# Long Term Planning Ahead...



## punkedmonkey (4 Aug 2012)

It was late last night and I started putting together a plan... a long term plan. Now considering I have yet to do a Tri (I might well hate it - bring on Sept 30th, but I kinda wished I had booked an earlier one as I am literally itching to do it!) this may be end up being ambitious/not for me. Caveats aside - here is the outline sketch

*2012*
May 20th - Bristol 10k - Done
Sept 30th - Sprint Tri (Pool)
_Winter plan_ - Work on swimming. Get turbo trainer. Probably get involved with BADTri club (esp for the swimming).

*2013*
Apr/May - Open Water Sprint
Maybe do Bris 10k again?​July/Aug - Olympic Distance Tri
Sept - Bristol Half Marathon?

*2014 - really getting blue sky here*
Maybe 2 x Olympic distance in Apr/May/June
July/Aug - Half IM?

My kind of (secret-ish - well not now!  goal is to do a Full IM distance tri before I hit the big 3-0... got 4.5 years left...


Anyone else busy planning their Tri-life years in advance? Or maybe you've been and done the planning and come out the otherside. Do you wish you were more/less ambitious?


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## Flying_Monkey (4 Aug 2012)

I have to think longer term because this race season is over, thanks to my knee ligaments.


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## Arsen Gere (6 Aug 2012)

@Pudmonkey, think about the bike. How you are going to manage to get in regular rides of a decent distance. Depending on your time/finances I'd do more events. You can't beat experience even if they are just treat as hard training.
My advice would be to build it round your life, cycle/run to work or to the pool, may be a cycling holiday ? I use this so I have a good base fitness level so if someone says do you fancy doing a ..... I just do it.
I found it harder going from 10k to HM than HM to full marathon.
I went from nothing at 49 to IM at 52 so not an unreasonable ambition. However I do about 10 tri's a 100m audax, a 10k and a marathon a year. Then chuck in the odd fun ride like coast and castles, Newcastle to Edinburgh.

@Flying_monkey, sorry to hear about the injury. Nothing more frustrating. A knee injury got me in to swimming because I could not run or ride a bike, so may be a good opportunity to improve your swim ?


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## Flying_Monkey (6 Aug 2012)

Arsen Gere said:


> @Flying_monkey, sorry to hear about the injury. Nothing more frustrating. A knee injury got me in to swimming because I could not run or ride a bike, so may be a good opportunity to improve your swim ?


 
Thanks, I will be doing that - and actually cycling seems okay although I am not going to push it. I am also going on a 5-day canoe trip next week... I will be wearing a knee-support.


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## punkedmonkey (7 Aug 2012)

Arsen Gere said:


> @Pudmonkey, think about the bike. How you are going to manage to get in regular rides of a decent distance. Depending on your time/finances I'd do more events. You can't beat experience even if they are just treat as hard training.
> My advice would be to build it round your life, cycle/run to work or to the pool, may be a cycling holiday ? I use this so I have a good base fitness level so if someone says do you fancy doing a ..... I just do it.
> I found it harder going from 10k to HM than HM to full marathon.
> I went from nothing at 49 to IM at 52 so not an unreasonable ambition. However I do about 10 tri's a 100m audax, a 10k and a marathon a year. Then chuck in the odd fun ride like coast and castles, Newcastle to Edinburgh.


 
Thanks for the advice - been reading a few books (Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run and currently reading Be Iron Fit and The Year of the Ironman) and they suggest similar time management techniques. I already cycle to work - not far 5k each way. I don't mind an early morning. Will look into doing more events as well.


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## VamP (15 Aug 2012)

Arsen Gere said:


> @Pudmonkey, think about the bike. How you are going to manage to get in regular rides of a decent distance. Depending on your time/finances I'd do more events. You can't beat experience even if they are just treat as hard training.
> My advice would be to build it round your life, cycle/run to work or to the pool, may be a cycling holiday ? I use this so I have a good base fitness level so if someone says do you fancy doing a ..... I just do it.
> I found it harder going from 10k to HM than HM to full marathon.
> I went from nothing at 49 to IM at 52 so not an unreasonable ambition. However I do about 10 tri's a 100m audax, a 10k and a marathon a year. Then chuck in the odd fun ride like coast and castles, Newcastle to Edinburgh.
> ...


 

Snap.

I'm off the bike due to medial hamstring tendinopathy (4 months now and counting) and running is also off the menu, so have used the time to learn to swim. Have gone from struggling to keep a good crawl rhythm going for two pool lengths to swimming 3.8km OW in training. Still poor technically, but light years away from where I was 3 months ago.

When you say ''from nothing at 49'' are you able to define nothing. Do you really mean nothing, i.e. couch? Hugely impressed if so, TBH hugely impressed even if nothing means cat 2 racer 20 years back. Impressive IM times for age


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## Arsen Gere (15 Aug 2012)

VamP said:


> Snap.
> 
> When you say ''from nothing at 49'' are you able to define nothing. Do you really mean nothing, i.e. couch? Hugely impressed if so, TBH hugely impressed even if nothing means cat 2 racer 20 years back. Impressive IM times for age


 
Thanks.

I used to have a 1st cat road license about 25 years ago. I had kept myself fit but not at a competitve level. Then I damaged my knee ligaments so could not run or ride a bike for about 6 years. In March 2009 I got on my bike again did 10 miles but it still hurt my knee. I did a bit of gentle running and built up to 4 miles by June under physio supervision, I did my first tri in July 2009. So I had about 4 years of sitting about with little or no exercise, then a couple of years with just a once a week swim front crawl only , breast stroke was too painful. I still have problems if I up my cadence ( > 105 rpm) or increase the load to much on the bike so I stick to 90-100 rpm and avoid pushing too hard seated on hills. Still no breast stroke.

So I think you are doing the right thing and you will get back in to the saddle again when your body is ready. Just need to be patient. On the technique thing, I have no doubt this makes a difference at the top level. But you see some lousey looking swimmers in tri's who fly. I've tried technique changes, I've had coaches watch me, I've tried weights and I'm getting more and more convinced that higher cadence swimming is the way to go. IMHO most people swim at too slow a cadence, all this swim smooth/total immersion stuff does not work for everybody, it reaches a plateau and people get disappointed with progress. A half decent style and a high cadence produces results for an average swimmer. Try tinkering with a tempo trainer.


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## VamP (15 Aug 2012)

Arsen Gere said:


> Thanks.
> 
> I used to have a 1st cat road license about 25 years ago. I had kept myself fit but not at a competitve level. Then I damaged my knee ligaments so could not run or ride a bike for about 6 years. In March 2009 I got on my bike again did 10 miles but it still hurt my knee. I did a bit of gentle running and built up to 4 miles by June under physio supervision, I did my first tri in July 2009. So I had about 4 years of sitting about with little or no exercise, then a couple of years with just a once a week swim front crawl only , breast stroke was too painful. I still have problems if I up my cadence ( > 105 rpm) or increase the load to much on the bike so I stick to 90-100 rpm and avoid pushing too hard seated on hills. Still no breast stroke.
> 
> So I think you are doing the right thing and you will get back in to the saddle again when your body is ready. Just need to be patient. On the technique thing, I have no doubt this makes a difference at the top level. But you see some lousey looking swimmers in tri's who fly. I've tried technique changes, I've had coaches watch me, I've tried weights and I'm getting more and more convinced that higher cadence swimming is the way to go. IMHO most people swim at too slow a cadence, all this swim smooth/total immersion stuff does not work for everybody, it reaches a plateau and people get disappointed with progress. A half decent style and a high cadence produces results for an average swimmer. Try tinkering with a tempo trainer.


 

Good interesting thought provoking stuff. Completely understand your point on breast stroke, it's the one I cannot do with my injury, and has been the main driver in (finally) forcing me to embrace the crawl.

Interesting about what you say on the swim smooth/TI stuff and the difference in impact between technique and fitness on swimming performance. I can swim the IM distance in around 90 minutes so there is a lot of scope for improvement, and I do not have the patience for endless drills, even though everyone says that's the way to go... I am still improving at the moment, but I guess I will need to look at coaching/other avenues, as the improvements start to tail off...

Funnily enough I found OW really intimidating initially, and now I cannot bear to swim in a pool.


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