Thanks for starting this! After being locked in the garage for the past year with nothing but my misery machine and Coach Chad jabbering away on-screen, it’ll be nice to have some “real” company
God and COVID willing, I’ll be attempting my first IM on July 11 (Thun), with St. George 70.3 (May 1) as a warm-up. But I’m just a baby (45), so lots of time to work out the kinks before I hit my peak in another 15-20 years.
For the moment, I’m more afraid of Mist than the marathon. Though I’ll be surprised if the latter doesn’t inflict at least a few injuries, despite my marriage to a PT (to whom I will owe everything if I make it across the finish line with my Achilles tendons intact).
I love TB plans. Especially the ones with variety. This year I am definitely going to run more as I was very low volume with my races being cancelled. Being laid off from work in Sept pretty much sealed the deal of me doing biking indoors.
@duje.jelaska and regarding swimming for me it is my least favorite. Kind of wish I liked it as I really do like triathlon.
I totally get it. It is such a challenging thing to learn and getting to that smooth efficient stroke is not easy. I would say I’ve seen people get a lot more enjoyment out of swimming by branching out and learning other strokes, maybe even taking a chance at a swim meet with a Masters squad. I know it isn’t an option for everyone, but I’ve seen quite a few people find success that way.
My problem is not really the stoke and did masters for 1 year. I am not a crazy fast swimmer and did 35 min at 70.3 Chatty on 2 days a week but that swim is easy with the current. I am and have been enjoying the running and biking. Time will tell if I get back into the pool.
Happy New Years everyone. Thanks @JoeX for another year of this motivational thread. Only tri on the books was a local Sprint in September - Newport Triathlon and Aquathon in RI, which was transferred from 2020. i am currently wrapping up a Sprint LV bike portion with MAF running and no swim. Heading to VT to go ski for a week next week.
In June locally we have a big ride, so the first half of the year will be bike focused with SSBII->Sustained Power Build-> Century. I will continue with 3 times a week MAF running and continue to build the long run. Once that is done and a week off will start Sprint MV Build and Specialty.
As far as swimming - as my background sport, I can live with an okay pace, but once warm will have the short (10 m) pool open in late May for water feel and open water really close by in June (until the jellyfish show up )
This year was planning my first 70.3, but given all uncertainty will hold off until later in the year and decide on a couple smaller local ones.
Finally, @WildWill my MAF pace is finally starting to move from slow snails pace to kinda faster snails pace!
That’s my case. My road bike is 58cm, my Tri bike is a L (56cm) and so is my gravel bike. I did Retul fits on all of them and the fitter recommend those sizes.
Jeepers. I’m yet to break 40 min in a 70.3. Like you, I’m also not a big fan of swimming. I’m at the stage of “I’ll take 40 if they give it to me before the start” and just work on cycling and running.
I suppose I haven’t really discussed “training carbs” much on this thread, but another of my goals this year is to really train up how many carbs/hr I can take in. Using the basic Maltodextrin/Fructose mix in the 2:1 ratio I’ve been working up the number of grams per hour I can take in but have not been doing a good job tracking it. So if I were to have a “New Year’s Resolution” it would be to track my carbs, time, TSS, Mixture, and how I felt in a spreadsheet. Really get scientific with it.
But even with my un-scientific pushing of the limits, I’ve gone from being able to tolerate around 100g/hr to around 120g now all at around the same weight of 85-87kg depending on the day. I’ve pushed the limit up to around 130g and while I don’t get GI issues, I seem to feel like my performance gets flat. That being said I only have a couple rides where I tried that. Yay for training my eating
I try to plan eating around the bigger sessions but something always happens and I just shove in whatever or forget and end up with no idea what I consumed
I’ve pre-mixed my 2:1 maltodextrin/fructose formula into an old protein shake container and it makes it much easier to prep my workout drinks. That an my kitchen scale makes it pretty quick and accurate. The only thing I really try to do is mix it a couple hours before my workout or even the night before because I need to use hot water to get it all to dissolve…and I’m not a fan of drinking hot carb drink. Though I’ve done it on occasion.
Don’t even joke. Sharks are ridiculous here. At the Orient beach where 70.3 South Africa is held, there is a small pier in the entrance to the harbour. We swim on the “left” side. We’ve stood on the pier and looked over into the “right” side and seen schools of baby raggies swimming in there.
Trust me, the fear is real.
My fastest swim out of the ocean was right there when I saw a fin coming towards me. Alas, it was a dolphin, but it scared the living $#!^ out of me.
Nahoon Beach, about 3-4km NE is a hotspot. Just google “Nahoon Beach shark” and see what pops up.
I have not concept really and like I said the current helps tremendously there along with a wetsuit. Some of the reason I was asking vasa as I would get one if I never had to go to a pool again to keep doing Tri. From what I gather and rightly so there is not really a substitute for actual swimming.
It was my one and only 70.3 so far and I was mainly doing it for fun and riding my road bike. The run was brutally hot which I had to walk/run so I could get through. Two were scheduled last year but cancelled like everything else.
I have never used a Vasa or swim erg. I gather it could help with the strengthening part, but there is no substitute to being in the water and feeling the water. Even though my background was swimming (swam from 2 yo - 19 with a 3 year break), I know I need some time in the water to re-adjust. Last year I had my daughter’s coach take a quick look at my freestyle and the amount of small corrections he was having me make was honestly quite staggering. Needless to say he was right. Aa they say there is no quick answer or a hack.
Still here, lurking more than posting though! I am (was) just riding at the moment rather than tri training - at least up to Christmas.
I had a crash in a group ride on Christmas eve and ended up spending the festive period on the trauma ward in hospital. I’ve no memory of the day at all but apparently hit a patch of gravel on a corner and went over on my own. To cut an ongoing story short I was unconcious until the ambulance arrived and have ended up with concussion, a cheekbone fractured in several places, a subdural haematoma, plenty of road rash and some facial stitches. Not exactly the festive season I was imagining
I had an op a couple of days ago to insert a titanium plate into my cheekbone to hopefully repair depressed zygomatic fracture there and unless facial pain and soft food only for 6 weeks is your thing it’s not something I’d necessarily recommend to anybody else
Back to Pfitz for @jonathan.naim … I like those and have used them as a base for both running races and modified for triathlon. For long distance racing I tended to run 4 times a week taking the long and medium long runs from whichever Pfitz plan fitted with my distance goals. I’d do the one hard interval workout as my hard run for the week and on a recovery day I’d often do an easy run with a few 100m strides or pickups which Pfitz sprinkles in the plans as a good way of keeping a bit of leg speed in what are often tired legs during tri training.
One of the other things I think work well in moderation from the plans from Faster Road Racing are the faster finish long runs. They work as well for triathlon as pure running I think but I found them to be really fatiguing and needed plenty of recovery time from them and I tended to use them before a recovery week rather than in the middle of a block.
FWIW for someone like me who was much better as the distances went up I think I was better following a 10k/15k/HM interval plan alongside the longer runs as the intervals tend to be shorter and harder whereas somebody with the opposite characteristics and a faster base speed might be better off using one of the plans with a tempo style more marathon specific interval day.
Sorry to hear about your crash but so happy you are ok. That must have been quite scary and cannot imagine. Hope you have a speedy and uneventful full recovery.
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