Hey Ernie! This is a super cool thread to read.
How old were you when you started triathlon? At what age did you decide to compete on a professional level and what was the process there?
I’ve always been curious about that as it seems like you hear a lot about the really talented kids, and then the more visible pro triathletes are a little older. I’m 22 myself, so it’s great to have some insight into the in between years! (even if I can relate more to being cheap than being fast 
)
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Just some thoughts and maybe some friendly discussion from a historical perspective. I once was a triathlete back in the day when Scott, Tinley(spelling?), Allen, Newby Frazier, and Welch were household names. When the top energy product was PowerBar and you would break them into chunks and fold them over your top tube for easy access. I told you it was back in the day. Look and QRoo were kings but SoftRide was all the rage. Roadies hated us because we did not follow the rules we had aero before aero was in vogue, didn´t wear socks and had one strap velcro on our shoes. Oh and did I mention we wore speedos and no jersey, Yes, back in the day. Greg Welch a 2 time Ironman winner( Ironman Winner was Kona. If you did a different Ironman you had to distinguish it as Bay City Ironman etc) said during the marathon I walk thru the aid stations. We didn´t draft nope not at all. Not at any level. So my question is: Why do we refer to an Ironman as 70.3? We referenced full distance as an Ironman and a half distance as half Ironman. There were no metric references( although the metric system is better then the imperial system measurement wise). Tell why why why??
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Great use of your lock down and thank you for answering questions.
I have two. With a cycling background in time trialing. I’d like to in 2021 compete in Masters Nationals Duathalon. My TT time would be top of my age group. But I lose time on the run my best 5k is 23mins. 20k TT is 28:30. How can I
Improve my run. And be able to run off the bike?
Second question. What tech do you use? Wahoo, leg compression, altitude tent, or chryo chamber?
Thanks for your time.
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What gets me stoked in triathlon training is setting goals and reaching them. I am not really a “oh I just enjoy being outside guy” - yes I do like going outside and doing workouts, but I’m more attracted to having a plan and executing it. I enjoy snowboarding a lot, the occasional hike, and a lot of my training isn’t technically “race specific” at all (i.e. go ride for 3 hours in the mountains is one of the workouts I’m doing today). Basically yes, I do fun things, but my mind is happier when I have a plan and clear goals of what I’m trying to accomplish. Seeing a green calendar on trainingpeaks is very satisfying hahaha
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Yo! I started when I was 19 as a sophomore in college. I grew up playing hockey in Minnesota, so was used to being in a really competitive sport and always wanted to be good at things. We always trained anywhere from 2-4 hours a day for hockey, so switching over to 2-4 hours of triathlon training was not an issue. I had zero endurance sport background other than I could handle the fatigue of training that much.
My first season pro was when I was 22 (2018). The process to get there was not crazy complex. I was a student at ASU, so had great training in the fall winter and spring. In the summers I went to Bend Oregon one year and Fort Collins CO the next. I read a few training books and followed a few plans, but ultimately I decided that routine was the way I would get to the next level from the start. I swam = every day (Christmas included) for over a year, was doing like 30k a week, and that seriously helped. I would bike 6 days a week and run 6 days a week. At least one long one per week, and at least one hard one per week.
I don’t think it was necessarily the exact training structure I was doing that got me to the “pro” level, but more the mindset of I will literally do anything to get to that level, and at the time that is just what seemed necessary to me. At CDA 70.3 in 2017 I ran through a stress fracture in my femur and finished 12th overall including pros (then couldn’t walk for 6 weeks and had to take 4 months off running) but that was a sign to me that I really should pull the trigger and just do it. Now I have a coach who I listen to who tells me what to do and helps me be patient, but you can get there by also just using your brain and strava stalking good people. And having a really fast brother to bounce ideas off of helps too.
The reality is it’s expensive to market yourself in triathlon and nobody is going to hit their potential until they’re like 28-34. So because health insurance in the US will only allow you to stay on your parents until your 26, a ton of kids basically end up quitting or having to do something where they can make money. The level is just getting higher and higher each year which is great, but it’d also be great if the $$$ followed that pattern!
I’d say if you have the desire to be a professional and really want it, it’s pretty straight forward. Set goals that you know will help you get there and do it. There are tons of guys I know who took their pro cards in their late 20s that have just gotten a little better every year, and that really adds up by the time you’re 35.
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Nice! One person I went to college with is actually related go Welchy. He’s a great guy. Ironman is the kleenex of triathlon - I guess that’s basically it? hahaha. I wish we all used the metric system too but whatever. Stay on the look out for challenge events though! Way more athlete friendly than ironman.
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I guess it all depends on your running volume and training program if you want to go faster. There is probably room for improvement on that end where you can really see gains. Doing at session like 4-6 x 1 minute all out hills (jog down) and then a 6-10 minute tempo at 80-90% effort will really help your strength and technique, which is really important when it comes to running off the bike. That and doing slow long runs where you just get more efficient and spend more time on your feet (up to 90 mins if you’re training for oly or sprint is probably just fine).
Biking you can do more leg speed work. You don’t need to get off the bike and have your leg muscles be dead. I’d say if you can do an hour above 100 rpms comfortably than maybe work on something else, but if you can’t spin for an hour above 100 rpms then you should work on doing that. In a triathlon you’re never really ripping it on the bike, so being efficient is really important.
Then combining the two. Start with both easy, then do hard bike esy run, then easy bike → hard run. the key is don’t do hard bike → hard run. Save that for the race. it’ll be there 
I drink lots of water, eat healthy, do yoga, and I use a cycleops fluid trainer (and ride a cervelo P2)
Hey Ernie, thanks for posting!
As quarantine is the subject, what’s your thoughts on treadmills and treadmill training?
I just got into it last winter but haven’t had a race to test the outcome yet and now they all cancelled 
And of course, what TrainerRoad workouts or plans do you use?
Cheers,
Joe
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I like treadmills! I tend to get tendentious when it’s cold outside so in the winter time I’m not afraid to do a lot of running on it. In the fall/spring/summer though I prefer to be outside - I’m a boring guy so I will run loops around the park or something, Occasionally on a gravel road but that usually involves a lot of driving. I’d say if you can run outside every other day do that, but treadmills can be very relaxing for me and you can really just zone in on the things that matter, and get direct feedback from a mirror in front of you. The secret weapon part of treadmills that I still haven’t seen Lionel use is the incline function - do all your running at like 2% grade, and then the best workouts you can do on them are hill reps and sub threshold reps. I don’t like running too fast on them because it just doesn’t feel right, but they’re great if you want to find a rhythm at a pace that isn’t crazy hard, or want to run up a hill but not down one.
I use the workout creator and free rides for the easy stuff. My coach writes my workouts for the bike so I just do it in there. Yesterday I went and picked one out from the library and did like half of it and for the second half just kinda did my own thing. I think that if you don’t have a coach telling you what to do you should follow a plan for at least 2 workouts a week then do the rest easy. Just because you potentially can do more hard workouts in a week it doesn’t mean that you should.
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What’s your FTP?
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Do you have a lot of groupies?
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Best 20 min power ever is 380, so we’ll say ftp of 400 w
I have a 2:1 bike to groupie ratio
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who’s your favorite triathlete ~influencer~
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my fav triathlete ~influencer~ is anyone that uses one of those super motivational captions they didn’t steal from the internet or anything like that, then has at least 15 triathlon related hashtags hidden at the bottom and makes sure to tag every single brand they get a 4% discount from in their post
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I’ve just seen that Ironman are launching Ironman Virtual Racing on April 1st, which Pros will also race, and can qualify for the 70.3 WC…any awareness of this?
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How do you virtually swim I wonder?
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haha i will not be virtually racing. I’ll train for the real races that happen in real life. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be widely available to pros either - the press release said only two male and two females. Either way, I think Ironman should be focusing on real life competitions and doing a good job of hosting them when they will be able to host them again, and leave the virtual racing to the virtual racing companies out there.
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Goggles and swim cap in the shower.
Former rower, took two years off, started cycling last march just long easy rides with little consistency. This September took up triathlon as my next endeavour and started structured training. What I’m wondering are what are some landmarks to aim for in each sport? What’s competitive at a local level and beyond??
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Oh jeez, loaded question haha. Local races can be a total joke or an absolute hit out, so i’ll just say if you want to be a high level amateur at an olympic distance (cut everything in half for a sprint) your goal should be to break two hours.
Ideally sub 20 swim, sub 1 hr bike, sub 40 10k. Triathlons vary so much in time from course to course, but generally landmarks you can shoot for are here
Competitive amateur 500 yd swim time - ~6:20-5:40
FTP: 300 watts
Open 10k: 35 minutes
It all depends on your age and goals. If you are 55, I would say that if you can (still) physically hit those numbers that’s mad impressive.
The best thing you can do is stalk someones results who you want to be better than. Do the math, creep their strava, then set your goals based off what they can do. If I’ve learned anything about triathlon, it’s the person who sets the bar stupid high that actually ends up doing really well. At the end of the day, none of us are actually very good at any of the sports, so just keep working at it and trying to get better. If you’re having a plateau you probably just need to train more, train harder, or rest more
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Cool of you to do this, thank you.
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