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Olympic distance & approach to Ironman

revershedrevershed Posts: 49
in General Chat
I've looked on tritalk and various places, does anyone know of any olympic distance triathlons in May around the south west/gloucestershire/worcestershire/oxfordshire? I've seen the New Forest tri but I did that last year and want to try something else?

I'd also be interested to hear how people approach their season for Ironman i.e. do people do 1 olympic, 1 middle distance & then ironman or do they just do one middle distance and jump into Ironman?

I've always thought it to be a good idea to get an olympic distance it to sharpen up your racing? Is this the case or am I actually wasting my time and I could save the £50 entry.

Comments

  • rush1884rush1884 Posts: 43
    Personally I think the races are a lot more psychological than physical - especially if your goal is to simply comeplete the ironman. If your training is right you could technically get away with not doing any other distances (as long as your training is right).

    Your race schedule should reflect your questions that you have over your ability. For example if you are unsure about open water swimming you may want to start with sprint/olympic. Or if you have questions over your ability to run after a long bike you should be looking at a half. Basically you want to be able to ensure you have answered a lot of your anxieties before embarking on your Ironman (although you will still have a lot to answer during the race).

    This season is going to be my first Ironman and I have only covered Olympic distance before (2 years ago). Due to my circumstances I will complete a sprint, Olympic, half, then ironman basically because I have a lot of questions over my racing abilities and feel like I need to do these races (not for physical benefits but psychological).

    What I will say is that I am doing my half 9 weeks away from the big event and then not doing any races from that point so that I can recover, focus on my training, and any stand out points I need to work on that I discovered from my half I can work on for a effective period of time.
  • revershedrevershed Posts: 49
    Thanks. My reasons were partly psychological (just because I did the same last season) and partly just to make sure I get more exposure to open water. Plan of attack now is to replace the olympic distance with a couple of weekends doing to open water sessions at the local lakes.
  • rush1884rush1884 Posts: 43
    Makes sense, remember you can always simulate your own races and make the distances specific to what you think you need to test rather than the specific distances used in competition. Its a bit boring im sure but very helpful and probably will tell you more about your training than doing 2 or 3 Olympic distances.
  • risris Posts: 1,002
    in terms of oly's in the south west, i'm afraid i don't know about any in may, but early june is the cricklade oly in wilts (i think this year it is june 6). it is a very novices oriented race with small numbers, cheap to enter. pool swim in an odd distance pool (15m), flatish course and bit of a lumpy run.

    if you don't mind a odd set of distances then the wantage tri (oxfordshire) is on june 13, 800m pool swim, 35k, 12k. not strictly an oly but enough there to keep you ticking over.

    there's the votwo south cerney lake standard distance on june 13 as well, lake swim, 40k, 10k.
  • jibby26jibby26 Posts: 261
    It's not an olympic distance, but there is the Winchester fast twitch on the 18th April, 400m swim/20mile bike/6mile run. A long sprint in effect.

    http://www.conceptsport.co.uk/events.php?pid=1138

    Alternatively there is the new forest triathlon on 2nd May, 1.1, 36, 10km

    http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/10_NewFo ... athlon.htm
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