The race is on—Part I
Prove that your training is working
The ground is thawing out and triathlon races are on the schedule. That also may mean you are making the transition from building fitness to sharpening race skills.
You may kick the intensity up a notch, but it is important to keep tabs on where that work is getting you. When getting more race specific, you want to ensure that you work with intent and precision as opposed to blindly going harder.
This week, we fire up a new series on race specific workouts or simulations for different triathlon distances.
Part I, this article, will cover Sprint and Olympic distance racing. Part II will go deeper on long distance triathlon such as 70.3 and Ironman.
What’s the point?
Getting comfortable being on the limit
Short course racing is hard stuff. To get your best result, you are going to have to kick it into a gear you may not need in an Ironman.
Don’t let race day be your first experience with hammering it on the pedals after a swim or running hard off-the-bike.
The swim affects the bike which affects the run
It is a triathlon after all. Training each discipline in isolation is fine to do, and recommended for most of your day to day workouts. However, to truly get an idea of how each discipline affects the other or whether your expectations meet reality, you may consider some brick sessions.
Open water practice
The pool is nice because it is a controlled environment. Lakes or ocean swims present a different environment. Open water practice is something every triathlete can benefit from, especially a novice swimmer. It gives you a chance to get familiar with
No wall to push off
Murky or wavy water
Sighting for buoys
Colder water
All of these aspects can be enough to throw you off your game, even if your pool training has been flawless. Plan accordingly.
Sprint triathlon (400m swim, 20K bike, 5K run)
If your goal is to do more than finish, a Sprint triathlon is a best effort all the way through. Many folks finish between 60 and 90 minutes for these events, and for someone in decent shape, this is short enough to push hard and not totally blow apart. There is a fine line between riding the limit and going beyond it, and this is where your intensity should be to get the most out of yourself for a short race.
A race specific training day to gather information about that limit is as follows—
Swim—pool
Choice warmup of ~1,000 meters then..
2 x
5 x 100 :15 rest best average
200 easy cruise between rounds
Take a few hours to refuel and rest
Bike/run brick
Bike—60 minutes in total
15’ riding easy
3 x 12’ best effort (3’ steady between reps)
Get ready to run
Run—3 miles in total
2 miles race effort
1 mile easy
Pay attention to the first mile as you find your legs
You may also consider simply entering a sprint race as a practice session. For someone with a few years of training under their belt, a sprint race can be a good training session.
If you are training for your first-ever race, you may be better off with a controlled simulation like the above.
As distances go up, the fatigue cost and financial cost of frequent racing can become a factor, but for something short, racing can be the best training.
Olympic triathlon (1500m swim, 40K bike, 10K run)
An Olympic distance event requires some careful pacing, especially for folks who are finishing north of 2.5 hours. You also may need to consider a fueling strategy during the race with either gels, drink mix, or other sources of carbohydrate.
A favorite race specific day is as follows—
Swim—pool
Choice warmup of ~1,000 meters then..
1 x 400 steady :15 rest
1 x 300 strong :15 rest
1 x 200 strong :15 rest
1 x 100 fast :15 rest
Climb back up the ladder starting with the 100 fast
The purpose of this set is to show you the benefits of easing into the swim. Rarely does an average age group swimmer need to have takeout speed to make a “front pack”. However, that should not be confused with not having different gears to work with in the swim.
For the set above, the 200 and 300 would be around the effort you hope to sustain in the 1500m Olympic distance swim. The 100 fast is meant to disrupt the flow of being in a groove as often happens when going around other athletes or buoys.
Afterward, take a few hours rest to refuel and refocus.
Bike/Run brick
Bike—75’ minutes in total
20’ easy riding to get the legs moving
2 x 20’ @ ~ 90% effort (5’ easy between reps)
Get ready to run
It is recommended to build across each 20’ repetition and finish strong as opposed to going as hard as possible from the gun and hanging on. Ideally, you will feel you have another 20’ segment in the tank, but this type of work is not easy. In an Olympic, you are still riding close to your limits.
Run—8KM, set your watch for 1KM splits
3KM build from strong to race effort
2KM settle in to race effort
Easy to finish up to 8KM
One mistake I often see or have experienced in Olympic distance racing is charging out of transition too hard. There is no such thing as too fast, but too hard does exist. This session helps you see the benefits of working into run and prioritize being strong in the closing miles when others are falling apart. It also reveals whether or not you rode within your abilities on the bike.
Short course racing is no easy feat. It requires a careful blend of pacing and pushing to deliver the best race you can. These workouts are merely a sample of how you can simulate a race in your training. They deliver a strong dose of race pace in a short amount of time and can give a nice training effect physically and mentally. It should also be noted that these sessions are not to be performed habitually.
In Part II, we will examine how you can set up race day expectations for longer distances such as 70.3 and Ironman.
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