The new blog address for Practical Triathlon:
http://practicaltriathlon.wordpress.com/

Now on Twitter:

Here's a fun tool that provides some predictions of what your run times would be for various events plus or minus a few pounds of body weight:

http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/weighteffect.php

A great first-time Olympic distance triathlon finish for Sandro at the London Triathlon.  His race report is a good read for any beginners who want to get a feel for what a first triathlon will be like.

Sandro: Thanks for the race report...full of great information and inspiration!

From Sandro's race report:

On Sunday 2nd August I competed in my first Olympic Distance Triathlon (1.5k swim,  38.7k bike,  9.4k run)...[even after struggling through an illness during the last two weeks of training]. I was part of the last race on Sunday at 3.40pm while most competitors were already at home celebrating ....

Mazda London Triathlon, 16,000 participants over 2 days, start waves of 500 competitors each .... the race was as tough as I had expected (and at times even a bit tougher) ....

Swim

I knew that mass starts are not for the fainthearted, however, I was still surprised that the kicking and punching during the swim was not only happening during the start but lasted for most of the swim leg. Swimming 1.5k in a warm pool doing 60 lengths is not quite the same as facing a 1.5k loop in a lake/dock/river where you can't see the bottom with a nice black line guiding you .... disorientation, the need for sighting, cold water temperature, close body combat and the lack of a pool wall to push off from are all freebies you get when doing triathlons!  Maybe I have to get faster to lead the pack and avoid being beaten up ....?! Getting out of the water and into transition was quite a challenge, as I was really dizzy from the swim and it took some time to get the blood flowing into the legs again, standing upright and get that wetsuit off. Still PB during the swim 31:19.

T1

My transitions were a disaster, not that anything went wrong, but I was slooooow. After the swim exit we had to run up a staircase to get to the main hall in Excel Centre, which was huge (well big enough for 10,000 bikes plus exhibition, visitor centre, etc). The distances to your transition spot were really far and it was not easy to find your spot in the first place, no markings or balloons allowed! T1 6:33.

Bike

Once I started the cycle I realized that I could not see anything with my left eye but 'frosted glass'. During the transition I thought it was  still the water from the swim that caused my blurry vision, but it turned out that it was either the anti fog solution I had used on my goggles or the Thames water - anyway, it was to be a one eye race from here on!  I loved the bike and my old commuter bike did well. While quite a few of the "bling bikes" passed me on the straights, I overtook a few on the 'hills', e.g. flyovers and tunnel exit. It was great to race through the limelink tunnel and I got to a speed of 58kph both ways, which added to a good average speed of nearly 33 kph for the bike leg. I kept my cadence around 90-100 rpm on the straights and all of the hill training in Richmond Park proved well worth it. As it was a two lap course, I knew what to expect on the second lap, so it was faster than the first ... mental note: should I buy myself a new bike, it's my birthday tomorrow?! PB on the bike Bike 1:10:59.

T2

Second transition was really slow again, it seemed to take ages to get to my transition spot and the legs felt very tired and stiff as expected. I thought I covered the distance in a jog, but in reality I must have crawled?! Again nothing went wrong, just slow. T2 5:03.

Run

I had practised the bike/run brick and was used to the pain on the initial 2k. The run was ok, but I got a cramp at about k3 and it lasted until k6 - I had a quick stretch and took an energy gel which sorted the problem out. The run was a two lap course with a steep incline ramp of about 100m to get back to the transition area and around the excel dock.It was somewhat cruel to have to run past the finish line, then take a turn with another lap to go .... The cheering of the crowd surely helped, as did the thought of an ice cold beer!  Run 49:38.

When I crossed the finish line I was exhausted, delighted and emotional. This event was the icing on the cake on a long journey from being a overweight chain smoker in 2001 to become a fitter family man in 2009. I had prepared for this event for only 7 months (I have never done more cardio training in my life, probably more in 7 months than in the 37 years before!), but looking back over the past 8 years, I have truly changed my life style for the better.

My goal when I started 7 months ago was to finish the race and it seemed scary at the time. Last month I changed that goal into a sub 3 hour race. I am thrilled with my result of 2h43 and looking at my transition and run times, there is plenty of room for improvement.  IM 70.3 next ....?

I was reminded this week of two athletes that completed their first Ironman races last year.  An excerpt from a recent note:

...I wanted to thank you for the training plan last year to prepare me for my first Ironman, Ironman Florida on Nov.1 2008.  I had never even run a marathon prior to IM Florida let alone do a full IM.  Your plan was easy to follow and prepared me perfectly despite the fact that I developed a knee injury about a month prior to the ironman.  Because I was so well prepared from months of training the knee injury really didn’t sideline me for long.  If anything, it just gave me a little more forced rest time.  I went into the race with no real expectations of time goals but was hoping to finish under 13 hours.  To my (and most all of my training partners) surprise I completed IM Florida in 11:18.  It turned out to be an awesome day.  The swim was relaxed despite a leg cramp early on.  I finished it in 1:10, about 5 to 10 min ahead of what I expected.  The bike leg was painful on my lower back but my legs were just ready to go and I averaged nearly 21 mph for 112 to split around 5:30.  Finally, the marathon was a total surprise especially with a hurt knee and never actually having completed one before.  I had a great run-walk strategy that carried me to a 4:13 marathon split – I was even getting faster as the day was going.  I finished on such a high, it was great.  I enjoyed every aspect of the race and the whole experience.  Thanks for helping me prepare.

Shortly after receiving this note I received another note from an athlete who reported a recent long-course race success and reminded me of his first Ironman race last September that he completed in 12 hours.

My reason for posting these two examples is to remind all of you beginner triathletes, or triathletes-to-be, that the goal of an Ironman can be acheived.  I work with athletes each day that find a way to acheive their goals while still balancing all of their otherimportant life roles.  You can make it happen!

It's that time of the year when many triathletes are starting to wonder if all of that base training has paid off.  How can you know that you've achieved adequate base aerobic fitness and you're ready to start building toward your race peaks?

David Warden at tri-talk posted an excellent podcast on this topic about a year ago and if you haven't listened to the audio or read the transcript, I'd highly recommend it.  Here's a little excerpt on how to determine base aerobic preparedness using heart rate and output:

There is a method to determine if you have a sufficient aerobic base, and I want to thank Joe Friel of TrainingBible coaching for providing me with this information.

This test protocol simply compares your power or speed with heart rate over an endurance ride or run. There is some research to indicate that when aerobic endurance improves there is reduced heart rate drift relative to constant power or constant speed. And, of course, the reverse of this is that when heart rate is held steady during extensive endurance training, output may be expected to drift downward.

For example, the next time you download a workout from your training device, you probably have the ability to graph HR and power or speed on the same chart. In a perfect endurance ride, where there were no intervals or significant intensity, just a nice long Zone 2 ride, these two lines would run relatively parallel to each other.

However, you may have noticed that on some of these long rides, your HR tends to drift up even when output remains the same. Or, if you are trying to maintain a Zone 2 effort, you may notice that when you look at the graph that even though HR remained the same, out (power or speed) went slowly down. In those cases, the lines on the graph representing HR and output no longer run parallel, but begin to drift apart.

The parallel relationship between heart rate and output (power or speed) is referred to as “coupling.” When they are no longer parallel in a workout they have “decoupled.” Excessive decoupling would indicate a lack of aerobic endurance fitness.

But how much is excessive? There is an acceptable amount of decoupling that can take place and still indicate a solid aerobic base. A good indication that a base fitness has been met is less than a 5% decoupling over a Zone 2 workout.

READ MORE...

Full story click here...

With Ironman NZ going on this weekend it's a good time to revel in one of the most exciting finishes in Ironman history.  The picture says it all...

(Image source: Ironman.com)

From IronmanLife:

I was there in 1989 when Dave Scott and Mark Allen waged the Ironwar. I was there two years ago in Frankfurt, when Nicole Leder and Andrea Brede ran stride for stride for 35 km and then sprinted for the line in front of about 10,000 screaming fans and a live, nationwide television audience. I wasn't in New Zealand 19 years ago to witness Ken Glah and Pauli Kiuru put together the most incredible finish our sport has ever seen. I sure wish I had been!

Officially the difference goes down as one second – that’s the way timing works in an Ironman. In reality, it was tenths, possibly even hundredths...read more...

I hope everyone in Australia is enjoying the Tour Down Under!  It's been an incredible success this year and it's great to see the big crowds gathering along the race venues.

From the Herald Sun:

...for South Australian sports fans, Australian cycling and the Tour Down Under, it could not have been any more successful.

Another 105,000 people turned out to watch yesterday's fifth stage, at least 10,000 lining both sides of the road several deep at the top of the Old Willunga Hill - a 400m-high, 3km-long torture test that the field was required to tackle twice.

[Lance] Armstrong described the scene as "Tour de France-esque" while Australian Allan Davis, who won the stage and will almost certainly win the Tour, said he had never seen a crowd like it.

Beginning with a massive 138,000 for the race prelude, a street criterium last Sunday night, the Armstrong magnetism has now lured 609,000 people over six days, according to official estimates.

That's already more than the 530,000 the entire race pulled last year and another six-figure top-up is expected for today's finale.

On those numbers it can claim to be among the most popular sports events held in Australia.