Most free training plans that I ran into online, generally span a time frame of 16 weeks to 6 months, with a minimum required fitness (being able to run 60-90 minutes, bike a few hours) before starting the plan. Since I had exactly 12 months before race day, I figured the purpose of the first six months was to reach the minimum required fitness, and then to pick the plan that seemed to fit the best 6 months out.
Before I started, I thought my training would be mostly running. That's how I trained for the marathon, and since this was the last leg of the ironman, I figured this would be the most difficult. Comparing the various training plans in the first day casually, I noticed all were heavily focused on swimming and biking in stead. Researching on various forums, I found the answer: if the primary focus is on creating endurance, you can accomplish improving endurance practicing any of the three disciplines. And it's safer to do long workouts on a bike or in the water, because these are less injury-prone.
But the most obvious clue that I needed to get smarter about my training came two or three weeks after I started. When I came home enthusiastic from swimming and proclaimed: I am going to do this every day, I saw a look on the face of my better half alarming me of fast dwindling support for such a regime. I recognized the look of other spouses, who wander where their medals are after the completion of the ironman, for supporting the endeavor for months by picking up the pace on all errands and activities around the house that are missed by the rigorous training regime.
The point of this is to be real smart with training. Make every one count. And that is why the first present on Father's Day was this training bible. The idea is to find answers like: what kind of interval training? What heart rate zones should I be training in? How should I measure progress? What nutrition regime should I follow?
When looking for which book I should get, I found that many, many books have been written on the subject. What made this book stand out, is that it also gets referred to in other books' review, it's almost as if this book is the widely recognized reference yard-stick, on which to measure other reading materials. I figure I start with this one, and supplement with additional as deemed necessary.
As of writing this post, I'm about halfway into the book. I think if your ironman goal is just to make it in before the 17 hour mark (the official cut off for becoming an "ironman") then this book may contain a lot of additional information that can be distracting). The truth is, I'm not sure yet what I will set as my goal. And all the theory in the first chapters is enough of a driver currently to peak my interest in finding out "what might be possible".
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