I did a bit of speed work with my running last Winter (before the knee injury) and this paid dividends with a 5km personal best (PB) in the first run leg of the last Duathlon - it was also a Duathlon PB and almost certainly my best race ever. This season I want to focus on improving my speed. I want to regain the running speed I enjoyed in the last Duathlon and maybe even go faster. However I also want to improve my swimming. Last season I thought my swimming improved significantly, but did not translate to faster swim legs in the only two Triathlons I raced. My bike leg has always been relatively good, and while I still want to improve in this area, it will not be my main focus.
Swimming
Last season I improved my 100m PB by 5 secs (1m25s for 100m). This meant that I could comfortably (relatively speaking) churn out 100m repeats in under 1m35s, whereas before I had always struggled to get them close to 1m40s.
After a nice break in the off season, the first aim will be to get my 100m back down to 1m25s and 100m repeats to 1m35s. I'm hoping this won't take too long. The second aim come Summer will be to translate this speed (again relatively speaking) into better swim splits in the Triathlons. My swim in Geelong (36m26s for 2km + T1) was slow due to bad positioning and being hemmed in by other slower swimmers and the Ironman swim (1h15m) sufferred as a result of cramping from the halfway mark onwards. This season I want to replace the excuses with good results.
When setting time goals I like to set 3 different targets. The first one I believe I should be able to achieve, the next one I would like to acheive and the last one I dream of acheiving (but still realistic). Since using this method I have a better than 50% success rate of acheiving my dream targets, but more importantly always feel a sense of satisfaction reaching my first time target.
Swim times
500m: 8m45s - 1m45s/100; 8m20s - 1m40s/100m; 7m55s - 1m35s/100m
750m: 13m08s - 1m45s/100; 12m30s - 1m40s/100m; 11m53s - 1m35s/100m
1500m: 26m15s - 1m45s/100; 25m00s - 1m40s/100m; 23m45s - 1m35s/100m
1900m: 33m15s - 1m45s/100; 31m40s - 1m40s/100m; 30m05s - 1m35s/100m
You'll notice I am targetting the same swim speeds in the longer and shorter distances. The waves in the Sprint Distance races are usually much smaller and take off much quicker, making it more difficult to get a good draft. Or alternatively I may be kidding myself.
Bike
I've generally been happy with my bike times and it is difficult to set time goals because the bike leg is subject to so many different factors - hilly, flat, technical, windy, etc.
The bike split from my last Half Ironman at Torquay was 2h34m54s, it would be nice to go under 2h30m.
I've always dreamed of averaging over 40kph in a Short Course Triathlon. The closest I have come is 39.2 at the Elwood Enduro in Jan 2011 (I averaged 38.3kph in my best Duathlon at Richmond).
I'm more likely to aim at beating some of my benchmark training times, such as 5, 10 & 20km time trial times and climbing times for hills such as Arthurs Seat and Two Bays, I haven't got these times handy at the moment, I may update this post later if I find them.
Run
I keep referring back to the Richmond Duathlon last year because I am so proud of my efforts in that race. I ran 18m33s for the first 5km run leg, however my Garmin GPS watch records the distance as 4.85km @ 3m49s pace which would equate to 19m05s for a full 5km. GPS watches are never exact in their measurements and the fact that I backed off in the last 500m in preparation for the bike leg, I consider this effort proof that I can run 5km in under 19 minutes. My first goal is to match this 5km time and obviously the second goal is to beat it. So goal 1: 18m58s, goal 2: 18m45s & goal 3: 18m30s.
Another goal is to run 10km in under 40 minutes, something I believe I am very capable of. The main reason I haven't done this is because I rarely do 10km fun runs. My last attempt in Oct 2009 saw me run 37m14s, but my GPS watch showed the course was only 9.25km long which meant I only averaged 4m02s pace instead of the required 3m59s pace. On this day I was holding back thinking I had longer to run and the finish line took me by surprise, robbing me of a strong finish. So I believe I would've broken 40 minutes if the course had been correctly measured. I hoping to do a 10km fun run in July or September. Goals - 1: 39m59s, 2: 39m30s, 3: 38m59s.
My only stand-alone Half Marathon in June 2009 saw me run 1h38m28s. I took this run out way too slow because I was fearful of the distance. I have since completed 2 Half Ironmans and 1 Full Ironman, so hopefully my next effort will be faster. The goal time is to break 90 minutes. I'm hoping to do a Half Marathon in September, but I'm not confident I'll be in good enough condition to post a good time so I'm not setting my 3 goals for this distance.
Below are my Triathlon run leg goals:
5km off the bike - sub 20min
10km off the bike - sub 41min
20km off the bike - sub 90min
21.1km off the bike - sub 95min
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