I agree. It’s good to build up a foundation but there comes a point where it starts to break down like you said.
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Sounds like you’re primed for the season!
I’m very interested in your thought on T26 though. It was Gerry’s YouTube clips I watched many years ago that convinced me, and still does, of swim volume and key principles of tri swimming. Just wish they’d do more podcasts.
To fill in the blank- my race is Lake Placid (half)
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Warm pools are killers. You may want to check out an Endless Pool or a far less expensive option, a Vasa Trainer, essentially a Kickr/Tacx for swimming. https://vasatrainer.com/
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Doing my first triathlon ever in 2020, Zell am See Kaprun 70.3 (August 2020). As a pure cyclist, mostly MTB I’m just starting to run and swim. Doing mostly aerobic rides and starting from 30 minutes easy runs and swims so that I’m ready to start the Trainer Road mid volume plan later.
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how much this costs?
Hah, I have looked at that in the past and it is very tempting but I think I’d probably put the money towards a smart trainer first. I have a C2 rower though, so maybe I should just be googling ways to hack that into a swim-erg!
Can’t you just cut a hole in the ice and get an OW session in?
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Wow that’s commitment. 
What’s an average session like in there?
I do up to an hour, I use a Tempo trainer to set pace and count my strokes (in sets of 1000)
I find it less monotonous than pool swimming
But it can be cold (I live in NorthEast England) - If I start loosing count, i know my core temp has dropped too much and its time to get out. Although this year I have invested in a small heater that lifts the temp by a few deg’s
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I’m registered for Challenge Family the Championship in Samorin, Slovakia. It’s a half.
I raced the Middle Distance Open Race there this year, and it was a disaster for me, with a 5:38. Nonetheless I “earned” a slot for the 2020 Championship as the field in the Open Race was small, and the roll down went all the way to my spot (#12 out of 20 in my age group).
So it should be very easy to improve on the result. I’ve already gone under 5 hours (a local race in Poland this September) on a similar course, except with quicker transitions. In that 4:59 race I swam a 43’, biked a 2:30 and ran a 1:40. Yep, that makes me a shit swimmer, proudly. In Samorin, I’m gunning for a 40-43’ swim, a 2:24-2:28 bike (the course being 1 km short) and a 1:36-1:40 run. That combines for a best time of 4:48 (including 8’ in transition), which I’d have to smoke a lot of hopium to believe in, and a worst case scenario of 5:00. But 4:55 should be realistic, and a reasonable improvement over September.
I’m also likely racing the September race in Malbork again, and I’ll be damned if I don’t finish close to 4:50.
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Thanks! SG will be a full distance in 2020. I believe it’s on an every 3 year rotation.
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Nice work on the formatting and notifications @JoeX
Outlaw Half Nottingham in May and Outlaw Full in July for me.
2019 was my first year focussing on triathlon, prior to that I had been competing in powerlifting for ~7 years with 2018 being a mix of the two. Goals for 2019 were for a <4 hour marathon, <6 hour half and <1:05:00 25 miler at the back end of the season. Finishing the year with a 3:22:56 marathon, 4:56:15 half and 1:02:49 25 miler so not a bad season at all.
I haven’t nailed down goals for next year yet, I have some times for the full floating around but so much depends on the day and how well I can handle double the distance so being cautious there. Currently on the 3rd week of SSB MVI after 3 weeks completely off eating my way around Italy.
Really taken a hit. I put some decent effort in at the start of the year and made some good progress but I’ve swam maybe twice since the half in June. My local 50m pool has been shut for repairs since April with no sign of it reopening any time soon so I need to sort out an alternative.
FTP was down after the break but the sessions are starting to feel easy. I’ll be going into a recovery week next week and then restarting SSB MVI with a more accurate FTP which will lead into the FD MV plans in January. FTP in aero peaked around 260W this year with an increase to 282W upright after a more relaxed block of training. Hoping to push closer to that 280W+ in aero at around 80kg body weight by July.
Run volume dropped off towards the end of the season whilst making the most of the road bike outdoors. I’ve started building this back up and it feels good although motivation at 5am on cold wet mornings can be a little low. I’ll be running Manchester marathon again in April this year but decided not to put much focus on this and just pace the girlfriend to a sub 4 hour.
🏋🏻♂:man_in_lotus_position:t2: I sat at 83kg for most of this year and currently at 81.5kg with a goal race weight of 80kg (gone are the days of 105kg strongman) but I’ll start focussing nutrition more on fuelling the training in the new year and maintaining whatever weight I am. I don’t worry too much about strength work but squat/bench/deadlift in the garage when I have time and make sure to get some core work and pull-ups in through the week. Also spend any evening TV time stretching and rolling around on the floor to the girlfriends amusement.
Gaining momentum each week and hopefully keep that going.
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The tower26 website says $225 quarter(every 3 months), and for triathlon coaching it’s $230/month.
How much water quality monitoring etc do you have to do?
I dip weekly. normally have to add some PH+ and a chlorine solution.
Also have 2 x floaters with chlorine tabs in
if it is to far out i add algaecide
i normally end up replacing water twice per year (18,000 lt)
Ouch.
I’m not sure. I could probably get three face to face sessions with a lesser qualified instructor for three months of their online swim coaching.
For sure it’s not cheap though.
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For my off season (will race a 70.3 or two in the summer) I’ve been focusing on strength training (3x /week) and building run mileage (5-6 sessions, currently 20 mpw). I’ve also been playing a lot of squash, swimming 1-2x /week, and usually biking 1x /week for 30-60 minutes.
Two questions:
- What type of workout should I be doing for that off-season bike session? I’ve been doing Berryessa the last few weeks (often I’ll jog a couple miles first to replace part of the warmup).
- When I start my season, I want to focus my time on the swim and run, so I don’t think I can keep up with the full bike plan for HIMLV or SSBLV. I guess I should follow the Olympic LV bike plan and add workouts when possible, rather than HIMLV and shorten workouts?
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