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

@TW is the distance based on strava as I garmins lose a lot of accuracy when swimming?

Based on finish times of the first out of the water.

I did the 2012 event, and the first out (On here's very own @JAMIE, IIRC) was around 16:30 - the 2013 fastest was 18:18, then 2014 was 22:02

Garmins are useless for judging distance in swims, as GPS signals attenuate massively through even shallow depths.

jobsworth BTF bloke made it a no wetsuit swim

I remember it being pretty warm when I did it last - it's a pretty shallow reservoir, so I guess it warms up fast.

the water was like .2 degrees over or something. nearly got back in my car at that point

Also I assume you are swimming quite a random length pool to swim a number ending in 8!

It (Putney Leisure Centre) is a slightly odd L shaped pool with a deeper diving area off on one side. 33.3m for the main lengths and 24.5m for the extra wide "width" into the diving pool area.

I do a mixture of the two as they swap the lane orientation round about 15 minutes after I get in (timings dictated by school drop off). I use the short time before the swap as a warm up and then bash into the 24.5m lengths once they've faffed around.

Swimtag counts my lengths for me and it's obvious from the graph how many I've done of each length. I am a numbers geek.

Training load ramping up nicely although cycling has taken a back seat at the moment. A full week is now:-

Mon: 10km (slightly lumpy) run
Tue: early morning 1h swim (3k or drills), evening 12k run home from work, 1h 5-a-side (4k running)
Wed: 6km (flat and fast) run (will eventually be speed/strength/intervals)
Thu: morning 12k run in to work, evening 1h 5-a-side (friendly game so gentler)
Fri: 1h30 swim (distance), 60k cycle
Sat: 5k parkrun
Sun: 1h swim (3k or drills)

So that's:

• Run: 1+1+0.5+1+0.5 = 4 hours
  
• Swim: 1+1.5+1 = 3.5 hours
  
• Cycle: 2.5 hours
  
  

Total: 10 hours, plus 2 hours of 5-a-side football

Something usually gives each week[1] so the training load should be lower than this, but that seems manageable at the moment.

The plan also gets thrown away outside term time so I've got to make use of the time whilst I have it.

4.5k swim today. Did ~300m or so with the paddles. Very interesting. They didn't squirm away at the catch (so I guess that's good) but I definitely had to put more thought into what I was doing with my hands during the pull.

HM commute (usual 10k Richmond-Park/Putney-Heath loop followed by 12k commute in to work) planned for 21st May. Gulp.

1. The 6am alarm for Tuesday's early morning swim usually.
   

Sorting out my desk/computer in preparation for leaving my job tomorrow and found a song that I wrote during the sprint tri I did earlier this month. At the time I found it so funny I nearly fell off my bike laughing, now... well, let's say I'm not leaving my job to become a full-time triathlonsongwriter.

3.5 weeks until Rimini, i feel massively inexperienced at the 70.3 distance, and have no real idea about how hard its possible to push, so its a bit of a shame that my first race of the season is the one that matters most to me in terms of results.

I feel that my goal is achievable though, but my rough plan is to swim at tempo, bike at about 90% of FTP and reevaluate at about 45 miles into the bike about what needs to be done to achieve.

Hopefully it will be as successful as Marlow and Wales in that it leaves me with a relatively soft target on the run, which has masked slightly falling apart on the runs!

My easy intro into the world of sleeveless seems to finish with a run up a shear cliff face :(

6+km at 8% on the bike is frankly perfect for me.
But 1.6km running up 20%. WTF?

With the dalsnibbe duathlon just before, my aged achilles, and hamstrings are going to explode.

Norway - Y U no run/ride around these mountains?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tvs8CHY6N7M

haha, that's the most brilliant video ever, the music makes me think huge epic challenge, then the start has about 15 people and the one closest to the video starts the swim with breaststroke that takes them three pull before they move!

the run does look like a stinger though!

Riding at 90%ftp sounds a bit high no? Won't that kill your legs for the run?

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/how-to-cheat-by-using-a-power-meter-in-an-ironman

Also, Norway is a spectacularly lovely country!

Totally hilarious.
The bikes with clip on plastic mudguards made it.

I reckon i can hold the group in sight for the 500m swim. The bike ride is perfect. So i should aim to be near the front at the end of that. But the locals fecking love running up steep mountains. So that'll be a case of cutting my losses.

Cant help but think this would all be better without the swim and run......

i dont know...

THat seems to suggest the pros at IM distnace are riding at 80% of FTP, and i've read lots saying that an IM marathon is between 15-20% over your standalone pace, but not found anything yet on 70.3's.

Have had a look around TP and it looks to 75-80% is the more advised number for age groupers...

feels quite low, espeically as even if i run a HM PB i'm unlikely to be close to the front of the pack...

Yeah, I haven't read that article in a while so not sure on the details but IIRC it was advocating closer to 65-70% for AG ironman racing. It did strike me as astonishingly low though.

65-70% means that for an FTP of 300w you should in theory be riding an IM at 195-210w...

@Sainsburys_Ed

3.5 weeks until Rimini, i feel massively inexperienced at the 70.3 distance, and have no real idea about how hard its possible to push, so its a bit of a shame that my first race of the season is the one that matters most to me in terms of results.
I feel that my goal is achievable though, but my rough plan is to swim at tempo, bike at about 90% of FTP and reevaluate at about 45 miles into the bike about what needs to be done to achieve.

Do you have team mates in the race Ed?

@ewanmac I know, if im riding 297 for a 10 its a massive drop off, basically I need moar power and moar aeroz...

@Pifko yes, 2, why?

How does your swim compare? Is it likely you'll end up as a team for the bike?

Its a non drafting event, so being together wouldn't much help, but in reality we all have different strengths so unfortunately irrelevant (and my primary aim is to beat them to be completely honest!)

It is the Euro Champs though so technically i have the rest of the GB age group team to work with...

I've found out I can get 50% off selected Garmins thanks to my health insurance (PruHealth Vitality).

Unfortunately I can only get the 910XT and not the 920XT. It's also one Garmin in the lifetime of the plan, so I can't get the 910XT now and then upgrade later on. #fml

I'm in no rush so I'll hold out on this and hopefully they'll add the 920XT within the next 12 months. My Forerunner 110 and Edge 705 do a good enough job for the moment, and swimming stats gathered by Swimtag at the pool. I plan to start some open water swimming this time next year so I can afford to wait for something to track that properly.

Time to start sticking £50 a month away for the 920XT fund. (Trying not to think how much I've spent on Garmins in my life.)

definitely worth waiting for the 920, you can get your txts on it, and keep in da loop/down with da kidz.

if you do want a cheapish 910 in the meantime I could be persuaded to part with mine so I can also be down with the kidz now...

I just posted this in another thread.

But basically. Having Your texts and Calls displayed With a little gentle vibrate is awesome. Before, if I heard a text or Call. I'd stress that one of the kids needs something. Plus I'd check my phone during stops in case I missed something.

Plus the watch is far more wearable and user friendly. Much better for running, and more readable under water when swimming.

I'm the opposite of that. I don't take my 'phone when running as that's time when I get away from things.

Yeah. Some find it easier to Clear their head and run/ride knowing they're contactable. Some knowing they are not.

I mainly use that on the bike really.

It still Works better for me running. I just find the screens easier to set up and see. The cadence built into the HRM is good too. I've been trying to shorten my stride and increase my cadence. As the tendons on the backs of my legs are old and decrepid.

Being connected to Your phone means it uploads to garmin Connect, and thus to Strava, and training peaks as soo as you are finished.

In reality the real reason I'd like one is the extra vector analytics and the convenience of not having to turn on a laptop in order to upload stuff, seeing as I've started looking at Golden Cheetah as well now that point becomes moot.

I do like the idea of seeing messages, as I usually have my phone wrapped up in waterproof stuff on a ride so if I feel it buzz I tend to ignore it, and while its not resulted in any issues to date it would be nice to have the peace of mind that I'm not missing an urgent message.

good point about the cadence stuff though, that adds another thing to the list of items that can be included with my watch if I sell it..

It gives you eay more than just candence. None of which i understand or have a use for.

You can download extra metrics, and other stuff. I have cool watch face. Which i use when travelling with it. You can use it as a day to day watch. But id break it if i did that.

Swam a non-stop 4500m block today but started to tire in the last 400m or so. Need to get back into the routine of Tuesday morning and Sunday morning swims (although I'm away this weekend) for drills.

Paddles seem to be paying off. IM swim distance, as measured by SwimTag, has gone from 1h22 -> 1h16 -> 1h14 over the last 4 weeks.

Barely riding the bike at the moment (maybe 35km a week), but happy that I've got my swimming and running mojo. 200km Audax (Ditchling Devil) in early June so I should get my legs turning over soon, going to take that easy-ish although I wouldn't mind bashing it out in under 10 hours.

Extended my run in to work to 15km this week. 18km in a couple of weeks and then HM distance the week after that (*gulp*). Will look to do a HM distance commute once a month, I can then start using my Wednesday lunch run for speed/strength/interval work. Oh joy.