Dinamic

Lets for argument sake agree that you want to actually race Comrades rather than survive it. Now lets assume that for IM you are going to do the following:- Swim: 10000m swimming so lets say 31/2 hours. Bike: riding approximately 10 hours a week leading up to IM Run: If you are wanting to do comrades then you will need to do a couple of 120km weeks, but you can,t jump to that from say 60 - 70 km training for IM. Instead you will need to build to 90km for a few weeks prior to IM as a minimum. So lets argue that the average speed is 5min/k for the said weekly milage that now means you have to 18 hours of running. So prior to IM your weekly training load is going to be around 31.5 hours a week or almost 20% of your weekly hours. Lets allow 40 hours a week for work, 7 hours sleep a night = 49. That leaves you 6:5 hours a day to commute to work, eat, talk to spouse and try and keep some semblance of a life. Hell that is hard core.

The vast majority of athletes I coach/ have coached ( ranging from age grouper to pro triathletes ) have done a large % of their structured intensity training on turbos and just do their easy ride, extensive endurance stuff on the road. Saves time, is more controlled and removes the variables like traffic, wind, road surface from the equation. Its much easier to say for example to get a triathlete to for example hold 4 * 7 min at 285 - 295 watts with 5 min recovery than on the road, safer too.

Basically that was the date available from ITU. The slot had to fit inbetween Auckland and I think Yokohama and this weekend was the only one available

Not the most prone to perspiration, unlike me, but she also used to just keep a towel of the front end. Did I mention that she was also completely barking mad after 3 months doing this. She maintained that by comparison the race day bike was a party.

Yep Early morning sessions on Turbo are a very good way of training. Mind you the missus used to do 6Hr turbos sessions, not sure if I could bear that.

Hi Face Plant, Rather than go over it please see link to rates for sanctioning and day lisences http://www.triathlonsa.co.za/uploads/documents/Sanctioning%20document%20Jan%20Sterk_2013-02-28.pdf and if your interested http://www.triathlonsa.co.za/Public/SearchEvent.aspx for info pertaining to event sanctioning. Cheers

My final thoughts on this. Garf some good observations re slots, I am aware that TSA is looking at making sure we have athletes racing at as many events as possible so conserve points so that we can get the 2 slots and I firmly believe that with the way some of our U23's are coming through South Africa could have a competitive mens team. JGR fair do's mate Sport has not exactly covered itself in glory the last couple of years. It is too easy to sit on the sidelines and make observations based on misconceptions and without all the facts, and I am sure that I fall into this catergory as much as anyone. But how many people will actually motivate themselves to get up and do something about it?

Good point, but I think maybe I was unclear when discussing the support of the pro's. Remember TSA only get around R125 of your annual membership and a chunk of that goes to athlete insurance, most of the money going to the pros is from lottery funding not from TSA membership fees.

In answer to some of your questions 3 Athletes raced at London Olympics and we had 1 coach and a second official who was invited there by ITU so no cost to TSA. If you are not a member and doing a sprint the combined cost of a level 2 sprint for sanctioning and day liscence is R60, based on TSA policy! You do raise a valid question on supporting the pro athletes but the reality is without role models the sport will struggle to grow.

How about Henri and Wian working with Richard on the bike to get him into first group without killing himself on the bike. With his run he would be in contention for a medal.

Just thought I'd check. Sanctioning fee for level 2 races events like Jailbreak and afriman Less than Std distance R30, Std distance R70, Greater than Std R100. Level 1 races up to and including provincial champs will be determined by the province but must be less than level 2.

You keep saying R100/person per event, that is not the case. Some of the expenditure you are maybe not thinking about is supporting the people such as Richard Murray, Kate etc. with travel to races, coaching physio? So why do we need to support them success breeds success, and btw lack of success means less lottery funding. Other costs are helping develop the sport in PD communities ( if they don't do this then as a federation they will lose the support of SASCOC and be unable to take part in ITU international events. Coach development is a further issue/expense. I think you missed the key point about sanctioning, it is first and foremost to insure safety. You want to leave that to the race organisers fine, I agree there are some guys out there who are excellent, but I can also think of examples where the race would have been unsafe and dangerous if allowed to go ahead in the way the organizer initially set out. Regarding getting someone in they have and I believe that steps are being taken.

Just saw this now, like Davem I made some points as to fees

For the record of the annual fee that is paid for membership R125.00 goes to TSA. What do you get for that/ Well one thing is you are insured traveling to, racing at and traveling back from a race incase of accident. The rest of the fee lies with your province. Sanctioning fees vary according to the race, the size and its purpose, a large scale for profit race will have a sanctioning fee, where as a development race may be exempt. The idea of sanctioning a race is to insure that the event is safe, that adequate precautions have been taken and that the layout of the race is fair, all things that help insure the athlete can enjoy the race. BTW if for example the provincial chair of CGT allows a race to go ahead and it is not sanctioned and someone is killed he/she can be held accountable in a court of law. Now bear in mind that such a person is a volunteer and does not get paid, how many of you would take on the responsibility, I know I would not. Fat Cats in TSA don't make me laugh. The Executive Committee put time, effort and expertise into trying to make things better, they get not a cent. Most of TSA's funding is lottery. No I am not on the TSA board, nor am I on a provincial board.

Give me a call Gadget and I will hook you up with one of my Guys, suck his wheel and follow his line and you will get faster and learn in the process.

Its all a numbers game. How many people do the Midmar? How many entrants for 94.7? The fixed overheads are divided over a bigger number of athletes = lower cost / athlete.

Good point from Ewald99. If the coach has not at least taken into account, your current volume and intensity of training, along with current paces and discussed with you your training availability as well as other aspects of life then it is not possible to do an individualized programme. I have worked with triathletes training for IM races who are based on North Sea Oil rigs, you have to take their realities into account. A standard programme will not work. However for most people starting off the key to success is 1) Get the basics including technique right. 2) Be consistent in your training, 3) Don't rush it.

Yep been some very good studies on this which shows it to be effective in prevention of build up and improved times, but does seem to be limited to a relatively short period ie not so usefull in multi hour events.

Biggest mistake I see when doing lactate tests on athletes is the tendancy for the athlete to be doing their easy stuff to hard and their hard stuff too easy. This is often because they overestimate their own perceived effort / HR / Load at threshold which means they spend too long training at one intensity, and consequently they do not get the benifits of easy rides and are often not suffeciently recovered to effectively do real power work when trying to do that. Lactate testing is one way of determinig very clearly where your "zones" actually are and establishing correct training intensities based on that.

Based on 2006. Swim finishes up a fairly narrow canal which can lead to a hell of a bun fight. Bike is quick as it has longer more gradual decents than climbs which you can use to get your ave speed up. The run is fairly flat but is exposed and if a warm day heat can be a real problem. Very well organised and nice town.

Vittoria Corsa evo KS tubular R450 ( give or take a few rand for drift in xchange rate) Schawlbe Ultremo TT evo around R700 and no I am not in the business of selling tyres. May not be the top end but not exactly poor quality. Re comming undone, I stated that I would not advocate tubbie tape as a solution in a technical course, I even gave the example of Ironman france as a course which would be a risk. My experience of working with triathletes ( especially LD ) in many different countries is that many of them if buying aero wheels still would buy and ride tubbies that being course dependant. Interestingly I was chatting on Sunday with a visiting rider who currently races for a UCI lisenced team in Europe and there personal choice for a aero wheel for time trialling would still be a tubbie. Horses for courses I suppose.

In the main I don't disagree with most of what you have said. In my first post I point out that modern clinchers have closed the gap in terms of rolling resistance. It does help to practice with tubbies but equally I have seen people take in excess of 10 min in changing a clincher. I pay around R450 for a tubbie ( corsa evo ) if you compare that with the cost of conti's and tubes I don't think there would be that much in it. At the end of the day a person should ride what they are confident riding, be that tubbies, clinchers, whatever. But I do feel that tubbies here in SA get a bit of a bad rep based on misconception.

First choice for me is a track but many of the athletes we coach don't have access to a track, so a treadmill is very usefull. Many top international runners have done large percentages of their quality running on treadmills, ( think Geta Weitz olympic silver medalist, winner of London Marathon 2:25, ) It is an antidote the problem that alot of age group triathletes have, 1 paced running. A typical mixed set for a runner who can do say 20min 5km 10 weeks out from a goal race could be Warm up 2km at 5:20-5:30/km 4 * 200m in 43 sec with 200m recovery jog 3 * 1km in 3:55 with 2 min recovery jog 3 * 400m in 1:28 with 400m jog Cool down 2km at 5:30 pace.

. Double sided tubbie tape ( pre stuck on to the tube) along with the high pressure of the tubbie is more than adequate to hold the tyre onto the rim. In some cases I know triathletes who have simply removed the old tubbie and put the replacement straight on without even using the tape just relying on residual stickness on the rim from the old tubbie and pressure. Would I suggest this for a highly technical course with high speed twisting desents eg, France no, but on that course you might be better of a light weight climbing wheel.

Agree with Red Zone. Simply putting you saddle up is not a great idea. Find some one who offers triathlon/TT bike fit and ask them to have a look.