For those of you that have broken an hour in the 750M , 20K, 5K Sprint events…
Care to share some of your key workouts? If you share specific times, please include a reference point as well.
Ready go…
*My best so far is 11:41 , 31:15, 20:13 with about a min for each T. Top 10 overall in Transition so not much room there and aero goodies are maxed out as well.
4x800m run interval workout immediately following a 45min threshold or interval bike ride. No lollygagging, switch shoes and start running, fast. Used to be called bricks, waste of time according to some ST posters. I call it specificity. recovery jog between 800’s
1 hour on the bike at 95% FTP power.
I’ve never done it, but theoretically could. (I did 1:05 on my only sprint race, but I couldn’t swim or bike back then). I can do an almost full speed 750 in the pool in about 11:00, I’ll convert that to an ambitious 11:30 in open water. For me 20K and 5k splits of 29:00 and 18:00 are very realistic. That gives me about 1:30 for transitions.
For comparison purposes I was around 200th at Vegas 70.3 last year and I can go 2:05 on an accurate fast olympic course.
The problem is that sprint swims are rarely accurate. This means that a sprint tri time is very dependent on course accuracy and transition length. This is probably the second reason why people don’t often talk about sprint times. Main reason is obviously that longer races are cooler.
You’re not asking the right questions here…
I’ve never done it, but theoretically could. (I did 1:05 on my only sprint race, but I couldn’t swim or bike back then). I can do an almost full speed 750 in the pool in about 11:00, I’ll convert that to an ambitious 11:30 in open water. For me 20K and 5k splits of 29:00 and 18:00 are very realistic. That gives me about 1:30 for transitions.
For comparison purposes I was around 200th at Vegas 70.3 last year and I can go 2:05 on an accurate fast olympic course.
The problem is that sprint swims are rarely accurate. This means that a sprint tri time is very dependent on course accuracy and transition length. This is probably the second reason why people don’t often talk about sprint times. Main reason is obviously that longer races are cooler.
You must not be good at turns… I would guess your talking more of +1min open water as to pool swimming depending on your backround.
As for the origional post:
I always found 3x10min at around 110% FTP/3 min mod worked for short races. I also like the 4x5 vo2 sets… Thats just me
My first sprint I had a time of 1:27:00. Note that this race was held at 11,000 feet of elevation and cold. With that said, my tri team and I host sprint races at a local gym. In doing so I have seen my times drop dramatically. I know that it is in a really controlled environment, but it will let you go all out.
Generally speaking…
Find a very flat course with tight transitions.
Proper transitions are raced, not paced.
It’s not about what you have, but rather, what you don’t.
At this point it becomes so specific that “you have to ask the right questions.”
This worked for me and “I am not starting an argument” but I couldn’t break an hour until I put in the big distances. Time could have been a big player as the triathlete is something like a good wine as both genetics and fermentation come into play.
As my body began to except the longer distances, I found it easier to do more ‘quality’ intervals at or below race pace. I usually swim off the front (at least locally) but I also train with college swimmers all summer, every summer, since I was 15 (Now 32.)
An old local surfer, legend and triathlete gave me some advice some years ago. I wrote it down, and started to race like I meant it.
“Swim like a swimmer, bike like a cyclist and run like you stole something. And young man, do not take a break during transitions….and, what is that round thing on your bike?” I replied, “What, my water bottle?” He smirked with some wise attitude and said, “Can I see it?” I handed it to him, he opened it up, pored it out, and then he threw it in a trash can. He then pointed at my hat & sunglasses. I said, “Fuck that, I get the point, I will go put them in my bag…thanks!”
9.15 - 0.40 - 28.50 - 0.30 - 17.10 = 56.15 - accurate distances…
I did a lot of swimming, 6x a week with a swim team, 20-25 k a week, main sets 2x1500 on 20.00, 4x800 on 10.00, 8x400 on 5.00, 15x200 on 2.30 and 20x100 on 1.15, all long distances stuff.
On the bike, not that much at all. 2-3xtimes a week, always hard, 1-1,5 hours each time, 3x10 minutes and so on…
The run, I ran around 30 k a week, PB on 5000 15.59, and had 2 key workouts. 10x400 either on 1.20 or on 2.00, alternative each week. And a tempo run, either 3x2 k (first k 3.20 second k all out (3.00)) or 4 k all out… And the rest was just jogging…
To sum up on pacing in a sprint:
Swim like you are the main star in jaws, bike like you are late for your wedding and run like you stole something from the biggest and meanest person you can think of…
PB 58:45 (last year I was a 1:04-6 guy)
Unfortunately to be good at Sprints you need a deep endurance base, I specialise in Sprints/OD (but mainly sprints) I still do 140k bikes, 90min runs and lots of time in the pool, the difference in hours between an IM and sprints in terms of training is not that much, obviously there is less, but that is replaced by higher intensity work.
Firstly don’t think that hard sets are some shortcut to greater performance, think of intensity work as icing on the cake.
Swim: 20k-25k a week consistently never less than 20 never really more than 25. 6-7 sessions, 2-3 hard, 1-2 technique the rest recovery. Main sets are normally 2-3k’s (LCM).
Bike 8-10hrs a week on the bike, some sustained strength endurance stuff on our long wednesday ride (e.g. 90mins at tempo pace) and intervals the day before e.g. 4x5mins hard with 4mins reco.
Run: 6-7 times a week for 60-70k’s, two hard sets, one longer more tempo style intervals (e.g. 3x8mins hard, 4x6mins hard, 20x2mins 40s hard 1.20 reco) and another track session repeats 1k or below (been smashing 200m repeats to work on legspeed). All other runs are easy!!
Your swim is ok, if you do 20ks a week in the pool consistently you will see some good improvement, bike is solid but your run is a weakness. Build up the mileage, look at doing double run days. We did a block of 120k weeks, included in that was heaps of 30mins runs. Volume first than bring in the hard stuff (otherwise you risk injury)
PR. 1:00:21
Did that with alot less training than that
Yeah my training is quite high, but am trying to go Draft-Legal (and am uni student, which basically means I work as much as someone who is unemployed), to maintain sub 1hr performances I could probably half my training easily, but I wouldn’t improve nearly as much. I think getting down to low 1hr is relativly easy, but it starts to get much harder after that. 21 mins to 19mins 5k is much easier than 18-16mins.
That was also 2-3 years after I had been swimming 20-35 hours per week for the 8 years prior.
Thanks all, I’ve got some good feedback to work into my current training.
I’m always in the 10-15 hrs of training regardless of distance it seems, that is what life allows. Less long stuff this year and have always wanted to go <1hr at this sprint I do annually.