Well at least in this case they don’t, so while chasing > 4w/kg is what will ultimately get him to his goal, there’s some seriously low hanging fruit to attack right now without getting that concerned with raising ftp. If you have a true 4w/kg hour power and can hold 95% of that and then run well off the bike with what should be a 20 min or better swim you should be somewhere around 2:10, giving 5 minutes for transitions which is 34 minutes faster and very competitive for the overall. Very few amateurs are very good at all three legs, mostly you can be very fast if you are fast at 2 of the three and don’t blow it on the third.