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Which leg will consume the most energy?

Artemis's picture
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started by Artemis on July 5, 2008

I'm currently training for my first sprint (Aug 2) and I'm wondering which leg will consume the most energy. I've been doing brick workouts (bike/run) for about a month, and while it's not the easiest thing I've ever done, I can still complete the race distance with some energy to spare. But when I start thinking about completing the swim before all that, I wonder if I'll have enough endurance to do all three. Do you experienced triathletes find the swim to be the easiest/least use of energy portion of the race, or most? I'm not the fastest or most efficient swimmer, but as long as I can get in a rhythm and not freak out, I'll be ok. Do I need to throw in some swim/bike workouts as well?

Sully800's picture
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Sully800 posted 9 weeks ago.

Swim should generally be the least. It is the shortest leg time wise, and triathletes generally don't push as hard during the swim in anticipation of the legs to come.

tsilcyc's picture
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tsilcyc posted 9 weeks ago.

Artemis wrote:
I'm currently training for my first sprint (Aug 2) and I'm wondering which leg will consume the most energy. I've been doing brick workouts (bike/run) for about a month, and while it's not the easiest thing I've ever done, I can still complete the race distance with some energy to spare. But when I start thinking about completing the swim before all that, I wonder if I'll have enough endurance to do all three. Do you experienced triathletes find the swim to be the easiest/least use of energy portion of the race, or most? I'm not the fastest or most efficient swimmer, but as long as I can get in a rhythm and not freak out, I'll be ok. Do I need to throw in some swim/bike workouts as well?

When I race sprints, I find all three to be equally taxing as I am usually going all out. If you feel like you can push it, then go hard in all three. If you feel like pushing hard on the swim is going to be detrimental to the other two disciplines then go easy because you're only talking about a minute or two of gain.

Yes, you should swim-bike brick. Your body needs to adapt to switching blood flow to muscle groups. Bricks help with this. Swim-run bricks work well too.

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Ironmom's picture
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Ironmom posted 8 weeks ago.

I think it's my left leg ;-)

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Anton's picture
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Anton posted 8 weeks ago.

Ironmom wrote:
I think it's my left leg ;-)

Dammit! I wanted to say that this morning, early, but NOOOO I stopped myself ..."Everyone will say 'Anton's being a smart ass again' so I better not."
I the future, I will not resist!

"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" - Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://anton.trifuel.net

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kylie posted 8 weeks ago.

Hahaha I love it Robin! And Anton, never hold back! A good laugh is always worthwhile :)

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wirebook's picture
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wirebook posted 8 weeks ago.

"Which leg will consume the most energy?"

My first thought on reading the title was: "The one I suck at the most".

Technically speaking though - based on pure calories alone, it's likely to be the bike. Here's my calorie expenditures for Wildflower (Half):

Swim: ~500
Bike: 3060
Run: 1661

Even if you don't fully trust the exactness of the numbers - the rough ballpark should give you an idea.

jonovision_man's picture
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jonovision_man posted 8 weeks ago.

wirebook wrote:
Here's my calorie expenditures for Wildflower (Half):

Swim: ~500
Bike: 3060
Run: 1661

Even if you don't fully trust the exactness of the numbers - the rough ballpark should give you an idea.

Just curious how you came up with these numbers?

jono

iamtb13's picture
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iamtb13 posted 8 weeks ago.

Anton wrote:
Ironmom wrote:
I think it's my left leg ;-)

Dammit! I wanted to say that this morning, early, but NOOOO I stopped myself ..."Everyone will say 'Anton's being a smart ass again' so I better not."
I the future, I will not resist!

At least he didn't say his "middle leg"

Artemis's picture
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Artemis posted 8 weeks ago.

Thanks to everyone who offered constructive advice. Not being a strong swimmer, I was concerned the swim would take most of my energy and I wouldn't have much left over to finish the bike/run. But based on what most are saying, the swim should take the least effort, provided I don't go all out.

trigirltina2's picture
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trigirltina2 posted 8 weeks ago.

Then the key on the bike is cadence is high, so you have leg on the run. Run is uncomfortable at first till your legs get the point that you are running. Bricks will help you in both transitions.

wirebook's picture
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wirebook posted 8 weeks ago.

jonovision_man wrote:
wirebook wrote:
Here's my calorie expenditures for Wildflower (Half):

Swim: ~500
Bike: 3060
Run: 1661

Even if you don't fully trust the exactness of the numbers - the rough ballpark should give you an idea.

Just curious how you came up with these numbers?

jono

Sport Tracks generates them based on my Garmin data form the race. The swim is just a simple calculation though and doesn't take into account variables such as current (none in my lake though).

Sports Tracks is a free app you can download that allows you to pull in data from a variety of sports watches/computers/gps's, etc... Just google for "Sports Tracks".