Thanks Dan! Will do! :)
A very insightful video. Would you do a similar video after this year's Ironman, and compare how training went compared to your first full distance IM please?
hi Peter, the data has been collected again. just need to do the a race in 2 weeks :) to get the final numbers. please keep in mind comparing races is always tricky, especially two different courses. even the same location in two different years is dangerous due to temperature, participants etc. but long story short there will be another one :)
Hi Dan, where can I find that chart you showed that correlates TrainingPeaks CTL with your expected ironman finish time?
in my how much did i train for my first Ironman video
sorry just noticed you sent this in the video i am referring to :) ill try to find the original one
Would you have trained more if you had more time?
+Bretzky thats a good one buddy. the answer is yes, but :) i am quite pleased with the amount of hours i managed to train besides a full time job, which and that's very important i still put higher priority on :) also i feel i have learned a fair amount now and its been a great start to improve further. slowly get your body used to the increased training load, especially for the first one i guess. who knows how my body would have handled 15 hours a week. i did feel very tired a lot of. times, both physically and mentally. but don't get me wrong its been amazing experiencing mind and body transform.
Thanks. So interesting. How much did you train until february?
+Bilal Kartit you are welcome. its been on my todo list for quite a while. glad it helped. was there an area you were particularly interested in?
consistency has been key 🗝 Bilal. if you look at the performance management chart you can see there's no real dips. been training almost every day but no structure. similar level of tss every day.
Dan Noz i was interested in hours thatt you did because you had such a good result. This Video convinced me of buying a training plan myself.
Im doing a 70.3 next year and try to get faster.
Where is you find the comparison for ctl vs finish times
How did you record all those numbers? Especially running TSS. Is there a TP integration with strava or something?
+Sven Schmidt the data goes straight from my garmin watch into the cloud where trainingpeaks got hooks to both strava and garmin.
Do you use wrist-based heart rate monitoring or a chest strap?
ideally chest strap! def. more precise than wrist... I've got the garmin one that came with the 735XT. Wrist is kinda ok for indoor cycling, but running has to much delay
Compared to rjn: Los bike and swim...
data it up! =]