Now I'm the idiot...
sarahz5
Posts: 1,363 Member
I have always criticized for jumping straight into a 70.3!
Please give it to me straight. I have done a number of sprint triathlons, but note - all were women only. I'm good with the run and bike, totally. I have done many half marathons and I am relatively speedy. My longest bike so far is 35 miles but it's a strong sport for me, I am not worried. My swim - I used to be slow; then I got slightly faster, but I started to have swim anxiety and panic in the water. So my swim times are still bad. And when I say sprint, I mean 400m. I have done an OWS up to 1600m, but not in a race setting, and I think I probably took a 30 second break to stand at some point.
I plan to do a masters swim for 12 weeks in early 2016.
About 40 women from my tri club are signing up for IMAC70.3.
Am I nuts to skip from sprint to 70.3, given this profile?
Please give it to me straight. I have done a number of sprint triathlons, but note - all were women only. I'm good with the run and bike, totally. I have done many half marathons and I am relatively speedy. My longest bike so far is 35 miles but it's a strong sport for me, I am not worried. My swim - I used to be slow; then I got slightly faster, but I started to have swim anxiety and panic in the water. So my swim times are still bad. And when I say sprint, I mean 400m. I have done an OWS up to 1600m, but not in a race setting, and I think I probably took a 30 second break to stand at some point.
I plan to do a masters swim for 12 weeks in early 2016.
About 40 women from my tri club are signing up for IMAC70.3.
Am I nuts to skip from sprint to 70.3, given this profile?
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Oh, and I feel confident I can carve out the training time.0
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IMO, nope.0
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Nope, don't do it? Or nope, not crazy?
And if you think I should hold off... is it because of the swim issue, or because you strongly recommend getting a full year of Olympic level training under my belt first?
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Nope, not crazy.
Will you be doing the swim in a wetsuit?0 -
Oh Sarah I've seen many far less experienced jump feet first into a 140.6. At least you didn't go full on crazy???
You'll be fine. Put in the work, race smart, you'll be set.0 -
Hahahahahaha FULL. Yes that is crazier and makes me feel better!
I don't think I will need a wetsuit - I hate them so far and sold my full Orca - but I am going to experiment this spring. My friend just told me about wetsuit shorts - best thing ever? Buoyancy without the straightjacket?
To be honest, it's you men punching and swimming over me that gives me the most pause. I live such a sheltered women's tri club life!
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To be honest, it's you men punching and swimming over me that gives me the most pause. I live such a sheltered women's tri club life!
Also, IMO, a sleeveless suit is far less restrictive than a sleeved one. I sold my sleeved one last season and only use my sleeveless.0 -
You have so much time before now an IMAC to prepare. You will be fine. You say you have a few sprints under your belt. Great. Pick a couple mid-season Olys to tune up. Perhaps Rev3 Pocono on August 7?0
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I will check it out - might be too much altitude for me! - my friends who love NJ State keep trying to twist my arm to do that and have completely disagreed with the "gross lake" assessment! Of course I was also thinking about the AC Tri Int'l, but I don't think I want to do two AC tris in a row. It would be great for preparation but a little anticlimactic.0
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Thank you all so much for encouraging me to do this, btw! It definitely pushed me over the edge from maybe to probably. I heard the cheapest spots are selling out so I will probably (there's that word again) sign up tonight.0
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I won't lie - the Pocono course is a bit tough. The bike isn't actually all that bad. There is really only one hill that you do on the way out, then again on the way back. But the run... that has some real hills.0
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Okay, I don't know if it will be this year, but I *am* doing that race. What a gorgeous setting, great courses, love everything about it so far. The hills on the run don't scare me (though I have never run after more than 24 miles on the bike so maybe I shouldn't be so confident). I would be more concerned about the "technical descents" on the bike. That is something I am going to have to think about training for by doing some of my rides elsewhere.0
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Another vote for not crazy at all. You got time to master the distances. Really, swimming is the easiest jump from 400m to 1.2.
Depends on the start. I don't know of any half that start as a mass start (but I don't go looking at races I don't plan to do to see if there is mass start), you'll be in your female age group to start and then if it's a BIG swim area, just swim to the side of the group to avoid the aggressive swimmers trying to bunch up.
I don't mind lake swims, other than just the general muck of them. Fish poop too and if you're in a river swim, unless you're at the start of the river, all the toilets up stream end up someplace. I do love my no sleeve wetsuit because I don't like my arms and armpits being constrained.0 -
It's a wave start. I am concerned that i will be so slow that the wave behind me will catch up, but I figured if I stay far to the side I should be okay. It's in the back bay, so it's not enormous but it's big enough to steer clear. I watched the Int'l Tri swim there last year by the same race director so I know pretty much what will go down. You have to flop up a ramp at the end.
This particular lake swim, one of the regulars, I think glevinso, mentioned on another thread that it was a lake full of grease and something else. Then I have a real life person telling me it's great. I find that hard to reconcile.
Definitely going to invest in a no sleeve wetsuit. Just as soon as I have put the expense of the race registration and my new pedals and shoes that I bought today! I have been riding for almost four years and I have just put it off and put it off. I love them! And I got my bike totally refitted and it feels fantastic.0 -
Delmo mentioned on the IMAC FB page that the race will be a wave start
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This particular lake swim, one of the regulars, I think glevinso, mentioned on another thread that it was a lake full of grease and something else. Then I have a real life person telling me it's great. I find that hard to reconcile.
I am not a real life person?
In any case maybe other years it was different. I'll say that in 2011 when I did that race, that lake was vile. Perhaps it is cleaner now?0 -
Possibly! I am going to keep asking around before I commit. And swooning over Poconos in my mind.
It really has to be a wave start... there's not much way to get in the water other than off the dock. I always fantasize about a mass start and just waiting until I am the LAST person in the water.0 -
I agree with all of the above.
I definitely think you can and don't think it is an unreasonable goal. It's not like you are going from being totally sedentary. You have plenty of time.
I had done a few sprint tris. I am not a strong swimmer either, probably hadn't even gone as far as you had on the bike. After I had my son, I decided to try to train for one the following summer. I finished my first 70.3 in August. It wasn't a spectacular performance or anything but I did it.
I also did what Glevinso suggested. Throughout my training I did a couple of sprints, then a mid season Oly.
Most of the races I've done are on the smaller side but I've never had an issue with men swimming over me in wave starts even in the bigger ones.
I say go for it. Especially because you have a group doing it.0 -
I signed up straight away for a 70.3 (hawaii, non wetsuit swim) and felt great about it! I did two olympics beforehand to practice transitions, make mistakes, and it worked for me (desert tri and wildflower oly).
I literally could not clip into a bike before I started.0 -
Thanks! Love to hear about these experiences! I have no delusions about finishing well, I would just like to finish injury free, if sore and beat up.0
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Not crazy, just train well. I did a 70.3 as my second tri last year (I'd done olympics in the past and my first last year was an olympic). Convincing myself I could do it was the trick.
I was a bit undertrained (my own mental issues so I didn't follow my own advice) but completed it and am really glad I did it (and excited to do more this year, with more consistent training, and less winging the training -- I'm also going to join a group this time and really work on my swimming technique over the winter).
I probably would fit in a olympic or two for training before, too, but you have given yourself time for that.0 -
i need to be a bit of a pragmatist here... in my opinion, training for an olympic and a 70.3 distance race are very different. not only that, you need time to taper and recover from both races.
if you want to schedule an early oly to break the winter funk, knock yourself out. want to have a tune up race before your A race is good too, but i'd leave at least 2-3 months before the big one in order to recover and then get in any extra training.0 -
I don't think I would train FOR the oly, as in, I would not train to push hard in it. I wouldn't race it. I need to do one to get the swim distance under my belt without the pressure of the bike and swim distance looming. That said - my tri club IS going to do a mock olympic, probably early-ish in the season. So worst case scenario, I will have that. But the ones I'm looking at are in mid-July, and the 70.3 is mid-September, so I would have two months in between.0
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That does look good. I had to laugh at the 100% flat and fast... Yes, SOME hills. You are full of great recommendations.
Seems like you all have differing opinions on good times to do a pre-half olympic. I'm going to look at the training plan I am using and think about it. (Going with Iron Fit - aspire to the Intermediate but fall back to the Just Finish workout when/if necessary time-wise or fatigue-wise).0 -
Steelman is not 100% flat, but it IS a fast course. The hills are nothing terrible, but there are some hills.
I admit my opinions on when to do tuneup races might be skewed by experience at the distances. So perhaps my thinking might not work for you. An Olympic distance race for me is a good workout when used as prep for a half. I might throw one in 4-5 weeks ahead of a Half if I find one that happens to be the right day, then the next two weekends finish the long distance training.
I went back through my training logs and pulled up my garmin files for the Steelman and Pocono courses:
Steelman Bike
Steelman Run
Pocono Bike
Pocono Run
It's pretty obvious that the Steelman bike course is modestly rolling and the run course is dead flat.
The Pocono (Oly) course has a couple of significant hills and the run course has a monster right in the middle. The Half course at Pocono actually isn't any worse - the hills are all concentrated in the early and late part of the course and the half just goes farther out.
Dunno if that helps any0 -
That is super helpful. I was right that the hills on the Poconos run would be fine for me, I've handled worse (though not in a tri). I am not trained for hills on the bike though, and honestly it's probably not overly important that I get trained on them for AC. Hmmm. Maybe that's a better goal for next year.0
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Capt_Apollo wrote: »i need to be a bit of a pragmatist here... in my opinion, training for an olympic and a 70.3 distance race are very different. not only that, you need time to taper and recover from both races.
if you want to schedule an early oly to break the winter funk, knock yourself out. want to have a tune up race before your A race is good too, but i'd leave at least 2-3 months before the big one in order to recover and then get in any extra training.
I didn't train specifically for an Oly or race it. It was a training race.0 -
Possibly! I am going to keep asking around before I commit. And swooning over Poconos in my mind.
It really has to be a wave start... there's not much way to get in the water other than off the dock. I always fantasize about a mass start and just waiting until I am the LAST person in the water.
I was just rereading this thread and, funny. We did a wave start treading water at my sprint this weekend, and I was in the last wave. I actually had my dreams come true and it sucked. I hung back so I was the last one in the wave, which was a mistake even for the swim, and then there was way too much dodging and passing on the bike and run. Live and learn.1
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