Going from Sprint to Olypmic Distances
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1153 days
deepbluex posted 2 years ago.
I don't think you'll have that much trouble making the transition from Sprint to Oly. I did it myself recently and I found it much easier than going from no triathlon to sprint.
You said "running 5mi to 6.2 mi" but the runs in sprints are usually 5K not 5mi as far as I know. So you're essentially doubling your run from 5K to 10K.
I actually found the increased running distance more challenging than the increased swim distance. Small mistakes that wouldn't have made a difference in a sprint become a little more apparent in an Oly. I had my bike seat a little too low and this hurt my back over the longer ride. That pain carried on through my run and took a chunk out of my performance that never would have happened in a Sprint because a) I wouldn't have been on the bike long enough to even start feeling it. b) because the run would be shorter.
The lesson I learned then was that as you increase distance, you have to be even more anally retentive about even smaller details.
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859 days
Mister P. posted 2 years ago.
I just made the transition from sprint to Olympic myself; I did my first Oly in June and did the NYC Tri 2 weeks ago.
The swim was not a big jump for me personally, but my overall race strategy had to change. For a sprint tri, I can pretty much go all out for the entire race (or at least at 80%-90% of max pace.) After an 18 mile bike, I can still do my regular pace for a 4-mile run. I found out the hard way that doesn't work for me at the Olympic Distance. I can do OK with the swim, can get a good bike in, but then I run out of steam 4-5 miles into the run. For my next tri I will have to hold back my pace a bit to save energy for the run, until I build up the stamina for the new distances.
So that doesn't really answer your question about the swim specifically, but it's just my experience.
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1368 days
grlawguy posted 2 years ago.
Hey Deepbluex, thanks for the input. The two sprints I have done have a 4.5 mile run and 5.0 mile run, which I understand is more than the run distance for a "traditional" sprint race.
Thanks again.
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1212 days
jess1 posted 2 years ago.
That wouldn't happen to be the Ludington Tri? Its on my maybe list( i live in GR). After doing a tri in lake michigan with 6ft waves im leering of doing another tri in the big lake.
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
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1225 days
skeats posted 2 years ago.
I second Deepbluex. I went from sprints last year to an oly this year. The increased run is what hurt me the most. Once you've got a rhythm on the swim it's easy (relatively) to keep going. Same with the bike. But the longer run really hurt.
133
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1368 days
grlawguy posted 2 years ago.
Jess1 --yes, I'm thinking of the Ludington tri. I would like to try an OW swim in the Big Lake. But, the one thing that I heard about that race from last year was that the lake turned over the day before and water temp. went from mid-70's on the day before the race to mid-50's the day of the race. I don't have a wetsuit and don't plan on buying one, so that would be the concern with that race.
Regarding my contemplated jump to the OLY distance, work is getting crazy for me, so I think I will put the OLY on the calendar for 2007 --perhaps Johna's Trifest in Hopkins, MI in June 2007.
Ok, so I finished my third tri in two years last Sat. All three tris have been sprint distances. In my race last Sat., I took over 4 minutes off my swim time as compared to my Sept. 2005 sprint race (btw, first time lap swimming in the pool was Feb. 2005). My swim time for the tri I had last weekend was 14:51.
I have been thinking about going for an OLY distance. To me, it seems that the increase in the bike and run legs are incremental --not much difference between biking 18 mi. or biking 24 mi. and same with the run --running 5 mi vs. running 6.2 mi.
But the swim. Doubling the swim distance seems daunting.
I am interested to hear what people have to say about that transition from 1/2 mi. swim to the .93 mi. swim.
There is an OLY distance AUg. 27 along the MI shores of Lk. MI and then my other sprint race is 9/9/2006.
So, I am trying to figure out if I should put the OLY on the 2006 or 2007 calendar.
As always, thanks for the advice!