Although I have qualified for Boston many times, I have never come close to qualifying for Kona.
That changes my opinion: I already doubted if you ever KQ’d since you did not explicitly write that in post #1, although a lot if readers interpreted it that way.
In Post #7 he does say he KQed.
But, moving on.
I came late to Tri after years of not doing any training. At first my motivation was getting in better shape. As I’ve progressed, I’m getting faster. Last year I finished 7th out of 20 in what was called a “Quarter Tri” (somewhat like a Oly). I’m still getting “faster” - compared to our AG. I can’t compare myself to the pointy end of everyone in the race.
If you’re just starting out and you finished 6th out of 12, then I’d say you can podium - in a couple of years (maybe sooner). Where did you place in each discipline?
If swimming is really bad (like lower 50%), then I’d focus on improving your swimming technique - but only to get into the top 50%. If you get in the top 50%, for our AG you won’t be far behind the top 30%. You may be farther behind the top 10%, but they are guys who have swum competitively for most, if not all, of their lives and have the technique fully ingrained. It’s unlikely you’ll get to that speed within two-three years. A little coaching can get easily get you into the top 50%, probably 30%.
Your running should be really good. You’ve been doing it forever and you have BQed. That’s really good. You should be close to the fastest, and if you’re not, you already know what to do to fix that.
So, I’m guessing your biking is the weak link. That takes time on the bike. If you’re doing anything over a sprint (Oly, QIM, HIM, IM), then you need lot’s of riding. The more you ride the sooner you’ll see faster times. It’s not that you need “engine” work, it’s that you’re using different muscles than when you run, and you need to strengthen those.
Lastly, are you doing strength training? When I started I thought doing the training for the disciplines was all the “strength training” I needed. Now, after being edumecated, I now spend at least 20% of my training week on strength and flexibility training (>2 hours out of 10 - I don’t do HIMs/IMs anymore). I saw an article or video that said something like, “Over 60 you don’t want to add strength and flexibility training to your tri training. You want to add tri training to your strength and flexibility training.” Right now, I consider that a bit hyperbole, but in a year or two I may gain more education and no longer think of it that way.
Are your transitions times in line with the FOP for our AG?
I would have been thrilled to start with a 6th out of 12. I started at second-to-the-last. Not second-to-the-last in our AG, but second-to-the-last out of 350 participants in a HIM. You should see progress over the next year or two and you might set your goals to KQ.