Ironman Mark

Here’s a comparison between my training for Ironman Lanzarote in 2009 and 2011.  Remember I felt great for 2009.  And the opposite for 2011.  2009 I trained well.  2011 I lost motivation and worked some long hours at work.

The numbers are for the six months before the race:

Swimming

2009 swim: 226k (average 3.1k)
2011 swim:  124k (average 2.5k)

So I swam 82% more in 2009

Interestingly, in 2009 I did 59:37 in the race but 57:30 in 2011.  Was I really quicker in 2011?  No, I think it was because the tide was out!  I was 7th percentile in 2009 and 10th percentile in 2011.  But overall that’s not a huge difference for nearly twice the amount of swimming.

Is there a message here that I don’t need to swim as much?  Or does all that swimming help my bike?

Biking

2009: 152 hours
2011: 123 hours

So I rode 24% more in 2009.

Number of rides over 3 hours:
2009: 18
2011: 8

And that includes the race!

In the actual race:
2009: 6:30
2011: 6:48

Run

2009: 84:04
2011: 74:51

That’s 12% more in 2009.

Eddington numbers

Swim (based on 100m = 1)
2009: 32
2011: 27

Bike (based on minutes)
2009: 55
2011: 60

Run (based on minutes)
2009: 45
2011:  44

So the Eddington number for the bike has given a perverse result.  2011′s 60 sounds much better than 2009′s 55.  But if you look at the total time for the longest 26 rides, it is:

2009: 94:40 (average 3:38)
2011: 69:37 (average 2:40)

A very big difference.