Hi guys, I’m reasonably new to this forum, but am searching for some sound advice from more experienced athletes,I am a 21 yr old male who swims roughly at 1:30/100m pace, take around 31 mins for a 20k bike, and 19 min 5k, I’m currently heading into my second season of the sport of Triathlon, in which I have thus far only completed Sprint distance races, I’ve been getting coached since October 2015 and have noticed a good improvement already across all disciplines and hope this trend continues.
So my question is what do you guys think I should do to help improve my chances of gaining a kona qualification by the year 2019 ?
Should I continue to work on gaining speed in the short course of sprints and Olympics this year and move onto longer course next year? Or should I try get a feel for longer course as early as possible ? The reason I have set 2019 as my goal year to qualify is that I will still be in the 20-24 AG which usually has an slower qualifying time compared to 25-29 AG .
If it was you what would your 3-4 year plan look like in terms of moving towards gaining that goal ?
Obviously this is impossible to predict, but at least give us more history to work with. Did you run track in high school or college? Any times for us to compare? Was your 5k in a tri?
Have you any cycling experience other than a 20k? Do you know your FTP?
Do you a a three year schedule where you can stay consistent? A steady source of income, could be a big changes at your age.
There is a triathlon calculator, but a lot can change in three years.
building speed is a lot tougher than building endurance. you are lucky that you are young, and have lots of time ahead of you. the sport of triathlon isn’t going anywhere, and neither is kona. you have years to build speed. some of the people dominating at 70.3 and 140.6 distance races spent a long time training at the oly/international distance.
if you don’t have a background in endurance cycling and/or running, i’d be cautious about going too long too quickly. but then again, i know a few people that have done a half iron man or a full iron man as their first or second triathlon ever.
you want to qualify in 2019, right? meaning you’d be doing Kona in 2020? if it were me, i guess i would aim to have my qualifying A race in mid 2019… you can find some good 70.3 races that are favorable for a qualifying spot. you can choose to have that be your first 70.3 race and hope for the best, or maybe you want to be cautious and have two 70.3 races planned for that year to double your chances. i’d also switch to doing primarily Olympic distance races, as they require more endurance than a sprint, but also need speed.
but you know, this is the kind of questions you pay your coach to answer…
Those distances don’t transfer to the full distance very well. I’m assuming those were your times for a sprint and not standalone PR’s? Swim, bike, run, rest, and then do it all over again. A LOT! Those times aren’t bad, but truthfully aren’t that fast either.
Pick a course that suits you when you do try. Try to get fast quick. I got started late but wish I had been racing in my 20’s. Seems the competition isn’t as tough, although that equals less slots per race.
2016 - Do as many sprint distance you can and a few Olympic Distance.
Try to bring your Olympic Distance close or under 2hr (20 mins - 1500m - 1hr - 40km - 36/7 min - 10km) at the end of the season.
2017 - A few sprint, a lot of Olympics and one 70.3 at the end of the season. (Try to target 4h45) - You should be able to do a few of the Oly races sub 2h
2018 - A few Olympics distance, 2 or 3 - 70.3 at the end of the season should be close to (4h2/30) - You really need to nail nutrition and pacing during this year.
2019 - 70.3 prior to your first Ironman (choose a race that will give you better chance to get in) You will have to win your age group! October 2019 Enjoy Hawaii
As for your volume/intensity increase per year sit down with your coach.
2016 - Do as many sprint distance you can and a few Olympic Distance.
Try to bring your Olympic Distance close or under 2hr (20 mins - 1500m - 1hr - 40km - 36/7 min - 10km) at the end of the season.
2017 - A few sprint, a lot of Olympics and one 70.3 at the end of the season. (Try to target 4h45) - You should be able to do a few of the Oly races sub 2h
2018 - A few Olympics distance, 2 or 3 - 70.3 at the end of the season should be close to (4h2/30) - You really need to nail nutrition and pacing during this year.
2019 - 70.3 prior to your first Ironman (choose a race that will give you better chance to get in) You will have to win your age group! October 2019 Enjoy Hawaii
As for your volume/intensity increase per year sit down with your coach.
That’s the biggest hurdle with the 18-24 or 25-29 AG. It’s win or go home.
Thanks everyone for the advice, as for those times that I posted above they are from sprint races I completed last year, with little to no idea of what training I should be doing, thankfully this year I have been working with a coach since last October, and hope to see a great improvement in my times this year, I’ve ran sub 18 for a stand alone 5k in January so hope to be able to get close to that come some of my races this year, also my FTP currently sits at 224 Watts, I should also mention I have no background in any of the disciplines I was a complete newbie last year who had absolutely no fitness, and went from 84kg in April when I began training to 70kg now.
Also thanks to everyone who replied to my post it’s greatly appreciated. I have to say I do like the look of the plan above which looks to help me progress year on year, so will hope to replicate something close to that. If anyone else has any thing else to add please do. Thanks again.
I was in your same spot back in 2008, very similar times as well. You can browse through my blog and results below to see the progression and what I did. I started when I was 22, basically raced my way into shape in 2008/2009, waited till 2011 to do my first full, with many half IM’s previous to that. Best 2 things I did when I wanted to focus on getting to Kona 1. Hired a Coach, 2. Got a powermeter. As for getting to Kona in the 18-24 and 25-29 AG it really comes down to picking a race that suits you, hoping no one faster shows up, and if they do they don’t have money to get to Kona and that you do. Having financial “backing” (whether your own or someone else’s) is also a huge help. You can then do the exotic races like China, or other random Asia races that pop up and they throw slots at.
Can you get there by 2019, sure shouldn’t be a problem if you dedicate yourself to the sport, stay healthy and continue to progress. Easier said than done, but it is definitely possible.
Many Thanks for your reply Brad, it’s great to hear from someone who has been in a similar situation to what i’m currently facing and is so inspiring to see what you’ve achieved already in your career, I look forward to reading through your blog, and wish you the very best of luck in your training and racing for the forthcoming year.
My times were similar to yours when i started in triathlon in 2013. I can only give you my story and everyone is different. I started with sprints and no coaching and jumped to a 70.3 in yr one, no power meter and no clue what i was doing, i just liked racing. Yr two: power meter, coach, indoor trainer, 4 more 70.3 in the books and a full that i did the standard over bike thing. For me racing all those 70.3’s really helped dial in a lot of my long case racing stuff: pacing, nutrition, prolonged pain. A sprint or olympic you can basically get away with no pacing and no plan a half IM does forces you to focus on those things. Yr three: lots of biking and 4 more 70.3’s, and a kona slot at late season IM. Your racing a IM so you don’t need that top end speed you would need in a sprint race and you would also do speed work in any training plan as well. I am sure some else has said it, but constancy in training is prob the biggest key. The ability to put in those 15 hr weeks over and over again. Those that have been doing this for 5-10 yrs prob don’t need as many 15-20 hrs weeks but those new to the sport just need to put that time in. Consistency is king.
The distances you choose to race over the next few years is not important. The volume you train is important.
Elite athletes at any aerobic distance all have quite high volume . I.E. even 1500m runners train 80-100 miles/week; less than marathoners, but still quite a lot. As a prior poster noted, just building to >15 hours/week takes time, and even more time until you can add in intensity. On average, Kona qualifiers train about 20 hours/week. So you can continue to race shorter distances, and train with the corresponding higher intensity during interval and threshold sessions, but get your volume up now.
You can train low volume and tune the engine you’ve got, or you can train high volume and build a bigger engine.
Hi Paul, yes completely agree with you in terms of volume, I’ve been doing roughly between 12-15 hours training this past 5 months, previous to this I more less only trained I would say 4 hours a week and the results I got last year were gained from training the distances of the races i was competing in, so I literally would only do a 750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run all at as high of intensity as I could go(all on different days not one after the other ) So I hope with the consistent training I’ve been doing I will gain much better times this year.
Good to hear you’re already getting the volume up.
Another recommendation would be to read a lot of books on training. Read them critically; look for differences and similarities. Compare them to what you read elite athletes say they do. What you will find is that it is relatively simple to coach yourself. If you can get a good understanding of basic training principles, and you can hold yourself accountable, you are better off being self coached. (Note the qualifiers there.)
Keep building the volume and focus on Olympic distance with maybe one 70.3 to start to build some long course experience in terms of nutrition and pacing.
You swim is good enough. I’d focus more on the bike and run. Even in your younger age group, the qualifier can usually run a low 17 for an open 5k and should be able to bike under 1 hour in an Olympic and under 29:00 in Sprint depending on the terrain.
That being said, I’d focus most on running since it’s a skill, compared to cycling, which is more about fitness and a good aero position. Plus, if you run mechanics are flawed, you’ll be plagued with injuries and struggle to get mileage up when you focus on ultra distance.
Being 21 I would not be in such a hurry at all. You are very young and great material for development. I would spend time in the next 3-5 years crushing 5ks/10ks, 40km TT and learning to swim really fast. Focusing on going sub 2 in Olympic racing and well beyond that. The window of opportunity for developing “speed” to potential is going to approach much faster then your endurance ability. Once you are very very fast, then your macro cycles of training should involve typical long course training. Look at the ITU kids when they switch over to Ironman racing, they are crushing it. Sit down with your coach and plan long term properly. I would not worry about Kona for quite some time. Not that you can’t do it, far from it, likely you can, however, you will sacrifice the time now that should be spent developing fast racing. Once you miss that window, it is gone. You will short change yourself there. Let Kona come to you later.
Likely not what you wanted to hear, but at least you got another angle.
Thank you for your comment, I completely agree with you In terms of developing speed, that perhaps my biggest concern about going to long distance so soon, I think I may be best focusing as you say on developing my speed and perhaps wait till I’m ready to pursue my kona dream, hopefully will compete well in Olympic distance races over the next few years with the odd 70.3 throwing in too.
I’ve had a quick look at what I think it will take to qualify for Kona (in the m30-34 age group in Aus), so I guess the stats would be similar. Anyway for the three legs, assuming you have done a good enough build to handle the distance I think you will need the following. Although I’m happy to be corrected by those more in the know.
Swim - 1,000 lcm TT of approx 14.15, 100m of approx 1.12
Bike - 4.25w/kg FTP
Run - 61 VDOT
From my calculations that should get you somewhere in the vicinity of low 9 hours if you can execute on the day.