The prospect of a free IRONMAN training plan is appealing. Why pay money for something when you can get it for free? It’s not like you’re a serious athlete, you just want to cross the finish line. There are lots of free IRONMAN training plans out there, so why pay?
Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues with these free plans which can ultimately cost you more money in the long run than if you’d purchased a plan written by a professional. Let’s break it down.
Increased risk of injury and burnout with free IRONMAN training plans
While there is always a risk of this whichever plan you follow, it is much higher when following a free plan. There there will be a lack of supporting material and strength training which increases the risk of injury.
A free IRONMAN training plan offers little more than a series of swim, bike and run workouts. Normally just as part of a spreadsheet or PDF. When you are in the first few weeks of the plan, this is fine. But all of us will miss sessions due to illness at some point. Or have to miss a big weekend of training to attend a wedding. This leaves you unsure how to pick up again with a free IRONMAN training plan. This results in athletes stacking workouts and getting overwhelmed. Or trying to to jump back in when they’re not ready for that level of training.
All of my IRONMAN training plans come with a free triathlon training guide. This talks you through how to adapt the training plan when things go wrong. I don’t want you to plow on and picking up an injury or end up too exhausted to perform on race day.
My plans also include strength sessions. These aren’t about getting bulging biceps, they’re to reduce the chances of you getting injured. Most running injuries can be traced back to weakness or tightness or weakness in key muscle groups. By including strength work, we can avoid these injuries altogether.
Each exercise comes with a demonstration video and coaching points to help ensure you nail the form. These ensure you get the full benefits of the exercise. There is also guidance on different pieces of equipment, how to avoid muscle soreness, etiquette and more.
Premium IRONMAN training plans save you money in the long run
Look, I know what it’s like to live month to month, and budget everything on a shoestring. I remember a friend telling me about the importance of getting my car serviced to save money in the long run, but I could barely pay my rent. I get it.
The fact of the matter is that IRONMAN is not a cheap sport. You’re looking at over £500. Between running shoes, pool fees, travel, accommodation and bike servicing/spares, you’d be lucky to complete an IRONMAN for under £1000.
There are unwanted expenses that come with following a free IRONMAN plan. The first and foremost is physiotherapy. If you’re blindly following workouts without any supplemental strength work, you probably have a 90% chance of picking up an injury.
If you are unable to run due to a knee issue, you need to get it looked at. An initial consultation with a physiotherapist can cost close to £150 these days. That’s more expensive than any of my IRONMAN training plans. Each follow up appointment will be around £70 each, which causes the cost to spiral quickly. But you’ve already invested so much time and money into your training, you have no choice. The injury won’t go away on its own.
The kicker? They won’t be able to just wave a magic wand at your injury and make it go away. They will give you a series of strength exercises to complete. To strengthen the muscles that are weak from neglecting strength training that comes with my plans. Not only are you hundreds of pounds worse off, your preparation is also in jeopardy due to missed training.
A free IRONMAN training plan will cost you a lot of time
We all know that time is money. If there’s one thing none of us have enough of it’s time. When preparing for an IRONMAN, this becomes all the more critical.
A free IRONMAN training plan normally just come with a short description of a workout. Your bike workout for the day could be “Five minutes warmup, 5 minutes in zone 3, 2 minutes in zone 2, repeated ten times”.
To start with, you first need to find out what your zones are. This isn’t a huge issue, but it does involve deciding which zone system to use, and how to calculate. The real issue is when it comes to following the session. Most of you will be training with a watch or cycle computer. These can be configured to send you live targets for the workout. But you have to create a custom workout within the software of the watch/computer. This prevents you needing to carry a piece of paper with you on your run or ride, and trying to do maths while training hard. You’re doing a session with three minutes hard one minute easy, repeated five times. You’re 16 minutes into the workout, excluding the warmup, how many reps do you have left?
It will take you around five minutes of fiddling for each workout. If we look at a six month training plan with six workouts a week, that’s 150 workouts. That’s a lot of manual programming you need to do.
My plans are written and delivered via TrainingPeaks. This sets your zones for you and sends workout straight to your watch with live, personalised targets.
So the question is, how much do you value your time? Is spending hours creating workouts to follow on your Garmin really how you want to spend your weekends?
After purchasing one of my plans you will receive free triathlon training guide. This includes information on swim technique, nutrition, strength training, equipment setup and dozens of other areas to save you time that would otherwise be spent trawling the internet for answers. You will also get a free copy of my TrainingPeaks for Triathletes course to help your familiarise yourself with the platform.
Free IRONMAN training plans are too basic
This isn’t the fault of the author, but the fact of the matter is that there’s only so much information that can be included in the cell of an excel spreadsheet. Many coaches will overcomplicate plans when they don’t need to, but there is a certain level of detail required. Especially for swimming where there are lots of drills and types of intervals.
The result of this is that your performance is compromised. Especially if you are a weaker swimmer who needs a bit of extra help in the water.
They are often written in a hurry by inexperienced coaches
We all have to start somewhere when coaching. For many, writing a free training plan is a way to get their name out there. The result for you is that you end up following a plan written by someone who may never have coached a real person before, and may have zero qualifications. They might just have finished a race themselves once.
There are free IRONMAN plans out there which claim to be written by big name coaches. Personally I am sceptical of these claims. While I don’t consider myself to be a leading coach, I have ten years of experience, over 20 1to1 athletes to serve, a podcast, and I’m currently writing a book. As well as marketing, meetings and my own professional development.
The likelihood of me taking time out of my week to write a free plan is… slim. I have spent hundreds of hours writing and refining my IRONMAN training plans. I am very proud of them and expect some financial renumeration for the time invested.
If I struggle to justify the time to write a free plan, how is a legendary coach who works with world champions going to justify taking the time to write a free IRONMAN training plan? I would wager they hand the job over to one of their assistant coaches. They then give it the once over and stick their name on it.
Your training plan is the most important part of the puzzle
Bike upgrades are sexy. Fancy wetsuits are appealing to compensate for the multitude of sins in our swim stroke. The promise of additional 4% efficiency with a carbon plated shoe is too much to resist for many.
The world’s lightest, stiffest, most aerodynamic bike is no use if you’re pushing it up hills. A wetsuit will lift you up in the water, but it won’t help you generate propulsion or stop you swallowing water. And while a pair of overpriced carbon plated running shoes may look and feel sexy, the IRONMAN marathon is more about trying not to walk than anything. The benefits of these shoes when running below elite speeds is questionable. They also increase the risk of injury from the instability they create.
However, while many people will happily get the credit card out for any of these purchases, the thought of paying for a training plan that could take HOURS off of their time is hard to swallow. Here’s a short testimonial from one of my customers:
“Just wanted to message you to say I successfully completed Ironman Copenhagen yesterday in 10:34. Absolutely over the moon with the time and never expected to break 12 hours never mind 11 hours! No doubt your training plan is the reason so thank you so much for all your help. – Charlie D”
I love sexy bikes as much as the next athlete, but your training plan will be the difference between you crushing your goals, or missing the bike cutoff. This isn’t the place to cut corners.
My IRONMAN training plans start at £26
I’m not trying to sell you my £250 a month bespoke coaching, I know that not everyone has that kind of money. I’m asking you to trust me with what could be less than 1% of your budget to ensure that you maximise performance while minimising time investment and injury risk.
If you’re serious about your goals and unafraid to invest in yourself, check our my plans here.
