Olympic distance sub 2:30?

So not much to think about with marathon training so aim thinking ahead to maybe a series of Olympic races in the summer, while I’ve done 1h17 for sprint and 5h53 for middle, but my best olympic is 3h18 that same 2016 season. I’m a faster swimmer and runner than I was then for sure, I should be a faster cyclist too.

I’ve been so focussed on longer distances though, maybe I’m being unrealistic in these time gains…

Olympic 2016 best
S: 30
B: 1h31
R: 1h11

I can currently swim 1500 in maybe 27, run 10k in 50 maybe just under, bike I don’t have a recent short distance race so I might do a virtual TT to get an idea but my I’m guessing we’re need to be talking 40km in 1h15 territory? 37kph?

My best back in the Camelot era (2017) when I was very fit and very light was 2:21. My figures are a little wonky because the bike was 800m short and the run 600m long. Swim everyone got a different distance on that, think it may have been a little short.

S: 20:03 (2nd out the water thank you very much)
B: 1:11:26 (33kph)
R: 47:51 (hit 10k at about 45)

If you can average 37kph that is going to give you a 1:05 bike split. With your 50 min 10 and 27 min swim that brings you under the 2:30 without having to go mad in transition. I spent 2:15 in transition on mine as it was small and close to the water.

I love standard distance racing. Especially if you are going for a good time because it still a long ish time but you are pushing hard for a lot of it.

Course choice makes a big difference.

Good luck

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Without stating the obvious transitions make a lot of difference in these races. If you are like Poet you’ll save stacks of time.

I usually think I’m doing an Ironman :roll_eyes:

Sub 1:15 bike is a good starting place.

I sort of enjoyed the 2 I did last year, one was on the road bike, the other was in the heatwave, people were melting everywhere, typical northerners :rofl:

Jeff

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Well I don’t think I can! But I’ll see if I can work up to it. :+1:

Ah ok. Well, 33 still gives you about 1:11 which with knocking a couple of mins of your run and short transitions would get under the 2:30

I guess its deciding where you think you can gain the most and focus on that.

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you also need to look at the course to get a decent sub-2:30. I managed my one and only at London Tri many many moons ago but that has long transitions, but otherwise the course is flat so you can push hard on the bike. they key is to find a flattish course with few sharp turns (bike and run) and short transitions esp from swim to bike.

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Hmm, I’m in for London, but as you say lots of sharp turns. Dartford Bridge is a possible, but from the map it says seven laps and I see at least 3x180° per lap.

Maybe some crit style training, with lots of short bursts, would be good prep.

My best is 2:18.**. It was at Dartford with quite short transitions so that helps. I did circa 25min swim as that was a bit long, 1:02ish bike and ~46min run . Dartford bike is very much dependant on the wind direction along the dual carriageway I had one year where the “downhill” section was slower than the “uphill” ( i know its not a climb but its a bit of a drag back up). Also an early wave is better or you get held up by numpT’s that cant ride round the dead turns at either end

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I’ve managed 2.32 at London but the course is short.
Did 2.43 at Windsor (the year the horse was hit - not me…) the bike was changed last minute and was long, went through 40k in 1.09.

I’ve realised that it’s pretty much always my swimming (or lack of) and not enough bricks which slow me down over the shorter distances.

You sound like you’re in a good place for sub 2.30.

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I have managed a 2:27:03 with 28:51 swim, 1:03:24 bike and a 50:58 run, clearly I was carried to the time with an pretty decent bike leg!

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2:11 three times on three different courses…

Deva…
Bala… years ago
Windsor… decades ago!

Rollicks !!

My lack of top end swim speed always prevented a 2:10.

Some good run splits… 38-41.

Not sure they were all 10k as my pb 10k at the time was 38:56.

I’m guessing I’d be sub 2:30 now but not by much…

I have no intention of finding out…!!!

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I thought this was about Joex’s goal, not us willy waving? Anyway, I did a 2:07 back when I was older than half you lot are now :yum: It was a flat course based around the Cotswold water park.

@joex I would say you can leave the swim in the high 20s, and focus on getting the bike & run times down i.e. improving your bike strength, and then running faster off that too; double trouble! If you pick a fast bike course, I think a good aero position should also be on your list.

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I think that the key to doing a sub 2:30 will be to find one with a fast course, flat, not too many corners.

27 minutes swim is a good time. On a nice bike course, you probably don’t need much more than 210w to average 35kph, keep a bit in your legs for the run and go sub 50

swim 27
bike 1h9
run 50m
total 2h26m with 4mins for transition

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It’s interesting to see the numbers though, I think the bike trend is lower, proportionally, than I was expecting.

Fast, flat courses, well I’m open to considering nominations, but weight loss for Eastbourne and appropriate training for London & Dartford is likely the way forward.

Using Zwift as theoretical yard arms, I did 40km in 1:04:50 simulated flats, 1:18 simulated 37.5 +645m climb, at 0.89IF and I think 0.88IF. So I’ll try to lift those slightly over 0.9 and then after the marathon in April, introduce some brick runs afterwards.

I’ll try and dig out my splits for the 2 races I did last year, think they were both around 2:26, with a string of excuses for not being quicker :rofl:

Obvs there’s no point caning the bike if it’s going to knock 5 minutes of your run

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I’ve also gone sub 2:30 at London. London TB route is the fastest as you go through Limehouse each way twice (unless course has changed). My runs were the old around the docks routes. Ive heard they are more twisty these days. I haven’t raced there since 2010 I think it was. It is a very busy race though and the transitions don’t help. For me Dartford has been multiple times though and it is the ideal place locally.

I did the Westminster route in 2017 and I think I rode about 1:03 on a road bike with no aero garb. It’s on quick main roads, the only climbing of note was over a couple of flyovers. There are a couple of dead turns I believe.

It depends which course at London you are doing.

The Sunday Westminster course is faster than the Saturday up and down the airport

and…if we’re penis waving, I could only find one Olympic result (out of 23) on my Athlinks that was over 2:30 :wink:

(but I’m missing a few years before on that site)

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Athlinks only has one result for me for some reason.

And it’s my only DNF.

:face_with_monocle::roll_eyes: