Follow up on training age –

Triathlon Forum
1

Oz Tri-Guy brought up an interesting point about training age. So I’d like to expand on his question and ask one of my own.

I’m 25 and been athletic all my life, (soccer, track and field – sprinter, collegiate rugby, rock climber, mountain biker), and I’ve been running for about 3-4 years on and off, but only racing for 2 years. I am newbie.

I’ve done some long adventure races (24 and 48 hour) and I just started swimming (real swimming) last year. My current goal is a “solid” 2006 IM. I say “solid” because i could suffer to the finish line now.

Desert Dude stated to Ox Tri-Guy that at 28 and 2 years experience could do only endurance work and get faster due to improving the engine. I feel I’m in the same situation.

So the question is, how many years does it typically take to get your “endurance base” and build that “strong engine”? Should I concentrate almost entirely on staying in my aerobic zone for the next year or so?

Thanks all, -Erik

2

I’ll second that question, been running about 4 years, engine still getting bigger, biked last year lots of room for improvement there, swimming this year, goal just to finish my swimms
.

3

Bump. Any coaches on here have any insight into this?

4

Ok, i’m promoting my own thread by sending it back to the top. Scorn me if you must.

-erik

5

At 25 and athletic, it shouldn’t take you very long at all. At 45+, I have been at it for five years. I still have a long way to go.

I hope this site is still up in 25 years, and some of these young turks look up their old messages about training ages. Should be good for a laugh.

6

It is progressive. After about 2 solid years, I am just finally starting to see benefits from the previous years of base building.

I remember reading that it took Tim DeBoom 6 years of training to be able to complete proper training to successfully train for an Iron Man.