Olympic distance Tri

No  advice here, just Good wishes for you, I am hoping to do an Oly at the end of the season.
Good Luck to you

assuming the training is going well, i normally race olympics just a bit slower than sprints.

part of your pacing is going to depend a bit on how fast you in raw times, the faster you are moving the closer to your sprint pace you can go (less time on course).

just as a comparison between that sprint distacne and oly (we have a LOT of those in ohio where the sprint people do half the oly course), normal sprint paces are 1:15 or so on the swim, 25-6 on the bike, 19 min 5k.
for the same olympic course, 1:20-22 swim pace, 24 on the bike, 39-4010k run.

things slow down a bit but not a ton. if you want to play it safe and assuming you have no glaring weaknesses, the swim should be a bit easier, the bike should be comfortably hard (if you are fast here you could push it a bit), start the run a bit slower than you think yo uneed and pick up after a mile or two. the last 5k you should be running with everything you have left.

Oly distance is probably one of the most difficult when it comes to pacing... in a Sprint, you know that you have to go all out. In an Oly, you need to go very close to all out, but pacing gets to be extremely important as it's a fine line between going out hard and going out too hard... it also depends a bit on the type of race it is... is it draft legal? Then you need to get in a good swim to stay with the front and depending on if you're a strong cyclist or not, you either just draft to save energy (or to hang on), or if you're one of the stronger, you can push the pace and put others in the red zone. The run is a 10k dash to the finish line, so if draft legal, here's where most races gets determined.

If not draft legal, the bike is usually where most people can make up time (or on the flip side, loose time). Just save enough for your run as 10k is far enough to loose lots.

Hi,

Good luck to you.

Happy training!

Kendra

Edited by Jeter2 2010-01-15 1:04 AM

So take this for what it's worth, last year was my second season, first time at the Oly distance  after a few sprints and not quite finished with a 16 wk oly program but solid sprint program.  Your 1:12 should translate to a 2:30 or better if you have the solid 16 week program down similar to your sprint fitness. 
For me, the swim pace was about the same, the bike speed was about the same, the run was about 15seconds per mile slower until mile 4 then BAMMMM.  My legs blew up (after a couple more races later in the summer I realized it was actually my head and a lot mental).  The good news, The last 2 miles on the run after blowing up, while tiring with bouts of walking (I know), my run ended up being about 6 minutes off my 5k pace.  So don't hold back too much on the bike if you are strong there.

Good luck and have fun!

assuming you biked/are biking hard in the sprints, you cannot hope to bike that hard and have a good run. most epople are going to end up giving away WAY too much time in the 10k that way

The advice I received from an experienced guy before my first Oly was to go at about 90% of the effort I used in sprint races.  This seemed to work well, and I finished strong about 15 minutes faster than my goal time.
Good luck!

Thanks everyone - I like he 90% rule. 

I am a MOP with swimming, FOP for cycling and MOP/FOP for running (depends on the competition).  As it's my first I think I'd rather enjoy it and also to finish knowing that I could have gone a little harder, that way in my next Oly I will be better placed.

+1

As an avid cyclist but tri newb, I did my 1st Oly last year after enjoying a few sprints.  Training paces not too much slower than you, except I'm poor newb swimmer.  At the Oly I came out of water fine, then rode hard to regain positions as I had in my shorter tri's.  It was a twisting 2-lap bike course which I stupidly raced like a 'crit.  Sprint to the turns, corner hard, sprint to pass the next few riders, corner hard.....repeat X 25mi.  Hot summer day & my legs were DEAD for the run.  Worst 10k ever (as in survival, not racing).  Time I gained in that bike effort was lost many-fold in the run.  Lesson learned.

 I had the same thing happen in my last sprint - temp was 40 degrees Celsius and I gave up too much time in the swim - made up for it in the ride b going 110% but the ran the worst 5km run ever! Was planning to smash 1.12 but couldnt because of a poor run.