10%
Across the board.
To get to sub 5.
After ten years of triathlon.
At my age.
Averaging 10hrs per week Jan to any race day.
Is it realistic?
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What are your current splits?
From memory your swim is solid and you had some really decent IM bike splits? Which I think would mean those gains might be hard without a breakthrough. Perhaps some 1:1 swim coaching? Aero testing on the bike?
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I think you’re not miles away, which course are you considering?
I think you need to get your run around 1:50? So need to be comfortable at 5:05k’s really, when tired
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from memory your swim and bike are there? 
and you are not shy of putting in the work
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Any scope for faster wetsuit your swim splits in a pool are way faster than mine and i dossed a 33? Min swim split in a 70.3, but I had the right suit and swim game plan for me.
Decent bike power is it optimised as the geeks/ coaches / bike fitters say?
Your bike is a tt bike? I think it is!
Clothing and helmet choice are important but overall position even more so as your not skinny.
As Jeff
Said you need to get comfy at 5 min km pace
What would help this ?
Cheat shoes?
Weight loss?
Bricks?
More running at that pace?
What is your 70.3 now?
Fast course on a fast day … have at it!
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How old are you???
Do you have a disability you’re not telling us about?
Cos if not, then ‘sub5 is a piece of piss.
• Stop reading crap about training and train instead.
• Stop drinking brown ales in ‘Spoons and train instead.
• Stop flip-flopping your training methods ALL OF THE GOD DAMN TIME and just swim, bike or run.
• Stop eating crap, then moaning about hypertension, and do something more productive.
That’s your plan for 2024. You can have that for free.
There is NOTHING hard about a sub5.
Swim 35mins
Bike 2:45
Run 1:40
They’re training paces, FFS 
If you can’t do 21km in 105mins in training, then just keep running until you can.
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How did your coaching career go?
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how much is the paid plan 
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£1.
It involves going to Poundland, buying a can of bright green MTFU, necking it, pulling your socks up and doing the actual training.
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There is a small flaw with this plan…
I’d say 2:35 bike and 1:45 run
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Excellent bedside manner! 
Don’t disagree, mind.
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Oh, sheeetttt.
Can I not add up???
No. I can.
You mean transitions.
T1 in with the swim.
T2 in with the bike.
Old school “pen and paper” style timings.
Anyways…I had a really hard time with cycling when I started. I rode a 2:32 at Cots113 last year, after a few vomit stops.
Mind you, buy a Giant Trinity, bike fit, disc and spoke and you’re cruising to a 2:30.
Running is a piece of piss.
One foot in front of the other with some Nike’s on.
Simples.
In fact, it’s only swimming that’s not easy.
But you’re in a wetsuit. And there are no sharks.
So even that’s a piece of piss.
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I did the math and ten percent seems like a big ask. I think it’s time to be realistic.
I don’t think my splits really matter, whatever my speed after ten years that kind of performance increase is surely newbie gain territory.
While I talk about training a lot, I don’t chop and change plans or philosophies. Any inconsistency is lifestyle, and I think averaging ten hours in season is quite respectable actually, particularly given that I do little wussy outdoor cycling it’s all quality indoor. An outdoor cyclist would have to add 2.5hrs for the same adaptations…so maybe think of me as averaging 12hrs in season.
Any hoo regardless, the exam question is 10% faster swim bike and run…does anyone think that’s really achievable? Say to your own performances, in your late forties?
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As you say, fitness wise from an experienced athlete might be tough, but how are you max’d out on equipment? Bike position and tech, cheat shoes?
Then, find a fast course, downstream swim, flat bike, tarmac run, short transitions.
10% in time doesn’t need 10% in fitness.
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Not sure how serious @Poet is , but I think sub 5 is hard.
eg. at IM70.3 Barcelona 2022 - to pick a race at random- only 108 men, 6 women and 3 relay teams managed it out of 1198 finishers.
the last guy under 5h swam 30, biked 2h37 and ran 1h44
I don’t know how typical that course is, but if it’s average then I guess someone generally finishing in top 10% in other races might realistically be looking at sub 5?
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I went sub5 on my first paid for middle.
Ergo, it’s easy 
I’m being serious.
I honestly fail to see how it’s hard?
A sub4:30 is pretty easy, too.
Different recipe for that, though;
Do naff all for six years.
Put on 30kg.
Then…
Swim lots. And fast. Lots.
Bike 100km at race pace at 6am. Lots.
Run a spring HM in 80mins.
Don’t run more than 16km in training.
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but you also ran a 35m 10km. give or take a second 
. That doesn’t sound easy
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I reckon IM fields are weak.
Full of Instagram box tickers.
Look at Cotswold113 the year we did it.
95 people under 5hrs. From 610 finishers.
So ~16%.
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Pretty sure I didn’t go sub 5 at cots. But then did spend 20 minutes sitting under a tree questioning my life choices at km2 of the run . Maybe one day.
for @joex I don’t think it would need a 10% improvement across the board. Think it’s mainly about the run. That’s just based on what’s posted on the training thread etc🤷♂️. (but WDIK)
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But in seriousness that’s not ‘easy’ is it? Whilst some of your ealier points do hit true, saying its easy because you can do it is a confirmation bias 101.
Thats like the beefcakes on here saying its easy to rep X weight on a bench press or whatever. Or that you should easily be able to last an 80 min rugby game with serious amateurs (cos this is all easy remember) playing at flanker. Whereas the reality is you’d probs get snapped in 2. 
You’re a cheeky boy and you know it!
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