My Journey to Becoming a Triathlete: Training for an Ironman 70.3 with a Busy Life
If you’ve ever thought about taking on a big physical challenge but didn’t know where to start, you’ve probably used the internet as an initial step in your research. I’m the same way with my interest in running an Ironman 70.3, but I believe there’s another way to prepare beyond what I’ve found online. If you’re not familiar with this type of race, it’s a triathlon consisting of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run. This isn’t to say that the training plans out there aren’t great or don’t provide a ton of value, but I don’t have an extra 25-30 hours per week to dedicate to training. So, I’m going to document my training for the next several months leading up to the race. Before we get into the specifics, here’s a little background on me to give you a sense of my starting point.
I grew up playing sports, but never as an endurance athlete. I played baseball and basketball before playing DIII basketball in college. I’ve come to enjoy running more as an adult, but my only experience with endurance sports came when I decided to go out for track before baseball season started in my senior year of high school. I just turned 30 in the fall of '24 and have stayed healthy and active post-college, so I have a solid fitness base. I work 40-60 hours per week, and even though we don’t have kids yet, I still want to spend time with my wife. That’s why I don’t want to commit to 3-hour workouts every day.
Initially, I was turned off by the idea of training for something like this because it really seemed like I would need to give up most of my personal life to dedicate to training. While I definitely plan to prepare my body for the challenge, there are a few things I will and won’t be doing during the next several months.
I won’t be giving up basketball or golf.
This time of year, I play pickup basketball 1-2 times per week. I’ll be folding this into my training, not abandoning it. When the weather gets nicer, I will definitely be out on the golf course at least once a week. Playing a round will probably cut into my available training time, and I’m okay with that.I will work my training around other priorities.
Because of my work and personal schedule, no two weeks look the same. For this reason, I won’t say, “Wednesday evenings are my long run days.” I’ll map out each week differently, depending on the commitments I have. I’ll make my less busy days the days for longer workouts, simple as that.I won’t be adopting a brand new nutrition plan.
- If you’ve followed my wife and me for any length of time, you know how much we love drinking ketones and how much they’ve changed our lives. I’ll be utilizing ketones throughout my training and during the race.
- We’ve also gotten into intermittent fasting as a tool that works well for us. I’ve been using an 8-hour eating window (noon-8 pm) most days and will continue to do so during my triathlon training.
- While we drink ketones as a fuel source, we do NOT follow a strict ketogenic lifestyle. I’ve found that prioritizing protein has made me feel the best. Even though I don’t count macros, I know I don’t get anywhere close to the 300+ grams of carbs per day that seems to be the recommended number online. On an average day, I’m probably around 75-125 grams of carbs right now. As I get further into my training, I may increase that number a little bit depending on performance, but I plan to keep protein as my top priority from a macro standpoint.
- I also won’t be completely eliminating any foods. We already eat healthy most of the time, so this isn’t much of a shift. But, I’ll still go out for pizza with friends from time to time or have some dessert if I feel like it.
I look forward to the challenge and sharing my journey. My biggest goal in documenting the process is proving that you can have a busy life and still train for a big goal like this without significantly altering your life. I’ll definitely lose out on a little Netflix time because of longer training sessions, but my biggest priorities will stay where they are. The other goal is showing just how powerful drinking ketones can be from a training and endurance perspective. We’ve been using them for 4.5 years, so I already know how great they are for workouts, but I’m excited to document more of it.