DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Triathlons

Another thread resurrection to give a shout out to Heldawg, with whom I had the opportunity to race this past Sunday down in New Albany, OH at the inaugural Challenge New Albany triathlon.

Awesome weather (that almost wasn't), a beautiful and challenging course, and a whole lotta great folks. It's always great fun to race with people you know, but it's even cooler when they're also a fellow DawgTalker. Great seeing you out there, George, and outstanding job on your first event in over 10 years! You even got a brief cameo in the official race recap video

Nice. I've been riding a bike more and more and been thinking about doing one of the smaller tri's at some point. I just need to swim more. I tried swimming laps the other day for the first time in years... I did 600m (and not consecutively) and I was done haha...

swimming is all technique... get your breathing down, then work on your balance in the water a little, and before you know it, you'll be able to swim 1000 non-stop with no sweat.

I'll preface what I'm going to say by mentioning that I'm not a triathlete. I volunteered as a lifeguard at a summer camp I help out with each year, so I had to get Red Cross certified. My intensive swimming experience (not including going to the pool for a workout swim) is limited to surviving the different swim tests associated with the class I attended.

I started out as a pretty decent swimmer, but the biggest thing I learned was to significantly slow down my stroke. By slowing down how fast I was moving my arms, I could rotate my shoulders and reach out farther in front of me, and pull my hands all the way back. That made each stroke stronger, which got me through the water quicker, and I didn't get winded as fast.

I would agree with that... Power over Turnover (until you get good enough to increase the turnover).

Swimming is a see-saw back and forth between fitness and technique/body position. You'll get fit enough to hit a point where you can't get any faster because of drag, so you have to overcome that with technique or body position changes, which gets you faster. At which point, you're back to building strength and fitness, etc.. and eventually you'll be down to worrying about the little things like the spacing of your fingertips when you start your pull, hehe. Long before that, though, you have to get that long, slow, easy stroke with sustainable breathing. If you can't breathe, you're not going anywhere (except to the bottom, hehe).

I did the Challenge Atlantic City a few weeks back. I guess Challenge is really making inroads into the US market. I was pretty impressed, they put on a good race, very well organized. Some kinks to work out (probably the most difficult swim course of any full length race I've ever done) but all in all pretty good. I'll do it again but not next year as I'm signed up for Lake Placid. Talk about flat as a board course... like 800ft of total vertical on the bike and like only 350ft on the run. You're actually running the board walk for probably 90% of it. The only issue was crazy headwind on the final 30 miles of the ride. Anyway, it's good to see you're still at it.

Oh and learning to swim fast at our advanced age ( ) is pretty close to what I'd call futile. That is, of course, assuming that like me you were not a high school or college swimmer. The muscle memory is often still there for those guys. It is indeed technique and endless repetition of that technique. I've been with a swim specific coach for 3 years working on form/ technique and drilling pretty consistently and have made some good progress but if I'm doing a cost-benefit analysis it's pretty hard to justify all that work. Shaving 15 minutes off my swim is awesome except when you consider putting that same effort into saddle time or running speed work, you're gonna get back a much weaker return. I had a conversation this spring with an older guy that's been to Kona a half a dozen times and has something like 50 ironman and hundreds of shorter races behind him and he pretty much echoed that same sentiment. Get to where you're reasonably decent in the water and efficient enough that when you get out of the water you're not spent. It's one thing to really focus on getting fast in the pool when you're 22 and have had some swim team experience when you were younger, it's a whole 'nutha thing trying to learn from scratch at 35 or 40. Yes, you can make good progress but your time is more precious when you're older. You can get 15 minutes faster on the bike with a few months of training. A few guys I train with who I beat handily in the water at Atlantic city drubbed me in the run for well more than the time difference. Just my $.02

Congrats on doing AC! It was tempting for me to sign up for that, but other than doing Beach2Battleship (best freaking race in the world, IMO) Half at the end of this year, I'm going all short course this year and next (after doing three Halfs and my first/only Full (so far) last year. I'll return to long course in 2016.

The feel & vibe at New Albany was 'lipstick on a pig'. It had all the banners and red carpet of a major event, but that's it. Vendor/sponsor support & presence was nil. It was partly sponsored by Gatorade Endurance.... one would think you could actually get something from them to drink after the race. Nope! There was zero crowd support out on the course. It was very quiet and lonely, especially on the run. I don't expect it on the bike, but crowd support on the run, to me, is the sign of a good event. It's the inaugural year, so I'm guessing that the town needs to learn how to embrace the event and make it their own.... but it felt like a ghost town out there. Literally.


I echo your sentiments about swimming, but at the same time, I don't. From my perspective, where I have a coach now, I'm in the water 3 times per week anyway... whether it is doing recovery swims just for volume, or if it is sport-specific strength building. Anything, even if I'm not any faster, that helps me come out of the water fresher helps me immensely. I've been working with the coach since February, and while I am faster in the water (10-15s per 100), and it is marginal gains, my fitness in the water is leaps and bounds better, which has me getting on the bike feeling the way I should - like I've just done a warmup. Granted, while I'm not super-speedy (17th overall swim at New Albany), I'm not entirely slow, either, so perhaps me already being content with my swim speed helps my perspective?

I'll just post here too... for all to see:

Hey....

Sorry this took so long to get back to you. Work, divorce, girlfriend, daughter, friends, working out...etc. etc. etc.

I just now got a two hour window.

So......

The triathlon. I actually felt great the entire race. Thank you so much for yelling my name at the start! I thought "what was that?!? I could swear I heard George" hahahaha

I was standing with someone who missed their start by 6 minutes. And that's why I wasn't even thinking about it because I knew he went off before me!!!

Anyway I ran over, talked to a race official and ran in about 30 feet behind everyone. It took to the turn around to pass the wash but I eventually did. That's why my swim was slow. I was just stuck. But I didn't freak or anything. Then I passed a lot of people. I think I did it in 28 minutes. Which I was happy with considering.

Then T1...holy crap. The wetsuit would not come off. I almost asked a race official for scissors. Or something. It was terrible. Never happened to me before. It was small but it wouldn't come off my right leg. It took 4 minutes to 5 minutes. I cramped trying to get it off. LOL....

But anyway got on the bike. Did fine. Exactly what I expected. I'm not very powerful or aerodynamic or good in any way on the bike so I actually am satisfied with that. Then the run I just didn't do any brick workouts. I ran plenty but I thought muscle memory would get me through that transition. My hamstrings just never really released. The entire run. So I dealt with it. I stopped at all the water stations and hydrated. And I was good. Happy. I felt really good finishing. I had a couple bad blisters but I dealt. Nothing extreme at all. It was fun for me. And I'm happy.

Tell me about your experience! I know you told me that you overpowered the bike. But give me the scoop. Erin and I looked for you but you guys must have moved from where I saw you at the finish. I went and ate all the watermelon in the tent!

I do want to note that Prp did very well. And it is to his credit that after getting into triathlons very recently he has risen to the top of his age group exceptionally. I've never seen it. Not at 40. Congratulations to him. Well done!

I'm up for a destination triathlon next. Half Iron probably. early 2015. Starting to feel really good.

Thank you

I'd happily join you for that, but I'm ALLLLL short course next year. I'm looking to lighten the training load some... I've been working toward my October Half Iron since the last week of February, and I'm ready for some shorter training days, heheh

If you want a recommendation, I can personally vouch for Ironman 70.3 Puerto Rico (formerly IM 70.3 San Juan when I raced it in 2013).
Absolutely incredible event in a beautiful and historic area... but, the heat on the run will crush souls, lol!
Gorgeous swim in a protected lagoon, uber-flat and FAST bike, but a hilly and hot run.