The 2005 Ironman World Champion Faris Al-Sultan shared with us how he prepared for the Ironman in Kona.
“I usually did a three week training block in the US to prepare for Kona ( before a two week taper the first being at the location I did the block at, the second obviously in Kona) and it followed the “San Diego” scheme introduced to me by Jürgen Zäck.
The key elements were a long ride Wednesday, a long and hard ride Saturday and a long run Sunday.
The other sessions varied a bit throughout the years also dependant on availability of training partners and swimming times and facilities.
I didn’t do any tests in that period besides a 5000m swim test, my PB in a 25m pool was a 1:01:27 and I knew if I’m below 1:02:30 I’d be fine.
Of course different types of tests were conducted throughout the year, ranging from classic labtests to field tests.
I was and still am a big believer in classic gym work, I do it differently now with my athletes than I did back in the day though.”
Faris’s Training Week in the lead up to Kona
Monday: Rest
Tuesday:
AM: Ride 1 hour + track run session + 2hour ride
PM: Gym + 4km swim
Wednesday:
long ride 6 hrs + 30min run
Thursday:
Swim 4,5km
Friday:
AM: Ride 3hrs with Intervals + 45-60min run
PM: Gym + Swim 3.5km
Saturday:
AM: 5-6h ride + 30-50min run
PM: Swim 3.5km
Sunday:
AM: Swim 5km
PM: long run 30-35km
To visit Faris Al-Sultan’s website – Click Here
TRAIN SMOOTH 
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