Case Study: The 40% swimming Ironman training plan with Lars Finanger | EP#155

Lars Finanger is another case study showing how when you don't have a lot of available time to train, you need to be very smart and make the most with the time you have. Lars finished Ironman Texas 2017 in a sub-9:30 time, on less than 9 hours of training per week. The most surprising thing about his training is that roughly 40% of it was swimming!

• A big-picture overview of Lars' build to Ironman Texas.
• An example of a typical training week for him (which was always less than 9 hours). 
• Factors outside of the actual Ironman training that Lars focused on to achieve a fast time.
• Lars' top tips for time-crunched age-groupers and their Ironman training.
• Swimrun events in the US: Lars is the race director of Casco Bay Island, Boston Harbor Islands, and San Juan Islands. 

0:37  -

• Case studies with low volume training that produces great results has generated a discussion about whether it is possible and how much is genetics. 
• The idea here is not to promote the suggestion that these results will happen to anybody who trains in this same way.
  
  I don't want to give the impression that low volume training is better. 
• I'm hoping to show that low volume training is possible, and this is often very applicable to age group athletes who are very time crunched. 
• These last few case studies happen to be very fast athletes - which has been a coincidence more than anything! 
• I'm not trying to promote quick fixes here.
• In this interview, Lars has a long background in endurance sports, which helps build a base of training. 
  
  You can't go from couch to 8 hours a week and expect to do a 9-hour Ironman.
• Training is very individual and should be approached this way. These case studies are meant to give ideas, not provide templates to follow. 

10:15 -

• Lars trained for 9-hours per week in the lead up to Ironman Texas.
  
  He completed the race in 9:30. 
• I was born in Norway, my parents were both teachers and we moved to Saudi Arabia when I was young. 
• I spent most of my childhood growing up in Saudi Arabia, before going to college in Iowa, USA.
  
  I played baseball throughout in college.
• Following graduation I did an internship in Belgium, which is where I fell back in love with endurance sports. 
• After returning to the US I moved to Boulder, which was the epicentre of the endurance sports world. 
• I began working at Inside Triathlon and VeloNews publication, and eventually worked my way to an advertising role. 
• This took me to San Diego, but I left once print magazines began declining.
  
  I moved to the digital company Slow Twitch, which is where I've been for the last 6-7 years. 
• I now live in the Woodlands in Texas. 
• I grew up swimming as a kid - we had a swim programme starting at 6 years old. 
  
  I also ran, because my Father was a cross country runner and track coach. 
• I was a quick mile and two mile runner, and I rode my bike everywhere as a kid. 
• My Father was a physical education teacher, and he had a triathlon curriculum in his PE class. 
  
  You got an A for doing all 3 sports, so in 8th grade it was my first full triathlon! 
• I didn't train as much during high school and college as I played baseball, but I returned to it after, around age 21.
• My first triathlon was in Iowa, and that had a canoe instead of a swim! 

15:40 -

• I caught the competitive bug during my first race.
• I did the Continental Divide bike race from Montana to Mexico, and it was there that I realised I could still be competitive with myself. 
• I began researching what I could go after in the triathlon world, and I found Ironman. 
• The first year of Ironman Wisconsin in 2003, they had a collegiate championships.
  
  I was still tied to my college so I entered, doing the race on inefficient and ill-advised training methods! 
  
  I did the bike on a cyclo-cross bike, and I managed the run based on sheer will and guts. 
• I leant that I had a penchant for endurance sports but I needed to refine my training to have longevity.
• When I moved to Belgium I began putting a lot of time into my bike training, mainly on my road bike as this is what the races I was doing preferred. 
• I did sportif races such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, which really helped my cycling. 
• I spent 3-4 years as a C level professional cyclist, which is the kind of professional athlete where you keep your day job to make you money! 

19:11 - 

• The plan wasn't my idea, it was Sami Inkinen, who invented a real estate website now part of Zillow.com and is currently in the health industry. 
  ​
  He came up with the concept of 12 hours per week of training, as he was a time-crunched CEO level professional. 
• He had some phenomenal results at age group level, often winning his age group in high level races such as Wild Flower, and Kona. 
• He has a very interesting blog where he drills down the the specifics, and there is an interesting ​article about him on Slow Twitch.
• I'm actually the exact opposite mindset to Sami - I'm a 'fly by the seat of my pants' man, so it was a challenge to try and zone in on quality and remain focused. 
  
• My PB in an Ironman was exactly 9 hours, and this was when I could destroy the bike but hobble through the run. 
  ​
  I wanted to know what would happen if I focused more on pacing, and tried to establish the least amount of volume of training needed to get close to my PB. 
• My wife, who is a triathlete as well, basically told me I had 9 hours a week to train! We have a 7 and 5 year old who are very busy, so it limited my time. 

27:35 - 

• I had put in many hours into cycling over the years, and had spent very little time swimming. 
  
  In the US I was a category 1 cyclist, which gets you into any domestic stage race or road race.
• With Ironman Texas training, I knew that I had a base of cycling in my legs and knew what it felt like to suffer on the bike. 
  
  I was less confident with my run because I've never had a good marathon in an Ironman, often because I would over-bike. 
• I turned my entire training plan around, and spent the majority of my time (40%) in the swimming pool.
  
  I felt like my biggest fitness gains on the least amount of time spent could be made swimming. 
  
  I also felt I could keep my injury risk low if I swam more. 
• I only cycled 3 days a week: 1 VO2max effort day, 1 day of 'over and unders' (going above and below FTP), 1 day of an aerobic session. 
  
  I often skipped the aerobic day to fit within my 9-hour training load. 
• I fit in a couple of runs a week, which were usually hard and snappy runs - 30-40 minutes. 
  
  I would try to negatively split the run: 5 min warm up, 5 min at Ironman pace, 5 minutes half Ironman pace, 5 minutes at Olympic pace, 5 minutes at Sprint pace. 
• My swim sessions were with Gemma Hollis, who is a Swim Smooth coach. 
  
  I did at least one Red Mist intervals session per week, and rarely did any endurance sets.. 
• I use a Finnis tempo training in the swim. 
• I always thought swimming didn't matter in long distance triathlon, but I am completely converted now!
  
  I think it's likely the most important thing you can do regarding cross training. 
  
  It builds your aerobic engine, which directly correlates to the bike and run. 

31:40 - 

• I was doing 4 swims a week, with each around 1 hour long. 
• I was doing at least 2 bikes a week, and did a 2-3 hour bike for about half of the 9 weeks when I could fit it in.
• For running I was doing 3-4 sessions a week. 
• I was usually between 8-8.5 hours of training a week, I rarely got close to the 9-hour limit. 

• All previous case studies on That Triathlon Show
• Case Study: Sub-9 Ironman on low-volume, high-quality training with Carl Brümmer | EP#145
• Case Study: 10:30 at Challenge Roth on 10 hours of training per week with Petri Karvinen | EP#150
• All previous Swimrun episodes on That Triathlon Show
• The Nine Hour Per Week Ironman Training Experiment - Slowtwitch article 
• Swimrun USA website (with races Casco Bay Islands, Boston Harbor Islands, and San Juan Islands)

Connect with Lars Finanger

Connect with host Mikael Eriksson

Hi! I'm your host Mikael,

I am a full-time triathlon coach and an ambitious age-group triathlete. My goal is podium at the Finnish national championships within the next few years.

I first started the website Scientific Triathlon in autumn 2015 as a passion project to share my learnings with a larger triathlon audience. Later on, in early 2017 I started the podcast That Triathlon Show. 

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