5:09 HIM to sub 5:00?

focus on getting faster.

j/k.  In all honesty bike and run.  Just maintain swim.  Easier at this point to sharpen up on the bike and run and drop 10-15 minutes then to bother shaving off 5 minutes on the swim.  Bigger bang for the buck.

If you just pick a course other than Mooseman and get a little more fit over a year you easily have sub 5....that's kind of cheating though.  I would opt for tackling the same course.  You can easily shave it off just being consistent.  My first HIM at Timberman I went 5:35 and then the next year I went back and did 4:57...you can drop 10 minutes....I didn't do it this year but was under 5 at Quassy and it easily would have been <4:50 at Timberman based on the course differences.  Your first couple years in the sport all you have to do is be consistent and you'll get faster and faster gradually but it adds up over the course of a year.

Another question is how close was your 5:09 to your perfect race?  What I mean is that a perfect race is rare, so to go sub-5, you need to be capable of going closer to 4:30-4:45 to allow for less-than-perfect execution and race day conditions.  If you feel your 5:09 was close to perfect, then the improvement has to come from fitness gains.  If the 5:09 was farther off your current potential due to execution, then it could be as simple as getting part of the gains from fitness, plus another 10-15 minutes by working on the mental aspects and learning to execute more efficiently, then you end up crushing 5 easily, maybe even hitting 4:45.

Your bike and run times are pretty good!!   36 min for a 1.2 mile swim is I think were you are lacking.    Also, I am guessing that swimming takes a lot of energy out of you therefore your bike and run could naturally improve. 

I would try to swim longer sets (if you swim in a pool) such as:  swimming 200s or 300s.   This will get your endurance up.

Bike faster.  

Pardon me for asking some obvious questions.  Just looking for speed.  

Are you riding a tri-bike?  Aerohelmet?  race wheels?  Have you ever had a professional bike fit?  Power analysis, video analysis.  Is your bike training solo, or have you done some group rides with hammerhead cyclists?  While racing are you using heart rate? powermeter?  Are your 10mile bike splits consistent? Negative split?

Are you in the aerobars 99% of the bike leg?  

At your 5:09 did you nail your nutrition?  How was your fuel level during the run?  

Thanks for the feedback.  I realize its an arbritray goal but if I am looking to do better next year I need a goal time....right?  I would want to the hit the sub 5 on the same course.  

I am fairly new to the sport.  I started Spring of 2009.  I had no previous background in any of the sports (couch potato basically).  Actually, I could barely run 1 mile in March of 2009.  My logs are up to date.  I average about 15-20 miles per week(run).  I think I peaked at 30 miles running when training for the race.  I was injured going into the race with a stress reaction. So I think I held back a bit on the run.  But I didn't have any problems with nutrition,etc.  I weighed around 188 lbs for the race.  I have about 8-10 lbs to lose.  I ride a tri bike with aero helmet. I was on the aerobars about 80% during the race. 

5K: 17:31

10K: 42:00

HM: Never done one before

Never completed a bike TT.

If you can get in a standalone swim of 1k-2k (yards or meters) at threshold it would be helpful to see where your swim is at.  What do you have for bike times or power output? Do you have power output for anything from 20 min to an hour? Any kind of bike standalone bike event?  Standalone is to see what your bike capability is. This will help with recommendations on how much concentration each of these should get.  For both, recommendations will likely concentrate on doing more at or near threshold, and it might help determine pacing.

With the run times posted, I would think more run volume would help. To build fatigue resistance.  You have a decent 5k time, but it seems to fall of going to 10k. Experience in pacing will help (in all 3 disciplines), and so will biking as the run can depend quite a bit on that.

I'm with Shane on this one. If you have a 17 anything 5k, you should be doing a Lot better on the run.

With consistent training, and enough running, you should go sub 5 with No additional speed improvements.

Swim  - 2 minutes faster

T1 - 1 Minute faster

Bike - 4 minutes faster (21.4mph)

T1 - Fine

Run - 2 minutes faster (7:47 pace)

9 minutes.  There you go!  Sound achievable?  Now get out there and train!

My whole basis for asking how to go to 5:09 to 5:00 was to figure out what I should focus on this winter.  It seems like I should spend the bulk of my time biking and swimming.  But if I focus on this how much should I be running? Miles?