Swim less bike lots more. Then bike more.

Do you have a coach? Invest in a coach. My coach shaved 41 minutes off my Half Ironman time in 6 months. Austin Mitchell from training peaks and FastesTTransition. Go check him out.

How's your bike setup? Are you running fast tires and latex tubes, aero helmet, fast clothing etc?

Thanks TS- I've done some higher mileage weeks but wonder if I need more specificity/intensity in those miles. I read a lot about people using trainerroad and zwift doing a couple of high intensity bike workouts per week. Thoughts about volume vs. intensity or some balance of the two?

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

I've got a Trek Speed Concept 7.5 with some generic carbon wheels. I've got to check into fast tires and latex tubes, thanks for that tip. I've got the Giro Air Attack helmet and a seemingly decently fast trisuit. At the moment I can't get into a more aero position as my hamstrings and hips are pretty tight. That's a longer term goal though.

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

1) Be fast
2) Don't be slow

You are welcome. :)

Your run is fine. If you want to make long term triathlon progress you'd do well to run less for awhile so you can swim and bike more. Drop it down to 20 mpw, so ~ 2.5-3 hrs per week.

So now you've got 7-7.5 hrs to work with for swim and bike.

Try and double that swim volume to 12k/wk. ~3-3.5 hrs (either 3x4k or 4x3k). Some folks would say not to put this much effort into the swim, because you may save what 5 min max? But it's not just about that. It's getting to your bike fresh so that you can hit 80-85% of your FTP for the whole ride.

Then you've got 4hrs to bike. If you can squeeze anymore than the 10 hrs this is where to do it. Ride hard. If you've never done them then you'd really benefit from some VO2 max intervals to raise that FTP (you didn't mention what it was?). Rides would be roughly: 1 hr of VO2 max intervals, 1 hr of straight tempo with a tempoish run off the bike of 3-5 miles (it's imperative to get comfortable riding hard for extended amount of time and gaining confidence running off of it), 2 hr of sweet spot intervals. Over time make the tempo ride the longer ride. Or just join trainerroad and do their HIM low or mid volume plan. I do this but just use it for the bike and brick sessions and plan my own swim/run sessions.

Also as mentioned, get that bike fit dialed in and pay attention to all of the details to squeeze every last bit of speed out of your watts that you can. Good luck!

I'm looking to self-coach as I feel that triathlon is already expensive enough without adding a monthly coaching fee into the mix, but I do see the potential benefit. Question for you TED- when your coach helped you drop all of that time, what was your original time and what did you drop down to?

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

Thanks for the specific advice Sean. I don't have a powermeter, so am not sure what my FTP is. That is on my triathlon wish list and is a likely purchase for next season. When you say VO2 max intervals, would tabata repeats fall into that category? 1 minute at at 90% 1 minute spin then repeat x10. Or should the duration be longer for greater effect? Beyond the specifics, I get what you're driving at with the ride hard- I can't expect to get faster without some suffering.

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

Well, without a powermeter it's hard to know exactly what you're doing. I'm sure someone will tell me I'm wrong (which I might be), but VO2 max intervals are generally 110-120% (so without PM, just go balls to the wall, your legs will be on fire). You can do them 30s on 30s off or up to 3-5 min on w/ 1-3 min off. The key is to get your HR up into that VO2 max zone for 20 min for maximum benefit. So if you're doing the 30s/30s, you're not getting much recovery so your HR will stay relatively high once it gets there, but may take a few cycles to get into VO2 max. With the longer intervals w/ longer rest intervals it will take the first bit of each interval to get your HR up into VO2 max. So you could just monitor via HR. Make sure you have plenty of airflow for these so your HR isn't spiking early due to overheating.

Anyone that knows better than me please correct me.

Edit: And with you having a running background, I agree that you probably just need to learn how to suffer on the bike. It's completely different to me than suffering on the run. Your legs will feel like they can't possibly keep going, but they can. Got to learn mental toughness. Don't quit and you will gain confidence and momentum in your training.

With a 35 minute swim, I would NOT be counselling anyone to swim less and bike more. There are four or five easy minutes there.

---

***

Bike more.

Get a powermeter, get Trainerroad, get a bike fit, follow a plan.

Make sure your coach gives you a trucker hat.

Your positioning is really something to work on. I'd be cautious about just going and getting a fitting, it's only worthwhile if you do it with a very reputable fitter that is focused on performance-oriented aerodynamic positioning. Lots of fitters out there that are a waste of time. It doesn't take that much flexibility to ride in a very aero position so I'd really do a lot of research in this area. I've used the Chung/virtual elevation technique to good effect, I'm 63 and over the last 3 years I've gotten faster on the bike each year despite a stable to slightly declining FTP due to continually refining my aero position and tweaking my setup.

You've got a real fast bike but the integrated handlebars are not the best for doing continuous positioning experimentation.

As for the swimming, try to swim with a master's group at least a couple of times a week, it's by far the best way to improve your swimming. I wouldn't recommend less swimming but you probably don't need to do massive yards to improve if you swim with a master's group.

Thanks for the info on the Chung technique tt. I've not heard of it but it sounds very useful, especially as a diy-er. You're not kidding about those handlebars. I've changed the spacer out and literally had to follow the factory instructions to get it back together! Regarding the masters swimming, that is something I've looked into but the only options are out of my area. Time is tight with a 3 y/o and another on the way! But you are getting me thinking about some lessons offered in my area that I can purchase and maybe get some similar benefit. Thanks again

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

Really? You want him to spend 3 more hrs per week on the swim to gain 3-5 minutes. I want him to spend 3 more hours on the bike to gain 15 minutes.

FWIW, I am not far off his splits. 70.3 bests 25/2:18/1:34. I rarely swim more than 3 times a week (9000m), & I am not coached.

I don't think lessons are of the same benefit as masters swim - personally. Masters swim stretches you to limits, and causes you to have mini races with others, where you start to feel what feels fast, and find ways to make yourself faster in the water to keep up with others.

Swim lessons on the other hand will help you with better form, but they aren't going to 'push' you to get better. I think both are valuable, but master swim (with a great instructor) provides the best of both worlds, people to push you harder as well as a coach on deck to watch and give helpful advice.

Master swim has generally been the best bang for the buck for me.

5:21 to 4:41

Yes, really. A 35 minute swim is mediocre, at best, compared to the bike & run splits. Swim better. Swim faster. Swim easier. Don't feel trashed going into the bike & then you ride faster. It's a triathlon. If you want to just smash the bike & run move to Duathlon. That's what the off-season is for...train your weaknesses...

---

#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

Lots of n=1 on the replies, and that gives you some good ideas. Here are my general thoughts:
1. Swim frequency will help you. 4x per week: One day of 2k straight, pretty fast. 1-2 day(s) of Masters or 2 swims with 2000-2500 main sets, and one easy recovery day (after long run is perfect). This is about 3 hours / 4 swims, lots of quality.
2. Ride hard, ride more. Make this 4.5-5 hours per week. 1 day of VO2 - 30x30" like someone mentioned of 15x1' and/or build to 3x5'. 15' max and the entire workout can be done in 50 minutes. 1 day of LT intervals - 40k efforts - build to 45' of these. Long ride should involve tempo or HIM riding - it hurts, but you can keep going. Another easy ride would be good.
3. Running - long run - keep it to 10 miles and throw in something longer, easier every 3rd week. Tempo efforts in these long runs would help - something like 2x3 miles or something like that. One day of speed would be good - 10x1' fast - 5k pace. A few easy bricks off the harder efforts - even 20-30' would be great. That's about 2.5-3 hours of running. Plenty for you to improve across the board.

I agree that great swim fitness will set up a great bike, as fitness rolls down hill. Same for the bike - better fitness here will let you have a great run too. Keep it fun, mix it up and keep challenging yourself. You're on your way.

Mike

---

Mike Ricci
2017 USAT World Team Coach
USAT National Coach of the Year
Coaching Triathletes since 1992.

I don't think you need a coach if you hold yourself accountable and have some understanding of training. I don't, aside from the masters swim. I've only done 1 HIM but put down a solid time and have 2 more this season.

I swim 3x a week 2 masters at a 50m pool and 1 open water
run 3-4x a week long run 13+, tempo 5+ (total run comes out to 10-12) intervals, depending on the week, I've done 16x400, or 8 x mile and everything in between. I'll be adding 4x2mile in pretty soon too.
Bike, I try to get in a ride as often as I can.

I typically get in about 13-14 hours a week and some high weeks are as much as 17 and recovery weeks are 9-10.

---

USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

Basically... what he said (above). Good triathletes (meaning fast) come out of the water in 27 or less feeling ready to rock on the bike. A 35 swimmer is putting out more effort and getting less - which sets up the balance of day for sub-par racing.

Swim volume is great, same with the bike. BUT, more important is doing all kinds of fast stuff (suffer, then suffer more :-| ). The body can take and needs a high level of stress - (with recovery, of course). Not the same for running (recipe for injury).

It's a journey, enjoy it.

---

I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

First of all if you only can train 10 hours per week, every day you work out is your hard day. There are no easy or recovery type workouts that you should do, flat out most of the time. You can do intervals so that you can keep up the higher paces, but no junk miles.

And since time is a crunch for you and I'm assuming you have to drive somewhere to swim, knock the 6 workouts down to 4, just increase the yardage in those workouts( fast stuff, not drills or longer warmups). If you can swim with masters, do it. Be drilled after each and every swim. Make every ride average 20 to 25+ MPH, do shorter runs about 30 seconds faster than race pace with an occasional longish 10+ miler.

So that is your workout schedule, since you only train 10 hours, you will have plenty of days off to recover. Go get a proper fit, talk to the masters coach and see if they can help you, and get plenty of sleep..

With a 15 hr training week I concur. With a 10 hr week, 30-40% of that time in the pool is ridiculous.

Get a real coach, not an armchair coach.

There are a ton of triathletes in the same boat, struggling to get the times they want, they work hard on their bike and run, but have plateaued yet continue to give the swim little attention. The only triathletes that I know that are reasonably successful, despite being shit swimmers are elite runners/cyclists ex-Olympians etc. if you want to go anywhere with your triathlon, you have to at some point address your swimming. As m--n says easy 5mins to lose on the swim, going to take you a lot longer to lose that on the run. Also something else to consider with the swim, something that I only realised this season, is how much the swim can affect a poor swimmer. I have a swimming background and hit T1 feeling fresh, it has little effect on my bike or run. But I regularly bike faster than guys who are much quicker than me in training - they can't swim... I had one bloke telling me he had a shit run because he overcooked it on the swim....

Thanks Mike and others for clarifying the importance of swim fitness. Honestly I usually come out of the water feeling pretty trashed so I recognize that swim fitness will carry over through my entire race. Monty and others who commented specifically and at length about intensity- thanks. I've had suspicions that I needed to be doing more and your thoughts really confirm that. Coming from a running background my training philosophy was always to have 2 days a week of intensity to avoid injury and I erroneously applied this overall to Tri training. It makes sense, especially with swimming and biking that I need to hit it hard every day. And sleep more. Thanks to those who reminded me of that. It's been easy in the past to grind myself down by limiting sleep. Now to develop a better plan armed with all this info...

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

Bike is the low hanging fruit.

I'd place a decent sized bet that if you can track & train your FTP those 20 minutes are there for the taking.

A smart trainer (eg kickr) + zwift/traineroad will really help.

I hear EPO works wonders.....

I'd focus on the "free" stuff, first. By free, I mean things that don't take any additional fitness. Tires/tubes have been mentioned, as has kit and bike fit/body position, but I'm surprised nobody has yet asked how your transitions are.

Getting 20 minutes of fitness-based improvements without increasing your current 10 hours a week schedule is a lot to ask. Can it be done? Sure. But if you can shave 8 minutes off your time with the "free" stuff, you're only looking for 12 minutes of fitness based improvements. I'm no professional triathlon coach, but I think that would be easier to come by than 20. ;)

---

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

You don't have a power meter, but you can still use trainerroad virtual power. Get the wahoo RPM Cadence and RPM Speed sensors. Cheap, like $65 or so. Virtual power I'm sure is not perfect but for me the readings have been very consistent and I made what I feel to be huge gains in FTP as a result. Tons of trainer work and you can see exactly what you're producing.

I've got the garmin speed and cadence sensors- do you know if those will work?

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

I think it does but you want to check trainerroad.com to see what devices work. I'm sure they've got a compatibility guide.

LMAO!

How about shaving?

Do you shave your legs and maybe your arms? That's worth a few minutes.

2x what Jeremye said. Virtual power in TrainerRoad has been extremely helpful for me. Obviously it is better if you can race with power too, but virtual is fantastic for teaching you how to truly go hard.

I don't care how the numbers correlate with real power as long as they are consistent. I found I was totally underbiking and had a tendency to ease off if I stopped looking at the power. Super helpful. I love my coach (Zack Weber at T4 Endurance) but it is another expense. TrainerRoad is like $10 a month.

---

Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

What's your height and weight?

Any one asked if you were sick recently?

Exactly! It's mystifying how many people don't do that. It's the opposite, they're strong on the bike, so bike lots... perhaps you should swim??

1. How much disposable income do you have to put into achieving these goals? ;)
2. Can you post a pic / descripition of your current bike setup? Or use this and see what it suggest: http://aeroweenie.com/aero-assistant.html
3. Have you listened to Tower26 podcast, looked into their new online swim training platform? (https://www.obstri.com/tower26/)
4. Are you taking any "off days" in your current schedule, if so that would be the first thing I would scratch and start incorporating an active "recovery" day rather than a complete off day.
5. Depending on what the answer is to #1, I would highly recommend getting a coach. Bit biased but I might know someone that is able to help you achieve your goals ;)

Right now it looks like you are doing:
2hrs of swimming
5-6hrs of riding
and 3.5-4.5hrs of running

So maybe a bit more than 10hrs a week?

---

-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

I'm 5'10" and157. Not in "you look sick" territory, but heading that way. That comes when I'm about 5lbs lighter and at peak fitness.

Aaron and Jeremye, thanks for the info in trainerroad, it's something I've been thinking about and your feedback on virtual power has sealed the deal for me. I checked their site and it is compatible with the garmin speed and cadence sensors; I'll just need to get an Ant+ dongle for my laptop.

Zed- I did spend the off season swimming 5 days a week and have seen some significant improvements as a result of that and some lessons. I haven't quite built up to a 1k yard time trial, but am at 800 yds at this point. I'm averaging 1:32 for that effort, which would translate to about 33ish for a HIM swim. Still more work to do there, I agree.

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

If you use a Garmin watch or bike computer you may already have a Garmin Ant+ dongle. many of their units do/did come with an ANT+ USB dongle for syncing your watch/computer. This and the speed/cadence sensors are all you need to connect your bike to Zwift or Trainerroad.

What trainer do you currently have?
I've been using a KurtKinetic road machine extensively with Zwift for a little under a year. It's made a big difference to my cycling. I found it much harder to do work on the trainer before I started using Zwift. I could do a 2x20 threshold session just looking at my bike computer and bsing intensity on HR but it's a miserable and boring experience. I found the tediousness was enough to prevent me doing consistent training that way. Last autum and winter I started using Zwift a lot and found it much easier to spend time on the trainer. It's also now possible to base sessions on power which is a major advantage. If you've space to leave the trainer set-up it's also easier to fit a session in if you're tight for time, as compared with getting out on the road.
Having said all that, I still prefer getting outside and the trainer will never replace that, but the combination works well.

Lots of good stuff in these replies, so I will just add an additional vote for increasing your swim fitness... and you will have to determine how to do that being so time constrained. As has been mentioned already, swim intensity is important as you can hammer every swim without much injury risk. You have done periods of swim focus before and it helped, keep working these in to your schedule periodically. Its not just about swimming faster than 35 minutes, but getting out of the water fresher and with a better group of athletes. However, if swimming is the most time constraining training for you because you have to drive to the pool and change clothes etc. then I would say do fewer swims that are a bit longer, with solid purpose to them.

Also, if perhaps running is the easiest thing time wise for you to fit in as you can do it right out of your front door, then I also vote for maintaining frequency and consistency of running; not only to build fitness but to help with race day execution. It would be training your strength. For the time challenged triathlete it can provide a lot of fitness and race benefit for the amount of time invested (especially if it is running right out of the door without having to drive somewhere). And it can be done in the dark or low light. Even the most time constrained person can generally fit in an extra hour or so of running each week.

I come from a running background and this is true: you need to learn to suffer on the bike.

I am learning to do so right now and have been experiencing some very nice breakthroughs in my cycling.

---

Love the Pain!

Quito-Ecuador

Another thing to consider is that you may not need to come up with the perfect "10 hours per week - balanced triathlon training schedule" . Because that may not fit your needs. Instead you may need to think of how do I best spend the 30 hours that are available across a three week period. That could give you the flexibility needed to emphasize different sports throughout that cycle: some weeks bike more and swim less, or another emphasize swimming when your legs are beat up from longer runs for example. You are self coached, and are doing well that way, but seem to be looking for some alternative ideas. You may benefit from not thinking about only 7 day routine training blocks.

Hire a coach! Grn Mchn Multisports just helped an athlete punch his ticket to Chattanooga 70.3 for Worlds with a 4:32 in his 2nd ever triathlon and first ever 70.3 inRaleigh :)

---

Head Coach Grn Mchn Multisports Coaching, LLC
http://www.grnmchnmultisports.com

Just replying to monitor the responses to this thread since my 70.3 PR is slightly slower than you (5:04:xx) and I never once considered shaving 20 min off that time as a possibility. I'm curious to see what advice you get here.

FWIW, I'm 45 years old, 5'10", and get down to 135-140 lbs. as my race weight. My 70.3 swim and bike times are almost identical to yours but your run is about 10 min faster.

I've gone from 6.45 4 years ago to 4.40 in May, training around 8 - 10 hours a week aged 45. I have 2 kids, so limited as to how much I can train, I just try and make sure each training hour is quality. I can swim, so can get away with not heaps of swimming. Running is my weakness, so trying to focus on that at the moment.

This is encouraging to read. Are you self coached zed? Did you use any training platform for cycling? Swim question: I've had my swim vids critiqued here with the feedback being I have decent form, just need to work on getting faster- what's the best swim workout to achieve swim speed? I've been mainly doing 50 and 100yd repeats. Am I on the right track or should I be doing more tempo/ HIM pace intervals?

---

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."