Speak for yourself… I’m 52, and i’m shit at triathlon.
5 Likes
1.05 VI on that course… impressive. I did 1.04 VI in Hamburg, pan flat, just wind to contend with
That was a really confusing statement until I looked up “etap chainset”. Was surprised to see it is what it is named. Weird that SRAM are branding it that way, given etap is just the shifting. The chainset might be what you get with a full etap groupset, but there’s nothing “etap” about it.
I would say for professional endurance athletes and those in it for the long-haul, mid-late 30s is the peak. This is borne out by the evidence.
The ‘bulge’ you see from those in their 40s are late-adopters, particularly those who have no kids, or they have grown-up giving more time. Triathlon is a MAMIL sport, hence the skew.
The “evidence” points to my statement being true.
The % of Pros to late adopting MAMILs is tiny.
But yes, I agree with you.
I know getting into a discussion with you on anything statistical is going to see me out-gunned! What I meant by evidence, are the best finishing times and record books. Joe Skipper is unlikely to be going sub-8 when he’s my age 
2 Likes
@jaylen84 in regards to the two bottles, which like @Mungo2 has me thinking. Did you mix the concentrated Tailwind with water into the one between the aero bars?
Qualitative, then.
Look at Cam Brown, don’t write Skipper off just yet!
Yes I know, but Cam’s best years are in the rear-view mirror.
three letters
T
O
D
1 Like
He’s late 30s 
39 going on 40, and racing better than ever.
That was exactly the change in approach I applied to the (finally) well executed marathon in December. In my race report, I described the first 10k as if I was “riding the brake”. I was consciously and deliberately holding myself back. I’d even set myself a goal to not have a single km split beginning with a 3. I failed on that (as there was a downhill km early on) but I still “only” ran 39:50. The next two 10k splits were faster and I felt great for that more gentle opening.
1 Like
Jaylen84 what a great and informative post. Thanks.
Reading your posts and also Matt’s, and seeing Matt’s training, brings home to me just how much commitment is required to get to Kona. Commitment, rugged determination and huge cojones.
It’s something I have always wanted to do in life, since about age 18, and I honestly think my body is physically trainable enough. But I don’t know if my head and reproductive organs are up to the challenge.
One question if I may. Do you drink alcohol?
I heard that interview with last year’s winner – he’s incredibly good on the bike – an “outlier”, a powerhouse, whose race is dominated by a strong bike. What applies to him couldn’t possibly apply to someone like me. Different beasts! If you’re that strong then you can get away with one front chainring, and that’s the way it seemed to be going on Kona as well, particularly among the pros. Less weight, better aerodynamics, less to “go wrong”. But that’s the difference between the best in the world and the likes of me – they are strong enough to race differently and to be able to use different gearing and components etc. And also, in Kona you can safely push 300 watts at 30mph because the roads are decent, straight, open roads. IMUK is very different. You just can’t push high watts at high speed or on descents on that course, it’s just not feasible.
I wonder what will happen to Kona this year? I’d say that of 2300 Kona places, only a few hundred have already qualified. At best, maybe a few hundred more might qualify this year, as all the races are now being postponed/cancelled, so they aren’t going to have as many people qualified. Would they hold a Kona race with so few qualifiers? Would it be pro-only? But then a lot of the pros probably haven’t qualified yet as well… hmmmm…
Thanks for the coach comment : ) I’d love to be a coach. I’ve still got a few more racing years left in me and still got a few things I’d like to achieve to hopefully give me a bit more “credibility” but it’s something I’ve thought a lot about. While I am racing, I haven’t got much time or energy left over for much else. My coaching philosophy would be to work with what people have got in their lives and to develop a coaching/training plan that works around their lives and commitments, rather than blindly saying “4 swims per week, 5 bike rides and 5 runs, repeated for 5 months” and then having someone burn out or melt down or get injured because it just doesn’t work in real life with real life constraints. I’ve realised that such a volume of training isn’t needed anyway!
I bought a book: “Ironman – the complete guide”, an official book “written” by Bob Babbitt. Some of it was tremendous. Some great photos. But the training plans… they made my legs hurt just reading them. Apparently I should have been swimming something like 6-7 times per week, cycling 5-6 times per week and running 6 times per week. To do that, I would literally have had to win the lottery, quit my job and employ a full-time physio. I really do think that, particularly for people with real lives, jobs, families etc, that “less is more” (to an extent obviously) and you have to work with an individual athlete’s life circumstances, strengths, weaknesses and tolerance levels. That’s not to say you make the process “easier” – you just find ways to maximise the returns you get for the time and circumstances you have available.
I followed a 2 weeks on, then 1 easy week pattern. I always have when Ironman training (except in my first year when it was 3 tough weeks followed by one easier week, which I then looked at and decided was too much, physically and mentally. My “rest week” started with a Monday massage and a compete day off. Tuesday would either be a very easy 30 minute turbo spin or another day off. Wednesday might have been an easy bike ride, Thursday an easy run maybe with a few strides, Friday an easy short swim, Saturday an easy bike ride (maybe 2-3 hours rather than 5+), and Sunday an easy run (1 hour maybe, rather than 2+). Then the body and mind are recovered, fresh and ready to start another 2-week cycle.
I really don’t know now what to focus on for this year – a case of wait and see I guess. There will be no spring-time 10k races and I wonder will the world sprint championships go ahead in Edmonton in mid-August. I wouldn’t be too sure about this, which then means no racing goals/targets this year at all. But obviously there are much more challenging things going on in the world at the minute and I’m not the only one in this boat…
Regarding running goals, I think I could run sub-70 for a half marathon, sub 2:30 for a full marathon, 52 for a 10 miler, sub-31 for a 10K, sub-15 for a 5K and sub-9 for 3K. One of the reasons I started doing triathlon was because I kept getting injured when running and couldn’t manage more than about 35 miles a week. I’m just not built for it. Goals have to be realistic and achievable and I think to achieve the running times outlined above might not ever happen, no matter how hard I tried. So I would settle for a sub-9 3K, a sub-32 10K and a sub 2:36 marathon because that would be over an hour off my previous PB (done when 18 and clueless) and would also be sub-6 minute miling pace. I don’t know if I could cope with the training needed to achieve the absolute fullest of my running potential (so does that mean that it isn’t even potential?!) and I also have triathlon goals, and trying to achieve triathlon goals and running goals simultaneously doesn’t really work.
I’m not getting any younger either! I do agree that, apart from ridiculous “outlier” talents, generally endurance athletes tend to peak in their mid-30s. I think youthful exuberance helps in short-course stuff, but experience in long-course racing is worth a lot. Then in one’s mid-30s, kids might arrive and things change. I wonder if the trend for 40- and early 50-somethings doing very well (and many of them kick my ass) is because they have ticked over through the kids’ younger years and then when they reach a time when their career is established, kids are older, they have more time, they can start to compete strongly.
I wonder how many 40 and 50-somethings who do high-level Ironman have been doing it since their 20s? I’d say possibly not many… And then, such people probably have a bit more money because they’ve reached a certain level in their careers and can afford nice (i.e. fast) equipment (and fair play to them). But I do find it quite hard that I could have dropped a few grand on my equipment and it would have got my a sub-10 at Kona. That’s why I like running, because it’s more of a level playing field (or at least it was until all the Nike vapors come along, but that’s another story altogether… Cross-country is now the last bastion of “pure” running…!
Yep, I rode a 1.05 variability index at IMUK19. We often refer to the swim “discipline”, the bike “discipline” and the run “discipline”. The word “discipline” really is very important in Ironman. The entire swim, 95% of the bike, and two-thirds of the run have to be highly disciplined! It feels almost silly – you’re “racing” for a Kona slot, you’re tapered and feeling tremendous, and there you are pootling along watching people fly past you. It’s so tempting to go with them, to lift your power from 210 to 240, to think that such a small lift won’t make a difference, to spike the hills at 280. But for me, all of that only ended in one way, and it certainly wasn’t in a good way…
I had concentrated Tailwind in bottle behind the saddle, and water in the bottle between the aerobars. The aerobar bottle is easier to access and out back, and I drank water more often than I drank the Tailwind, so I had the water in the more accessible bottle. When I drank the Tailwind, I followed it immediately with water. At IMUK I had a big single bottle of Tailwind behind the saddle but it’s difficult to mount and dismount the bike with such a big bottle (I can’t throw my leg over the saddle as the bottle is too high, so ended up ingloriously climbing over my top tube, knocking into my top tube storage, and ending up worrying about pulling a muscle when doing so. So for Kona I changed to two smaller rear-mounted bottles which meant I could throw my leg over the saddle. Worked much better!
I don’t drink much alcohol. I need to hydrate. I don’t need to drink things that dehydrate. That said, I do (and did) have the (very) odd Guinness. It’s good for you. Supposedly. Apparently it has iron in it. So they say…
6 Likes
Great post, I asked a question on said interview with foggy…
Ironically it was about power delivery downhill.
He just “ tucks up” fair comment, but two Marshall’s said the speed he was hitting the gradual downhills was quite shocking …
I ease up at 30 mph as I guess I think that’s fast enough … with 60x11 on tap he can pedal at 40…
Some good points again, the 2 hard one easy weeks wise hits home and I might have a bash…
Sometimes I think I have two much time to train, coupled with being old can lead to injury and stagnation at best.
Keep the posts coming, I’ve shared the original ten pager with a few tri friends… they say thanks !
1 Like
Yes Certainly true in my case. I did not do triathlons in my 20’s as I was too busy cycling and windsurfing competitively. I got fat and lazy in my 30’s while starting a family and building a career, started triathlon at 43, and been steadily getting faster since. I do have more time to train. Even though someone in their 40’s may lose some speed, I think that many have greater stamina than they did when younger. I also think some people in their 40’s have much more mental strength, and the ability to execute a plan.
1 Like
Just downloaded the current Kona start list, currently only 800 qualified out of capacity of 3200. If all races to end June are cancelled, that will leave 585 unallocated spots. There are just 11 more events offering Qualification for Kona 2020.
Will be interesting to see how IM respond to this.
2 Likes
Busy day at work? 
Learn some Python - have a play with Beautiful Soup - then do some analysis, do some pretty graphs with matplotlib, or even Dash.
Indeed. I made this point elsewhere. Capacity 3200 at Kona?! Where did you read that? I don’t know if they’d hold Kona with so few…