Help me choose an event/distance to maximise my potential

Triathlon Forum
1

I’m still fairly new to multisport, having started training for duathlon about a year and a half ago. I raced a few times last year and this year took a bit more of a focused approach, racing in a couple of UK national series races and qualifying for European age group champs. I’m racing Powerman Zofingen (10k/150k/30k duathlon) at the end of this month.

My plan for next season has been to target the national series again and the national champs in particular, but I’m entertaining the idea of learning to swim and racing some triathlons. I guess the issue is that I really don’t swim at all, so I’m hesitant to start from square one. I can swim a few laps I suppose (though I haven’t in years) but I’ve literally never trained to swim and never even done a timed lap.

My motivation for racing is to achieve at the highest level I possibly can in whatever particular event/distance I choose to focus on. I’m 27 years old and I’m looking at this as a 5+ years project.

To give you an idea of where I stand right now, here are some details:

Height: 6’1"
Weight: 161-163lbs

Run
Current bests are 16:42 5k, 34:48 10k and 1:19 HM. The 5k and 10k haven’t changed over the past year, which I attribute to a couple of run injuries (and resulting time off running). HM was this year.

Bike
Current FTP (Powertap) is 305W. My cycling has progressed steadily over the past year and I find it fairly easy to improve my times/wattages with consistent training.

Swim
As I say, I have no idea if I can be any good or not. I have a fairly big upper body (for a duathlete anyway) if that serves as any indication of potential. I used to weight train regularly before getting involved in duathlon.

Time Constraints
I can usually manage 10-12 hours per week. Occasionally (maybe 1 month/year on holidays) I can manage 15-18.

Given my time constraints and lack of swim experience, am I best to stay with duathlon? If I do go the tri route, what distance would give me the best shot at achieving a decent standard?

Feel free to throw some ideas out there - I’m interested to hear!

Cheers,
Don

2

Learn how to swim, it is awesome.
love from,
a fishie :smiley:

3

Go the Du route if you want to maximize your potential.

Swimming takes time to learn.
It’s taken me 10 years to learn how to swim in the 19-20 min range for 1500m from no experience at all,so It could be hard for your swimming to be up to par with the rest of your sports in 5 years unless you are a quick learner and have a good coach.
If you are going to get into triathlon ,hire a coach for swimming that will be on deck with you.I am coaching people who have lots of experience with triathlon in swimming and have taken 5-7 minutes in their HIM times in a matter of a couple of months.
If you hire a coach and learn quickly there is a good chance of bringing your swimming up to your other sports in a couple of years.Also,if you are going to do triathlon , it should be all about HIM,IM races ( especialy IM ).With a poor swim you will never be a factor in any kind of sprint or oly race ( even for an AG win in most races ).You can however do very well at the Ironman distance and even the half distance.
Good Luck, you are already pretty fast and it looks like you’ll get a lot faster.

4

Thanks, I just discovered that there’s a pool at the end of the road where I’ll be living for the next couple of years. They offer adult lessons, and for a couple of months after Zofingen I’ll be taking it a bit easy on the bike and run, so it will be a good chance to try some swimming. If I don’t see much improvement or potential over a couple of months, then I might just stick with duathlon, but if I improve I could maybe try a half iron distance.

5

Stick with Du for now. Being young in the sport, volume will be the key to that 5 year plan. The more the better. Run as long as you can each day and ride as long as you can each day. Slowly increase the distance run/rode within the time of each given run/ride. Week 1-3 Monday run 60min aprox 12k, week 4-6 aprox 12.5k and so on.

Race whatever distance you would like. You’ll have better success at shorter at first then as you get more volume in your legs you get better at longer.

If you want to start swimming, save it for the off season. Swimming is a skill sport. You’ll need a ton of drills and learning before you can swim worth a damn. Given that, you’ll be taking away from valuable run and bike time for little gain. Save it for the off season and when you do get in the pool, jump in with both feet and drill, drill, drill. Technique is everything.

6

Don from our conversations before I think you have a solid long term DU plan. Stick with it, especially since du’s are much more popular over there then in the US.

7

Thanks Brian, I suppose I’m tempted by tri because it’s a bit more high-profile/prestigious. Even over here where duathlon is more popular than in the states, tri still has by far the higher participation, money, sponsorship opportunities and profile. I’m going to have some very easy weeks after Zofingen so trying out a bit of swimming probably won’t do any harm. If I really enjoy it (doesn’t seem likely to me!) or discover I have some great talent for it (even less likely!) maybe I’ll keep it up. Otherwise it’ll just be a nice little “off-season” distraction.

8

Yeah, everyone I talk to who is knowledgeable about swimming tells me I should get a coach and really focus on technique. I know some very well-respected swim coaches, but unfortunately they all live hundreds of miles from where I’ll be the next couple of years. Thanks for the help!

9

Good luck,and read a lot of swimming material like the Tarpinian stuff,he’s great and has a great video.

Also youtube guy’s like Hackett and Thorpe , you can learn so much from just watching underwater clips.

10

“Swim
As I say, I have no idea if I can be any good or not. I have a fairly big upper body (for a duathlete anyway) if that serves as any indication of potential. I used to weight train regularly before getting involved in duathlon.”

Does being able to squat huge amounts of weight mean you’re a fast cyclist? Of course not, its the same with swimming: big muscles tend to get in the way. In my experience, many people who used to wight train and gained muscle have lost so much flexibility that they lose any advantage that extra power has brought them. (I don’t mean very good swimmers shouldn’t do some strength-specific work, but that the importance of flexbility is forgotten by so many.)

Can you point your toes? What angle is your plantar flexion at? Can you hyperextend your knees and elbows? Can your shoulder rub your ear without bending your head? These are more important questions than one regarding strength.

To swim well, you’ll need to do a lot of sometimes tedious technique work. You’ll need a good coach (costing $) and time to read swimming books so you understand what you are trying to achieve. And then you’ll need to do more technique work. And then some more technique work. And then …

I have no idea at what event you’d do best - you could be a natural in the water for all we know. You’ll need to work hard to be quick though, and a different type “hardness” compared to cycling or running, more of a motivational one, and confidence that all your work will pay off.

Go swim 50m and 100m separately hard and then get back us (with times!).