The Triathlon thread - Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, Sprint
Discussion
Congratulations - thats a great time, especially for a first go.....
In my experience swimming does take a certain state of mind, you go from all the rush / pressure of getting to the race, getting organised - then you actually have to do the race - can come as a bit of a shock. You really do need to take a few minutes just be quiet, sort your breathing out and think about what you have to do. At bigger / open water races this is easier as there's usually some "quiet" time waiting on a pontoon or in the water bobbing about waiting for the start.
Just be warned, its addictive and a slippery slope..............
In my experience swimming does take a certain state of mind, you go from all the rush / pressure of getting to the race, getting organised - then you actually have to do the race - can come as a bit of a shock. You really do need to take a few minutes just be quiet, sort your breathing out and think about what you have to do. At bigger / open water races this is easier as there's usually some "quiet" time waiting on a pontoon or in the water bobbing about waiting for the start.
Just be warned, its addictive and a slippery slope..............
^ what he said. Also a lot of it comes with experience. Your nerves will be all over the shop for your first race but after you have done a few you will be calmer and able to get into your flow much more quickly.
Swimming is by far my bets discipline but my first race I was thrashing around the pool like a baby seal being attacked by a shark.
Might be worth entering some open water swim only events. Good practice for mass starts etc and they are usually only 20 notes or so to enter and will build your confidence for the tris.
Yes it is a slippery slope. I remember a few years ago dusting off an old MTB with a view of trying a triathlon. These days I spend the GDP of small African nation on bits and bobs.
Swimming is by far my bets discipline but my first race I was thrashing around the pool like a baby seal being attacked by a shark.
Might be worth entering some open water swim only events. Good practice for mass starts etc and they are usually only 20 notes or so to enter and will build your confidence for the tris.
Yes it is a slippery slope. I remember a few years ago dusting off an old MTB with a view of trying a triathlon. These days I spend the GDP of small African nation on bits and bobs.
Has anyone here tried Celtman?
I've entered it as a triathlon newbie and wondering if anyone has some tips?
I have a Sprint tri next weekend which will probably be my only triathlon in the run up and I plan to use it for transition practice and kit testing more than anything else.
The race is 8 weeks away so I need to get cracking on my open water swimming. Everything else seems to be in hand training wise.
I've entered it as a triathlon newbie and wondering if anyone has some tips?
I have a Sprint tri next weekend which will probably be my only triathlon in the run up and I plan to use it for transition practice and kit testing more than anything else.
The race is 8 weeks away so I need to get cracking on my open water swimming. Everything else seems to be in hand training wise.
matt-ITR said:
Has anyone here tried Celtman?
I've entered it as a triathlon newbie and wondering if anyone has some tips?
I have a Sprint tri next weekend which will probably be my only triathlon in the run up and I plan to use it for transition practice and kit testing more than anything else.
The race is 8 weeks away so I need to get cracking on my open water swimming. Everything else seems to be in hand training wise.
You have entered Celtman as your first major race I've entered it as a triathlon newbie and wondering if anyone has some tips?
I have a Sprint tri next weekend which will probably be my only triathlon in the run up and I plan to use it for transition practice and kit testing more than anything else.
The race is 8 weeks away so I need to get cracking on my open water swimming. Everything else seems to be in hand training wise.
Not done it myself but it is a tough one. Get down the OW now before it starts to warm up. The swim for celtman will be cold, f
king cold. From the website:"In 2012, 2013 and 2014 the water in Loch Shieldaig was below the seasonal average. This appears to be an ongoing trend.
The extreme nature of the temperatures led us to shorten the swim course from 3.8K to 3K. Even with this shortened distance the athletes suffered badly from the cold.
In 2013 the wind added to the drama with strong Southerlys pushing the competitors off course.
We strongly advise cold water training for this race and to wear a heatseeker vest under your wetsuit."
There is a massive difference swimming in lake that is 15 degrees and one that is 10. At 10 after about 10 mins you wont be able to feel your hands, face or feet anymore.
I wouldn't worry about transitions too much as they are less important for a long distance race.
Good luck. Looks like a challenging race
The wife did her first proper sprint try a couple of weeks ago in York. She did really well, i think she was 21st out of 160 odd women and had the 3rd fastest run time on the day.
not bad seeing as it was only about the 5th time she has ever used a road bike too.
Got a 70.3 coming up in sept and i recon she might beat me seeing as she is a better swimmer. Im sort of going all in sine all i have done previously is a very short "go tri" event.
not bad seeing as it was only about the 5th time she has ever used a road bike too.
Got a 70.3 coming up in sept and i recon she might beat me seeing as she is a better swimmer. Im sort of going all in sine all i have done previously is a very short "go tri" event.
944fan said:
You have entered Celtman as your first major race
Yes, but I am not a stranger to other endurance events, so I am not coming into it untrained or anything like that.The swim is a new thing for me though and I am a little apprehensive about the cold and OW swimming in general.
matt-ITR said:
Has anyone here tried Celtman?
I've entered it as a triathlon newbie and wondering if anyone has some tips?
I have a Sprint tri next weekend which will probably be my only triathlon in the run up and I plan to use it for transition practice and kit testing more than anything else.
The race is 8 weeks away so I need to get cracking on my open water swimming. Everything else seems to be in hand training wise.
8 weeks? So you'll be tapering for 4 weeks, and training for 4...I've entered it as a triathlon newbie and wondering if anyone has some tips?
I have a Sprint tri next weekend which will probably be my only triathlon in the run up and I plan to use it for transition practice and kit testing more than anything else.
The race is 8 weeks away so I need to get cracking on my open water swimming. Everything else seems to be in hand training wise.
How's your riding? Eg getting off a bike after a relatively hard 200km and saying meh?
And how's your running?
Subject to the answers to those two, my tip might be to defer for a year.
matt-ITR said:
Yes, but I am not a stranger to other endurance events, so I am not coming into it untrained or anything like that.
The swim is a new thing for me though and I am a little apprehensive about the cold and OW swimming in general.
As I said above you need to get yourself down to OW asap. Find a deep lake if you can. The shallow ones will already have started to pick up temperature and with lots of warm weather on the way within a week they will be a few degrees above what you will experience at the Celtman.The swim is a new thing for me though and I am a little apprehensive about the cold and OW swimming in general.
Being able to swim 3.8km OW is hard enough but in very cold water it is going to be tough when you are not used to it.
How fast can you swim 3.8KM?
Greg66 said:
8 weeks? So you'll be tapering for 4 weeks, and training for 4...
How's your riding? Eg getting off a bike after a relatively hard 200km and saying meh?
And how's your running?
Subject to the answers to those two, my tip might be to defer for a year.
6 weeks training, 2 week taper. Who tapers for 4 weeks?!How's your riding? Eg getting off a bike after a relatively hard 200km and saying meh?
And how's your running?
Subject to the answers to those two, my tip might be to defer for a year.
Riding and running I am very happy with.
Looking for specific advice from previous competitors ideally. Anything learnt from the event that is specific to Celtman I would really like to know.
It seems a world away from a standard IM distance, so feeding/nutrition on the mountain run and what to carry up are things that I would find useful.
Aiming for 1:15 swim if its 3.8km, around 1hr if its shortened to 3km again.
Sub 6hrs bike and and between 5 and 6hrs for the run. Judging from previous years these times should put me around top 5.
Edited by matt-ITR on Thursday 5th May 15:28
Fair play to you Matt. I was worried you were going to come back with 1:50 swim where I thought you would have hypothermia before you had finished :-)
Not sure if it is the Celtman or the Rat Race one but one had a list of mandatory kit you had to take including survival blanket, flare etc.
I hope it goes well. Looks utterly an bonkers race. Not one I would ever attempt. At my size that amount of climbing would kill me.
I look forward to your race report
Not sure if it is the Celtman or the Rat Race one but one had a list of mandatory kit you had to take including survival blanket, flare etc.
I hope it goes well. Looks utterly an bonkers race. Not one I would ever attempt. At my size that amount of climbing would kill me.
I look forward to your race report
gifdy said:
Thanks for the tips -I'm planning an OW one later in the year so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime I'm looking for another pool based Sprint....unfinished business !
Might be a bit far for yoy but the Roade triathlon was always a good pool based event. I will caveat it with the fact that it was cancelled last year due to not enough entries but in previous years it has 600 hundred entrants. Flatish bike and pan flat run as well.I am going to do it to finish this season. Swimming Coniston a few weeks before so will be glad for a short pool swim
944fan said:
Might be a bit far for yoy but the Roade triathlon was always a good pool based event. I will caveat it with the fact that it was cancelled last year due to not enough entries but in previous years it has 600 hundred entrants. Flatish bike and pan flat run as well.
I am going to do it to finish this season. Swimming Coniston a few weeks before so will be glad for a short pool swim
About an hour and a half away so definitely doable.I am going to do it to finish this season. Swimming Coniston a few weeks before so will be glad for a short pool swim
gifdy said:
944fan said:
Might be a bit far for yoy but the Roade triathlon was always a good pool based event. I will caveat it with the fact that it was cancelled last year due to not enough entries but in previous years it has 600 hundred entrants. Flatish bike and pan flat run as well.
I am going to do it to finish this season. Swimming Coniston a few weeks before so will be glad for a short pool swim
About an hour and a half away so definitely doable.I am going to do it to finish this season. Swimming Coniston a few weeks before so will be glad for a short pool swim
What are peoples thoughts on stepping up the Don Fink training plan from Intermediate to competitive at this stage (about 11 weeks in) for Ironman Wales?
Hopefully going to finally have the time to fully dedicate fitting the training plan in and want to push myself that little bit more for what is going to be a relatively slow swim time as its a major weakness for me (aiming for 90 mins at best) and make this up on the bike and run.
Hopefully going to finally have the time to fully dedicate fitting the training plan in and want to push myself that little bit more for what is going to be a relatively slow swim time as its a major weakness for me (aiming for 90 mins at best) and make this up on the bike and run.
briangriffin said:
What are peoples thoughts on stepping up the Don Fink training plan from Intermediate to competitive at this stage (about 11 weeks in) for Ironman Wales?
Hopefully going to finally have the time to fully dedicate fitting the training plan in and want to push myself that little bit more for what is going to be a relatively slow swim time as its a major weakness for me (aiming for 90 mins at best) and make this up on the bike and run.
If you were restricting your training because of time only or you find the current plan too easy then yes maybe step up, but be careful. It surprising how quickly you can go from training comfortably to pushing far too hard by just upping the duration and / or intensity. My plan has just stepped up into a new build phase and suddenly I am finding myself much more fatigued. I use a Heart Rate Variability app each morning to measure my recovery and that has started showing a lot more amber and red.Hopefully going to finally have the time to fully dedicate fitting the training plan in and want to push myself that little bit more for what is going to be a relatively slow swim time as its a major weakness for me (aiming for 90 mins at best) and make this up on the bike and run.
If the swim is major weakness then I strongly recommend some coaching in this. At your level the swim is all about technique. You may not have somewhere close but look for maybe a Swim Smooth coach somewhere and get booked in. Even one session will be beneficial. You need the guidance to tell you what to fix. Its worthless spending tons of time swimming if you have a major flaw in your stroke. All you are doing is building more muscle memory for the wrong pattern of movement.
briangriffin said:
What are peoples thoughts on stepping up the Don Fink training plan from Intermediate to competitive at this stage (about 11 weeks in) for Ironman Wales?
Hopefully going to finally have the time to fully dedicate fitting the training plan in and want to push myself that little bit more for what is going to be a relatively slow swim time as its a major weakness for me (aiming for 90 mins at best) and make this up on the bike and run.
I started last year on the competitive program, and up until about wk10 managed fine.Hopefully going to finally have the time to fully dedicate fitting the training plan in and want to push myself that little bit more for what is going to be a relatively slow swim time as its a major weakness for me (aiming for 90 mins at best) and make this up on the bike and run.
Once the interval stuff started, I made a bit of a mess of things running too hard downhill and that sort of thing giving me a few pains, and had several weeks of run/walking, or even skipping the running altogether and just going for a bit more biking, while switching between the competitive and intermediate programs. I also completely gave up interval stuff during runs, although kept hitting as many hills as possible on the bike.
So I would guess it is ok but for 2/3 weeks remember what Fink says about rest days, if you feel you need an extra one due to the increase in volume, take it. I did have a few of those if my longer weekend stuff was particularly taxing.
Have you been down for a area/course recce? A post on the Ironman Wales Journey Facebook page will almost certainly find a few people wishing to join you, or let me know, I spend far to much time cycling the route! Bloody gorgeous it was today, and over 20 degrees. Only had the wind to moan about today.
ETA - There were two bits of the Competitive program I very rarely did, the run after the long cycle (Saturday), and the gentle spin on the same day as the long run (Sunday). The former would probably have helped, but after a particularly hard 5-6 hour ride, I found it really tough to pull the shoes on and go straight back out. Similarly the Sunday cycle I usually replaced with a swim, as early on I was also working toward a 10km swim. Even once done that was the one I missed just about every week.
Edited by Dimski on Sunday 8th May 20:23
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