Training for a shorter Tri

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  • Chris - in the summer I will swim here in my wettie. Lots of triathletes use it. 90m outside can get slightly choppy on a blustery day.

    My tri in May will be at Crystal Palace Sports Centre - that's 50m, and I'm intending to swim there weekly from now on. My local pool is only 25m, and is probably better for technique drills, using paddles, floats etc, so I will probably continue to do a weekly session there too.

  • If you're near Marlow you can't be far from High Wycombe, Chris - you should check out the pool there. It's a 50m with a movable boom, so they often split it into two pools, but I'm sure they must run some 50m sessions. It's good to get a different feel!

    I used to swim there occasionally as a kid - my Grandma lived in the area.

  • Hi Gang.....................

    Did my first Parkrun today in Heaton Park Prestwich, a long hill at 2k point and it stopped raining, the final k was round the boating lake, a great morning out .image

    199 runners today, came in 128th,....103rd male....... 3rd in my age group image and in 28.33,

    ST .................well done to you and Austin.

    May bike tomorrow if the dosn't get up, if it does I'll maybe swim.

  • Good result Razor.

    I'm in Berks, but drove up to Marlow to see the course. I vaguely remember the High Wycombe pool from also swimming there as a kid; visiting cousins. I'll call them and see if they do any 50m sessions, and we'll head up as a family.

    I reckon it took longer to drop the family in Reading then get to Marlow than it would have to go direct to HW from home.

    I had horrendous Garmin issues today. I'd intended to run 2 laps non-stop, and had loaded the course onto it. For some bizzare reason the Mode button kept turning the damn thing off, and it seems I ran the first 2 miles at 6:12!! I reset the thing on the second lap, and it worked ok (without using the course). I'll see what happens tomorrow on the bike ride.

  • Wow, you've all been busy gang - good effort! Sorry to hear about ailments too - never underestimate the benefits of proper rest - don't go back to it too soon no matter how you feel. I had plantar fasciitis 3 years ago, thought it had gone after 2 weeks rest and manipulation, went back out running and "twang" back to square 1.

    Been in Dubai this week, already getting hot (28 C on Friday) and my mate there tells me "its starting to warm up now!!!!" Only managed 2 sessions in the hotel gym but felt OK - 10K on exercise bike then 5k on treadmill each time. Not used to treadmills so interesting to see speed etc - it told me i'd done 5k in 24 mins, but felt hard compared to on the road. Had a few walks out and about - great beach promenades at Jumeirah for running and cycling when its not too hot (ie Nov to March!)

    Glad to find quite a few cycle paths, quiet roads in desert and big open spaces where I'll be able to run and bike in relative safety. Lots of runners out and about in suburb I think i'll be living in (Arabian Ranches) so looking good for training buddies. Main roads are bonkers - even the "back roads" are 4 lane motorways! Sheik Zayed rd is main through road, 6 lanes wide, no cycling, overtake on either side - and we thought UK roads were bad!!! School i'm working at has a fabulous covered outdoor pool so that's sorted too! Brill! Getting proper excited now.

    Equipment and gear is expensive (about 30% more than UK prices eg Nike Lunarswift + £95, 2XU trisuit £110) so will be stocking up in UK before I go. Now have to persuade the wife to let me buy a TT bike now rather than next year................. wish me luck! Fancying a Kestrel Talon Tri 105 from Wiggle with £500 off at the moment, making it £1199. Any thoughts or opinions on this bike, gang?

  • Did you make contact wth Dubai Dave? He's probably got lots of advice and knows other athletes out there.
  • Lucky me - the rain came out 3 miles into my duathlon test ride image That and the wind made the ride a lot harder than it should have been. I hit the first hill (Cat5 apparently) at mile 2, and of course I wasn't warmed up for it.

    Towards the end of the course there is a 180degree turn about a traffic island image. It's going to be fun on the day.I'm hoping I found the ride hard as it was on top of yesterday's  8 miler.

    Did anyone else get caught in the rain?

  • Got caught badly in the rain!! No water proof, so was soaked through! Couldn't change gear towards the end!

    On a side note...how quick does everyone cycle?? I ride solo, so have no guide as to if I am going fast or slow...it feels fast to me image. I average roughly 24km per hour..
  • Hi Everyone! I'm back!image

    Great to see how well everyone is doing. Steve that is faster than me, but I'm pretty slow at everything. 

    Sorry GingerGav - don't know anything about TT bikes. But sounds very exciting image. As does your new life in Dubai. Wow, what an adventure.

    Have had the predicited manic week so no training since the quick dash on Wednesday and very little sleep since then too. But this evening I went out with my No.3 daughter and we did a loop together and then I dropped her off home and did another big loop. So will be training some this week before resting for my duathlon on Saturday.

  • Hi Steve. According to my garmin I was at 15 mi at 1:00:03, which is ~24 km. Wet windy day with hills.

    Chili, which Du are you doing?

  • Well it depends a lot on conditions. A lot of my cycling is urban London cycling and the traffic conditions limit my speed more than anything else. So in town I'd say I average 20kph. I also enjoy long day rides, where I go at a pretty easy pace so that I can just keep on and on. I probably need to work on a few shorter, faster rides, and find a few hills to test my legs. I have a touring bike, so somewhere between a proper road bike and a hybrid in terms of speed. In the summer, I'll put on slightly narrower, lighter wheels, which make a signicant improvement to the speed.

    I did the cycling leg of the 2008 London sprint tri (21km) in 46:29, which is an average of slightly more than 27kph. It's a flat course, but it was wet and windy and I'd had an absolutely disastrous swim (panic attack due to crowding - couldn't breathe or move my limbs - pretty embarrassing really) so I found myself near the back of the cycle leg among slower slightly nervous people, so overtaking was sometimes tricky, especially anywhere near a bend. I was about 30th percentile among the women on the bike.

    I'd say that I ought to be able to go faster in good conditions, assuming my swim was satisfactory and if I was among faster, more confident people. 

    I've looked at times for last year's Crystal Palace Tri, which I'll do this May:

    Average time for 20K was 43:58 for men and 49:40 for women That gives average male speed of 27.3kph and female speed of 24.2kph. That seems slow to me, given that the 5k running times are quick - male 22:38 and female 25:30. I can't imagine the hills are terrible, so I wonder if there is congestion on the course, or very tight difficult turns.

  • Hi all,

    depsite the wet and windy weather, it sounds as though you are all coping reasonably well! I was out with my bf and another brave soul on Sunday to time our braver than me triathletes completeing the duathlon of 5km/16km/5km. 10 of our guys went out into the wind/horizontal rain and hail!

    Anyway, I will be back to it in no time I am hoping anyway!

    Razor- Fantastic run with your boy, you sound pleased!

    With regards to cycling times, again I would agree with Yersinia, its all about the conditions! Our guys managed a quick cycle out yesterday with teh wind right behind them, and then tales of a struggle back against the wind. Most of the time this will happen if the wind is like that, and for training rides I tend to go out with the wind against me to begin with, working hard and then come back with the wind when I am more tired. It all depends on other factors of course in a triathlon. Such as how hard do you want to work on the bike, if you have a long hilly run for after the bike, you don't want to go eyeballs out on the bike. I managed a pretty decent 1:18 at London Oly tri last year (first Oly I have done mind you!) and it was flat and hardly any wind (that was for about 39km) and then I really felt it on the run where I got a stitch and was nearly sick as I had pushed so hard. I probably maintain an average of around 15mph on a ride of about 30 miles. So takes me about 2 hours. I have a good hilly loop by me that takes me around 1:40 to do 40km and that is climbing hills!

    Anyway, you should try and cycle on your own as much as you can to imitate the effects of racing- however that's not to say group rides aren't good! I enjoy riding with my friends, but always make sure they are a bit faster than me, so that I can get a good training ride, and also so that I don't end up waiting too long for others and then get cold!

  • Thanks for the bike speed input guys.

    I seem to be on track with the average then. I was just a bit put back because I don't seem to be making speed improvements as I would like.

    I am making fitness improvements steadily, rather than speed, I feel comparably fresher and fresher after each ride than I did last season.

    Although, as a few of you have mentioned, most of my cycling (in fact nearly all!) this year has been in the wind and rain!!
  • Well done to all those that cycled or ran in the rain.

    I managed an hours run in the sunshine early Sunday morning, but heavy legs at the start meant I only covered 4.3 miles which felt a bit disappointing, although it did feel nice and easy for the rest of the body.

    Today I knew I would be busy with work and going to a physio appointment so had to make do with 1:15 on the static bike in the garage early, not used to cycling in the morning before 7.30, plus it was not quite the 1:30 scheduled but will not panic over 15 mins lost time. Physio pleased that hand is improving but got more exercies to do.

    Got clearance to restart Pilates class.

  • That will make a huge difference, Steve. The wind slows you down more when it's agin you than it helps when it's with you, and in wet weather you have to be a lot more cautious on downhills, poor surfaces and corners, so you lose a lot of 'free' speed.

    I've got spreadsheets with race results from a couple of sprint tris. I could post graphs if anyone would be interested to see where they think they slot in?

  • Sounds like progress all round CJ, even if it can be frustrating that it's not exactly as you'd like.

    Can't remember if I mentioned last week, but we suddenly got told that our free circuits class was changing nights, and I can't make it from next week onwards, so I have to decide whether to find a new class, or just to concentrate on swimming, cycling and running.

    I kind of hate gyms, but I feel I could do with some sort of focussed work on my core and upper body strength, and maybe having a fixed weekly date is a good idea. I thought I could spend a few weeks trying different classes in the area, to see what suits me, before settling on one.

  • Does sound really positive CJ image

    Steve - I feel the same. Speed isn't really improving but general fitness is.

    Had another bad night last night. Whilst I can do a slow 5k in pretty much any condition, anything more strenuous requires sleep. Today I had planned a hard 10 miles of cycling hills. My legs felt good and I notice that I was in a higher gear than usually, but was so tired that mentally I didn't have the energy to manage more than 5 miles on the busy roads.

    My duathlon is Dunmow 5k, 21k, 5k near Bishop Stortford, Essex (i think!). Am trying not to get nervous! Have a couple of easy days planned and then rest for Thursday and Friday. My legs do feel so much better for having three days off last week. I know a lot of tri plans show you can train 6 days a week because of the different disciplines, but I think I cope better with 2 days off , especially since I'm so often up at night.

  • Are you sure, Chilibean? Normally the first run in a duathlon is significantly longer than the 2nd one.
  • Kerry...........  youv'e got me confused with ST,  it was ST who ran with his son Austin .

    Did a 1k swim tonight . feel a bit knackered but glad I made the effort.image

    CJ.....................Well done.

  • Ironwolf - I ran for the race details and double checked - yeah, the two runs are both the same 5k.

    Today I had planned my usual Tuesday swim session and a short run. But the traffic was so horrendous that after struggling to get my big girls to school, I returned home and dressed Smidge up for the bike and used that for the rest of day instead. So decided to forgo the run. Will fit that in tomorrow.

    Razor - 1k swim is impressive image My swim session didn't go quite as planned. There is only one local pool for such a huge population as Cheshunt. Thus the pool is always full. A tuesday lunchtime is one of the rare occasions that they have both lane swimming and also the rest of the pool open for general public swim. But from today they have now put on two new adult swimming classes. I think it is fantastic so many people want to learn, but I wish they wouldn't keep squeezing the public swim sessions! Anyway, with all the faffling around of the staff trying to work out how much space they needed (half the pool) I only managed 46 lengths in the time I had.

  • Club run tonight. Warm up run, followed by a 20 minute pelt/2 min rest/pelt back, aiming to finish at 20 minutes. Cool down run.

    It really loosened up my back, and I don't feel too tired. ~7:30 on the way out and 7:52 on the way back. 2.66 miles each way. Total  mileage 7.05.

  • SteadyCJSteadyCJ ✭✭✭

    Started back at Pilates class this evening, have been doing it for some years and now in an intermediate group but it felt like I should be back with the beginners. A couple of moves I couldnot do but my abs are feeling worked out and the rest of me nicely stretched out, will await the soreness tomorrow.

    A short run planned for tomorrow.

  • Chilli.......................46 lengths is 1150mts so thats a good swim image how many do you normally do?

    Steady......................Well done on your Pilates class I'm sure you will ache in the morning but that's progress image

    Chris.....................Great run times, I'll bet you'll be feeling it later image

  • Thanks Razor - Bizzarely I feel fine today - other than the inability to sleep that I get after evening runs (followed by dinner).
  • Hey all,

    Glad to see the training is keeping on going. Sorry Razor- got a bit confused I did!

    My cast is due to come off today, so later today is going to be my very very short trial run. First run in nearly 8 weeks, it;s about a 2.5 mile loop, and I am not going to pressure myself on time, I am simply going to get those endorphins flowing! Tomorrow is a build up of getting into the water at my local pool in the evening and to see how the wrist is! I didnt want to get to fuerteventura in a 50m pool and struggle as swimming is my real strength, I can swin a good 800m in 12:30 usually and cover 1500m in about 26mins. So this is going to be a real test!

  • Cor, you're a speedy swimmer Kerry!

    Good luck on the trial run and swim.

    I did the square root of FA yesterday, so must get out and do something today. It's wimpy, I know, but my lip is very sore and I know the cold wind will really chafe it, so I'm feeling very reluctant to go out.

  • Yersinia that excuse is worse than my sore toe lol

    Well not managed to get out Monday Tuesday so did two runs today a 6k this morning and a 3k this afternoon first at 9 minute mile pace second at 8 minute mile pace.

    Picked up a bit of a cold so hoping to get rid before Sat half image still felt alright today but only small distances.

    Small run tomorrow after work then swim on Friday. Half on Sat then will get the bike out Sunday then start to train for my first sprint Tri 27th March.
  • SteadyCJSteadyCJ ✭✭✭

    Carp day today... felt tired on train on way home, nothing new there, but got home felt cold and tired so thought quick nap then a run...  but no, just woken up having been shivering under the duvet whilst fully clothed, feel bleurgh; so today is a rest day and so will tomorrow.

    edited : and my abs ache from Pilates as well.

  • (((CJ))) Rest up till you're better.

    Good luck on Saturday ST. Hope the cold is better by then.

    I braved my sore lip in the cold cold wind, and did my longest run yet this year - 9.3km on an undulating mixture of pavements and trails at 7 minute per km pace. I think I must be getting better - that's  almost twice as far as my February Parkrun, not race conditions, not pushing it, and only about 10 or 12 seconds per km slower.

  • Good luck with your post cast training, Kerry!

    Dubai Dave was kind enough to give me some tips and contacts but I was so busy while I was there I didn't get chance to meet up. I was planning to meets ABRaS club at Safa park for a wedn night run but couldn't make the time.

    Dubai Dave, if you're out there, I am looking at getting a house either in Arabian Ranches, Victory Heights or Motor City. Any thoughts on a nearest running club?

    Here's a tip for you all guys if you want to do a fast run! Try to sell something on ebay. I sold a Ridgeback Velocity hybrid bike of mine this week. Unbelievable faff trying to organise couriers, payments, packaging, problems with ebay and email addresses, phone number confusion, what a nightmare. image Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!   It got me so wound up and cross I went out for my Tuesday run and blasted round my usual route - 7.5k in 30mins dead! It might be the only way I manage my 10k in 40 mins target for this year!image

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