- Morning Trainiac's,
we've got a swim and a run day here
and the aquasizer's are pumping the tunes.
All right?
Something that I'm trying to do a
better job of these days is sifting through
and communicating to you what I do that
is meant for elite performance, and what more
applies to general triathlete's that are
looking to be maybe above average but
really just looking to be a better
version of themselves.
Finish a race feel strong be confident
when they get to the front of the race.
But, that doesn't mean that elite performance
isn't fun no, their both fun and we have
some data from all of the half iron man
performances that happened over the course
of 2018 and we're gonna share with you
what it takes to be in the top 5% of finishers out there.
They're both good, elites, general amateur's,
back of the pack it doesn't matter, as long
as you're doing triathlon and having fun.
Lets have some fun with a swim and a run.
(upbeat music)
(bouncy music)
Ooh, that was all right.
Just a fifty minute swim for the first time ever,
I saw under 130 per hundred yard average on a swim.
And I came out here and ran around for half an hour.
Playing around with the schedule a lot these days
because, as I start training fifteen hours
on average every single week, its hard to
I find, get everything in.
So, ear marking three hours in the morning
for creative work, where I can just be
quiet and focus, then three hours for training,
and then three hours for like the busy work;
The phone calls, the emails, the just
tidbits that come up.
So far so good.
Alright now, lets get into the average
swim, bike and run times for each age group
to be elite age grouper, top 5 %.
Almost got hit over there.
So, Trainiac's, as we've started diving into the
my board is all squishy.
As we've start diving into analyzing hundreds of
thousands of finished times from half ironman,
we start pulling out some information about
what it takes to be above average or what it
takes to be above average in the swim,
the bike, the run.
Well, a lot of this will help you as you
start getting into the sport, but what if
you're already into the sport and you
want to excel?
You want to be one of those athlete's that is
trying to get to Kona or a half ironman
World Championship.
You want to make sure that no matter what
race you go to you are in that tip of the spear.
The tippy top of the finish field so that you
can potentially qualify for a world championship
or get onto the podium.
What does that take? We have answers.
So what we have here are graphs of the average
finish times of the top 5%, the athletes with
the D.P.I. as rated on OBStri.com.
what their average total finish time is.
What their average swim finish time is,
what their average bike finish time is.
And what their average run finish time is.
For each age group.
Now you can go to OBStri.com, it is a free service
and you can check out your finish times and
where your D.P.I. is.
Basically, it's a measure of where you rank
in relation to the field and athlete's all around
the world and accounts for things like
if a swim was down stream and extremely fast,
it'll kinda account for that, so its not
comparing somebody else's downstream super fast
swim to all of our average swims that
weren't downstream.
So, it's kinda leveling out the playing field,
a higher number indicates that you were
more competitive.
Above 95 if roughly top 5% in the category.
So, lets look at the finish times, we're gonna start
with the overall finish times from female athlete's
that had a D.P.I. of over 95.
And, what we see is that it starts out for females
age 18 to 24 around 51759, but then it takes
a massage chunk off, goes to 503, and then 501
then starts creeping back up.
So, what we see is that female athlete's tend
to need a little bit of time, more time in
the saddle, I believe, to develop bike fitness
because what we saw at the fastest age group
was that the youngest females were the fastest
swimmers, but it took a while for them to
build bike fitness.
And what about with the men?
Now, in that case the difference isn't quite
so severe, what we did see with the men is
that the fastest men were the youngest men.
But, in this case, the fastest of the fast men
the average of the fast men actually comes
at males age 25 to 29 with an average
finish time of a 43006.
For myself we're looking at a 43524, so I'm like
right in there in the average of the
D.P.I. over 95.
And if you look at Obstri.com, I think my
D.P.I. ranges between 94 and 99 depending on the
race and the discipline.
What about the average swim times for these
elite athlete's?
Well, we're looking at somewhere around a 3043
for females to start out.
Goes down to a 2937 and then just gradually gets
slower in actually fairly significant chunks,
to the point that when you are in the 70 to 79
sort of age you're looking at an over 48 minute swim.
On the men's side this is interesting because
what we also saw that the fastest age group were
the youngest athlete's, but in this case
that's not the case.
So, what we're seeing is that the fastest
overall age group for the swim are the youngest
athletes, but when you start looking at the fast
of the fast, that actually comes a little bit later.
Takes a little bit longer to develop that peak
level of speed in the water to the point that
the fastest is a 2721 swim for the 25 to 29
year old males, In my category 28 to 25.
On the bike, so this is where we see the
biggest chunk of difference, when I said that
it takes a while for females to develop
that bike fitness.
Elite females age 18 to 24 have an average bike time
that is two hours 50 minutes and 20 seconds,
which is actually slower than the elite 50 to 54.
So this is what I'm saying that it takes a little
while for younger female athletes to develop that
leg strength in the bike.
But, when they do it comes on fairly quickly because
the fastest average bike times of the elite females,
is in the 25 to 29 age category, going 2 hours
42 minutes, 15 seconds and it goes all the way up
to 331, 338 for the older ladies out there.
The men, same sort of thing.
Takes a little while to develop that leg strength
and this is what I'm saying, the time in the saddle
cures all bike woes.
It starts with a 22802 for the 18 to 24 year old males,
And then the fastest males are 25 to 29 with a 22607
and in my age category, 35 to 39 22746.
I did 218 in Puerto Rico. What?
Don't ask me about the out here.
And then with the run we see that the fastest
females come in at age 30 to 34 with a 13805,
takes a few years to build that up and then
it gradually increases to the point that we're
looking at 239305 half marathon.
With the men, same sort of thing,
but not nearly as significant.
The 18 to 24 year old men are one hour 29 minutes
and then it gets faster and faster, twice so
that the fastest runs are happening with the males
age 30 to 34 in 12727.
In my case, 12840.
I am no where near elite in the run.
No, no, no, no, no.
So, what do you take from this that might
help your training?
Well, you can start building your training
around the time lines that we have
sketched out here.
That if you are looking to try to consistently
get on the podium, you now know approximately
what it takes to have your average finish time
get into that podium spot and potentially
qualify for a world championship.
If you are looking at any of these and you're in
a situation where I am, where you're like
alright, my swim is kind of close, my bike is
actually better than that but my run
is not quite there.
It gives you an indication of what you need
to work on.
In my case, I'm working a lot on my running technique
so this starts pinpointing where your weakness is
and limiters are that can help you get to
that next level.
Now, all of this I went through really quickly
just showing you the graphs. Now, if you go to
Triathlonteran.com/averagetriathlontimesfast.
All of these will be there and you can take
a look at your individual age group finish times
for the swim, bike and the run.
So, check that out, I hope that helps
and if you aren't already subscribed, make sure
you hit that subscribe below because we try to
dive into things like this and actually start
pulling out from real data, not just always
what's just going on in my head.
My pontificating what you need to work on
based off what the numbers say.
Later Trainiacs.