Patience with triathletes

If somebody is training for sprint triathlons and runs 20 miles a week, they probably will put in 3 hours a week on running. You need this amount of running to do a decent 5k on the end of a triathlon. I prefer to run 50 minutes a week as training. Running is the sport invented by Satan himself.

I train alongside a group of triathletes once a week. They are very eager to learn for the most part. The key is a strong coach who can set them straight. Good luck.

I train alongside a group of triathletes once a week. They are very eager to learn for the most part. The key is a strong coach who can set them straight. Good luck. I agree for the most part. Many of the triathletes I have coached were quite conducive to stroke advice, however suffer from impatience; I want to be fast all ready. Second some of them are critical of workout set structure. I find on the workouts they feel that any given days workout conflicts with what there triathlon coach or buddy is telling them and one has to be thorough in explaining the why’s and goals of the set and to translate it into triathlonease. Unlike many swimmers I know, tri’s are much more likely to spend $ beyond buying a Blue 70 on private coaching, video tapping, clinics etc. Finally, I used to name drop a couple of Pro’s I worked with and specifically how long it took them to become good swimmers, which was a while.

I asked him what I was wrong about and why he knew better. He said because " I am a triathlete" Maybe he has given cycling advice to Greg LeMond or Lance Armstrong. (Although... Lance was a triathlete when he was younger...)

Yea, at one of the pools I swim at, they show up like blood hounds in the early spring. You are right...they don't want help, no matter how bad they think they aren't and they don't want to share lane space. Once, I was helping a friend of mine when a wannab be triathlete stopped me to tell me that I was wrong with my advice. I asked him what I was wrong about and why he knew better. He said because " I am a triathlete" My friend kindly handled the situation for me. She said "since John can kick faster than you can swim, I will listen to John" John - Pretty funny he said he knew better than you because he was a triathlete! Sounds like your friend handled it well. Most of the time, as geek said, they are usually eager to learn. I was probably being unfair to generalize about triathletes.

My friend kindly handled the situation for me. She said "since John can kick faster than you can swim, I will listen to John" Interesting thread. I totally agree with the quote above. My wife teaches adult and kid swim lessons, she used to age-group swim and swam competitively in high school, and is planning on competing again. She coaches two triathletes and gives them various workouts that they can handle. One thing she has them do is stroke work/counting/reducing strokes, and various interval training. Kicking and sprinting is also involved. One "student" goes with the program, the other doesn't see the point in interval, kicking or sprint work. She tries to compare running/biking different distances at different intervals to the same thing in swimming, but it doesn't seem to sink in. Not sure what the hang up is, but as noted above, when someone can kick faster than you swim, you might want to open the mind up some.

Bomb diivng from the side seems to help...:rofl: You could just try swimming faster than them for a while and seeing if they want to listen after that.

Yea, at one of the pools I swim at, they show up like blood hounds in the early spring. You are right...they don't want help, no matter how bad they think they aren't and they don't want to share lane space. Once, I was helping a friend of mine when a wannab be triathlete stopped me to tell me that I was wrong with my advice. I asked him what I was wrong about and why he knew better. He said because " I am a triathlete" My friend kindly handled the situation for me. She said "since John can kick faster than you can swim, I will listen to John"

" I am a triathlete" That reminds me of when I argued with a noodler about the danger of her swimming to the flags and back while I was coming off the wall fast. She didn't seem to grasp what I was agitated about and thought she didn't have to lap in the lap lane. I used the phrase,"Lady, I'm a competition swimmer!" :doh: Yeah, it was a "I don't believe I just said that!" moment...

It seems like all the triathletes I see in the pool have very pretty strokes, but lack any power. They remind me of 12 year old kids from age-group swimming. The recovery looks good, but they must be doing something wrong below the water 'cause it takes them a bunch of strokes to cross the pool. It seems weird to generalize like that, but I swear, whenever I see someone with a pretty recovery, but inefficient stroke it turns out to be a triathlete. A pretty stroke with sloppy open turns is also a giveaway.