seypat

As with any athletic endeavor, the most important factor is if you chose your parents/grandparents/ancestors correctly. Hard work will only get you so far. Same for equipment upgrades. Sprints and distance are 2 different animals anyway. Just be the best you can be, but don't beat yourself up. Enjoy yourself and the process/activity. Otherwise, you might be a one and doner that becomes a spectator. Last place in the activity is still better than watching from the sidelines.

seypat

I agree. I do 1 or 2 every other year. Then I'll say never again because it sucks. But thinking about it, it's not really that bad. It's the attitude of some of the people that make it suck.

seypat

No reason for posts like #20. You know from personal experience that being out there in any kind of form, toeing the line/competing is a huge accomplishment.(Good comeback, BTW) Just because people aren't on the podium doesn't mean they not trying.

NitroExpress

Maybe, but here is your original post: "Did a sprint triathlon in Long Beach this morning. 12.28 mile course in 40:45 = 18mph pace. My goal has been to break 20mph on a timed circuit. I was saving a little bit for the run, but not that much. If I had just gone balls out, maybe 18.5mph but I'm still a long way from 20mph sustained pace. But that's still pretty good, right?"

What info have you given?
How old are you?
What kind of shape are you in?
How much do you ride?
Sounds like your looking for Kudos!
18 mph would be great for me!
My son would do this on a bad day, with a hangover!
What is the point of your post?

tempocyclist

If it's got a decent set of deep section wheels AND you can get yourself into a more aerodynamic position compared to your current road bike with clip-ons, then yes it will help to an extent. Is it the difference between 18mph and 20mph? Possibly, depending on how "un-aero" you are now. You still have to pedal hard though.

Don't get too caught up in the 20mph number. Small incremental improvements on the bike and the run will net big time gains!


Can confirm... 😔
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Bah Humbug

To be clear, in case it wasn't (to you or VegasJen or anyone else) the rude reply was to dipstick, not the OP. Yes exactly, and while I was reasonably successful at short-course tri I spent some time in high school earning my share of DFLs but zero DNFs, so I know how hard it is. Only respect.

VegasJen

I was in the Marine Corps. They pretty much beat all the quit out of me. I'll check out that thread. Sounds like an OT kind of thing.
Man, you ain't kidding! I chose poorly. The only other "athlete" in my family is my brother rode in local competitive races when he was younger, but that was also 25 years ago. The thing about coming from low means often is putting food on the table and keeping the lights on demands more time than athletic endeavors. My generation (me, my brother and cousins in the same age bracket) are really the first generation in my family to have discretionary income.
OK, since you seem to be walking back your jerk post, I'll give you some current stats.
52 years old
Overweight, but physically good shape. I'm always bordering on "Athena" qualifications. I work more for endurance than maximum speed.
I ride 50-75 miles a week. It's one of several activities in my training regimen.
Point of my post? Sometimes you just want to open a conversation.
Obviously, there are some here that have been competitive athletes most of their lives. That's not me. When I was in the military, I was in pretty good shape. I got out and didn't maintain it. Cancer 12 years ago kind of opened my eyes to taking better care of myself. Chemo and radiation later, I try to do more to stay in shape. Physically, I have a pretty solid routine. Admittedly, my downfall is my diet. I know that. I own it. I'm working on it.

I'm not hung up on the 20mph number. I mean, I would like to get there, but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I think I'm more realistic about what is possible now than I was when I set that target. I may set up my phone to take a pic of me on my bike (if I can figure out how by myself) just so you can see what I'm working with. If I eventually do get a tri bike, the goal isn't going to be so much to get to that magic, and completely arbitrary, number. It will just be to see some improvement.
I completely get where you're coming from. I'm a middle-of-the-pack "athlete" in spite of my physicality.

VegasJen

Just as a point of reference, this is the bike I use for triathlons. It's a 49cm Specialized Roubiax. Someone is probably going to ask what year but I have no idea. I bought it used. Best guess, early 2000s.
And this is my position when I have the opportunity. Looking at it now, I'm not particularly aerodynamic.

base2 

Thanks for the pic for reference. Others can nit•pik & quibble about the finer points of X, or, y.

I just wanted to say you're out "gettin' after it" & you did inspire me to go out and do my first run in a year since my grandmother died.

It was both humbling & good at the same time. I actually kind of liked it in a way that cycling hasn't provided in a while.

Thanks
base2

VegasJen

It makes me happy that my meager post can be inspiring. I also find activity to be therapeutic. Sorry to hear about grandmother. I lost both of mine back in the 80s.

StanSeven

18 mph on the bike is good considering this is just your fifth. What really improved by overall times was swimming with a club and getting my technique down. Of the three legs, getting proper technique in the water really makes a difference. Watch some videos and have someone critique you.

Your run times will get much lower too with adding distance and going with a group if you can. Do some runs at an easy pace longer than your tri distance.

If you want to get down to a 20 mph cycling average, do accelerations on you rides where you average something like 21 or 22 for short periods. Progress comes slow but keep at it

tomato coupe

Shouldn't you be able that question yourself by looking at the times of your competitors?

VegasJen

I have been watching some Youtube videos of swimming techniques and that really did help a lot. My biggest problem is living in the desert so swim training is limited. We have a public pool but it's only open in the summer months, so I started swimming last month and I'll swim until they shut it down next month. After that, if I want to swim, I'll have to drive into Vegas to a pool or out to Lake Mead.
I try to run once a week. I don't run any more than that because I don't want to beat up my joints any more. If my orthopedic doctor knew I was running at all, he'd have a fit. But I try not to run any less than that either. I have found, at least in my experience, you can't do any other exercise that is a comparable analog for actual running if the goal is to improve performance. I trained for months on an elliptical specifically to reduce joint damage. I was pretty quick, averaging a 7 minute/mile pace. But elliptical pace doesn't translate into real-world running pace.
One thing I did that I noticed an improvement was add in wind sprints. About once a month, I will do 100m dashes, 20-25 sprints. I only do it once a month because I am absolutely wrecked for 2-3 days after, but I know it's helped with my long distance as well. I guess that's the same idea you're suggesting on the bike. I'll give it a try.
I guess it's relative. Sometimes I win my age bracket, which is easy when I'm the only one in it. So then I have to compare to women that are either older or younger. Sometimes I win that comparison, most of the time not. But there's also the variable of the other athletes. For some of these women, it's their first, for others, they've been doing triathlons for decades. I've been faster than 30 year old women and slower than 60 year old women. It all depends. Depends on everybody's individual condition. It depends on how strong they are in the various events. It depends on training, form, preparation, equipment. So many variables. This last tri was the biggest field I've seen, over 700 participants. There were almost 30 women in my age group alone. I was in the 3rd quarter of the bracket. Even the 3rd place finisher finished almost 30 minutes before I did. But I was almost 30 minutes faster than the slowest finisher in our bracket. So that can be a tricky metric to use.

I started this post to get an idea of my ride. I'm happy to talk about the swim and the run, but that really wasn't the focus of this thread. I know the swim is my weakest event. I've done better in the run in other events. Not sure why I was so wiped out this time. Could have been due to traveling. Could have been lack of rest. Could have been any number of factors. I'm not saying I don't appreciate helpful suggestions, but this particular triathlon at this pace is not a fair comparison. I did an Olympic in April where I averaged a 9:30 over the six miles compared to the 10 minute pace I averaged here.

Bah Humbug

That itself should tell you something about the accomplishment.

seypat

The very first multi sport event I did was an Olympic duathlon. There was one other person in my age group. It was a really hot day. We had an epic battle on the 2nd run(like a couple of VW bugs at the dragstrip) until he succumbed to the heat and sat down under a shade tree for a rest. I won the race but got some type of time penalty which put him first. So, I got first, then regulated to 2nd and also last in my age group. Usually it's BOP.

GhostRider62

If you can afford it, find a good local bike shop that specializes in fitting TT or Tri athletes. The will undoubtable get you more aero and potentially more powerful.

The problem is your goal was not attainable.

With a good fit and decent gear on a flat course, 20 mph is not too hard to achieve. With loose clothing, an upright position, and/or poor fit, 18 mph might be really good. No way to tell from the information provided. $300-400 for a really good eye with fitting equipment might be well worth the spend. If you are 80 years old or 40 pounds overweight, it is more than outstanding. The difference from 18 to 20 mph is about 35% more power and that is not so easy to do. Getting more aero is very easy to do. With the time invested to train for a Tri, getting properly dialed in on the bike is a no-brainer IMO. GL.

eduskator

All of this is so subjective... I mean, it depends if your body is optimized; lungs working perfectly (good cardio) and bringing enough oxygen to your brain and muscles, muscles used to cycling and being able to sustain the required effort, etc. It's just science after all. If you did your best and ended up with that result, it can mean that it's your current limit and it's OK. Can it improve? Of course, with determination, consistency and frequent rides. Ride, eat, sleep, repeat

tomato coupe

You want to get an idea of your ride only? Triathlons (always?) list the splits, so you can just look at that.

If the triathlon was not a fair comparison, what do you hope to discover from a bunch of cyclists that ride different disciplines?

Iride01 

If you are going to do Triathlon's and don't have a coach or anyone else to critique or compare your efforts with, then for the cycling part, just look on RideWithGPS, Strava and any other site to see if anyone at the event might have posted their ride for the public to see. Then you can assess whether your cycling is where you need to concentrate much on.

If you have friends or made acquaintances at the event and you also are on RideWithGPS, Strava or other, then see if they are also and will add you to their friends list or if there is a group you can get on for that site so you can see the rides of others doing that type stuff.

burnthesheep

I do one, maybe two duathlons a year. A chance to ride the TT bike. The recent local yokel one I did was about 1200ft elevation in 25mi of the ride and I did 24.5mph, including braking down a hill for a while for slow car traffic (just bad course design there).

The two 5k runs? 22:05 and 22:35 on a rolling course. Some decent little hills included.

That was good enough for the win by something over 2min. The real fast folks at this are doing the bike at about the same but the runs more in the 18min per 5k pace. Meaning in a more elite event instead of local I would have gotten smoked by about 6min.

All that to say......you have to do tri/du/time trial stuff as personal goals and personal bests.

You can snoop the finish times then find folks on Strava and see what their weekly hours are by activity type. Then set personal goals for training/finishing from there. With a mind to what age the folks are also.

BillyD

Through no fault of your own you failed to mention the birds. I will take it upon myself to remedy that omission.

Eric F 

I haven't read all the posts, but my best advice is just to compete with yourself. Try to improve every event, and track your own progress.

A female rider (27yo) from my area did the same event as you. She was a swimmer in college, and is becoming a monster on a bicycle. Her weakness is her run. On the bike portion, she averaged 22.9mph (fastest woman), and had an overall time for the event of 1:09:32 (6th place for all women). She's kind of a beast.

VegasJen

Ya, 1:09 is boogeying. My overall time was about 1:45. But a 23mph pace, even for such a short course, is flat flying. Oh, how I wish I could be 27 again.

Eric F 

Yeah. That girl is strong AF. Her "weak" run was a 7:10 pace.

My fitness peak was 35. That's also the year I quit racing, and then spent 15 years off the bike. I'm 53 now, and got back to riding 2 years ago.

VegasJen

Similar story here. I was strongest in my 20s, while I was in the military. Did a lot of physical stuff outside of organized PT. Ran and rode a lot, especially in Okinawa. When I got out, my goal was to just "maintain", but life got in the way. Someone challenged me to a 5k about five years ago. I didn't do nearly as well as I expected. So much for maintaining. But I pushed to get back in shape. Then someone challenged me to do a triathlon. I signed up for April of 2020, then the WuFlu hit and all events shut down. I did my first triathlon last October, at age 51. This one was my fifth in 10 months, also fifth ever. Didn't start triathlons until I was in my 50s. Now I'm regretting not starting younger. I really wish I had at least attempted an Ironman back when I actually had a reasonable shot at finishing one.