Tri / Triathlon / Triathlons - do they float your boat?

@Greenbank personally i think trying to go long when you only have one of the disciplines sorted is foolish, its not all about going long theres merit in all distances...

I did Wales this year, the bike is c2300m, the run is 700m and he swim took 200 people out and probably another 200 who took so long they missed the bike cut off (which is 10.5 hours btw) .

In other news - My training buddy has decided back to New York so planning a trip to visit him - will obviously include a race so looking at IM Princeton or Timberman 70.3s!

Foolish maybe, but it's become a 'thing' that it'll be my first one, and I'm looking at 2016 not 2015 so I've plenty of time to get the other disciplines sorted. Obviously I reserve the right to change my mind over the next 2 years and do shorter things, but my mind works best when working towards a goal, and the bigger the goal the more likely I am to achieve it.

Ironically it's swimming that's probably going to be my strongest part, I had years of coaching when young so I hope it won't be too much work to get back to good technique and form. I'm an average cyclist (speed wise) but maintaining it for long distance isn't a problem, so no <5h TT. It's running that's the big unknown for me, I only did my first 10k (in 20 years) the other day.

For the first bits I'll be looking at something like:-

• 1.5h swim
  
• 7.5h cycle (I can average 24kph over that kind of terrain, especially with the luxury of gears)
  
• 0.5h T1+T2
  = 9.5h (so an hour inside cutoff)
  
  

The above leaves 7.5h to do the marathon. If I were training now for just running a marathon then I'd be aiming for 3:45 or so, so a 5h marathon at the end of an IM (for 14.5h total) would do me but the buffer is there if required.

(Those are rough finger-in-the-air timings, probably take a bit off the swim and add it to the run. I may find that with training I'm faster than I expect by the time)

I don't have aspirations to go faster and I don't think I'd ever be able to get down to 12h without seriously affecting family life.

^ Looks like you have it covered. Do it.

Woop woop in the GB age group team for the Euro Middle distance championships!

Get to have my name written on my bum for the day!

Time to get training!

Oh and greenbank I thought you were targeting IM in 2015 - 2016 should be comfortable...

Nice one, enjoy!

Well done!

Daughter dropped off at school. 2.3k swim, 40k bike ride, 6k run. Picked up daughter from school and took her swimming where I spent a long time in the pool stretching (when I wasn't being a crocodile).

With less faffing (I had some other chores to do) I should be able to fit another RP lap in there for 50k ride and another 4k on the run to make that 10k. Doesn't help that T1 was about 45 minutes and T2 about 15 mins. Will probably do another one of these homemade mini-triathlons in a few months, but I'll definitely be doing more bike-run brick sessions as that hurt a lot today.

Good plan, brick sessions eventually become fun!

I think the swim bike brick is under practiced too, especially in full race kit!

Tweaked training plan now that running distance has increased. Can now fit in:

• Swimming: 1h20m + 45m = 2h05m
  
• Running: 1h+1h+1h10+25m = 3h35m
  
• Cycling: 30m+30m+3h = 4h
  
  

That's 9h40m for a typical week, with another 1h45m of 5-a-side in there too (never going to give up footy for the sake of triathlon). Body seems happy with this too.

When I get under 80kg I'll probably move the two lunchtime 1h runs to shorter speed/strength intervals/workouts. Right now I just need more time at lower intensity to get shot of the excess weight. Until then I've got one 10km route down to Richmond Park and back through Putney Heath (including the horrible climb up the back of Putney Vale Cemetary) and another route which is ~3km to the start of the Wimbledon Common Parkrun, the 5km Parkrun route and then ~3km home.

I have managed no training at all since 2015 started due to illness - so I'm buying a new bike! Does anyone have any recommendations for where to look for TT bikes? I have le googled and looked at all the obvious sites but just wondered if I was missing anything.

Me. Buy my bike. Be taller, and buy my bike. Do it.

1hr lunch runs? Where do you work!?
Best I can manage is 30-35mins if I want to shower afterwards within the hour.

Didn't we seriously discuss this before? Including the bit where I had to somehow be taller.

@hats @pifko is building a special tricycle lo pro fixie arrospok tri bike you might want to ask him

Is there a CP thead? Racing trikes are all kinds of awesome:

Also with spoks...

1hr lunch runs? Where do you work!?

Work from home on those two days a week and I can be flexible with my time. WFH days are officially 7am to 2.50pm (for school pickup) with a 20 minute lunch break but I just make up the missing time when MiniGB has gone to sleep at night. I usually use the run to think about particular work problems anyway, so it's often not wasted time (but I don't take the piss and count it as work time!)

Also helps that I can get changed whilst on a conference call and do some stretching (and mouthbreathing not on mute) plus I can get back from the run and sit at my desk to cool down for 15 minutes before heading to the shower only to then lounge around in my pants.

#TMI?

That second paragraph pretty much sums up my approach to getting changed after running at lunchtime. Unfortunately (for my colleagues) I work in an open plan office.

There is a trianthlon show and you can get free tickets http://www.triexpo.co.uk/tickets/ use code ukt1214

2.9km swim today, 1h6m. Should have stuck around for 4 more lengths to make it up to 3k but I was going on time and can never accurately count that many lengths.

Hoping to do a 3.9km (pool) swim some time soon. That steady 135s/100m works out at 1h28 for 3.9km which isn't bad for me just getting back in to swimming.

Good work, do you break your sessions up with a plan?

I always find its easier to count lengths in small amounts 25-400m (I get bored after that) and then work out distance afterwards/before.

Taking breaks stops your blood being full of lactic acid and helps you maintain good technique throughout a session too!

No plan yet, it's mostly just distance to help lose weight and improve fitness. I usually do 4 or 5 sets of 100m as a warmup, usually to remind myself that I start off too quick.

Slowing down to a maintainable pace gives me time to think about my form whilst swimming, so I'm hopefully not just baking in poor technique. I don't have to bother counting lengths myself, Swimtag does all of that for me (and gives me the stats/timings/etc, see attached pic).

(The first 10 lengths are actually 33m lengths, just before 9:30 they swap the lanes around to use the diving pool section and so the rest are 24.5m lengths)

1 Attachment

i have entered lisbon half

and london olympic plus.

i may do IM barcelona - not sure yet.

Just applied for a summer research post looking at triathletes... fingers crossed, eh.

^ oo what's it looking at?

my training is progressing well in terms I'm hitting training paces/power levels in most of the sessions and enjoying them, this week is a rest/test week for me so will be doing a VDOT, CP20 and CSS test, I last tested myself at the beginning of November so pretty excited what progress has been made.

im not planning on racing until Rimini in May - id like to get something in the diary before then, but in reality I cant stand the idea of a pool based triathlon...