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Okay, so after finally getting to Kona [Ironman World Championships], even though it was a lottery and not qualifying, I thought I was ready to retire from Ironman and focus on my next big goal, M20 . Then, as usual, a friend is trying to convince me to give it one last go and sign up on Monday for Ironman Chattanooga.

My question is this a wise thing to do while also trying to train for some longer SUP races next year? Or, will this just lead to typical Ironamn athlete overtraining? I was planning to utilize Crossfit Endurance training for Ironman so the volume would not be the traditional LSD.

Any advice would be welcome and most appreciated.

Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy. Now you did it. I have not gone on a rant since my days of answering questions in Triathlete magazine but since you asked……

You say you don’t want to do the traditional volume training for Ironman. I get it. You hear about some of the pros having breakout years and they are touting their super-duper-secret-grand-all-high-exalted-intensity training program where they puke after every workout. You also hear about how there is this new fangled indoor high intensity  circuit workout that can make you better, faster, leaner, inflammation free, and stronger in half the time. You want to get in on the action.

I get it. I really get it.

In my experience, there are some endurance athletes who do well over time with high intensity based programs. The problem is that they are few and far between. My bet is that these people who do well over time with intensity based programs would do well no matter what they do (ummm… despite what they do?). They are the world champions. They are the responders. They comprise probably less than one percent of the population.

The problem is that if you dig deeper than the sound bites and the headlines you are going to find a different story. The other 99% of the people (including me, probably you, and just about everyone else) you will see a pattern where athletes who do super-high intensity programs thinking that they can skip the long and slow work needed to build fitness endurance for events such as Ironman and Molokai is that they either get hurt in the first few months and that is the end of that OR they do well for one season and then you never hear from them again.

What I think is going on with the “one season wonders” is that in the past they were doing the long slow routine. That work was like money in the bank. They have a HUGE base from years of training. Then all of a sudden they turn up the furnace do some crazy high intensity work and have a killer season. The problem is that for most people it does not last.   Once their base “e.g. the money in the bank” is depleted after a few weeks or months, they get burned out or broken and you never hear from them again.

Looking at these “one season wonders” from a different angle, their success on the new fangled intense “intervals every day”  program is only half the story. What really worked was building a huge base over many years and then adding intensity on top of that. Furthermore, if they were not having success in the past, it is possible  that their training was not optimized. Maybe what  they were dong in the past was broken (e.g. too much long and slow and not enough intensity). Endurance training is not all or none. You gotta do the long and slow. You gotta do the intensity. You cant do Molokai or Ironman in half the training time. In my experience, it does not work.

To summarize so far, if you are going to go the  super high intensity train till you puke and vomit route you might do great if you are in the 1%  and you might do great for one season but it is not something I recommend to most athletes given the high injury and burnout rate I see with these programs. As an aside, our local ART specialist LOVES high intensity circuit programs. He says 50% of his current business is from people doing these programs.

Now that I got that out of the way – I do not know you so it is really tough for me to say whether or not you can handle Molokai and Ironman in one season. As  you already know these are two of the toughest endurance events around. I think if you try to go the high intensity route you have a good chance you will get injured and you won’t be at the start line of either race.

That said, if you are like most of the triathletes I know, get a little creative with your training, respect your body and train responsibly, you should be able to do both. Another option is to do Molokai as a relay this year and do the Ironman race a few weeks later.  These races are 8-9 weeks apart. As long as you do not come off Molokai and start killing it right away (e.g. allow yourself to recover and realize that Molokai will help build your endurance for IM) you can probably pull it off.

Your next question is going to be how to structure your training so you don’t get hurt and get enough swim, bike, run AND paddle fitness in there? Stay tuned because we will probably be coming out with a “multisport” program in a few months . We have A LOT of paddlers who want to paddle race along with their bike, running, or triathlon racing who are looking for a program that will let them do everyting at once.

If you want some more information on the topic, this piece came out this month

PS: for any triathlete reading this who wants to know more about Molokai 2 Oahu check out this link.

More soon on that “multisport program.”

Roch