Ironman Training - The 5 Biggest Mistakes - Triathlon Week

Robert G. · 08-20-2007, 11:47 AM

by Simon Ward

The five biggest mistakes athletes make when training for an Ironman:

1. Too Much Advice
You’ll get lost of advice along the way. Most of it will be useful but chances are you’ll get so confused that you will end up like the hungry donkey.

2. Not Enough Respect
There's no such thing as an easy Ironman or an easy course. If you put the right amount of training in and show respect for the effort required then you will have no problem.

3. Not Planning
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail. So you've got a training programme, but what about the rest. Have you planned your race strategy including nutrition, psychology and pacing?

4. Doing Too Much
An Ironman is a big undertaking but you don't need to do as much training as you think you do. If you overtrain or overuse then eventually either your immune system (overtrain) or your skeletal system (overuse) will bring you to a halt. Aim for small increases in volume on a regular basis

5. Not Keeping A Training Diary
Keeping a training diary can help you to keep tabs on your training. Recording comments about how or what you felt during good and bad sessions can be used to help you prepare mentally for races. If you get injured you can use this to look back and see when a problem started to occur. This can help you to avoid future problems.

Simon Ward
TheTriathlonCoach.com
The Triathlon Coach | Coaching triathlon, IronMan and multisport athletes