I definitely feel your pain. I look at pro times and as an aspiring AGer in 35-39, I feel like I have a ways to go.

But, I’ve made consistent progress since starting this tri focus 2 years ago.

I know I have a mountain of work to go, but I always focus on frequency and consistency in workouts. This should be the same for you - you should be seeing progress if you’re consistent and should progress.

At your stage, I think miles on the bike are of key importance. Ride as much as you can and focus on being comfortable in a relatively aero position. Your biomechanics should improve in all three sports with volume.

So, it’s all relative - be happy with your personal points of progression and winning small battles. Each workout is a win in my opinion. Someone else is sitting on the couch and you decided to step up and be active.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Suck it up. You are comparing yourself to people who have trained 10-15 hours a week for years, not just one year ;)

If it was so easy to go sub 20 5k after just a year everyone would be doing it. Anything worth doing is hard and good things come who those who persist.

BallsJesus,

I know where you are coming from. I started at about the same age as you with very little background in any of the three disciplines. But each race I have done over the past 5 years has been better than the last, for the most part, and I am getting faster. When I started, my half marathon time was 2:09 - same as you - and just 4 years later I did a 1:36 off the bike, in a race. Not fast for many people here but in terms of % cut it's massive. My bike improved dramatically, and so did my swim. But this was over 5 years of consistent training with a very good coach. The sheer volume of training you'll do could have a positive impact over the next few years.

Keep in mind that there are many, many, who are way slower than you. And you know what? Not all of them even care. Why do you care? Because it's a privilege to be able to have the physical, financial and even emotional means to race, so just keep going and as you do more you will get wiser and more content.

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101Ironman Hacks & Newsletter: http://ironmanhacks.com/newsletter/

YouTube interviews with legends like Mark Allen, Dave Scott, many more: https://www.youtube.com/...s?sub_confirmation=1

I appreciate the response and words of wisdom for sure! Thank you!!!

I understand what you are saying and agree. I think I forget sometimes that it’s only been a year and I have so much more to learn and grow. Thank you for the input!

Now this is inspiring! Thank you so much for the background. It’s nice to know that others have started where I’m at now and have excelled to such a high level. That’s amazing!

Most of the enjoyment in this sport is seeing the constant improvement.Enjoy the journey!! :)

I couldn't swim 50M when I started, to look back now and see how far I have come gives a great deal of pride. Combine that with doing a 1.9K swim on top of a 90K ride and half mara...thats what I enjoy! Not so much the finish times (just accept that you like most of us will most likely never be at the pointy end), the improvement is the fun part.

Well said. I can attest to the fact that running or cycling a new PB never gets old. I think I just need to resign to the fact that I didn’t get into Tri to win races, I truly enjoyed the mixture of training and still to. Thanks for the info!

I mostly do this sport because I enjoy it. Sometimes this board and some of the tri groups on facebook definitely beat me down. The knowledge you get here can be amazing, but I get it. A lot of negativity, then you wonder why you're slow after you've been putting in the work. I'm guessing if I get to race in 2020 it's going to be a full Ironman and I will be going in cold. Or it will be a holiday 10k and that's it.

Keep training. I think getting into the existence of where you're average for the year is above 10 hrs per week is the starting point. Hey you have a coach, I don't, sometimes I wish I did, but man that can be expensive.

In a sense, good news, not many races out there so you have the next five months to focus on yourself!

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I was signed up for 2 more Oly’s this year but both cancelled of course. The focus now is an Ironman 70.3 in 2021 assuming they actually have one. I have no plans in stopping training at all, in fact, I just picked up my first full Tri bike so I’m committed. Coaching is not cheap for sure, I consider myself lucky to be able to afford one but I have sacrificed in other areas money-wise in order to make up for it. Priorities...

Based on what you said you should have years of improvement ahead of you! 10-15 is a lot of training, but this is a sport that rewards persistence and consistency. Keep putting in work and you will see noticeable drops.

Your ceiling is based on a lot of things, but a sub-20 5k is not out of the realm of possibility. I remember the excitement of going under the 8:00 per mile barrier in a 5k. Same with the 7:00. Same with 20:00.

In some ways we “adult onset” athletes with minimal single-sport experience have some advantages in that we can still set PRs. My teammate who swam at MSU will never see those times again.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

There are tens of thousands of registered users here. There is a "reporting bias" for strong performances, people with an FTP of 4.5 W/kg are much more likely to post their FTP than someone who is 3 W/kg, or for a 17 minute 5K as compared to 22 minutes. So don't be fooled into thinking any of the times or power metrics you frequently see posted here represent anything near what the typical forum member is capable of. Likewise, even someone at an FTP of 4.5 W/kg is no objective superstar, they are far from world class (and I am sure they have their own level of discouragement at times, because there are still a lot of people faster than them). No matter who we are, we are slower than someone else (unless you are Usain Bolt).

Work with your coach on setting incremental improvement goals and judge yourself against your own improvement.

10-15 hrs per week for someone relatively new to this sounds like quite a lot. Even for someone who has been doing this for years, more than 10 hrs a week is challenging at times. With no prior background in any of the sports, you might be best served to cut down your overall volume and spend the rest of the year focusing on one sport so you really see some improvement. It's pretty unlikely there will be a triathlon to compete in this year anyway. Without years of base and/or strong experience in one sport it've very difficult to try to build up in all three at the same time (unless you happen to have a very high level of natural talent).

Are you enjoying yourself? Does training and (eventually, maybe) racing count as fun? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you have your own pep talk. Don't let STers posting numbers ruin your good time.

Note: STers posting numbers about their SBR power/ times is a little like fishermen telling stories of their catch. Don't judge your fish against their stories.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Exactly

"Comparison is the Thief of Joy" or something like that

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I'd kill to have even the 10hrs a week to do stuff.

Give it another year, then worry about having "low numbers". Just enjoy getting to know yourself and your new sports.

I'm guessing there will be a few leaps soon happening. Always seems that way.

Remember, 90% of people who run, bike, and swim likely don't post up on ST. ST is a microcosm of the endurance sport world filled with people a bit more rabid than the average joe.

Some of that 90% are faster than ST, but I still see it like Zwift. It's a stronger populace overall due to the "crazy" of being more involved in it.

I'm a lot faster runner now and just a hair quicker biker........but couple years ago did a local duathlon and got like 5th OA and 4th in AG. As a total slow schmuck compared to a lot of ST users. In other words, while doing my run legs a whole lot slower than a 20min 5k and bike legs slower than 25mph.

Excellent points all-around and some food-for thought. I’m lucky I have that much time to train to e honest. I work a full time M-F 8-5 job but my wife and I have no kids so it affords me a lot of free time to train. I’ll keep plugging!!! THANKS!

I’ve thought about focusing on one sport like cycling for a solid amount of time and cutting back on others for a while. It’s something I’ll talk to my coach about for sure. As I mentioned above, my wife and I have no kids so it allows me plenty of free time to be able to dedicate 10-15hrs a week in training. I appreciate your advice, THANKS!

I do love this sport so I guess it makes my whining in this post a moot point. And that makes a lot of sense about the fisherman stories...I fly fish myself so I can relate, lol! THANKS!

That’s a great result in the Duathlon, congrats! I appreciate the words of wisdom. You are echoing what others have said above and I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I feel this is true if anything in life. There are always people faster, more money, more popular, etc. You're really just competing with yourself. We all don't have the same advantages and disadvantages. I've been doing this for 3 years and am similar in age and can't break 2 min per 100 in the swim. But I'm happy with my progress and what I'm learning as I go.

I used to be a runner and now have arthritis in an ankle. My run will always be a different challenge now. But in the context of me, I'm content with what I accomplish relative to myself. I'm faster than some friends and some are faster than me. That part doesn't really matter. I care more about my own progression and even just enjoying the training.

When I did my first tri 9 years ago I was 35 and had no swimming or cycling experience, and had only been running for a few years. It took me 13 minutes to swim 1/4 mile and 53 minutes to ride 10 miles. Over the years I've improved a lot but also had plenty of setbacks. The cool part is that there are always new challenges and things to work on, and training is the fun part. It's tough for anyone here to say how quickly you'll improve or what you're ultimately capable of because everyone is different and genetics play a big part, but endurance sports reward consistency over long periods of time so if you keep working you're likely to see improvement. It's not like you're going pro at 42 so relax and enjoy the journey - the improvements will come with time.

Also, I agree with the previous post about reporting bias here on ST.

1:57 half sounds like good progress for the first year.
I'm in the same boat as you, started late, haven't done any sport for 20 years.

On my 3-rd (third) year of running I was doing my second half. It was a big race, B.A.A. Half-marathon. I trained hard and blew spectacularly. Had to switch to walking and finished something around 1:45. My wife tried to console me and said "Well, don't worry, you're not that young anymore". :)

Several years later (and older) my PR is 1:22.

Humans are the best endurance machines on the planet, but it takes a long time to open this potential.

Others have already mentioned the self-reporting biases when it comes to concrete athletic achievements, so I won't harp too much on that.

This may be hard to take, but if I were in your shoes, I would get not just any coach but one who understands sport psychology, or at least read a book on sport psychology on how to temper one's immediate emotional response to training. The portion of your post emphasized above is absurdly false (1:57 for a half-marathon at your age is better than what half of male 42-year olds could muster), yet hyperbole is what you used. You may not think it worth mentioning, but as others upthread have mentioned, endurance sport rewards steadiness and fastidiousness, specifically, plugging ahead when things don't seem to be heading the right place. The type of thought epitomized by the emphasized portion above is very much counter to approaching your training in a steady manner, as one would be liable to being overly buoyed by any new PR set, only to feel dejected if the next workout doesn't go as well.

Above all, for an amateur over 40, it's much more important on focusing on the process and let the chips fall where ever they may. Being solely goal-oriented without context is a fool's errand for amateur, and the truth is, were you to get sub-20 5k (and I hope that you do), you'd now want to go sub-18, and the cycle continues. Almost everyone here has to eventually accept that s/he is not the best (even in the context of age-grade), and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can actually dedicate your efforts to the process as opposed to worrying about things outside your control. Even if you can't finish the fifth repeat of a set of 6x800 prescribed, as long as you did things to protocol and gave it your best, you should mark that day down as a solid day of training (as opposed to mere failure). A failure would be not controlling factors leading up to that work-out (e.g. showed up to training hang over, etc).

Good luck

Almost forgot.........biggest thing I've found to "stay happy" in endurance sport and not get myself down with "keeping up with the joneses" is to have very clear PERSONAL goals. Realistic, attainable, but still challenging and meaningful.

New 5k times. New bike splits. New transition times. Etc...

Instead of saying I want to win or podium a bike race or a duathlon, I've set out some performance targets to hit for run and bike. Who knows, that local Du I did may have a lot of Slowtwitch studs show up one year due to a cancelled triathlon and I get smoked. But, how did I do?

My current goals:
-get that local hill KOM by getting my VO2 up to 450w for 2min.....
-break an hour for a 40k bike
-cut a minute off my 5k
-learn to hop the shorter cyclocross barriers

Then, I just try to execute my strategy the best possible on any races I do. And the # place I get is what I get. Feel happy if I executed the plan and maximized my abilities.

I grew up playing golf in fields of 100 other kids. You NEVER really won. Ever. Maybe a top 10 a couple times. I got used to "losing".

Endurance sport and golf is a lot different from stick and ball sports where you can "win" a game every other week.