Going to kona:) but having baby in July:)

I was lucky enough to get selected into lottery for kona this year( was actually going to concentrate on biking until I found out in April)I have done 1 IM before and 6 70.3 with fastest 4:41- . It would be nice to do decent(under 11hrs) but will try to enjoy it. Any suggestions on following training plan . I have done mid vol ss base and sustained power build, some century for my original A race mt baldy etap next week. Won’t have time to do full distance base,build, specialty . FTP around 320 at 83kg Any area to cut more from? Planning to take at least a week off with wife having a baby at the end of July and anticipate some difficulty after with training. Any suggestions?

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Hi there and welcome and congratulations on the baby :tada:

There’s been a few similar threads, my thoughts are pretty much unchanged:

I guess you’ll want a good performance at Kona, but plenty of people go there with the goal on enjoying the event and taking it all in; the parties, the underpants run, etc. Maybe consider focussing on enjoying it more than the performance?

Make sure you do enjoy it. Do as much as you can outside the race to take in the atmosphere, it’s a crazy place the week before the race!

There’s lots of ways you could approach it depending on your relative swim, bike, run abilities. There’s around 20 weeks to go and if you know that there will be a few weeks you won’t be training I’d think about another Base and Build. Whether that is the triathlon specific plan or another SSB and Sustained Power build modified with a few longer endurance rides or something slightly different may depend on your personal abilities and what has got you in good shape in the past.

The speciality plans are great but I’ve had a number of successful races based on the Base and Build plans without touching the Specialty plans for longer distance triathlon racing and given your timescales that’s what I’d think of doing.

Congratulations! We just had our second in February. With our first, I didn’t do anything, and didn’t plan to race. I went nuts.

Second go around, I decided I would not race tris this year, but instead would continue to work on the bike. (Welcome TR!). I went into her birth finished with SSB2MV. I reduced to a LV Sustained Power Build. It worked for the first four weeks, including a couple of added rides, and then I fell apart shortly after I went back to work. Part of that was general fatigue from the kiddo. Part of it was training at an FTP higher than I’d ever trained at previously. Once I finished then build, I went back to eight weeks of SSBMV and have had no issues. I’m racing bikes (only) this summer and having fun.

So, for me, I hit a wall at the four week point. I would plan to significantly reduce overall volume. If it were me, I’d take it out of the pool. I’d aim for two or three bikes per week - the trainer is awesome for time efficiency when kids are involved. Running will be negotiation because your child won’t be old enough for a jogging stroller. I never felt comfortable running with an infant in the car seat plugged into the Bob, so that didn’t become a thing until she could hold her head and sit up on her own.

I think you need to have a plan, but you absolutely cannot get wrapped up about it. You’re going to miss workouts, and you’re going to fail workouts. Let it go, and move on, do the best you can.

It’s going to be tough. I would recommend letting go of any result-based expectation and just enjoy the experience. If you finish, under the circumstances, you should be thrilled!

I was going to say don’t do kona, just have your baby. (I thought you were having the baby from the headline and now realise it’s your wife!)

No other advice, except congrats on the baby and good luck.