I’ve signed up for St. Polten HIM (Challenge Race) in Austria. I’ve done two full distance and multiple halfs but the last few years I had a quiet race calendar as did most.
I would like your input on the TR tri plans. Previously I followed a Climbing Road Race plan. I liked the emphasis on sustained power. I set up a new plan back in September following the Half distance triathlon plan. Honestly, I’m not sure I really like the prescribed workouts. I’m doing one sprint workout a week and the rides seem really short. I just looked ahead and that doesn’t seem to change.
I don’t follow the runs or swims as I use another source for that. I’m wondering what others thoughts are on the TR cycling workouts. Are you following the tri plans, another type of plan, or doing your own thing, either self driven or from a coach? I’m considering switching up the plan …maybe back to something focused more on sustained efforts.
Hi @JoeX, did you start a short course thread I am not noticing?
I will hopefully start swimming again after an almost 2 year hiatus. Work and life have pushed training back down to the levels when my daughter was born.
Agree - it’s wild. Most folks I know w/ FTP over 300w has been biking for years. I’m 6’ 210lbs so not the typical triathlon build!
The Geiger sweet spot rides shouldn’t be easy, but if you can’t get through a 60 min session … look at how your fueling the workout, reassess your FTP, look at your accumulated training load the week before. Good luck!
That is what I am facing. It snowed here in Virginia Beach Thursday through early Saturday morning. The main roads and secondary roads are ok however, the neighborhood streets and sidewalks are a slushy frozen mix. I slipped three times from the parking lot to the pool and back this morning.
I have a similar feeling. I prefer to do a low volume sustained power plan and then add longer rides as necessary. Happy to build my own plans in terms of swimming and running as, let’s be honest, it is not TRs finest hour.
I’m in for IM Wales having originally signed up in Sep 2019 and then seen 2 cancelled events. Will probably be my last LD tri as I prefer bike racing these days. I’d like to go close to 10 hours if conditions are reasonable.
@Joelrivera wonder if you actually see improvement on the bike and run, since you must be much more fatigue resistant even if the swim pace is not coming down as much as you want…but then I’m just a procrastinator talking who haven’t started my training for my first half yet…
I agree; however, I was looking back at Sustained Power Build and it does include the sprint workouts. In fact this block I’m doing does look very similar to the SPB block so I guess I will follow it through.
But I may rebuild my calendar to clean out the swims and runs which I currently just ignore. Any idea what type of event to add in the Plan Builder calendar to illicit the same cycling plan which includes SPB?
I am not sure if this is the right topic: I plan to do my first ever Triathlon in June, it will be an olympic distance on a pancake flat course and it will be draft legal.
I really need to aim for a good swim to be somewhere in the middle of the pack for the bike leg, correct? So swim should be my top priority? At the moment I am able to swim 2:00/100m, but I think I could improve to 1:45-1:50 by June…
What can I expect from the bike leg in terms of intensity, race strategy? Should I still watch for a really consistent power profile or try to grab wheels of fast riders?
I’m a novice but… To my mind (as a TT’er) I’d want to be able to ride consistently at a high effort but be prepared to burn a couple of matches if needed to make the most of that faster wheel.
I’ve had success with the tri plans as an outline, particularly the HV plans. The Tri plans seem to be the only plans that when going from LV > MV > HV that don’t add additional intensity days. They add an easy day (pettit/whorl) and extend durations. If you want long rides, extend duration, add a 30 endurance ride. If you want more days, add in easy days (lazy mountain, pettit, black, west vidette) and keep it to 2 intensity days per week.
What’s your goal for the race? Compete with others for placing? Compete with yourself for time? Complete the race? They all have different strategies.
At the highest level, DL races are all about catching the front of the bike pack, hold on during the bike and then blast the run. If you don’t have the swim, you’re unlikely to stay at the front of the race.
As an AG’er, I’m not really sure how I’d address a DL race, especially as my first one. That said, here are some things I’d contemplate
Burn some matches on the swim to hold onto feet or stay in a pack.
If you come out of the water with a group, recover a bit on the bike and then assess. Feeling fresh as a daisy? Push on the front and see if you can drop people or catch the next group. Feeling so-so? Hold our in the pack and let them pull you along. Feeling about to blow up while drafting? Drop off and do your own TT (and hope for someone to catch you and pull you along).
For the run, 10k TT at roughly half-marathon pace.
It’s not so easy to asses right now. I ran a hilly 10k in 50min a year ago at RPE 8-9. I think at the moment I can barely squeeze a “stand-alone”/“flat” 10k under 44min.
My FTP is 335W@85kg, I think I could afford to go lower in intensity to save energy for the run (which is for sure not my best discipline, due to my weight)
But I agree that I should pace the bike according to my run
Apart from some process goals (1. Family, 2. Job, 3. Triathlon; always have enough sleep), until now my performance goal was to place around the average time in all disciplines (for 2021 it was 31 min Swim; 62 min Bike, 46 min Run) and maybe go under 60min for the bike.
Because it is DL, I was thinking that the swim could really be important to be in a good position for the bike and have also some other possibiliteis than to TT. But I really need to find out, what run pace is possible after 30min Swim and 60min bike…
But hey, my first race. I just hope racing brings me the same joy as training for it
OK, that changes things a lot, IMO…there is such a massive learning curve to tris that I would not put too much emphasis on results for your first race.
My advice would be to find some feet on the swim and be prepared to push yourself a bit, but not so much that you get out of the water gassed. On the bike, hopefully you can get in a good group, but with your swim times, that could be a challenge. However, a lot of strong riders / runners (me!) are crap swimmers, so you may find athletes to work with. I would mostly ride wheels if possible and don’t push too hard…once you get off the bike, give it everything on the run.
I’m not sure you’re even a triathlete with those priorities
There is also a Short Course Triathlon thread for essentially anything shorter than a 70.3 eg Olympic/Standard, Sprint, Super Sprint. Distances are less standardised in short course so there a fair amount of variability:
Draft legal amateur race I shudder to imagine that! Well, I’ve never been in one so I can’t advise, but I would tend to agree with most Cyclists opinion of the bike handling skills of some Triathletes. I’ve seen some right muppets out there. Hell, I was one. So I’d be riding defensively in your position.
I’m not sure you’re even a triathlete with those priorities 
I shudder to imagine that! Well, I’ve never been in one so I can’t advise, but I would tend to agree with most Cyclists opinion of the bike handling skills of some Triathletes. I’ve seen some right muppets out there. Hell, I was one. So I’d be riding defensively in your position.