year long lurker of the TR forums, but now in 2022 its time to be a bit more active writing
doing Challenge Roth in July (after initially having to postpone my registration from 2020 twice)
have done one Ironman before (Kopenhagen 2019) and i am aiming to break 10:30 in Roth. I will try to pretty much follow the LV TR AT Plan as good as i can for the biking and hope to be around 5hrs for the 180km. Running i am at the moment still following TR and will probably adapt a bit myself once spring times rolls around. I am a pretty horrible swimmer though (1:36h in Kopenhagen) and i literally have been to the pool twice since 2019, so i should get started sooner rather than later, but would totally be super happy with a 1:20h swim. (kind of have bad shoulder mobility, so thats one of the things to also take most care of, so i dont continue having my horrible water position)
B half Marathon in April and might do a C Olympic Tri one month before Roth
So far i am kind of curious how well AT handles the Tri plans, its not giving me a lot of longer endurance stuff so far (max 90min), but just doing regular training again for the base phase already gave me a nice 10%ftp boost in 6 weeks, so not complaining yet.
Looking forward to hearing from everybody and having my training a bit more accountable
I’m in for my first full at Ironman Canada at the end of August (barring it being cancelled for the third year in a row ) and I’ll also be making another trip to British Columbia to try the independent Victoria Half tri in mid-July (also barring it not being cancelled for the third time ). I have a local Half Marathon at the end of May and hopefully some local tri’s will return in June/July as well. Right now is the dark days of winter and -30 to -40 degree temps so open water swimming is many months away!
ETA: I’ll be starting fresh in the M40-45 AG this year after running through M30-39 for my first 10 years of triathlon. (including the "forgotten year of 2020 of course)
Thanks for the new thread Joe! I’m hoping for a lot of racing this year after a few training alone and not being able to race. So far I have Geelong 70.3 in Febuary (hopefully a team effort!), a local half in April and IM Cairns in June, along with some lower priority local events. Less concerned with having optimal fitness for all those and more with the race skills side of things, as well as having a good time of course
Just came out of 14 day quarantine into a week of Olympic distance triathlons for a club event, so looking forward to an easy one tomorrow after that shock to the system!
Thanks @JoeX for setting this up again for 2022 and thanks to all for the great thread in 2021.
I am preparing for my first full in June with IM Des Moines. I will be doing 10km and 30km run races locally prior to the main event. I did 70.3 in Florida last December and got a PB of 5:39. I really enjoyed the event and the course. Drove down from Niagara Falls Canada! I messed up my transitions big time and scored 7mins in each so I could shave some time to get below 5:30 I think. I dialed down the run a bit as it was a bit warmer down there than my previous 3 months of training (28 degrees versus 5-10 degrees). Anyways, fun times and happy to be back at it in 2022.
Really struggled during the second half of the year to get any motivation until about November and since then I have gone through sweet spot base 1.
My running was great up until March and then I got tendonitis in my ankle, I nursed it through Outlaw half but I didn’t run outside from June till October just doing runs on the treadmill.
Swimming was pretty much non-existrent, 30 minutes here and there while restrictions remained.
Next year so far on the schedule is
April - Clumber park Duathlon
May - Outlaw Half Nottingham
August - Ironman Copenhagen
A goal is to go sub 5 hours at Outlaw Half
B goal is sub 5.15
C goal a new PB which is currently 5.26
Plans for this year are to include strength and conditioning sessions 3x a week, Santa brought an innstar bands set and I am aiming to be consistent with it.
I am also going to join Chesterfield tri club which has club swim sessions and track sessions, I have never trained with others.
Thanks Joe. Hope you all had a great holiday period.
Goal for this year (which will influence choice of races) is to go sub 9. Potentially thinking Kona but not sure whether 2022 is going to be a ‘full fat’ Kona experience or not. I gave up on it through 20/21 after planning several races to qualify which were cancelled.
For my own personal sense of achievement, the sub 9 needs to be on a course that doesn’t come with an asterisk due to being short or a known draftfest. Almost certainly a European course I’m thinking (I’m UK based and none of our courses are really suitable). Maybe Tallin or Italy perhaps. Any recommendations?
I’m confident that my Run and bike should be in the ballpark (under 8 hours combined). Need to get back in sub 60 swim shape to be confident.
Ironman Florida in November is my A race. Gonna take a shot at a KQ there in the M35-39 AG. So, hopefully in one of the top 5 amateurs finishing the race and going sub-9. Whew.
Also gonna take another shot at Nationals in Milwaukee as a B+ race. Hopefully a better day this year.
At the end of February I’ll be doing a XC Ski marathon. (American Birkiebeiner). I’ll also call this a B+ race. Been doing this one for the last 15 years but finally taking steps to really work on my form so as to actually be able to harness my fitness. Already have around 500km in the bank skiing.
I think I’ll do a late spring or early summer marathon to test run fitness. I’ve got quite a lot of run volume over the past couple years so me and my coach don’t think it’s that big a deal as long as I don’t go 100% for it, treating it as a fast catered really long run.
Sprinkle in a couple Oly races and maybe a local half and that should be my year.
This year I did get myself a coach which should help restrain my eagerness to ramp up training too fast as well as switch things up a bit. So far 3 months in I think I’m getting a bit faster already. 15 years of self training got me pretty far but if I want to KQ I figured I need an outside perspective. It’s also harder to justify skipping a swim workout when I have somebody looking at my training log.
Finally, I also concluded that consistency is going to be key and all factors included like sickness, vacation, rest weeks, etc. I’ll need to average 12 hours of training a week until the race. (Only swim, bike, run, XC ski. No strength, walk, etc. included in that) To visualize this I decided that it’s like building a skyscraper with a base, build, and peak portion so I’ll share my progress with that visual aid here as well. Each block in the tower represents around 30min of training. I’m a little off track still due to losing a couple long days due to my booster shot. But still looking good. Lots of volume incoming with XC ski season.
As of yesterday I finished the fist level of the base.
There are precious few courses you can go to and be confident drafting will be minimal - and they tend to be the opposite of fast courses. Mountainous ones like Lanza or Wales make drafting almost irrelevant I would say.
Im also considering Italy, a touch surprised there are still places. I’ve heard good things about IM Talinn but I only know the city not the race.
If it’s time and not placing you’re after, my first though is Copenhagen. Fast but no bad rep iirc.
Something like Lanza would suit me more if looking to place. Hilly hot bike and a hot run would play to my strengths. But deffo won’t be a sub 9 attempt!
I accept there’s always some drafting. But I’m not going to go to Barcelona or somewhere like that and claim a sub 9.
Done wales twice. Sub 10 is a solid effort on that course! Tough but I love it.
I am jealous of your coach and your skiing. Can I swap you a suburban house? It does have people (my family) living in it, but stick on Netflix and most of them quieten down.
Firstly thanks JoeX for starting us off. Secondly, happy new year everyone.
@JoeX. That’s a great spreadsheet (feel free to add my Cardiff legend and IM Weymouth)
I’ve been looking forward to my first, proper, IM thread. My statement of intent.
My events some A,B and C are;
C
Westomnbirt Duathlon
27 March
12 weeks
C
Penarth Duathlon
10 April
14 Weeks
A
Cardiff Legend triathlon (70.3)
26 June
25 weeks
A
IM Weymouth 70.3
18 September
37 weeks
This’ll be my step up to HIM. Odly, I’m not daunted by it. I’m told by all I know that they’re surprised by this. I’m unsure whether to make both of the 70.3 as ‘A’ races or focus on HIM Weymouth making the Cardiff 70.3 a ‘B’ build race. The Cardiff race is first. It’s local, a fast bike leg and my family will be there. The IM Weymouth 70.3 is not as flat and I’ll be alone so more of a race rather than a family event.
This is likely to be a similar and well-trodden story but my limiters for this year;
Training time, family and work must take priority apparently….
Managing epilepsy and energy levels.
Swim technique. It’s where I struggle. From what I hear the cut off for 70.3 is 1h 10 min? I barely swim 2:30/100m
run endurance and injury
I’m anxious about getting in under the swim cut off. I feel that my technique is bad as far as I know. I live close to the sea but for the time available I get more bang for my buck in the pool. I have epilepsy and it’s always difficult to get in the sea with someone safely.
As I haven’t done 70.3 before would you all recommend keeping one A race and B build race?
I started 2022 with a bad epileptic seizure on 1/1/22. I’m recovering from it as I type. So the only way is up.
As for sea vs pool, I’d recommend you do most of your training in the pool. Because swimming is so technique based and low impact, 100m intervals are your best friend. Do them reasonable hard, take a 15-20s break, and do another. You keep doing that and your form will round into shape rather quickly.
Thanks Michael, I’ve been doing 200m drills with very little break so 1500m is a standard. I think my Legs are a huge wasted asset in the pool. My local pool has a 50min slot and I can always book a double slot. sadly, it’s an olympic size pool that is amazing but due to the Pandemic and lane numbers they have had to change it to 25m. This has allowed for 16 lanes as well as a lessons pool.
First of all sorry to hear you took a bad hit on day 1, 2022. Secondly, happy to hear your stepping up to the half - they are three months apart so fine to be A races. And in my opinion, you’re first half, with family, local - no way you’re going to hold back!
Swimming, well it’s a familiar story on these threads so you’re amongst friends. Time, frequency and patience is your friend - over 2:00/100m and it’s all about technique, not fitness. I had some proper swim coaching last year and it was an eye opener. If you can afford a swim club and the time to attend I would heartily recommend it. Also, my personal tip is just get in the water whenever you can, playing with the kids, aqua parks, snorkelling, scuba - hell, just putting your face in a sink full of water every morning for some complete beginners.
). I have a local Half Marathon at the end of May and hopefully some local tri’s will return in June/July as well. Right now is the dark days of winter and -30 to -40 degree temps so open water swimming is many months away! 
(including the "forgotten year of 2020 of course)
