confusion

Of recent I've been scouring over a few books trying to figure out how to lay out a training plan for an Ironman. The book that I used to get ready for this past summers Gulf Coast Triathlon, Triathlete Magazines Week-by-Week Training Guide by Matt Fitzgerald, is a strong contradiction to the book I'm reading now. That book being Going Long by Joe Friel and Gordon Byrne.

While I consider the Gulf Coast race a success, I'm not so sure the training methods that I used from Matt Fitzgeralds book will get me through 6 months of training and ultimately to the finish line of a 140 mile race. Both of these books seem to prescribe to the same philosophy of periodization, they seem to differ mostly on how you should space your key long workouts and organize your recovery periods. The training plans in Fitzgeralds book require you to do back to back long workouts on consecutive days. For example, a 3 hour run on Saturday followed by a 5 or 6 hour ride on Sunday. Going Long refers to this as a "monster weekend" and stresses that they should be avoided. The idea being that you won't build the type of muscular endurance if you are so fatigued from your previous workout.

I laid down a lot of "monster weekends" while I was getting ready for Gulf Coast and do remember feeling that my planned recoveries after these weekends never seemed to get me "recovered".

Potentially the answer lies somewhere in between these sources. Possibly modifying or molding them into one to get the best fit for me. One thing is for certain though, you have to log the miles. That seems the same in everything I read. You need a good number of long run, ride, swim, and brick efforts spread out over a long period of time to make it work.

What would really be great is an experienced coach. I've looked into this and it is pricey - but could be worth it. Someone who has trained and raced themselves and also trained others may be the ticket. There's something about real life experience that you can't seem to get from a guide or a book. My fear is that I choose the wrong plan or I modify it incorrectly and end up either under or over trained. In the end if I do end up being self coached for Couer D'alene then I'll just have to rely on what I can learn from research and my own personal experiences.