Race plan Advice ?

Seres

hey guys
I have my first triathlon on sunday and i want some advice to achieve the best time possible . My swim is average , my bike is not too good and the run is by far my best leg , should i ( regarding bike and run):

1. Bike hard , and whatever i have left give to run
2. Bike at comfortable steady pace, reserve energy and finish with hard run

Any other game plans welcome

911sc

I have not done a tri yet, so can't really share any experience there. But i'll be in the same shoes as yourself next year, so i can picture what goes through your head.
As a first race, i would not focus too much on the watch, but would rather play by ear & try to pace myself so that i fell comfortable along the way.. Then, with that on board, you'll be able to fine tune a strategy for the following races.

Have you done some maths?
What's your average cycling pace if you don't push it versus if you push it, e.g what's would be the time diff over the distance you are going to cycle?
Same thing with the run?
How do your legs feel after T2 and a fast cycle?
loads of stuff come into play....

dukeofmarmalaid

go hard on the bike as this is the longest of the three disciplines so most time came be made up if you want to achieve best time.

Perhaps before you come off the bike go to a low gear as it helps break down the lactic acid before the run.

You should be fine on run then if its your best discipline but take it easy for the first 5 minutes until you feel your legs return to normal, however if i have a tri on the sat i always like to give myself a good brick session of bike to run on the wednesday

tunney

dukeofmarmalaid wrote: »

go hard on the bike as this is the longest of the three disciplines so most time came be made up if you want to achieve best time.

Perhaps before you come off the bike go to a low gear as it helps break down the lactic acid before the run.

You should be fine on run then if its your best discipline but take it easy for the first 5 minutes until you feel your legs return to normal, however if i have a tri on the sat i always like to give myself a good brick session of bike to run on the wednesday

I really hope you didn't listen to this advice. Don't bike as hard as you can, its a recipe for disaster. You can easily give up huge amounts of time on the run if you've blown your load.

Helps break down the lactic acid??? Eh what? The scientific views on lactic acid, what it is and what it does have changed alot over that last decade.

"Lactic acid - friend or foe?

Lactic acid (lactate) is not:

* responsible for the burn in the leg muscles when exercising very fast
* responsible for the soreness you experience in the 48 hours following a hard session
* a waste product

Lactate, which is produced by the body all day long, is resynthesized by the liver (Cori Cycle) to form glucose that provides you with more energy. Sounds like a friend to me." (courtesy of coach brian mc)

Switching to a low gear is only really necessary if you have over cooked the bike.

There is a popular misconception that triathlon is all about the bike. I've seen people come in after a shocking race, finished with a shuffle to the line but then be only worried about their bike splits as thats all that counts. if thats the case then do a TT.

Bike as hard as you can that will still allow you run hard. Its unfortunately something you can only learn from experience. one more thing - if you bike too hard and shuffle across the line there is little or no fun in that, a well paced event is much more fun.