I’ve used my tri bike for six or seven years, leashed to the trainer and raced two or three times a year. I built it myself, It’s very comfortable but it’s not in a great state and it’s well “out of date” now; quick release skewers, rim brake, the adjustable cockpit is functional but seized in place, the rear brake caliper doesn’t operate well and the rear wheel is distorted.
I could get a new tri bike. But.
I’ve ditched two old bikes in the last twelve months that were clinging on for dear life. I’ve got a lovely urban bike I haven’t ridden in over a year that needs attention. But I should probably sell. My roadie is new and great…in twelve months I’ve only put 3250km on the clock.
So there are things that we want and things that we need and, well saving 20mins in an Ironman…
I wasn’t suggesting 12km as a warm up! Just that that day I felt better after the first 3 or 4km.
If it were me I’d keep my existing bike but get a shop to give it a complete strip down and rebuild, maybe take the chance to upgrade a few bits. It will feel like a new bike, you’ll still be used to how it fits and it will be a whole lot cheaper.
If you’re not in a hurry, and are comfortable with what to look for (pretty sure that’s not a problem) you could spend some time in the used bike market. I did that two years ago when I finally moved from a road bike with clip on aero bars to a dedicated tri bike and was able to pick up a nice P2 that was only 2 years old and had just a couple hundred miles on it. I even got the original receipt and a few extra things like bottle cages, BTB bottle mount, and extra saddle. I paid $1000 for it and am quite happy!
My roadbike is a Canyon Aeroad CFR. What a beast. Very fast. And I am a newbie so a brand new TT bike was no option.
But I do all my bike stuff, repair, maintenance, builds myself so I purchased a BXT chines TT frame and started on creating my own Tri bike. All components carefully looked for best price/quality without spending too much. (And I can use my wheelset from my roadbike when do a tri race).
Currently 1x12 setup with SRAM etap HRD so 4 blips to change gears. Pretty handy I find this setup.
So instead of spending 4000-5000euro on a new bike. I just created my own for 1200-1400euro.
Now it is time to train as much as possible on this bike because my power is 15-20W lower than on my roadbike.
ps: my first Triathlon is a 700m/38km/10km race and the bike part is pretty technical so I am even thinking on using my canyon for this one because this bike is fast as hell. But the running part after will be better I guess after using a Tri bike instead of Road bike (and because newbie, my running is still not on the same level as my biking)
Thanks for the input! I have all the usual beginner problems: sinking legs, gasping for breath, the works. And of course just building muscle strength/endurance in muscles I don’t otherwise use much. I’m sure you’ve all been there way back when.
But I’m getting there! @kurt.braeckel recommended Triathlon Swimming Made Easy by Terry Laughlin and I’ve gotta say, just the first balance drills are already making a HUGE difference. Eye-opening. I’m now up to 12x100, and rest between intervals has come down to about 1:30.
From here, the obvious: gradually increase total distance and reduce the rest between intervals while continuing to focus exclusively on balance and technique, NOT speed. I’ll gradually extend the intervals when it feels natural to do so.
I have seven weeks before Montauk, so I’m nervous. But I’ll get it done.
Realizing I probably have a lot I can give to this thread if I’d actually participate, lol.
I used to do the most complex warmup before sprints and olys, where I’d run, then bike, then swim… and I thought it was just too much. Let’s face it, you’re gonna be pretty warm when you get out of the water. So as I got older and more experienced, my warmup became:
Get wetsuit on.
Jog on the beach/strides to get the legs moving.
Get in the water and swim, get HR up, practice the start, feel the current/waves if applicable, etc., but we’re talking like 4x50 pretty fast here.
Get out of the water as start time approaches and if you feel the blood leaving the upper body, do 5-10 pushups.
Super simple, good results with that. More isn’t better; it’s just more. That routine also helped me stay more relaxed before race start because less was easier to get done. WAY too many athletes are overamped/anxious before race start and need to calm down (rather than listen to death metal and drink 6 cups of coffee to psych themselves up).
For 70.3+, I just did a short in-water warmup and that was it, especially if it wasn’t a mass AG start (rolling small groups of 2-5 swimmers), you didn’t need the speed right off the bat to get clean water.
For the record for the group here, the Total Immersion stuff will NOT make you fast, but specifically for people without much swimming background, it helps with balance, efficiency, etc., and can get you in the ballpark of feeling good in the water. Some of the stuff TI teaches isn’t what I would have a pointy-end swimmer do (head position, low stroke rate), but again, you need to learn to be efficient FIRST, so you can then build your endurance… and then you can worry about getting fast. @AgingCannon is making great progress in the water… cool to see!
Oh yeah, it is great for you. It was good for me in my early 20s when the only swim background I had was my lessons as a kid and lifeguard classes in HS. And I was able to get pretty fast with it. I was never a FOTW guy, but I got pretty speedy and was a FOP swimmer later in my career when I started to figure out how to be fast AND efficient.
Swimming is the one discipline where I’ve had several eye openers over the years, where I haven’t in bike or run. I think everyone comes to it differently but key moments in recent years were joining a (proper) swim club for a season, and a couple of one on one swim classes with someone who ‘clicks’.
I don’t think I gained much from simply swimming more or when I could, nor from gym swim clubs. But those early things probably did help in that stage of my journey.
Currently using formswim goggles and planned workouts every week much like TR and the gains keep on coming. I joined an impressive swim club and they just wrecked me instantly - but this is how I learn/improve, you get to a level then you find there’s a whole ‘nother level by reaching out. Then, hopefully over time, you reach that level…
I did some masters swimming when I was more well-developed, and they put me in the “fast lane” which was utterly intimidating. I did some OW workouts with Jim Vance here in San Diego and he always put me in the A’s. At the time, I was like WTF, I can’t swim!
Turns out I could and I was selling myself short.
I did one-on-one with a coach once or twice and honestly didn’t get much out of it. Like with the rest of my sports, I really learned quite a lot doing my own exploration in the water and finding things that worked for me specifically rather than dogmatic approaches (beyond TI and the basics of efficiency).
My various cycling coaches over the years helped me out quite a bit, but the running and swimming stuff I was much more “on my own, self exploration”.
The biggest advice I got from a tri coach I used for a couple of seasons was on swim FREQUENCY, and I agree with what he had me do. I made gains just going from 3 to 4 swim sessions in a week because I was just refining technique more quickly and developing that muscle memory.
So my advice #1 for most people on swimming is: swim more frequently. I’d MUCH rather someone do 8000 yards in 4 workouts than 8000 yards in 2 workouts in a week.
This is the silver bullet. I posted here at the start of the year not knowing what I was going to do for swimming. Fast forward to last week where i’d swam 4 days straight and able to do 5 x 200’s at 1:40/100m pace without absolutely gasping for air between efforts. Then I take a few days off, have some fun life events, get back in the pool and i’m having to remember all the cues i’d been doing naturally just last week.
For anyone just reading this and thinking about swimming - learn from me and pick a pool that works with your schedule. The hours at my rec center are atrocious and the masters swim squad trains 8-9am which is typically pretty hard to navigate with full time work.
I must also add - I think my overall fitness has improved since starting to swim. I just hit a 300watt ftp and running paces are getting faster at the same HR and RPE all while feeling like i’m doing less cycling and certainly doing less running. It’s got to be related to the breathing patterns during swim carrying over to the run and bike. Things are just feeling smooth… Or maybe its just all that winter training showing its worth and i’m about to be humbled in the summer heat. We’ll find out!
Debating transitioning to TR for 70.3 training but its unclear to me how exactly the Tri training works. I have never used TR before as you may infer from my questions
My understanding is that for tri training users are typically using their own run/swim workouts and then leveraging TR for the bike.
Do the bike workouts RL/GL consider the stress/fatigue from swim/run workouts?
What is the philosophy behind the bike workouts? Is it 80-20 for base phase, then more threshold and then more race specific?
Are principles such as progressive overload visible in the workouts proposed?
Is there flexibility to plan bike workout days and duration per day?
Do you have to use ERG mode with TR? I am not a fan of ERG in general, since most are not very flexible (I find Rouvy has the best ERG mode for me).
Anything else I should consider when training for a 70.3 with TR? I have used Tridot in the past so anyone who has experience in both platforms, feel free to share gains/differences. Now I am mostly self coached
The plans include swimming and running workouts. You don’t do those on the TR app.
Do the bike workouts RL/GL consider the stress/fatigue from swim/run workouts?
Yes.
What is the philosophy behind the bike workouts? Is it 80-20 for base phase, then more threshold and then more race specific?
I’ll let someone else tackle this one, but I’m on a high-volume half-distance plan with four bike workouts a week. In general I saw a lot of sweet spot in base phase, a focus on VO2max workouts in build, and more threshold work in specialty. All phases included tempo and endurance work for the remaining workouts.
Are principles such as progressive overload visible in the workouts proposed?
Yes.
Is there flexibility to plan bike workout days and duration per day?
Yes. You can set the workout days and duration for each discipline when setting up the plan, and you can move the individual workouts around the calendar as needed (as well as replace them with shorter/longer/easier/harder alternates at your discretion).
My biggest gains in swimming was when some old dude just politely made a recommendation to me about my swimming while in the locker room. He was like literally twice my pace, so I did it. Next time I saw him he recognized I was trying to do what he said, and made another suggestion. He probably did that a handful of times over about two months.
I’m still not a great swimmer. But what a difference that guy made.
I’m not the person you’re replying to, but the most recent ‘wow’ moment for me was to ‘pivot weight in front of me’
Coach saw me plodding along with a kickboard and I was a straight as an arrow… but not perpendicular to the floor - legs pointed down. He told me to just try to put weight onto the board and ‘pivot’ over my front half. After another 50 thinking about that while kicking I jumped into normal sets and my legs popped right up, my head angled down, my catch was stronger, and I was smoooooth.
Something I think about often when i’m finding i’m dragging
No magic tip, just pointers. I can’t remember now, that was 2014ish when I was training for my first (and hopefully only) 140.6. but probably stuff that is easy to find on YouTube now.
Speaking of swimming, do any of you have any advice on how to make the most of an endless pool?
My rec center’s pool just closed indefinitely due to a mechanical issue, but I found out a local gym has an endless pool, so I got a membership just to use it. It’s a weird experience, though. The pace it shows isn’t real/accurate, you can’t track distance, you’re just looking down at the exact same spot at the bottom so it feels interminable. I’ve just been cranking up the speed and doing sprints in one-minute intervals until I get bored. This might be good enough to get me through St. George in three weeks without losing too much swim fitness, but if I have to do this long term, I don’t know how I can make this more productive (or at least tolerable).
Swimming in an endless pool is a great workout. I wouldn’t do sprints myself. If it were me I’d be doing different sessions similar in style to TrainerRoad workouts. Don’t worry about splits. Focus on RPE over the duration. Depending where you are at with your swim you might look to hold the feeling of ‘race pace’ for something like 6 x 5 minutes with 1 minute rest (think threshold?). That’s just what I’d do. You might find something like 2 minutes on 15 seconds off might work better for you. Try to dial in that feeling of the pace you can hold over the distance.
In more general times and NOT specifically leading into a race I’d focus quite a lot on the technique work in an endless pool.
If you find swimming boring you are going to have a hard time sticking to it. Become immersed in what you are doing (pun intended). Try to be fully aware of what your body is doing and how you are moving through the water. Make changes to your stroke and feel how it changes the different elements of your technique.
Don’t ‘just swim’. That goes for any type of swimming. Go with a plan or at the very least an intention.
I’ve found with swimming it isn’t practice that sees progress. It’s perfect practice that sees progress
Finally to add… Beware unsolicited advice from strangers
We’ll find out!