That’s a hugely ambitious set of goals, but the journey will be interesting.
Consider looking at Finding Freestyle. In any event, at 2 minutes per 100, your stroke has a lot of room for improvement.
Run more.
Your pacing sounds to be messed up on the bike–you’re going too hard. A powermeter will help with this, as well as with doing FTP intervals between now and next year.
You say that you blow up at 15 hours/week, but that’s 150% of the week you say is sustainable. If you want to build more volume, a much smaller bump once a month will pay dividends.
Thanks, I never thought of it that way. I always focused on what others have said they are putting in. I’ll jump to a 15 hour and get fryed out and put in a low week following.
good tip!
Is there a way to find and hire someone for swimming? I mean, is there like a main website to go to, or do you just sorta google the thing?
Thanks for the tip. You seem like one hell of a cyclist so Im surprised that you would leave cycling off the top 2, with trying to gain so much speed, but I really value your opinions anyway.
Thank you!
Great lay out, Bill. Thank you.
you werent the only one to tell me to ride HARD and lookup building up FTP, so I will be definitely adding that to my workouts.
Thank you
P.S. And I would LOVE a sub 2:30 in San Diego in May.
Look. You’re not a pro. You do this for fun.
Do whatever you enjoy the most.
If you’re not crazy about swimming- I can’t imagine spending 10hrs a week in the pool.
Heck- I like swimming and I wouldn’t spend that much time in the water.
do as much swimming, biking and running as you enjoy and can make time for, and have fun at the races.
I’d expect that your overall time will be inversely proportional to how many hours of SBR training you put in every week, regardless of whether it’s S, B or R. You could make sizeable strides in each of them.
I agree with this, but you asked me what I’d do - I’d ride a lot more based on the facts you gave. (the more I’ve ridden- the faster I’ve gotten on both the bike and run)
I was a BOP swimmer after my first season and I focused on that over the next winter. I stopped training with my team and decided to so more endurance training in the pool and at an open water location nearby. I did no speed work at all until I could easily swim for an hour without any breaks, and then added interval type training to my swim training, all without getting out or stopping. My philosophy was there are no sides or rest stations in a race, so train as if there are none of those available.
As far as technique goes, I used the Total Immersion training DVDs and nothing else. You can see some of those on youtube, but I invested in the discs and was very pleased in how much they improved my technique, and ultimately my speed in the water.
In my A race this year, IM Augusta 70.3, I came out of the water in 29:58 and was in the midst of swimmers from the wave that left 3 minutes before my own wave. I was not the fastest, but I was solidly in the MOP for my age group, and only 3 minutes behind my tri coach who does a ton of swim techniques and speed training. I would have been even faster but I zig zagged all over the river, this next season I will invest in contact lenses as I am basically nearly blind in my goggles now and practice sighting and navigation more.
Once your swimming is where you want it, then focus on your next weakest part of your race. For me that means the run, but for you it looks like the bike.
Is there a way to find and hire someone for swimming? I mean, is there like a main website to go to, or do you just sorta google the thing?
Thanks for the tip. You seem like one hell of a cyclist so Im surprised that you would leave cycling off the top 2, with trying to gain so much speed, but I really value your opinions anyway.
Thank you!
You got it right there…recognize good advice from knowledgeable STers when you see it.
Dude save your time on the long ride. Now is the time where you can be doing a lot to raise your FTP. Spend about an hour on the bike and do some intervals along the lines of 2x20 or 5x5 min hard. No need to spend countless hours just pedaling slow, do that in the spring when you’re building your base.
Get in the pool and work drills, find a coach/masters team, and work that. You should be able to knock huge amounts of time off. I know a lot of us ST’ers are not rocking huge pythons but can find a way to get through the water.
You have plenty of areas to knock time off. I would just focus on the swim and bike if you really wanted to make gains. You can improve your run during the season with mileage. Good luck!
chiming in here to also recommend Finding Freestyle. The 12 week on-line program is a real deal. I was really stuck at 2:00/100, even with a coach and masters swim, until I started this program.
Here’s a pretty good weekly plan.
http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/2008/12/free-triathlon-training-program.html
Also, don’t bother with the weights, especially if you’re substituting weights for swimming, riding or running. If you want to make them an additional workout, because you like to lift, that’s one thing… but it shouldn’t replace any of the three sports you’re actually training for. Specificity.
desert dude gave you some really good advice.
Tri3,
How much did you improve? Did you just do the 12 week course or did you also send in video analysis? Just curious because I am considering signing up. I am close to the 2/100 pace too.
Thanks
Sign up. It’s an outrageous value, and you will not only get faster, you will ENJOY the program too.
From his other posts, he seems like a killer cyclist, and I was hoping he posted on my question. That is why I was surprised to not see cycling in the top 2 from him. Maybe it comes natural to him. Im really appreciative of his advice, but just dont understand the basis. I really mean NO disrespect to anyone. Im here to get along, and improve the community.