The Triathlon thread - Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, Sprint
Discussion
drgav2005 said:
I've just started a blog on my training for Ironman Austria
Good effort mate and there's plenty of science in triathlon (and training aids) to sneak in to your blogs, especially bike stuff!Just noticed a slight error in your "Previous race reports" section that you might want to amend (sorry, part of my day job!) . . . last but one paragraph, 2nd line, "and the 5km bike in" should read "and the 5km run in".
Good read though chap - I'll be tuning in
may have to do one myself (still deciding on races for next year at the mo').drgav2005 said:
Blog updated - feedback would be welcomed…
I'll grab a coffee and have a read this evening chap!HughG said:
. . . after suggestions of an event to do somewhere around Christmas. I have a bad habit of getting bored of training for one discipline so ideally a tri/duathlon of some kind.
I'm not aware of any tri's on during December/January (unless you want to fly abroad!), but here's a few duathlon's to have a look at . . . Mudman, Iceman and Tuffman.I've not competed in them myself, but they're run by Human Race who know how to organise a good event.
MrsMiggins said:
I'm not sure that my first event should be anything too long, and I'm doing it more for fitness/fun than any great urge to compete; I just don't want to be last, ok?
So should I start with a sprint and take it from there? Maybe shoot for an Olympic distance since I've got the time to train? Any pointers on how to make my training more effective so I speed up a bit?
On the subject of Human race events, have a look at their Windsor race, which you can either choose Sprint or Olympic distance, but I'd probably suggest the Sprint distance to start with as it's more than enough distance for a first race - the swim's in the Thames (most of which is against the current) and the although wave's aren't super big, you'll definitely experience a "proper" tri swim there!So should I start with a sprint and take it from there? Maybe shoot for an Olympic distance since I've got the time to train? Any pointers on how to make my training more effective so I speed up a bit?
I think there's a waiting list running at the mo', but if you want another race to get a definite entry into, have a look at their Eton Dorney races - easier swim (in the rowing lake) and a flat bike bike and run.
Training wise, I'll post up a few drills for improving your speed a bit later - just off out myself!!!
Live coverage of the IM World Champs on at the mo' at http://kona.ironman.com for anyone that wants to tune in . . . pro guys & girls have gone off 10 or so mins ago and age groupers about to start in about 15 mins 
drgav2005 said:
Got my hands on my new toy last night… Boardman AiR TT 9.4 - stuck an ISM Adamo Prologue saddle on it… now I'm off to stick it on the turbo trainer (using my old training wheels) to get used to the new riding position! There's a big hole in my bank account (actually credit card) but it's balanced by a big grin on my face 
I bet . . . that really is a stunning piece of kit! Good choice of saddle as well - I swapped to an Adamo (Road) saddle and it's been a revelation. I used to get VERY uncomfortable and fidgety after an hour or so with my old one and now I can go 5 or 6 hours aero, no problem.You'll have to let us know how it rides - I'd be very interested to read your next blog entry!!
Oh and just for a bit of inspiration on a cold and rainy, overcast Sunday afternoon, grab a cuppa and have watch of this cracking video:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLKTxesPAHM
It's a ballot only race that I've got my name down for next August - tbh, I stand only a very small chance of getting in, but it'll be amazing if I do!! (I find out in about a weeks time)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLKTxesPAHM
It's a ballot only race that I've got my name down for next August - tbh, I stand only a very small chance of getting in, but it'll be amazing if I do!! (I find out in about a weeks time)
okgo said:
With things like knee's I always worry about how much damage 'soldiering on' will result in. Fair play, but with something like a knee that would have been it for me. Serious joint to damage.
True enough, but training for IM teaches you a great deal about your body and the vast majority of guys and girls that make the start line at any race will have experienced more than enough in preparation and have enough body awarenesss to know when it's time to call it quits.In most cases though, their body will make the call before them - it's pretty fantastic at looking after you.
2seas evidently had issues and problems during the race, but he showed the mental strength and the physical durability to deal with them and he came in under 17hrs. He finished. He won against the odds.
Well done mate
Now where's that race report?
2seas said:
Evening everyone. Well I've written an 'Ironman Journey' report to document my thoughts/experiences over the full 12 months from when I originally decided to enter the race upto and including the race. It's in its first draft as I've literally just done a brain dump and its 4000 words! I'm not sure if there's a word limit on Pistonheads so maybe i'll try to extract parts to avoid boring you too much. Or is there way I can post a word document attachment?
I don't know about whether it's possible to post the file on PH (I doubt it'll allow you 4k characters in a single post though!!), but probably the easiest thing to do is put it up on some FTP space (somewhere like www.yousendit.com) and give us a link to the file . . . Great read and top effort 2seas - it's fab to read about other people's experiences. Thanks for posting it up in its entirety!!
Want to know know the winning finishing time in your age group (55-59)? And remember we're talking Kailua Kona here, not a pan flat course like Florida.
Oviedo-Montoya, Pedro Swim 01:11:25 Bike 05:19:41 Run 03:25:58 Finish 10:05:48
And I bet he was pissed off for not going sub 10. Absolutely incredible.
RichB said:
Any veteran Triathletes on here? I'm 56 and did some sprint tris 15 years ago as a diversion from marathon and 1/2 marathon running. Now my 27 yr old son is getting into tri and I am "thinking" about getting back into it but they all seem so young! I need some encouragement from other "vets" so any out there? 
If it's inspiration you want, just go to www.ironman.com and have a look at the results from this years Kona race. The age groupers results are absolutely amazing - not just from the age groups that you'd expect to be quick, all the way up to the 80 something year old Japanese guy that came home in 15:38 Want to know know the winning finishing time in your age group (55-59)? And remember we're talking Kailua Kona here, not a pan flat course like Florida.
Oviedo-Montoya, Pedro Swim 01:11:25 Bike 05:19:41 Run 03:25:58 Finish 10:05:48
And I bet he was pissed off for not going sub 10. Absolutely incredible.
Well I've had a bit of a 'mare over the winter so far - had the flooding to deal with for several weeks (mid/late November) in our neck of the woods, which pretty much curtailed any quality training.
During that time I also sustained a stress fracture to my r/h radius, which stopped me from doing anything at all for 6 weeks (couldn't even hold a cup of tea!!) which brought me to christmas/early Jan where I managed a handful of runs and a couple of strength sessions in the gym (which I now desperately need!!).
Went to enter IM France last weekend (everyone had said it never sells out before the end of January because it's got a large capacity, so I left it until my arm had healed), only to find out that this was the first year it has - it sold out the previous day
On the plus side, I've got a morning at a physiology lab booked at the end of the month for some testing which'll give me some proper numbers to plug into my programme for this this year, so I'm confident of pulling back from what has been a crap start to the year . . . especially now as it seems I've got a bigger window for training . . .
During that time I also sustained a stress fracture to my r/h radius, which stopped me from doing anything at all for 6 weeks (couldn't even hold a cup of tea!!) which brought me to christmas/early Jan where I managed a handful of runs and a couple of strength sessions in the gym (which I now desperately need!!).
Went to enter IM France last weekend (everyone had said it never sells out before the end of January because it's got a large capacity, so I left it until my arm had healed), only to find out that this was the first year it has - it sold out the previous day
On the plus side, I've got a morning at a physiology lab booked at the end of the month for some testing which'll give me some proper numbers to plug into my programme for this this year, so I'm confident of pulling back from what has been a crap start to the year . . . especially now as it seems I've got a bigger window for training . . .
Fourmotion said:
On a personal note, I've just entered IM Wales!!!! Whoop whoop. Arrrrrrggggghghhhhhhhhhhh!
Well see you on the beach early doors mate, 'cos so have I!!!! drgav2005 said:
Would be interested to hear about the Physiology lab testing
Well, I'm being number crunched at the local university's physiology lab - I'm not sure of everything they're going to do, but it'll go something along the lines of VO2 max test whilst breathing into an expiratory gas analyser, blood profiling (to include haemoglobin, haematocrit and a graded lactate test), body composition (they've got underwater weighing facilities), cycling and running economy analysis . . . basically all 3 performance indicators (VO2 max, LT and economy) combined with body composition.I'll be doing one every 3 months to help track my progress and aside from helping me right now with my training, it'll be genuinely interesting (for me anyway!!) to see how those numbers change - I'm not a scientist, but the biomechanics and biochemistry of endurance sport do fascinate me!!
I should be doing it this Saturday - I'll let you know how I get on
I think they're post-grad and probably using their results as part of doctorate work (that's me guessing, anyway) - it's a couple of hundred quid to run the tests and produce the report, which I didn't think was too bad at all.
Have a try at your local uni (or do a local google search for "physiological laboratory testing") . . . if they've got a good sports or health sciences lab, they may very well be able to do exactly the same thing for you.
Have a try at your local uni (or do a local google search for "physiological laboratory testing") . . . if they've got a good sports or health sciences lab, they may very well be able to do exactly the same thing for you.
mondeoman said:
Kind of embarrassed to post this, seeing what some of you have done, but I've been entered into the Stratford 220 Sprint this coming May. This is going to be a bit of an adventure, but I've started doing swimfit once a week, parkrun once a week and 25k rides once a week, as well as bootcamp-style training 3 times a week. That should be enough, shouldn't it??
Good effort fella - well done on getting involved! Volume wise, that looks OK - I'd just focus on enjoying your training really and making sure you have week to week consistency in volume.Stratford's a pool swim I believe, so you shouldn't have any of the problems that open water events bring to the party, but I'd definitely be making sure your OK with the bike/run transition . . . your first tri isn't the best place to find out what it's like to run after a fair few k's on the bike (as I can certainly testify)!! Perhaps have one session a week comprising 30 mins tempo on the bike followed by an easy 15 min run (what's called a "brick" session) . . . other than that, just enjoy the adventure!
If you've got any specific questions though, just fire away
Had my lab session today and it was an absolute revelation - a bit of an epiphany really!!
It was in essence, a graded treadmill test to exhaustion (on, I have to say, the poshest treadmill I've ever seen, let alone been on!!) wearing a mask hooked up to a respiratory gas analyser, with 2 boffins sticking needles in me every few minutes.
We also did static lung function, a proper body comp test and a few other bits and pieces, but I have to say that if any of you guys are even semi serious in getting the best performances out of yourselves I wouldn't just recommend doing one, I'd say it's absolutely essential. As of now, one of these tests every 4 - 6 months is a permanent fixture of my training.
I don't know any of my numbers as yet (I'll be getting a detailed report on those early next week), but it's already given me a huge insight and I can't wait to see that pdf!!!!
It was in essence, a graded treadmill test to exhaustion (on, I have to say, the poshest treadmill I've ever seen, let alone been on!!) wearing a mask hooked up to a respiratory gas analyser, with 2 boffins sticking needles in me every few minutes.
We also did static lung function, a proper body comp test and a few other bits and pieces, but I have to say that if any of you guys are even semi serious in getting the best performances out of yourselves I wouldn't just recommend doing one, I'd say it's absolutely essential. As of now, one of these tests every 4 - 6 months is a permanent fixture of my training.
I don't know any of my numbers as yet (I'll be getting a detailed report on those early next week), but it's already given me a huge insight and I can't wait to see that pdf!!!!
Fourmotion said:
Are you going to publish on here? I'd be interested to see it, I've had a couple of VO2 max tests done, so not to the same extreme as yours, but I found even those results fascinating to read.
Well at the risk of everyone telling me how shoddy my figures are, why not? In fact, that's why I've done the test now - I've had 7 months enforced break from training since my last race (pneumonia/broken arm/christmas stuff), so I thought this'll be as bad as my figures get and it'll be the kick up the arse to get back on it properly!!
I'll have to extract the graphs from the pdf, but I'll do that as soon as I can and post up the gory details
Weight: 72.6kg
Body fat: Estimated 7% . . . bit embarrassing, but they could only get 3 sites where they could get a skinfold which wasn't enough apparently, so they abandoned, but noted the results they got.
Haemoglobin: 15g.dl (which apparently is normal)
Haematocrit: 49% (probably because I haven't been training too much just recently!)
HRmax: 190bpm
Graded treadmill lactate test: Included a warm up of ~10 min (~1 km/h below the first stage) on a gradient of 1.5° followed by 3 min progressive stages until exhaustion. There was 20 sec between stages to collect blood for measuring.
LACTATE CURVE
which in round figures means that my Lt1 (lactate threshold 1) occurs at about 12kmh and my Lt2 at about 14kmh.
Given those two figures (and in round figures), my current 10k (target) pace would be about 43mins and marathon 3:30 (which is probably just about right . . . just before Lanz, my marathon pace was ~3:15).
SUMMARY
Admittedly, it’s early season, but my lactate curve indicates that I must do a great deal more aerobic base work. I’m not recruiting enough slow twitch fibres in my easy running state, but instead relying upon my fast glycolytic fibres for fuel which is not in any way efficient (hence the elevated lactate in that range - ideally it should be half that value).
Aside from being (relatively) inactive for 6 months, I know this is because I did FAR too much tempo/threshold work last year and neglected my base work - everyone thinks that if they have to take effective medicine, it should taste horrible . . . well here’s the news guys, it shouldn’t (well, not every session, anyway).
You do not have to beast yourself on every run.
I’ll expand on this if anyone has any questions, but with the help of the guys that carried out this lab test, I now have a fantastic training programme (with some proper lab figures) that I know will maximise (in time!) my ability.
Body fat: Estimated 7% . . . bit embarrassing, but they could only get 3 sites where they could get a skinfold which wasn't enough apparently, so they abandoned, but noted the results they got.
Haemoglobin: 15g.dl (which apparently is normal)
Haematocrit: 49% (probably because I haven't been training too much just recently!)
HRmax: 190bpm
Graded treadmill lactate test: Included a warm up of ~10 min (~1 km/h below the first stage) on a gradient of 1.5° followed by 3 min progressive stages until exhaustion. There was 20 sec between stages to collect blood for measuring.
LACTATE CURVE
which in round figures means that my Lt1 (lactate threshold 1) occurs at about 12kmh and my Lt2 at about 14kmh.
Given those two figures (and in round figures), my current 10k (target) pace would be about 43mins and marathon 3:30 (which is probably just about right . . . just before Lanz, my marathon pace was ~3:15).
SUMMARY
Admittedly, it’s early season, but my lactate curve indicates that I must do a great deal more aerobic base work. I’m not recruiting enough slow twitch fibres in my easy running state, but instead relying upon my fast glycolytic fibres for fuel which is not in any way efficient (hence the elevated lactate in that range - ideally it should be half that value).
Aside from being (relatively) inactive for 6 months, I know this is because I did FAR too much tempo/threshold work last year and neglected my base work - everyone thinks that if they have to take effective medicine, it should taste horrible . . . well here’s the news guys, it shouldn’t (well, not every session, anyway).
You do not have to beast yourself on every run.
I’ll expand on this if anyone has any questions, but with the help of the guys that carried out this lab test, I now have a fantastic training programme (with some proper lab figures) that I know will maximise (in time!) my ability.
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