116 Days until

[taricha]

Here are the events taricha is registered for: Sprint National Championship 9/26/2010 Triathlon/Short/On-Road
Swim: 750 m
Bike: 20 km
Run: 5 km

When I saw that this event was being held in Tuscaloosa, just a short drive away and is open to all comers, I knew I had found my goal event for the season. Never done a tri before, but based on results I've seen for previous years' events I will not be in the front or the back.

I know it's not a tri forum, but I'm posting here because my focus will be on the bike segment and somewhat less on the run (swimming I have a hard time getting excited about at all). Additionally, I plan to use the bike as the core of my tri training - probably 3/4+ of my total training time.

Where I am now
Weight: 167lbs (76kg)
Run: 5k TT 2 weeks ago in 21:55 (7:03 pace)
Bike: TT 1 week ago on a 7.86mi course of rolling hills in 22:52 (20.64 mi/hr), will move to a longer TT course now I know it's a 20k bike leg.
Swim: I have swum 800m without stopping, but I fall into doing this atrocious frog-kick thing with my legs. I'm a comfortable enough swimmer that I'm not worried about needing assistance in choppy/cold water or if I get kicked etc.

Where I want to be
Weight: 155 (I'm 5'11") Getting to 150 would be cool, but might be difficult if I put in much swimming time and add upper body muscle.
Run: be able to do a 6:00/mi 5k TT (18:38)
Bike: ... a 23mi/hr flat 20k TT (32:25)
Swim: No idea. I'll figure it out once I time myself at the distance.

Big picture plan
day 1-30: Focus on weight loss and running, before the heat makes running a total torturefest. A lot of sessions, few recovery days. Ramp up volume. Few sessions above L4.

day 31-75: Focus on bike. Fewer running sessions, more biking. Slightly more recovery, and more quality sessions. Increase L5 volume. Try to start caring about swimming.

day 76 - day 105: Get specific. TT on course resembling the profile of the race course, do interval work tailored to the demands of the course. Add some L6. Do whatever swimming I'm gonna do. Start doing bike/run "bricks".

day 106 - day 116: Taper. Practice transitions.

What I'm doing now (weight loss/running focus)
My week looks a bit like this
Day 1. AM: Track running, hold above best 5k pace for 3-8 minutes, recover. Do 3x.
PM: 2x20 on indoor trainer at L4
Day 2. AM: 20 min tempo run, abt 90% max hr
PM: 1-1.5 hr ride at L2
Day 3. AM: 20 minute comfortable run, abt 80-85% max hr
PM: 1 hr recovery ride L1
Day 4. AM: Long hard ride 2hr+
PM: Running intervals 1-5 minutes, or 20 minutes hard.
Day 5. 1-1.5 hr climb steep hills standing, to totally deplete any remaining glycogen
Day 6. 20 min tempo run, abt 90% max hr
Day 7. 1hr recovery ride L1 or OFF

What would you guys recommend?
What would you do to achieve best results (other than work a lot on swimming)? What would you focus on more/less? What sorts of workouts would you add/remove? Any general triathlon advice?
Are my goals too hard/easy, what do you think will be harder goal, the run or the bike? How important is aero gear like bars and helmet?

 

[taricha]

If you were choosing to do 3 intervals totaling 15 minutes at exactly the same effort, would you do them so they each felt equally exhausting to complete: 7 min, 5 min, 3 min, or would you do them 3x5min with the first feeling manageable, the second difficult, and the 3rd painful/tortuous? They can both be completed either way, I'm asking which if any would be more beneficial.

 

[taricha]

99 days until.
Had a really terrible imposition of real life that kept my training down to only a handful of sessions over the last 2 weeks. Fortunately two of those sessions were 50 and 80 mi rides, so my weight loss has stayed on track. Time demands should be less severe this week and over after that.
Found a open water swimming venue that works for me, and I hadn't realized that my last experience swimming was when I had 15lbs more fat and it was in the ocean. So I'm a whole lot less buoyant than I remembered.
Where I am:

Weight: 164
Running: last 5k time trial still the 21:55, but doing 3xmile repeats at 6:24 pace, so I should beat that a bit next week.
Cycling: TT on 13.5 mi (21.7k) loop in 39:55. avg speed 20.30
Swimming: I swam once! Did a ~100 yd and some ~50s Arms and chest sore.

 

[taricha]

80 days left (36 days in)
Going to stay with the running focus for just another week or two because I'm very close to being able to do a sub 20:00 5k. I'm done worrying about weight loss, since I'm within 5 lbs of my target and feel like the rest will come naturally with training, and it's not like I'm going to go back to soft drinks or fried foods.
Where I am now:
Weight 160
Running: I have a hard time talking myself into setting aside the days to do a 5k TT because I feel like my track workouts are doing so much for me and like I said, I'm really close to feeling like I could crank out a sub 20 5k. My last few track workouts have been...
a 2400,1600,and 1200 at 6:24/mi pace
a 1600,1200,and 800 at 6:08/mi pace
a 5x800 at 6:08/mi pace (done on the last of 3 hard training days)
and a 2000,1400,and 1000 at 6:08/mi pace

Biking: Mostly biking for distance, my 2x20s are slowly slowly improving, and they're reaching the max cadence I can stand to do (almost cracking 100) on my ****ty mag trainer. Gonna get a new one soon. Outdoors my only recent benchmarks were soloing at 20mph for 1hr30 and a 2hr ride (I think the 2 hr was slightly wind-assisted, so prolly shouldn't count).

Swimming: My only pool workouts (others in a lake), done 3 days apart -
100 @ 1:53, [email protected] 23.3-25.0, 200 @ 4:02
100 @ 1:45, [email protected] 23.1-24.6, 250 @ 4:46
I feel like it would be fairly easy to continue to lengthen the last swim, upping the pace slightly and adding a 50 every time until I get to 750.
As for my 25s, guess I'll just have to learn some technique and add some swimming muscles to make progress on those.