So How Much Training Does it Take to do an Ironman?

One of the common questions I get asked by people when they find out about my ironman obsession is "how much training do you do?"

It's always a tricky one to answer.  On one hand it varies according to the phase of training I'm in.  The week or two after ironman I'll be doing nothing.  Other weeks, like now (38 days out!), I'll be doing a fair bit more.  So I never really know how to answer it without either completely underselling the amount of effort and time that goes into it or scaring people off from considering that they might be able to take on the challenge themselves.

This morning, then, I decided to figure it out.  And the results were so interesting I had to share it.

It's actually quite a simple exercise, thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 910XT.  I've had this multisport watch for over a year now and on the Garmin connect website it was a 5 second job to run a summary report of all my activities for the past 12 months.  Here's what it spat out:

When you average it out over the year, you realise that what I'm doing isn't actually that daunting at all. I'll go through the relevant stats one at a time.

Firstly, I've done 348 activities.  Over 365 days that's less than one activity per day, on average.  In fact I've had 17 days over the year with no training - and St Pete would confirm that's probably about the number of times I've cooked dinner over the past year!!!!!  In reality I've had days where I've done two or three activities, but then there have also been more than 17 days off.

You get the idea.

During that year I've covered over 5106km.  That distance includes all of my swim/bike/running - and it also includes a standup paddleboarding session!  That's around 14km per day for the year or, overall, the same as a return trip between Sydney and Cairns.

The time I've spent training over the year is 422 hours 24 minutes.  That's an average of 1 hour 9 minutes per day.  Who can't do an hour of exercise each day?

My second favourite statistic is the elevation gain. Over the year I've climbed 69,785m.   That's 8 ascents of Mt Everest (from sea level).  Eight!  For someone who hates hills, it's a pretty cool feeling to know that over the space of a year I've done the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest eight times....wow.  Did I mention 8?

You get the idea.

My absolute favourite statistic, though is the calories burned.  Get this: 186,598 Calories. Now if there's one thing that helps me get out the door each day and exercise, it's this.  Food.  And I don't care what anyone says, there's nothing more satisfying than rewarding a long session on the bike, or a decent run, with an Angus Burger and large fries at McDonalds.  Or a coffee and a muffin.  Or a gelato on a hot day.

You get the idea.

Burning 186,000 Calories over a year allows me to indulge my psychological passion (food) while achieving my sporting passion (ironman).  And to put it into perspective, I could eat the following list every week and still not consume that many Calories:

• Grand Angus Burger
• Large Fries
• Hot Apple Pie
• Muffin
• Gelato
• Lindt Chocolate Truffle
• Slice of Banana Bread
• Latte (whole milk, daily)

(That little list comes to only 165,000 Calories for the year!)  Now before Coach Dave has a heart attack, never fear, I don't actually follow this weekly diet (except maybe the latte habit...), but it gives you some insight as to how a regular amount of exercise can really mount up into something significant over a period of time.

Forgetting about the food, though, the takeaway (boom, boom!) message here is consistency.  Afterall, if I said you could do an ironman on just over an hour of training every day for a year (and still have 17 days off over that year) you would probably never believe me.

But it seems you can.