With no overtaking, no butterfly stroke and no post-swim shower, swimming is set to look pretty different as England’s lockdown eases further.
Pools, like gyms, are not expected to open before 4 July.
In preparation for the government giving the green light for pools to reopen, Swim England has drawn up guidance for those keen to get back into the water.
As well as maintaining social distancing and not going swimming if you have Covid-19 symptoms, it recommends:
Arrive at the pool ready to swim. That could mean turning up with your costume beneath your clothes
Shower at home pre- and post-swimming
Avoid butterfly stroke or other wide strokes when lanes become busy
Don’t overtake other swimmers
WTF is this? Don’t overtake? How will that make a difference if people are stopping at the end of the lane for a rest or are you just saying people have to swim continuously because some of the OAP’s at my pool WILL drown.
I can’t believe Zwift haven’t got on this, it would be great if you could put you’re ghost on for routes and also if you could have put some of their celebs on, KP had a big number of raw watts for that celeb race but he’s a big lad, I want to see how fast he went
I’ve done a handful of halfs, 3:4something with a cancelled swim, 4:16 PR, and went to worlds last year.
Definitely taking inspiration from the IM plans, I just find I really only want to do 2 rarely 3 quality “workouts” a week (for the bike) and everything else is aerobic volume. I had a coach last year who ran me in the ground with a lot of medium intensity stuff and so far this year with this method I’ve been doing really well.
While possibly doable that is an ambitious goal, especially for a first IM. To run an IM marathon around 10-12 minutes slower than a standalone marathon time would be excellent going. FWIW my goal at IM Maryland a couple of years ago was sub 9 which I didn’t quite make and even with losing time to a puncture would have been just outside. Next time maybe…
My run goals for any IM prep are a good number of easy miles with one harder run per week of some sort which I usually base around the Pfitzinger plans. I only did Maryland that year because I DNF’ed the race I was targeting that year with a bike mechanical so did a short 8 week run block leading to the race and was coming off a good build to the previous race but my bock for those last eight weeks is below
Again FWIW I was probably in 2:40-45 marathon shape maybe at that point and ran 3:12 off the bike. It’s difficult to offer any specific advice without knowing your personal strengths and weaknesses but IMO given the run offers the highest risk of injury I’d err on not too many really hard run sessions for which the reward is relatively low compared to the potential for a DNS.
I’d imagine that with a sub 9 goal for your first IM you already have a good idea of your abilities and previous results will give you realistic targets and paces to aim for?
I doubt zwift will do that as they are more than likely working on new worlds, routes, etc. It would be cool for sure.
If you want to see your times though this way download “RunGap” and you can see activities by route and then click into them. You can sort from there of you want.
It is all free and only paid feature is if you want to use it as a data export to other sites. Below is what I mean under the tracks area. It also has totals which I like under activities if you put phone in landscape mode. Not affiliated just started using it as tapriik is not working for me anymore.
Have you ever completed a marathon stand alone?
I know several people who have done multiple IM races (including an ex pro who has done KONA multiple times).
Most people who run marathons and also race IM, end up with about 30 min slower on the IM marathon.
A 7mpm marathon is very close to sub 3 marathon.
I am not saying you are not capable of running this fast off the bike.
but it will be very hard to do. Just remember the huge difference than many runners fail to see when jumping to tris: Start of the race.
this is the Kona record
47:31
1:58
4:16
2:59
2:42
let say you are 30 minutes off the record per event.
so about 1:15hr swim
and 4:45 ride.
if the IM starts at 6 that means that you will be running around noon. And you know who’s is also usually out at that time… our friend the sun.
And the sun like to cook athletes. So unless you do a race that happens to be cloudy and during a not hot day, then it will be very very hard to keep the 7mpm pace, even if you could do a 2:55 stand alone marathon.
I mean. I hope you can do this time.
But Ive always been more happy with breaking a lower bar (say an 10hr race and ending with a 9:45), than going for a super high bar (sub 9 and finishing in 10:20 because you overcooked the legs on the bike).
Well, after reading this and some comments on Slowtwitch I may have been wildly misinformed on an expected run pace. I though t it would end up being 20-30s slower but I guess not?
A month out from my cancelled April marathon I ran 18 @ 6:39, so I really think I could have done the full 26 @6:40. I debated on running my own solo marathon for recon, but ultimately decided against it and continue training and not risk the injury and needed to take time off post run.
Last year doing a 4:16 HIM on a bad day at the end of last season and a 2:04 Oly, I really wanted to see what I could have done this year at Eagleman as I am a significantly better athlete. FTP from 290 to 332 and taking minutes off my swim TTs in the pool over the winter
Good old Pfitz workouts. Love those and starting back up next week with the running since I am feeling good with 10 hours weekly for last 2 months of Traditional Base (which i love). Currently on TBHVI.
Running a stand alone marathon is VERY different than running a full IM marathon.
My friend who has done Kona multiple time. Great runner. I mean the guy is legit.
He runs the mile in sub 5. He can run 5k in high 16s.
He has never run a stand alone marathon, but he has train with people who has, and he can keep up with people who has done 2:40s races. So the general agreement is that he would be a 2:40s marathon guy if he would actually do one (stand alone). YET his IM best run (i think) is 3:30.
This are his times of 2017 Texas IM:
9:27 total
1:00:04 swim
4:51:22 bike (and he is VERY strong rider probably high 4w/kg )
3:29:28 run.
So lets get back to plan structure.
I see you had your highest volume week 3 weeks out. How did that go for you?
Define Tempo as a lot of us define it differently. Is this T pace as derived from VDOT or something else?
Also I wouldn’t have thought you would be doing vo2 intervals that close to race day. What’s the meta behind that?
Is there any reason to run M pace since the Ironman run would end up being E pace anyway?
I would assume it’s better to build time at threshold to make everything else “easier” and support that with volume
I think one thing you can do to see where you’re at is to do a couple long runs on tired legs (like after a hard long bike day) at the hottest time of the day. That’s where you really find where you stand IMO. A standalone marathon usually starts around 7-8 in the morning and your legs are fresh. See what you can do on tired legs and the heat.
My own philosophy coming into this year too was to really ramp up my volume on the run to help with that. I was planning on upwards of 50-60 mile/week for USAT Nationals (Olympic) this year before that plan got squished. When I go for my KQ next year/2022 I’m going to try to go even higher to around 70 for my peak.
I see T as threshold. Basically 1hr pace.
Tempo i see something slightly slowe…maybe half marathon pace.
This is probably typical in running. At least 2 weeks out, keep the legs speed. Lower the volume. Ive done 200s week before marathons. and have done 400s 2 weeks out.
Run on tired legs. Yes the pace of the marathon will be closer to E than stand alone M pace. BUT the feeling of your legs will be M pace feeling (if that make sense.
Will do, I’m doing a 4 day bike camp next week. Will bring my run kit with me
FWIW, in the last month I was bricking after my threshold workouts 3x15/3x20 @ ftp and worked up to 3mile at 6:00/mile with a short 400m jobgbeforehand. Felt really good. Would probably start an Oly a little more conservatively at 6:05-6:10
