My training is a bit Naff at the moment with no Race this year
I’ve dumped my structured Bike training and started doing some Challenge stuff on Rouvy - to try and get a bit joy back
My running is hopeless - so ive took it back to basics
Just ticking over on my swim with 2 or 3 - 2k swims per week
What I am going to do though (in a couple of weeks) is a bit of a running challenge I am going to Run 1 mile (or just over) every hour on the hour for 24hours - see if that helps motivate me
For those who have not done this before - it is harder than it sounds
Definitely the case for Penticton - - they put out a ton of cash to bring Ironman Canada back home and now it’s wasted this year, along with all the tourism throughout the year with training camps and whatnot directly related to the race (their other tourism events and general tourism will also be taking a major hit this year as well for a double whammy).
You could try Rouvy simulations which is what Im doing.
I think you’ll find that you dont need nearly as much running to be near your best running. The swimming and cycling wont make you a faster runner but it will build/maintain the aerobic fitness used in running.
And to reveal that run in a half you need to be sure you arent overcooking the swim and bike.
Triathlon has three disciplines but is a single sport.
If anyone is planning to do a race in Florida… be aware the the cases of COVID are going up very fast (+5500 yesterday) and some areas are running out of beds.
So in a few weeks the state might become the worst of the pandemic.
Just keep that in mind before signing up.
I know I can take my large self (88kg) up a 9% gradient hill (pretty damn steep) with a 53/39 and 11-28 at around 350W and 60 rpm. So I know for myself that really any course that has any steeper hill (or a 9% that’s decently sustained) I’ll need to swap out my chain ring or go with a 11-32.
I have been intrigued by these challenges @WildWill - are you going to do a live reporting of it? Sounds like you’ve done similar before?
@Alen - I’m such a terrible sleeper that by the time I ran a mile and got back home and tried to sleep I’d probably only get 5 minutes before I had to wake up for the next one LOL
Just out of interest and although it probably isn’t the perfect thread to put this on, but I’ll do it anyway just so that the right type of people spot it.
Hypothetically if you had 4 years before an Ironman, how would you prepare towards that goal?
The same way I have done and continue to do, this year could be my fifth Ironman but my strategy runs over five years.
I dont think you can go wrong with;
Start swimming now and get lessons
Cycle everywhere you can
But you’ve actually asked a very big question, so Ill try a broader answer;
Look at your strengths and weaknesses (annually) to identify where you need to focus your efforts
Identify milestones of races that support the improvements from the previous steps
From those, build a high level plan for the year
Think about how much time you can and want to spend training, in the context of the rest of your life and health
With those behind you I think you can then start looking at each training block in the year, for example, I focussed on run in Q4/Q1, then bike in Q2, and will hopefully be able to focus on swimming in Q3.
I’d strongly agree with @JoeX on the swim lessons/technique focus for the first year. If you can establish a decent technique you’ll be much fresher for your bike and run works in the long run. I think a lot of athletes think they can compensate with volume but it just doesn’t work with swimming.
Concentrating on one discipline for a period also definitely helps. I joined a running club for a year, while just maintaining my bike, and swim and saw good gains. I spent another year doing audaxes and entering every hilly sportif I could find - made enormous progress on the bike.
Ive been struggling with it… BADLY.
I “learned” the free style stroke maybe 7 years ago, on a class… but it wasnt until maybe 3 years ago and another set of classes that i “got it”. Even then it wasn’t really until last year (summer 2019) that I started feeling more confident in the water, thanks to a master group i joined. I started as the 2 slowest person there. The slowest person is a guy in his 70s that has done multiple ironmans and is a very fast cyclist. My 40 yo self was slightly faster.
That was last year.
Ive been swimming 3 days a week for 2 years. The least Ive swim (other than pool closed due to covid19) is 2x per week.
I have improved very little on the speed front.
I have the same speed i had 2 years ago, but i feel more confident.
Its very frustrating knowing that although i get top 5 AG on the ride, and top 10 overall on the runs (local sprint races) I still can get top 3 AG, because there everyone put too much time after the swim.
An example.
in 2018 I did a 1/3 Im distance. Out of 270 people i was 265 out of the water (time wise), yet i ended 38 OA thanks to a the 3rd fastest run and low 30s bike ride (after getting lost and riding an extra 1 mile, and stopping to pick a bottle i dropped).
Anyway. Just venting frustration I guess. Ive heard so many times “Dont worry, speed will come as you keep practicing”. Yet it seems that said speed is not coming anytime soon for me.
Looks like the rescheduled IM Lake Placid has been cancelled (and all other events there). It was an option for the IM Canada athletes - - I imagine some people are playing duck-duck-goose with their registrations at this point just waiting to actually land on a race that goes ahead.
Volume definitely helps the swim, it also helps your overall fitness with minimal injury risk.
Volume alone, not so much. As Im sure you know, swim is a highly technique driven discipline much more so than run and bike, so you need external guidance on your technique at least occasionally. Repeatedly swimming with bad form wont get you much further.
Personally Im in two minds about swim classes, they certainly help with motivation and pushing harder - but Im not sure how many people actually need to push harder to improve.
Not holding my breath for a IM (or HIM) happening this year.
Florida WILL be canceled unless something major happen.
And even if is not cancelled im not sure i want to risk it.
I think this is my problem.
The master coach corrected a few key things while we were practicing, but I was not his exclusive student, so is not like his eyes were on me all the time. I did improve my form some, to the point that my shoulder (I was recommended surgery 10 years ago, and didn’t) doesnt hurt after each swim. So thats that.
My speed is the biggest issue.
And its even more frustrating when i see people i know dont swim, basically kicking my ass.
Yeah, Ive had a few class coaches give me vague generic tips which might be novel for beginners, I had a lot of success when my wife filmed me swimming (before it was banned everywhere) and reviewing against the SwimSmooth book and videos, I also tried a one to one coach in january that was good although he didnt see any significant flaws in my technique in the pool. Im looking at another coach (OW) now we have lake swimming available, theyre also aligned to SwimSmooth.
A bit like the strategy I posted above its a case of, whats going right, whats going wrong? For me my 3800 times are fine, but for some reason 1900 are worse(!), so I think its an OW execution problem a coach could spot relatively easily, then I can work my volume up to take advantage.
Actually I have a friend taking his goPro to the gym tomorrow to film my swim ()… He is a good swimmer and was competitive swimmer during college. We will try to fins what might be wrong with my technique and come up with a plan to tackle using drills. Will see if this works.
I won’t be surprised if races do happen–Lubbock 70.3 in Texas was going full steam ahead until getting cancelled yesterday (4 days from race day) and only because Texas Covid numbers went crazy in the past week or so (they were fine with it until the latest spike). Most races in Canada have been cancelled with a lot less cases around, but Calgary 70.3 is still trying to go ahead on September 5-7th, seemingly over multiple days, but I’ve accepted that racing isn’t (or shouldn’t be?) happening this year for me especially because it will involve travel that’s still not recommended between provinces (there have been reports of people in BC with Alberta license plates having nasty notes left on their cars and/or being vandalized…). Not to mention the fact that pools still aren’t open here…
)… He is a good swimmer and was competitive swimmer during college. We will try to fins what might be wrong with my technique and come up with a plan to tackle using drills. Will see if this works.