I signed up for my first Sprint at the inaugural Oakland Triathlon Festival in August as part of a group of people from work. I’m 50 years old and a decent cyclist who only started riding 4 years ago (currently 247 xPower per Golden Cheetah), with very little swim or run experience. I would consider myself to be in good to very good shape for my age though I could probably stand to lose ~10lbs or so at 5’7" and 163. My training started about six weeks prior to the race and consisted of continued bike interval work and 3-4 days per week of fairly unstructured pool time focused on acquiring enough endurance to give me confidence that I would be able to cover the 800M on race day. I did literally zero run training as I’ve had meniscus issues in the past and was worried that I’d hurt myself prior to the race - I was counting on my bike fitness to somewhat carry over and planned to just power through the 5k as best I could.
Anyway it was obviously not a deep field in the Sprint division as I managed to podium on race day, finishing 2/20 in my AG and 26/206 overall, but a full 6 minutes behind the AG winner. My splits were 15:04 / 36:12 / 24:07. Swim was very current aided which obviously helped, bike equipment was road bike with clip ons, Zipp 404s, SRM power meter and very non-aero road helmet and near as I could tell I was the fastest time of the day on a road bike, finishing even with the AG winner who was on a Shiv with a disk. It was obviously very exciting to be called for the podium, and Triathlon seemed to satisfy a competitive itch that I’ve had for quite a while, but I’ve been struggling with whether or not I will be able to commit the swim training time to be consistently competitive going forward or be able to do proper training for the run. I have started running again, albeit slowly (currently at 10 MPW, mix of treadmill and outdoors at more or less jogging pace) and the knee has responded pretty well so far which is at least somewhat encouraging.
I’ve signed up for a couple of Sprints in the spring with a plan to stretch to OLY when I was sure I could actually race and be competitive in my AG. Yesterday I got the invite for 2015 USAT Nationals and while I think it’s pretty cool to be invited, I would obviously be solidly BOP at this point. I’m not really interested in going as a BOP’er so the question is, should I commit and use it as training motivation? If i decide on going, which race should I sign up for, Sprint or OLY and what’s a realistic goal for someone of my background on 8-10 hours per week, can I possibly get to MOP between now and then? Where should I focus my training efforts? For reference I’m currently struggling to swim at 1:35/100y and know that my form is pretty horrible - is signing up for Masters my best play here? As for the run I feel that 21:00-21:30/5k run is realistic if I stay healthy, how much faster do I need to be to get to MOP? Assuming that I can still get stronger on the bike (is 275 FTP realistic by August?), how should my training time be allocated? Any other advice?
GO! I’m very slow and qualified at a local sprint race. When I got the email I thought it was a mistake and emailed the USAT back! We’ve been to Milwaukee both years that it has been held there and you will have a GREAT TIME - it is the perfect race venue! In 2013 we even got to sit with Chrissie Wellington at the awards dinner. I just cannot say enough good things about Nationals. I tell everyone that if you qualify and you can afford it - GO!!!
In order of epic event organization and quality of venue:
ITU > USAT Nationals > tie between Ironman and Rev 3 > everyone else
If you can afford to go to Milwaukee then you should go. USAT knows how to put on a race, and Milwaukee venue and race course were superb. I was there in 2013 and it was epic.
I didn’t realize sprint races could qualify for oly nationals? (Sprint nationals are still open entry, yes?)
If you can afford it, just go. It will probably be an amazing experience.
I was in a similar situation when I qualified to 70.3 world’s thanks to roll down. I was extra motivated when traininin with the goal of not finishing bottom of my age group. I progressed a lot in the three disciplines, had a blast at the race, massive PR, and would do it again anyday.
In order of epic event organization and quality of venue:
ITU > USAT Nationals > tie between Ironman and Rev 3 > everyone else
If you can afford to go to Milwaukee then you should go. USAT knows how to put on a race, and Milwaukee venue and race course were superb. I was there in 2013 and it was epic.
I didn’t realize sprint races could qualify for oly nationals? (Sprint nationals are still open entry, yes?)
I totally agree with your order of events.
Sprint is open entry, as well as all other nationals. Only one to qualify for is Olympic.
IMO, the real goal to shoot for is to get on TeamUSA. That experience by far is the best racing events I have ever been to… Still hoping to get to Chicago next year but will see.
Dude, who cares how fast you are? If you can afford the time/$ to go, and it interests you, have at it!
Simply by virtue of continuing consistent training, you’ll see improvements between now and then.
The important thing is that your enjoyment of the sport will come from the experiences you expose yourself to. If this feels like a cool thing to do…go do it.
I can’t add anything to what’s been said… GO! No one gives a flying F where you end up (except you) and I can pretty much guarantee you won’t win the thing
I was in your position this year. Wasn’t even on my radar as unlikely to qualify, but at a super sprint no less I qualified about a month before the race. This was my off IM year to just “experience” races, so went for it. SO glad I did. And then I ran a 10 minute Oly PR, and a PR for the 10K standalone or in an Oly, and i was STILL solidly middle of the pack. But who cares, you get to rock the AG National Championships shirt when you get home!
And Milwaukee was (to me) a surprisingly enjoyable course.
Go for it. You never know if you’d ever get the invite again.
if you qualified, you should take the opportunity regardless of how fast you are. that said, why are you worried? you said you started training six weeks before your race, basically didn’t run, and only did unstructured swimming in the pool. if you’re in good shape for your age and you actually train this time, you won’t be BOP.
I didn’t realize sprint races could qualify for oly nationals? (Sprint nationals are still open entry, yes?)
For now you can qualify for the OD AGNC at either OD or sprint races. The sprint AGNC is still a non-qualifying race for 2015 but that is probably going to change by 2016.
I would say absolutely go. The course is really good, for athletes and spectators. The race production is absolutely top notch. Milwaukee itself was a really fun city; great restaurants and the post race nightlife was a blast. My only knock against the race/ city would be that the hotels downtown finally figured out what’s going on and you can’t get a room for <130 a night lol
I didn’t realize sprint races could qualify for oly nationals? (Sprint nationals are still open entry, yes?)
For now you can qualify for the OD AGNC at either OD or sprint races. The sprint AGNC is still a non-qualifying race for 2015 but that is probably going to change by 2016.
Well I got an email yesterday saying I qualified based on my performance at Ironman Maryland. Thought it was a little odd to qualify for AG Nationals in the olympic distance via an Ironman race. Never gone to Nationals but given the positive comments here I’m seriously considering it. It’s still 9 weeks out from my main race of the season (IM Louisville) so it should work out well.
Training with a purpose beats the heck out of just “getting fit”.
Don’t overdo the run training if you have a weakness there.
You have an easy 4 minutes to find on the swim (or a hard 5 minutes),
your bike time is already amazing, a little equipment massaging might pick you up a few seconds,
so if you have some sensible long slow training miles on you for the run you should be able to improve a few minutes just based on the aerobic conditioning and what appears to be obvious leg strength.
to echo everyone else, yes go! Milwaukee is an easy travel, plenty of hotels, easy parking around the venue, awesome atmosphere and really well run event. I hope to make it back in 2015!
I also recieved my OLY nationals invite based on a top 10% finish in my AG at Peasantman Steel distance. Seemed strange considering I won the event and had many better performances this year. Either way, pretty cool to be invited. Unfortunately, the OLY race is on Saturday and as a Sabbath observant Jew I won’t be able to race. I’m considering having a go at the Sprint distance though.
On another note, how do I qualify for the Long-course Nationals?
I also recieved my OLY nationals invite based on a top 10% finish in my AG at Peasantman Steel distance. Seemed strange considering I won the event and had many better performances this year. Either way, pretty cool to be invited. Unfortunately, the OLY race is on Saturday and as a Sabbath observant Jew I won’t be able to race. I’m considering having a go at the Sprint distance though.
On another note, how do I qualify for the Long-course Nationals?
You do not need to qualify for LC Nationals. Just sign up and go.
OK well that’s fairly unanimous, you guys have convinced me, I just signed up for the OLY
So I guess that was the easy part (helped by the fact that the wife was like ‘wtf are you even thinking about, of course you should go’), now I need to work on my swim as not only am I pretty slow I don’t think I’ve actually ever done 1500m at one time. Gulp.
OK well that’s fairly unanimous, you guys have convinced me, I just signed up for the OLY
So I guess that was the easy part (helped by the fact that the wife was like ‘wtf are you even thinking about, of course you should go’), now I need to work on my swim as not only am I pretty slow I don’t think I’ve actually ever done 1500m at one time. Gulp.
Congrads. I always find it is easier to do my training when I have a goal race that I have signed up for. No excuses this way. Depending on where 2016 worlds are, I might consider signing up myself, but …
