In Reply To:
IMO, a real tri is a race where folks do things like these thoughts.
Put as much effort into training for all three events.
Need to do the swim as a race, rather than a warm up.
Having the times for each event be about the same.
The only distance, IMO, that comes the closest to the above is the Oly, and O2 distances.
But again, just my opinion.
As Dev pointed out in his thread, lets look at the majority of folks who do tris. They are the older folks who have knees that dont allow us to run like we used to.
I know if I were to RD a race again, I would try one that met the above goals and see if there were any interest. I did write the RD at LOP and suggest distances that met the above. Never heard back from him.
So in summary, seems to me a "Tri" would have a race with equal efforts, training, times, etc. on all three events.
A "du", puts the effort on two events. Today, most of our "tris", IMO, have the swim no more than a warm up.
Dave
Dave
Have you lost your mind? It's only a warm up if you choose it to be. So swim the "short" 3200y hard! Knock yourself out. How long are your masters workouts? Probably not all that much longer than that.
Last time I checked, you are free to spend as much time as you like training the swim.
So you race Oly distance to get the longest relative swim? Come on. The proportional difference is so minor. You really are that nutty as to let THAT drive your race decisions? If you care about swim length, then go race IMs -- 4400y is a warmup for no one.
And finally, all you whiners about the length of the swim... 4K would add like ~750 yards. Whooopeeeee, another 12 minutes. You are really missing the point here. Each event is meant to have some meaning. A 2200-4400y open water swim is pretty darn long by pure swimmer standards. Look around, and you'll see most open water races are ~1 mile. So, 1.2 to 2.4 miles is arguably longer than 56-112 mile rides, 13-26 mile runs.
**************
Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.
Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.