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Caught the bug.....

Hi - Newbie here looking for advice and re-assurance!

Just completed my first event (Orca Sprint) and loved it - definitely found a new hobby / obsession.

Obvious next step is to use winter to get fitter / better. Big question I'm trying to answer is what type of programme do I need to follow.

I had three goals when I started, finish, enjoy it, get the best time I could - and I reckon I acheived all three. Performance at Dorney Lakes (750m, 20k, 5k) was:

Swim: 15.59 (got to be honest and say that I did breast-stoke for three quarters of the 750m)
T1: 2.02
Bike: 42.18
T2: 1.03
Run: 23.34
Total: 1.24.59

So.... swim obvioulsy needs to get better, lessons are on the horizon. Bike - guess I increse the mileage and well as some shorter sessions working on increased cadence (do spinning classes help, do I stick some clip on tri bars onto the bike?) and how much running should I do (have a off road half marathon scheduled for Oct and will probably to Bath 1/2 again in March).

Last question...... sorry...... is what goals for next year, I want to go up in distance. I'm definitely more endurance than outright speed, but also want to improve my sprint time. would love to do a big event, but also have a half baked idea that I could get to a 70.3 distance with some hard work over winter.

Any and all advice / abuse well received

Thanks in advance

C

Comments

  • PC_67PC_67 Posts: 196
    I think they're pretty respectable splits - well done. If you did a 16 minute swim doing mainly breast stroke there's no reason why you can't take a few minutes off that by learning front crawl properly and training accordingly.

    Bike: mileage and some interval work ought to lead to an improvement, though obviously I don't know what you've been doing to date. Do you have a decent bike? Going from a decent hybrid to a proper road bike would be a few minutes saved for example.

    Run: if you're doing half marathons alraedy you're obviously pretty fit so I'd be inclined to keep training so you're capable of running the half marathon comfortably, maybe with an eye to improving your speed which will benefit your 10k times too. Being comfortable doing a half is a good platform to race OD 10k runs with confidence.

    Goals for next year: my very personal opinion would be to aim to do some OD races next summer just to get used to stepping up a distance, maybe aiming to get progressively quicker over the season. See how you like it and if the bug is still there aim for a 70.3 the following season. It'd be a shame to aim for a 70.3 as your next goal and maybe not enjoy it as much (maybe because the swim is too daunting for a current breast stroker), possibly diminishing your appetite. Also, having some OD races under your belt will give you a great base fitness as a foundation for your 70.3 training the next winter.

    I'd say 70.3 is doable but aiming for a couple of good ODs would be more fun.
  • TRIumphantTRIumphant Posts: 850
    I'm the same as you, prefer endurance than speed, and this year I did both IM UK and IM UK 70.3. I' also did Eastnor Castle Middle Distance this year and The Little Woody in 2009, both HIM events. All three are good events, hard, but you feel a great sense of achievement having finished them. However, the only real big event was IM UK 70.3, 1500 competitors, slick running, and has the real event feel. Red carpet to finish, medal etc, and all the pomp and ceremony of an IronMan franchise, but it does cost.

    If you set yourself the target, it's June 2011, then you got about 10 months to train for it, focus on the swimming, bike on hills and longer distances, and keep up the running for HM distance, and give it a go.
  • risris Posts: 1,002
    ch, have you not noticed there is a credit crunch on?

    he should sell a kidney instead.

    op - if you really want to do a him and gets you motivated over the winter then there is no reason why you can't aim for that. i would think you'll need to add proper nutrition strategies to your winter work though, whereas with an oly you might blag it without.

    personally, i'd do some sprints and some olys next year, enjoy racing fast (you say you are more endurance than speed, but you've only done one race! until you fix stuff like swimming, bike with tri-bars etc, how do you really know?), but then i've not got a massive interest in him/im at the moment.
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