Olympic Tri
Hi Coach,
I am in week 17 of HIM beginner plan - getting ready for Raleigh. I signed up for a Olympic distance race this Saturday: I wanted to see how I will handle the swim mostly. I have not done an Olympic Tri before.
What is your recommendation on the intensity for the bike/run portion? Zone 3?
Thanks.
Anna
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Comments
That's a great plan, nothing like a race to really get in the mood. :-)
If you're concerned about the swim, do your best to get in a good warm-up and be sure to include some of your favorite drills just to regain your sense of stroke in that water on that day.
I suggest that you plan on taking the first 20 minutes to build from easy up to zone three, then do your best to hold it. Be smart about your effort flattening the hills by not going to hard up them but really pushing down the minutes of the flats.
The run is really just a continuation of the bike, as soon as you find your legs you want to sit on that zone three effort and Trendy's sustained as you can be across the day: think of it as your best possible sustained effort.
If you can, please take some pictures so we can celebrate your race day! Good luck!
I finished my first Olympic try on Saturday. I'm glad I did it. I didn't do well but I came out with a huge list of lessons learned. It was almost a perfect example of what not to do during a race... In case anybody wants to learn from my mistakes (even though it's not the target race here):
Pre race:
- since it was just a "practice" race, I didn't take any rest and my legs were sore from Thursday's long run
- we had to drive about 4 hours to get to the race venue the day before and by the time we went to bed it was 12:00 am. Of course I barely slept anyway (too nervous)
- I didn't eat much for breakfast (2 small cups of apple sauce) - wasn't hungry. I did get hungry just before the race, but then it was too late.
- Swim: Super cold water (62F). The warm up was at 8:00 am. Since we didn't start the race until about 9:30-10:00 it was more of a cool down. Oh well. For some reason no matter what I tried, I was swimming to the right. The poor volunteers kept chasing me and trying to keep me on course. It took me 56 min! for the 0.9 miles (+). Swimming was never my thing (I just learned how to 2.5 years ago) but I hoped I would do better. On the other hand, I might have added 10-20% to the distance. I came out of the water tired and cold.
- T1: my plan was to take it easy, but then I lost my tempo trainer on the way to the bike and had to go back to find it, couldn't get out of the wetsuit for some reason... 7:25 min (and a nap) later...
- Bike: I am a very inexperienced bike rider and I have a new tri bike that I rode outside 2 times - stupid weather in MI! But it was OK until I decided to make some changes on the bike the day before the race without a chance to try it. I know I read 100 times you are not supposed to do it, but I thought it would be OK. I got racing wheels from my husband, new aero bars (bending up instead of down), new hydration system. What a disaster! I was so unstable, I almost crashed right in the beginning. Not sure what made me so shaky on the bike: the wheels maybe? It was so bad I didn't dare to take one had off my bars. And the fit didn't seem right either. My neck was getting super sore and I had to sit up a lot. I had the hydration system between the aero bars with the straw sticking out: unfortunately, I couldn't reach it: the straw was too short! And when I tried reaching for the bottle on the frame (plan B -I had one), I couldn't keep the bike straight. So I had to stop twice in order to drink. And of course I didn't get enough fluids or calories in. Time: 1:35
- T2: was OK: 2:31. Even though I had to pee the entire time on the bike, I decided to hold it because the bathrooms were so far away
- Run: considering everything else, not so bad. The course had hills (somehow I didn't expect that). I ended up walking most of them. Couldn't run in my zone 3 - which is usually not a problem but every time my heart rate would get close to Z3, I would feel exhausted. At least I had some Powerade with me and that helped. Time: 1:03. I hoped for better, but I was actually surprised with that. It felt slower during the run.
Finished last in my age group (9/9). :-(
I guess it was good experience in terms of lessons learned but did do some damage to my confidence. Unfortunately I don't feel ready for the 70.3 race in 3 weeks.
Anna
On the swim....if you go to the right, just take care to put your left hand in the water a bit wide. This will act as a rudder. Could be one "wide left" stroke for every two good ones...or three good ones...adjust as you see fit.
On the bike, new straw and plse post pictures of your fit here ASAP so we can comment. Sounds crazy. Also, ride outside every chance you get. It will all help!!!!