Focusing on Bike and Run for a season or more

Unknown

I am relatively new to triathlon (began training/racing in the February of 2012). This is my first season with EN and I am nearing the end of my first OS.  Over the last month or so, I keep thinking about ways to become a more competitive age grouper (top 10/podium finishes) in the 70.3 and full IM distances and I keep coming back to the OS mantra of just bike and run. 

Being new to the sport it seems like I have to sink a ton of time into all three disciplines and only realize moderate improvement due to time constraints as an age group athlete with a full time job and having to spread my training time over three disciplines.  I understand that 3-10 yrs of training/racing is typically when most triathletes begin to realize their potential but the OS has got me thinking that there may be another way to accelerate my ability to compete by dumping the swim for a year or more. 

Looking at the HIM and IM training programs we spend 10-15 hours a week training with approximately 3 to 4 of these hours dedicated to the swim. Putting the swim training time back into the bike/run over a years time period seems to like a good way to get really good/fast at the bike and run.  Essentially setting power, pace,and endurance goals for the bike/run and training only those disciplines until the goals are met. Once the goals are reached, add the swim training back in and return to racing triathlon vs. duathlons, running races, bike races. 

Looking for some input regarding my thoughts of a season long bike/run focus from all those who train and have experience in this sport. 

 

Al Truscott

Venerable IM cliche ... "You cant win the race during the swim, but you can lose it." Almost all AG triathletes you see on the podium are relatively balanced across all three disciplines. If you place higher now in your AG in the swim than the other two, you can probably get away with 10-12 hours of swimming total in the 3 months leading up to an IM. Otherwise, keep in mind that it's one sport, not three.

If you are thinking of your triathlon career long-term, like 5-10 years, then you should continually adjust your emphasis onto whatever sport is your weakest relative to others in your AG, varying around a ratio of about 15-20/50-55/25-35 swim/bike/run, trying always to remain balanced.

Getting better (from a racing perspective) at biking and running doesn't necessarily require more time. The same amount of time at faster paces will do the trick.

John Withrow

@Robert- I'm a 1:10:xx +/- 2 mins IM swimmer. I have had the same thought as you for a while... The amount of time in the pool it would take for me to save 10mins in the water just doesn't seem like it is worth it to me. Couple of things to consider though. There's a big difference between being exhausted coming out of the water and being fresh, regardless of your swim time. If you don't do any swimming and are crushed after the swim leg, it is likely this will also hurt your bike and run times. If you are already efficient in the water and could swim all day without getting tired (like me) but just aren't super fast, but fast 'enough', then I agree that the time might be better spent biking or running, or in my case recovering. There's only so much work you can absorb from biking and running though. Last yr in my IM build, I only usually swam 1 time a week (sometimes 2x) and in most cases it was around 45mins. But I felt like I needed those days as recovery days for my legs anyways, so it's not like I was losing a bike or run segment, I was simply losing the extra hour of sleep. In many ways, the cold water and easy kicking felt like it helped me flush out my legs from all the run or bike work. Then during the last 3-4 weeks and especially when I was tapering, I actually added in more swims to stay sane, burn calories, and get my swimming more crisp. I'll likely do the same this yr.

MattAaronson

Posted By John Withrow on 27 Mar 2013 05:00 AM


There's a big difference between being exhausted coming out of the water and being fresh, regardless of your swim time. .

Couldn't agree more. I am a reasonably competitive age grouper...not Kona-caliber but top 10-ish in most 70.3 races. The guys around me in the standings always swim faster than me, almost always run slower, and bike around the same. Last year I took some swim lessons and really improved. The impact on my time was much less than the impact on the rest of my race...coming out of the water with my HR not totally jacked made a huge difference. Two other experiences that drive that home were (a) at Steelhead 2011 when the swim was cancelled and I laid down an awesome bike split at 0.9 IF then followed it up with a great run, and (b) at an olympic-distance race last year where I set a goal of really going all-out in the swim, just to see what would happen...it totally undermined my bike as I spent the first half of the bike recovering and getting my HR down. That's part of the challenge of triathlon...all 3 sports really do interact to make up your race.

All that said, EN's ROI approach to swim training, including no swimming in the OS and an emphasis on form over fitness for MOP swimmers, is right up my alley and I haven't been in the water since early September.