Hey everybody, first race of the season yesterday.
Disappointing. I have been doing triathlons for 3 years now, and this year I really thought would be my breakout. I have an A race (Timberman 70.3 in August) and a B race (Philly Olympic yesterday). While my training is limited by time, I was really doing much better then I have in the past with getting good consistent training in. I really expected to be more competitive yesterday. The swim I continue to have problems with open water sighting. On the bike, while my chain felll off and cost me a minute, I still couldn't keep up with many people when I was passed. The run I don't know what happened, I think I just took my foot off the gas.
My question for everybody is, Should I get a coach? I am not sure what I need to do to make that breakthough. I have a list of swim workouts and other workout that I saw people do. I try and do at least one long bike ride a week that includes hills, and some of the people I ride with more recently really push the pace, and running I am well experienced in. My A race is in 8 weeks. I really don't have more then 10 to 11 hours to train a week. Am I expecting to much to be competitive in my age group? Or does the planning that a coach provides really make a difference?
Any advice?
What are your goals?
What are you calling disappointing?
I only did a quick scan of your log and at your race times. For the training time your putting in your times look pretty solid. You also said this was the first race of the season. For me it always takes a race or two to get the kinks worked out.
What was the bike course like ? An avg of a little better than 19mph can stand some improvement as well as your swim. Your swim time might be somewhat due to your sighting ability though if your weaving. A 6:45 pace on a 10k ought to have you right near the top I would think. And you said you let off the gas so I'd say you got the run down. If you can maintain that pace on 30 - 35 mpw then concentrate on the bike training time. You probably need to be swimming 1:30 - 1:35 to stay at the top too. I didn't dig to deep but how were your transitions?
The million dollar questions: Why do you want a coach? What do you expect to can from a coach? If your not looking for sponsors then I self coach but that's me.
MTA:
OK, you did have everything with the ranks. The Bike and swim rank didn't suprise me. The run rank did. You must have some pretty good runners in your neck of the woods.
I'm going to say it like I saw it...Your transition times suck. You've got minutes you can shave right there.
Again, based on your training time I'd say not bad. If you could double your bike and swim training you would get your breakout. It's really that simple.
136th runner out of 1500+...thats pretty good in my book.
I'd have to agree with Slo, you can make up the most time with focusing on your cycling. but your transitions are not too bad when you look at what the others in your AG were doing but you could definately drop a minute or two there.
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
2014 Goals:
Stay healthy
Enjoy life
Ha...I found you !
I went and looked up the race results. Knock 5 mins of and that race and that would put you in the top 3 of your AG in a smaller venue. You picked a pretty big race as your first one. Some damn stiff competition.
I think you can knock 2 mins off your total transition time.
To have a decent Tri you need to have 2 strong events.
In an Oly distance the swim time factors in more than it does for any other tri distances so it's really easy to give up minutes here. Given that your A race is a Half I would spend 75% of my training on the bike. You have a solid run.
I still want to hear what your expectations are, your so called (breakout).
thanks for the advice
I know I need to work on transitions, but I think T1 did include some of the long run in.
I guess my real goals relate to the half. I did Timberman last year and came away with a 5:28. A good time for it being my first race over the sprint distance. Plus my training was less then consistent and it showed as I faided on both the bike and run. This year I said if I was going to do it again, I was going to do it right. Got a tri bike and committed to keeping my run and bike mileage higher. I want to be sub 5 hours this year.
I could not reach my weekly bike goals (100 miles a week) but I still thought I did a good job. I was using this race (My first Olympic distance race) to gage my training towards that 5 hour goal. Needless to say, I need to go faster for 56 miles then I went for 24 last weekend. I feel like the spirit was willing but the flesh was week on the bike. Hopefully a wetsuit and better sighting will help the swim at least a little.
I guess I was wondering about a coach because I can't see myself being able to committe more time to training. I have a wife that works long hours an a son who is less then 2. I am up early and then begging for time during the weekend. I figured a coach might be able to show me some workouts that would better use my time. Getting bike time is the hardest because there are not many places to ride in the Philly area without either driving to or dealing with tons of traffic. So I need to do what I can with the time I have to reach my goals.
Hate to see say this, but why only 10-11 hours to put into this? The more you put in, the more you get out. If you want to be more competitive, find time. I looked at your log for a sec and saw a few weeks where you had 3 days off in one wk? I'm not trying to be an ass, honestly. I'm just trying to be honest. Your a really good runner (looking at your PR's) and I'm guessing you got that way by putting in a lot of time on the run.
Ps. I did TImber in 5:27 last year
I guess I was wondering about a coach because I can't see myself being able to committe more time to training.
Time...It's all about time.
I'd save your money. Coaches don't come cheap and there is no monetary return for your investment. If you were trying to become a sponsored Triathlete, quailify for Kona, etc I might advise differently.
Here's the thing...Given what time you got you can get faster. You can concentrate on more intensity and you will see some improvement. You got a good run leg going so jack up the intensity in the pool and on the bike. You can recover from a good hard swim or bike much faster than a hard run.
It's my opinion that most triathletes don't practice swimming FAST...enough. They're happy knocking out 3000 meter continuous swims and completely ignore the fast 50 yard, 100 yard sets on short rest. To swim faster you have to swim fast.
Any gains you get from jacking up intensity are going to be short lived and fleeting. They won't stick around long after a down period so time them appropriately.
Those guys ahead of you in your last oly are likely training 15hrs a week minimum.
I feel for you trying to get out on the road for good training rides. As much as I hate stationary equipment the answer might be a trainer.
Good Luck in August. Train like a frigging animal over these next four weeks.
Sounds like you need to invest in a good trainer or set of rollers to get more time on your bike. With your wife's long hours and a 2 year old, that would be a great investment and an easy way to gwet some bike mileage.
thanks for the advice guys. I guess I will continue to coach myself and just try and use my time more wisely. I was thinking of joining a masters swim group to see if that helps my swimming, maybe having someone else to push me would help.
54 more days to go, lets see what I can do!
Home Away From Home
Muebele-
I am staying out of the advice column on this since I just finished my first ever sprint this Sunday but wanted to comment on Timberman, see you there. I too am training, first HI and probably 2nd tri ever.
I am looking forward to it and can't wait. See you at the start line, ok, maybe not literally but at least figuritively.
MM#5768
"Anyone can do it in ideal conditions"- A quote from a true NE CN runner and friend.
. I was thinking of joining a masters swim group to see if that helps my swimming, maybe having someone else to push me would help. 54 more days to go, lets see what I can do!
. I was thinking of joining a masters swim group to see if that helps my swimming, maybe having someone else to push me would help.
Perfect !
thanks for the advice guys. I guess I will continue to coach myself and just try and use my time more wisely. I was thinking of joining a masters swim group to see if that helps my swimming, maybe having someone else to push me would help. 54 more days to go, lets see what I can do!
I wish I could get the times that you're disappointed in, so understand that my words are more from a numbers perspective than a training knowledge perspective....
Your swim pace is 1:44 / 100M which equates to 33:20 for 1.2 miles. Even if you were to decrease the time to 1:34 / 100M (which is significant speed increase), you're saving 3 minutes, 20 seconds over 1.2 miles. I'd venture to guess that it would be hard to find that improvement in 6 weeks.
Your bike pace is 19.59mph, which equates to a 2:51:30 for 56 miles.
Your run pace was 6:46, which equates to a 1:29:00 half marathon.
When you add it all up your pace from your recent race, that'll leave about 6 minutes for transitions to get your 5 hour 1/2 Ironman. But, I imagine that the biggest bang for the training buck is within your bike speed, and not your swim speed. To me, it seems as if you could improve upon a 19.6mph bike and shoot for a 20mph bike (or possibly a 20.2mph). By doing so, you're picking up 3:20 (at 20mph), and I'm pretty sure that would be easier to find than improving upon a fairly efficient swim time (as it is now).
Also, I'm guessing that your run pace may suffer during the 5th hour and a 1:29 may be challenging. With the 6 minutes for transition and the 3:30 you pick up by improving your bike time, you'd give yourself a 7:00 / mile rather than your 6:46 for the 10k.
Anyhow, it's a numbers game, and I'm not sure the numbers are in the swim if your goal is 5 hours.
Brian
Life Goals:
#1: Do what I can do
#2: Enjoy life
I think that Matt does what you're suggesting he should do (by looking through his workouts).
In looking at Matt's training logs, it looks like he only does shorter sets (dating back to mid-May). To me, it seems like some endurance type of swims on occasion would also benefit. I think he should get the speed through the intervals (in a workout similar to what's shown below from his log) as well as doing some straight through endurance effort swims (ie. 1500, 2000, 2500 yards)....
Example from a swim he did on 6-17
400 warm up (ever 4th lap a different stroke) main set swim set 100, 200, 300, 300, 200, 100 (20 sec rest) Pull set 150, 150, 125, 125, 100, 50 (15 sec rest)
I think that Matt does what you're suggesting he should do (by looking through his workouts). In looking at Matt's training logs, it looks like he only does shorter sets (dating back to mid-May). To me, it seems like some endurance type of swims on occasion would also benefit. I think he should get the speed through the intervals (in a workout similar to what's shown below from his log) as well as doing some straight through endurance effort swims (ie. 1500, 2000, 2500 yards).... Example from a swim he did on 6-17 400 warm up (ever 4th lap a different stroke) main set swim set 100, 200, 300, 300, 200, 100 (20 sec rest) Pull set 150, 150, 125, 125, 100, 50 (15 sec rest)
I never really looked that closely but that's solid stuff.
And I agree with your take made on the earlier post on the swimming. My remarks are more for the long term than they are for the upcoming half. I'd hit the bike hard over the next few training weeks. Long term a masters swim program is golden.
This is my 2nd season of being out of Tri's. I haven't been watching what others are doing too much but I go with the crowd that says big long endurance sets need not be done on a frequent basis. 1x month is enough. There are more gains from the ladders and swim fast sets...I'd like to hear T-Bones thoughts on this as well.
I'd like to hear T-Bones thoughts on this as well.
Me too, but I bet he's out doing a 3000 yard swim now or a 112 mile bike ride as we type....