To think I can train for a half ironman in 8 weeks??

[SweatLikeAPigLookLikeAPig]

So like a total belter I signed up for a half-ironman back in Jan and now it's June and I've done barely anything...it's on in 8 weeks and I really want to do it. Partly because I want to complete the challenge and partly because I paid a bloody fortune for it! Am I being delusional here??

The biggest challenge will be the swim - 1.9km in open water is VERY different to swimming in a pool. You will be wearing a wetsuit, surrounded by tons of other people splashing and kicking, and the water will be muddy so no visibility.

Have you trained in open water? If not, I'm really sorry but you need to pull out of this for the sake of your fellow competitors - you'll be panicking, veering all over the place and will most likely need to be pulled out.

I did a half Ironman last year, it was ace, but I trained for a solid 6 months and already had a good level of fitness to start with. You could probably struggle through the bike and the run (even if you couldn't, you can always just pull out) but open water swimming is really really different to pool swimming.

Maybe next year?

If you're in London and need a training buddy, PM me!

I've just read that it's only an Olympic distance (based on 1.5/40/10km) - you'll probably be alright, but again, only if you've trained in open water.

You can do it, it just depends how fast you want to do it.

Ok, Olympic distance not 70.3. You'll have about an hour cut off time to complete the swim I think from memory. Can you do that? In a wetsuit in open water?

A half iron man is 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike and 21km run.

It's a half ironman, not Olympic distance. I've done a bit of open water swimming but only a few times and there was only a couple of us. The 70.3 is a sea swim. I'm going to go out on my bike tomorrow. My husband bought me a lovely black and pink road bike and I'm going to try 30 miles. It's the swim and bike that are worrying me. I'm sure I can grind out a half marathon as I'm a plodder anyway. Maybe I can find somewhere for an open water swim this weekend and just give the full swim distance a go! I know I'm winging it here but don't want to give up without at least trying! I wish I had been more committed...

I'd do it, definitely. The events cut off time will be around 8 hours probably, so that's doable as long as you're reasonably fit, sounds like you are. Any faster is a bonus!

Definitely practise bike to run. Running 20km from scratch is a world away from running after you've sat on a bike for 3 hours.

You sound like you'll be fine! I've marshalled plenty of half ironmans and the majority of people there are "completers" i.e. Not doing it all that fast but there for the challenger of getting round, you certainly won't be alone if you end up walking lots of the "run". If you can do half of each distance individually in training with the magic of race day you'll get round.

Thanks peeps, things are a little more positive than yesterday! I'm going for an open water swim tomorrow and a ride on Sunday. Need to get my training mojo back on the go...

Interested to hear if you did it? If so which one?