Excellent performance, you deserve the beer.
I’m still tracking two guys still out on the course, looks like it’s been a great event.
I think I’m finally starting to grasp this concept. In my mind I’ve always associated HV with the “hardest” plan to utilize. But LV, MV, and HV are simply just different ways in which to stimulate the adaptations.
I’m only a few weeks into HV, but I’m finding it much more manageable in terms of completing and recovering from sessions. So this further hammers home the idea that its not necessarily “harder” than LV, its just different. It may be harder for some, but that depends on many factors including your own body’s physiology.
I’ll keep that in mind. I wont be hitting the build phase for another 2 weeks. And the Vo2/threshold stuff is what really beats me up the most. So I know I’ll be in for some hurt.
Raced Jurassicman at the weekend, a really great event but absolutely brutal course. A few things didn’t quite go to plan but still managed to come in 1st place in a total time of 14:35.
Really happy with the result, especially as this is my first year of triathlon and have only raced a half/70.3 (UK Ultimate Half Tri - 4:31) and a local pool based sprint.
A few learning points/take aways for me:
Swim: Overall went well, 1:08 including getting shoes on and running up the beach. My watch reckons I ended up doing ~4100m which could be a combo of slightly off course measurement, GPS inaccuracy, and/or not sighting enough and drifting of course a bit. I’ve been following TR’s MV full distance tri plan but have been a bit lazy and very rarely did any drills.
Going forward, I think I might look else where for a swim plan and slot it in in place of the TR swim sessions.
Any recommendations?
Bike: This was really hard, over 2600m of climbing and super steep (+20%) in places. Really struggled to settle into a rhythm and couldn’t get comfy on the bike after my saddle angle shifted following a skid and bump on a very wet descent. Managed to stay upright but knocked confidence on other descents. Over paced it a bit which I think led to problems on the run…
Run: Was really happy to get of the bike and into the run, normally my strongest discipline. The first third or so went well and I felt good. From 15 or 16km in or so I just couldn’t keep anything down, even water. I didn’t feel too nauseous or have other major GI issues, it just seemed like my stomach was closed for business and any fluids or nutrition was sent back out the way it came within a min or two. The lack of fuel definitely impacted the run and I made the decision to have a gel, some water, and gummy worms and walk for 20mins or so to let it settle. This seemed to work but anything else taken in when I started running again bounced.
Has anyone experienced similar? Any ideas why this happened or solutions?
I also got lost on the run as there where no event signs, so we just had to follow the costal path signs. Ended up doing 46.5km. Could have really done without those extra 4km!
I just looked up pictures on their website. Looks like an amazing venue.
If you’re ok with spending money on your swim, I utilize Tower26 swim program. Its expensive ($250 quarterly). But I seriously struggle in the water so it has been well worth the investment for me. I was a 45 minute 70.3 swimmer for a decade. I could not improve at all. They took me to 35 minutes in a year.
Their program is designed around 4 swims per week.
- Two A sessions. These are the big “cant miss” sessions. Typically 90ish minutes.
- Optional B session. Typically 60-90 minutes.
- Optional C session. This is full recovery sessions. 60 minutes. Nothing over 70% effort.
The sessions are also adjusted to your skill level. They have groups 1 through 4. Your online coach (or in person if you are in southern CA) will assign your level based on race results and a 1000 time trial.
They also divide up the calendar year into training phases. The ‘year’ restarts after Kona. The first phase is somewhat light volume with a heavy emphasis on swim mechanics and recovering from the season. Then a foundation phase is pretty big volume and intensity. Then an open water skills phase with emphasis on things like sighting, pacelining, race takeout efforts, etc. Then a ‘race-ready’ phase where you are basically training to stay prepared for any races you have on the calendar.
The main reasons why I like them so much
- Heavy emphasis on swim mechanics and open water swimming.
- Big volume and intensity. With no swim background, they were a wake-up call for how much I should be in the water. And I wasn’t until I joined them lol.
- Maybe the biggest reason: ACCOUNTABILITY. You will be assigned a check-in coach that you can utilize (or not). All weekly workouts have a comments section at the bottom of the workout where you are encouraged to check-in with your main set times as well as any notes, general thoughts, or struggles you’re having in the water. Your coach will respond to all of your comments. This check-in process is the main reason why I don’t miss swim workouts any more. I have never met my coach in person, but I feel like I disappoint her when I miss sessions lol.
Did you ever spend that much time in the pool before joining the program?
The program sounds great, but I think the reason you went from 45 to 35 might be more time in the pool and accountability than the actual plan.
You are talking about been on the water, at a minimum, 3 hours (over 7k yards) and potentially 5+ (if you do all 4 swims), Thats a LONG time in the pool. You should see improvements if you spend that amount of time in the water.
My coach have always said: 2 swim a week is the least amount anyone should do, 3 to maintain, 4 to gain some, 5 to really gain. She was a D1 swimmer/runner before becoming a professional triathlete.
Does the online coach evaluate or suggest improvements to your technique, and if so, how?
No. I was not spending anywhere near that much time in the water. Hence why I said it was major wake-up call to what it actually takes to get better for a non-swimmer. The 2 A sessions guarantees anywhere between 6-10k a week.
I’m not sure I totally agree that swimming 7k a week will guarantee improvements. If you have some idea of what you’re doing, then yes I’d agree. But I had no idea. I was getting in the pool and just swimming 1 pace (with poor form) for long intervals. Very low-value swimming sessions. You could do that for 7k a week and see very minimal improvement.
Sort of.
On a more micro-level, if I struggle during a session or a week I will outline the specifics of how I was feeling (in my check in) and my coach will tell try to tell me specific things that could be causing it and areas to focus on for the next session.
On a more macro-level, an entire phase of the year is dedicated specifically to form and mechanics. And that phase is further broken down into 3 key areas (one builds on the next); Taughtness, alignment, and propulsion. That phase is pretty heavy on drills that directly support the specific piece of technique that is the concentration for that time.
Once that phase is complete, technique continues to be worked on (via those drills) throughout the year. It’s just not the MAIN focus. Form drills are utilized during warmup sets, but the main sets change focus after the completion of that phase.
The only piece that’s missing from the program is in-person form work. Because its an online program…so it is what it is. If you’re in the SoCal area, they do have in person sessions every week. Holly Lawrence and Rachel McBride have swam under them. Lionel did a brief period with them but needed in person coaching and didn’t want to move to LA.
They do offer a service but it’s an additional cost. They instruct you on how to take a series of videos of your swimming. They get uploaded to their website. And then you go through a series of zoom sessions with your coach. I have not done this yet, so I can’t say how good it is. But I plan to do it after this season.
Agree. It takes multiple things to get the swimming.
I wish I had the time and commitment to do that…
Good to know it’s possible tho. Good for you.
This is where I am right now. I’m getting in the pool three times a week and doing drills and structured workouts but without usable feedback on my form I fear I might not see much of an improvement. Tower26 sounds compelling, I’ll look into how the video feedback stuff works.
Thanks for the suggestion. Looks like a pretty impressive programme/platform. Bit of an investment at that price but 10mins of a 70.3 swim is pretty significant.
I’m quite fortunate that my mum’s a swimming teacher (teaches kids not to drown, rather than a coach) and I did a couple of years of swim club back in school, so got a good grasp of the techniques and very comfortable in the water.
The current plan is to find a 3-4 day swim plan on Training Peaks or similar, and then get a coach for a session once a month or so to get real world feedback. My partner and I train together so can already have an accountability buddy and can split the cost of a coach.
Here comes the race report from Copenhagen. I was finally getting that full distance monkey off my back and went into the race very confident. After a perfect lead up with zero injuries or illness I was hoping to finish under 10 hours. I averaged about 11 hours training per week.
TL;DR
10:14:02, a brilliant race with a great course, fantastic city and wonderful people. Also, I hate myself and triathlon.
Venue, Check In
I drove up to CPH on Friday early morning and met up with two friends in our AirBnB. Had a rest, then went to sign in, then went back home because the queue was insane. A quick shakeout run and some rain later the line was short enough and I collected my bib. After pizza and a few beers that evening I bombed for good nights sleep. Saturday morning we went for a practice swim to test the water and get our bearings on course, followed by more resting and more pizza that night.
Swim - 1:01:28
Got up at 4, took a shower, loaded up on sunscreen and toast with nut butter, then walked to tranisiton to fill up our bottles and clip in shoes. I self seeded at sign in into the first group of <1:04 swimmers and squuezed myself somewhere into the middle of the pre-start corral. As we moved closer to the start line I was feeling excited and eager to get going.
The swim course is A+. It is in a seawater lagoon, well protected from any chop and goes in a N-S direction, which makes it easy to sight. I quickly found a group of maybe 10 - 15 athletes and stayed with the pack for the first 2k. There are two pedestrian bridges across the course that you go by on the way out and back and it was nice to have spectators overhead. Halfway in I thougt about trying to break from the group, but in the end I lacked the guts to go and just stayed with the pack. We exited the water on the slippieriest slipway and into T1. I can’t help but be dissapiointed I didn’t go sub60.
T1 - 00:04:12
Short transition, I didn’t get my wetsuit halfway down before the bike bag racks. Wetsuit off, helmet on, onwards. After last minute deliberations I decided to handle T1 like I always do - shoes on bike, no socks.
Bike - 05:06:42 (189W / 194NP / 2.85 W/kg / 0.7 IF)
The course leads out of the city, plenty of signs still left from this years TdF Grand Depart. For a while it was all “MADS P” this and “CORT” that, which I enjoyed. Reminded me how great it must have been to be here for the first stages. The course is a two-loop, running north along the coast. The first stretch of road was perfect. Hardly any wind, the water glistening to our right, on super-smooth asphalt we were flying. Until the course turned west into the rolling coutryside. Constantly undulating roads, poor surface, I figured this would be very expensive for a small dude like myself. I also got very angry at people pushing past me on the small kickers, just to slot into my gap and start coasting. I put in several rage-surges to break from a bunch of people, and eventually when the road turned to fast and flat again I dropped them for good. My plan was to carry all my carbs and only grab additional water at aid, which worked fairly well. I had about 100gr of carbs per hour, 5.5-6l of water total and pissed myself only twice. I got a bit carried away on the fast stretch along the coast on lap 2, thinking I could still salvage a sub 5 bike split, but it wasn’t meant to be. I am still torn on how to feel about it. I delivered near 70.3 power without fading over the full distance and a pretty big power PR. But I was way behind my BBS prediciton and in the heat of the moment I felt severely disspointed.
T2 - 00:03:33
I like transitions with bike catchers. Helmet off, lucky hat and shades on, topped up my sunscreen and hopped into my run shoes.
Run - 03:58:09
It took a while to find my legs, but even when I did nothing felt good. I was hoping to break down the run like I do in a 70.3 - The first 10k are for free, then 6k carefully managing my effort and “I can suffer anything for 20 minutes” final 5k. Here however only the first 7 or 8k were for free, I managed my effort as best as I could for another 7 - 8 and then I was suddenly facing the reality of sufferig through anything for 27k. Fuck me. And all the while people were flying past me like everyone else was on crack. I went from “I can probably salvage a sub 10” to “Maybe I can have our club record at 10:08” to “Please at least a sub4 run” to “I hate this and the next spectator telling me I’m “looking good” gets punched in the face” within minutes. It really sucked and I was angry with myself for being such a wimp, until I began to walk aid stations and the inclines. When my heart rate eventually came down, I began to eat, had a poop stop and two SIS gels with 200mg caffeine each. Around k32 things began to stabilize and I was running proper again, only walking the steep inclines and eventually finished on a good lap 4, 5 minutes faster than lap 3.
Later I learned that the course was supposedly great. Cheerful crowds, a cruiseship, the little mermaid and a few other important sights. I did not notice any of it, it took me three laps to realize we were running up and down the famous Nyhavn twice per lap.
I crossed the line in 10:14:02, beaten by my mates, not having the club record, missing my swim and overall goal, angry and dissapointed. But at least I got that sub4 run.
Afterthoughts
This was supposed to be a one and done and I still think it was (for the foreseeable future). Nevermind the long low intensity training or the awful run, but I can’t deal with the guilt of stealing so much time from my family any longer. I hate underperforming at work. And I had the perfect preparation, perfect conditions and a very benign course. There is no way I could go any faster anywhere. I’ll do one more 70.3 at the WC next year and will see after that whether I have any triathlon left in me or whether I am better off chasing Boston or going back into MTB.
Swimsmooth and a couple of the swim coaches that post periodically on slowtwich will do video analysis over the internet too if you’re interested in shopping around or getting 2nd opinions. There is also thread on slowtwitch were you can post videos of you swimming and sometimes get pretty actionable feedback, but sometimes it’s only worth the price you’ve paid.
FWIW, I’ve learned a lot from watching a lot of the swimsmooth stroke critiques to understand what it SHOULD look like. I then have had people film me from the pool deck to see what I do look like (would really like some underwater video). What’s missing is the immediate feedback from someone on deck on what it should FEEL like when it’s correct. That said, I’ve had some pretty good results with just the above.
I should probably also note that the 10 minute swim improvement was a result of doing only the 2 A sessions each week. I have only done a B or C session a handful of times during the season.
But these are also newbie gains. If you’re already a 30 minute (or sub 30) you will obviously see smaller/slower gains under any program. Or if you already have pretty well-structured swim sessions. My swims were so unstructured and inefficient, that I believe I would have seen somewhat significant gains on any well-structured swim program.
I know this feeling! I tend to put it down to low glucose levels and over exertion.
High expectations can easily be the enemy of enjoying any ultra distance race. I try to be very conservative in my targets as I need the ego boosts to keep me going on race day.
It’s a shame those negative thoughts have stuck with you beyond the finish line but give it a few months and see how you feel. Most of us end up thinking we can do better next time and sign up to another…
So this month I decided to enter just a sprint distance (how the mighty have fallen) for completion and confidence building having ended a sub-par a-race in June with an injury.
The swim was actually back to what I’m used to in that my wetsuit is still restrictive across my shoulders (even though 50% of my race photos are of me trying to get into it right) but I completed it comfortably. The bike split I expected to be fairly slow as between the injury and the mechanical issues from my previous race, I’ve done next-to-no consistent training on the bike (everything has been rehab focussed). The plus though was I was able to hold pretty much my current FTP as my NP for the 55 mins it took to complete the 26km route. Similarly the run wasn’t hugely impressive and the route had a huge and steep hill from km 3 to 5, which I made the conscious decision to walk rather than risk the IT band drama recurring. All in all it wasn’t my fastest, but it my best performance of the season.
I’m probably not going to do any more multisport events before the new year so hopefully this will be the chance to get a better routine and start building towards a better 2023.
Ps has anyone had experience of converting their TT bike to a 1 x setup? I’m tired of the constant dropped chains and looking for an alternative solution.
Yes and no. This time around I was struggling with intense feelings of guilt throughout my training. Every time I had to tell my daughter that I’ll go to the pool or ride my bike and she can’t come, all the missed family breakfasts, too many times I sat on the trainer instead of tucking her in. Every close call with a car during my long rides made me feel like the biggest and most selfish dick in the world. And it all came back to me when things got hard in the race.
So yea, I still like the sport. This season I really enjoyed swimming and even my long runs. It was pretty awesome to bang out a 2:20 30k run on a Monday afternoon just because. Or hammering big rides with my mates. But all of it was overshadowed by the incompatibility of full distance training with a young family and a demanding career.
Things will probably change in a few years, but for now I am glad it is over.
That makes sense