The Triathlon thread - Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, Sprint

[anonymous-user]

baxb said:

Nice one Gav (& Lorna !!) good effort to step up to a late season one. I've managed one bike ride & an aborted Parkrun since Weymouth so entered the Dambuster Duathlon (early March) to have something to focus on over winter.

Greg - seem to think your last race report ended on the same note as my last 2 i.e. never again ! Pretty sure I'm going to stick to it this time so good luck to you for going for it again !

Oh yeah!

I'd forgotten that...!

[m444ttb]

A week tomorrow my local 113km distance tri opens so I'm going to take the plunge and book on. June is a long time away but I've not cycled quite that far yet and havent been swimming in a few years (and was rubbish at it then!). What could go wrong?!

At this point in time I'm hoping I can do the bike in 3:45, sub-2hr half (gives me c1min/km to lose to the fatigue from the other events) and the swim will be what it will be. The swim is in a nice lake, the bike course almost all flat and two laps, with a flat run so should be an ideal introduction to the distance. Prior to that I'm going to give a winter duathlon, then a novice followed by a standard distance tri in the spring so I'm used to the transition etc. I've had my first go at running off the bike - interesting!

On a unrelated note the Pedal Powered area of the forum just did some great winter cycling jerseys and will be doign some summer stuff in the spring. Anyone for a PH tri suit?

[blade runner]

dangerousB said:

Cheers! Get Mallorca booked for next year - you'll love it.

It really did have a great atmosphere which matched the event strap line:-

"Fiesta, no siesta"

Well I'm registered now for Mallorca 2015 on 26th September.

Any recommendations on where's good to stay? Guessing there's no shortage of apartments in Alcudia to choose from a that time of year?

[Fatbloke]

Registered :-)

Hotel Astoria Playa was very nice for the 70.3 this year

Edited by Fatbloke on Thursday 6th November 14:33

[dangerousB]

Fatbloke said:

Registered :-)

Hotel Astoria Playa was very nice for the 70.3 this year

blade runner said:

Well I'm registered now for Mallorca 2015 on 26th September.

Any recommendations on where's good to stay? Guessing there's no shortage of apartments in Alcudia to choose from a that time of year?

Nice work guys!!!

As far as accommodation goes, there is a great deal to choose from - there was 10 of us going in our party, 2 of the guys fancied an all inclusive so stayed at the Viva Eden Lago (surrounded by Germans apparently, but perfectly OK from what they had to say!) and the rest of us stayed in a 4 bed villa (just off Cami Can Blau if you can find it on google maps).

We were probably just a little bit too far out I'd say - probably about 4/5k(ish) from transition. You certainly wouldn't want to go too much further away for sure. Just try and get somewhere as close as you can to the marina as that's where it's all at.

The problem on race day is that most of the major roads are shut to traffic between 8am - 6pm ish, so if you've got friends/family supporting you and they fancy popping back for a swim/food/nap/whatever, that's extra difficult when you can't drive there directly!

[slg]

Evening, I'm about to start training for the Bolton IM and have an idea of a training plan but am struggling with the nutrition side & making sure I'm eating enough of the correct foods.

Can anyone recommend some sites to look at for some guidance?

Thanks

[esuuv]

With regards to reading materials I can't help massively.

Myfitnesspal is pretty good though with regards to tracking what you eat and what training you're doing to make sure you get enough - without getting too much.

[dangerousB]

slg said:

Evening, I'm about to start training for the Bolton IM and have an idea of a training plan but am struggling with the nutrition side & making sure I'm eating enough of the correct foods.

Can anyone recommend some sites to look at for some guidance?

Thanks

http://www.healthaliciousness.com/ is pretty neat for working out a meal plan, but I think you can't go too far wrong by just avoiding any processed foods or any with "low fat" or "low sugar" on the packaging.

My golden rules are staying well hydrated throughout the day (not to the extent of peeing every 5 mins!), making sure I eat 3-400kCal (carby meal/drink) a couple of hours before any workout (with the exception of my 5.30am runs!) and ensuring I have 500-600cKal in the 30min/1hr window post workout (carby again but with a higher protein element).

TBH, you have to periodise your diet much in the same way that you periodise your training and I've just experimented and seen what works for me - one thing to try and ensure is as an endurance athlete you get enough iron in your diet - it's not uncommon for endurance athletes to be borderline anaemic.

[slg]

Thanks esuuv & dangerousb...seems like my diet really needs looking at aswell. Had to cut swimming short tonight with tiredness but never had anything to eat since lunchtime & with hotel restaurant closed won't be eating till breakfast...happens too many times + dinner usually consists of a couple of pieces of chicken whilst away as I've only got an oven in the office.

[aspender]

Just got entry to the first Ironman 70.3 Dublin on Aug 9th. 11,000 people pre-registered and it opened to them at 10am.

Some course details have been published. Sea Swim, flat and fast bike route and run in Phoenix Park.

http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironma...

Provisional bike route in more detail: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6529243

This is a warm up event for my first Ironman in Barcelona in October.

[dangerousB]

aspender said:

Just got entry to the first Ironman 70.3 Dublin

I had a look at that one and was very tempted!

I've been looking at a 70.3 for my girlfriend's brother (as well as myself) after Staffs & Wimbleball both sold out.

He came over to Mallorca to watch the IM and was that fired up by it, he wants to give it a crack. He's an extremely good rower (4's and 8's I think), has about 8 or 10 marathons under his belt and is pretty handy on the bike, so has an excellent place to start from, but his swimming is . . . well, not anywhere near the same level, so that'll take a fair few months to sort out. I suggested we do a mid year half (more so that he can gauge his swim progress) and then go "full fat".

Dublin's a little bit late though and will probably be a bit dear (in addition to next years IM), so if anyone has any suggestions for a UK 70.3 in June or July I'm all

aspender said:

This is a warm up event for my first Ironman in Barcelona in October

We may well see you there! So that he's got plenty of time to prepare, we picked a late one and Barcelona looked perfect. Entries sorted

To give us a winter running focus, he's also entered us for the Paris marathon so if anyone's got any tips for going close to 3hrs, once again

[drgav2005]

dangerousB said:

We may well see you there! So that he's got plenty of time to prepare, we picked a late one and Barcelona looked perfect. Entries sorted

To give us a winter running focus, he's also entered us for the Paris marathon so if anyone's got any tips for going close to 3hrs, once again

Only way I'd get close to 3 hours in a marathon would be to use my bike and leave my number in transition...

[baxb]

dangerousB said:

Dublin's a little bit late though and will probably be a bit dear (in addition to next years IM), so if anyone has any suggestions for a UK 70.3 in June or July I'm all

http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/swashbuckler-middle-distance-triathlon/

A bit early (10th May) & bike is 50 miles & run 14 miles but a great event in a really nice setting, sensible price, £125. River is tidal so the start time is dictated by that & they make a point of saying you need to be a decent swimmer, but I didn't think it was that bad, there is plenty of time to get your mate in form for it.

at Gav !

[dangerousB]

baxb said:

http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/swashbuckler-middle...

Cheers for that - I'll go have a look!

drgav2005 said:

Only way I'd get close to 3 hours in a marathon would be to use my bike and leave my number in transition...

Amen, DrGav!

I think he ran 3:17 in his last race (with a 2 or 3 mile walk he reckoned), so I've got to up the ante a bit as far as my running's concerned!

[Dimski]

Right. Time to join in.

I'm committed now; I've stopped procrastinating and have entered Ironman Wales 2015.

I dislike running, and have never so much as sat on a road bike. Oh dear.

Still, I need a challenge. I'm local, so am well aware of the difficult course and incredible atmosphere. It had to be Tenby!

[anonymous-user]

Dimski said:

Right. Time to join in.

I'm committed now; I've stopped procrastinating and have entered Ironman Wales 2015.

I dislike running, and have never so much as sat on a road bike. Oh dear.

Still, I need a challenge. I'm local, so am well aware of the difficult course and incredible atmosphere. It had to be Tenby!

Welcome!

Dislike running and haven't sat on a road bike, eh? Well, it sounds like your swimming is probably pretty awesome!

(More seriously, start buying kit, look for a training program, pick a training start date - Jan 2 might be good - and stick to it, start slow, build and keep at it).

[Dimski]

Greg66 said:

Welcome!

Dislike running and haven't sat on a road bike, eh? Well, it sounds like your swimming is probably pretty awesome!

(More seriously, start buying kit, look for a training program, pick a training start date - Jan 2 might be good - and stick to it, start slow, build and keep at it).

Thank you. I intend to.

I don't think I'd say my swimming is awesome, but it's pretty decent. I've been doing some open water swims over the last two years; at least the swimming part holds no fear for me. During the summer I've spent many hours per week in the sea of Tenby's north beach, and have done the swim course twice when I did the swim part of the Long Course weekend. 1hr02 in 2013, 53m in 2014 with strong tide assistance.

I haven't ever stepped on a road bike, but do a bit of mountain biking including around Tenby during the day, and visit Brechfa most weekends, so I need to adapt and increase the distances but it doesn't worry my unduly. Plenty of work to do of course!

The running... yeah, this bit will be fun.

[drgav2005]

Dimski said:

Right. Time to join in.

I'm committed now; I've stopped procrastinating and have entered Ironman Wales 2015.

I dislike running, and have never so much as sat on a road bike. Oh dear.

Still, I need a challenge. I'm local, so am well aware of the difficult course and incredible atmosphere. It had to be Tenby!

Excellent Nothing like a good goal to work towards! I can highly recommend the Don Fink Iron Fit book as a place to start for your IM training plan - we look forward to your updates!

[drinks]

Dimski said:

Right. Time to join in.

I'm committed now; I've stopped procrastinating and have entered Ironman Wales 2015.

I dislike running, and have never so much as sat on a road bike. Oh dear.

Still, I need a challenge. I'm local, so am well aware of the difficult course and incredible atmosphere. It had to be Tenby!

Great stuff see you there. Nothing like jumping in at the deep end and I keep telling myself it's sufficient time away to build up the distances.
I'm using the Fink plan that Gav recommends too. It's quite light on swimming which is probably good for you as with those times you clearly swim well.
Think it might need adapting to include more hills but I guess your local knowledge comes in handy there too.
Good luck with the training

[Dimski]

Cheers all!

I'll be sure to find up a copy.

I'm also visiting a local bike shop this week to look/try/deposit on a winter training road bike. I've done a few bits and pieces but will get much more structured and disciplined in January. It begins!