It’s really hard to know TBH. Even in calm waters, OWS can differ 10-15s to your 100m times just because of poor citing, no flip turns, not swimming in a straight line, other people etc.
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Travelling for a race with minimal equipment availiable what does everyone do for pre race meals?
Whatever’s available at the hotel in the morning; fruit, porridge, coffee.
Night before, Italian if it’s available.
My training for 70.3 CDA in June is going ok so far. Bike has been consistent with 3-4 days of riding via TR with a few outside workouts.
Had to take a week or two off from running as my calf has a strain so rest is best. Funny thing I got the strain from biking on my trainer where I was getting spiral of death (my own fault) and thought I could pedal through it but ended up straining it.
Swimming has not started yet due to work travel so far this year but throwing around the idea of getting a vasa due to convenience even though the pool is very close. I just don’t know if I can justify spending that much on the vasa even though I can afford it. I can pay for 10 years of pool membership for the cost of the vasa but I know if I got one I would use it as I enjoy training indoors.
@Achin if you dont mind how much was this silly good deal on the p5x? I have a Trek Emonda and always think about a tri bike. See you in CDA. I did 6:20 in 70.3 Chatty in 2018 so goal is to get around 5:30-5:45 and then improve when I do 70.3 North Carolina in Oct this year. My main goal for CDA is to beat my bro by a size able margin.
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Standardized since many years. Oats, soaked in oat milk or other plant milk, cinnamon, banana.
You can get it more or less anywhere or even take it
I found it in a Canadian store (wheels of Bloor) for 8000Cad for an Ultegra di2 build or 10000Cad for a dura ace/SRAM red build, all demo (someone posted in slowtwitch in the p3x discussion thread recently), or a frameset for under 5kCad new. I personally feel like the p5x is too much bike for me, even as a solid fop rider but I always wanted a beam bike and the price was just crazy for what it was, plus to upgrade for me from a speed concept it actually wasn’t “that much”. However if you do not have a tri bike yet or have a lot of experience with them or are not maximizing your bike fitness I think theres better value bikes or low hanging fruit that are much better than dropping 10g on a super bike, which arguably is not any faster than my current setup (and can be done for around 6k-7k Cad all in di2 mech speed concept)
Also great job chasing those PR’s! Definitely don’t need to have a tri bike to finish high at your races (I have a really good friend who is my age and is in grad school, rides on a Cervelo road bike with clip-ons and places in the top 1-2% of races) so unless you want that added sex factor, definitely can rip the course and kick your brothers ass!
Plus if you sandbag a P5x it just feels bad imo. Like as it was I was kinda laughing at people with a P5x in T1 (I know I know; it’s your money and you gotta love what you put between your legs) who obviously were not getting top bike splits because it just seems crazy to drop 10k on some statement bike. Plus it gave me motivation to pass their super bike on my mortal speed concept. Anyways now I’m going to be “that guy” at races and this might be better for training as it will force me to put in a bit more work to avoid embarrassment and has done wonders to shave both weight and improve the aero of my wallet. And I am going to be 100% self conscious riding this bike for a while. But eh, I love the bike and never thought I could afford one!
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I’m on a somewhat similar track to IMAZ. I’m doing Low Volume Olympic distance plan until the Oro Valley Triathlon on March 28th (plus extra strength workouts and swim lessons). Then I’ll switch into Low Volume Full base/build/speciality until IMAZ. For me, it’s mainly that I worry about burning out on 11 months of even the low-volume full distance plan. No prior experience to share (first full this year), but maybe we’re brothers-in-arms.
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Oats and protein powder for Olympic and above with Cold brew or thermos of espresso. That or a bar of some sort. Sprint distance is just coffee and a gel
SInce it’s your first full, a PR is in reach!! Just finish it by pacing yourself.
In my case, I think i figured out consistency, nutrition, swim and bike sides last Fall, so now I do need to improve my run through higher weekly mileage (too much walking in last 4 IM).
Q1 focus is on raising FTP without long rides and ramping run mileage towards a marathon in April (a bit early but it’s local). I’ll do a HIM in June before the full IM cycle. I plan to many super bricks this summer.
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I get it and an awesome deal. I was thinking 3k max for my next bike. Honestly I have been thinking to trade my Trek in at the place I bought it at and get an aero road bike, put the redshift system on it and it should get me very close to where I want to be. Ftp is 280 right now and can comfortably ride 200 np for 2 1/2 hours.
I also want to get a mtn bike at some point as we have some pretty good places to ride in Georgia. Plus I am upgrading my daughters one speed to a mtn bike to do some more riding. She is definitely like me and like to be outside for fun if I can even though training I don’t mind being inside for structured stuff.
I think if you were okay to spend 3k, you could get a good used mech bike or maybe a closeout P2/P3 rim brake new. Depends on what you want. I assume thats 3k usd, thats pretty close to a speed concept mech, which IMO is the best value for money bike with the capability to be one of the fastest bikes available. You could look for a used one too and save some coin there. Very aero and easily upgradable.
A redshift system is also a good choice. I am sure you could make either work. I guess its more of a “what do you want to do with it” questions; maximize triathlon potential? Go TT/Tri bike. If you do group rides or just like riding for fun, the road bike options is nice. And TBH the aero road bike is really not much of an upgrade vs a decent regular road bike. IMO better to have a road bike and a tri bike than a sexy aero bike, but thats my opinion. Unless ur doing short course draft legal. Then obviously aero road all the way (or roadie things like crits and such)
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Excuse the long post about ME, but this seems to be the place to indulge 
Feeling highly motivated now, two weeks into full-fledged training for IM Lake Placid in July. Especially pleased to find that reading during easy trainer rides (inspired by Coach Chad and others on the forum) really works for me. I feel so much more productive sitting there pedaling for hours at a time when I can read trade journals for my profession and continue my education. Then, treating myself to a little Netflix for smaller portions feels more deserved. This thread is also great for trainer reading! The ride seems to go faster if I switch between different print and video media throughout.
For the bike I’m doing plan builder-generated low volume full distance plans, with two modifications: I add one 60-90min recovery ride per week, and for the long endurance ride I do “free ride” and keep my heart rate below 75% of max, and just let power be what it will be, usually for a little bit longer than the scheduled workout’s duration. My reason for doing this is that most of the prescribed endurance rides take me out of what I consider to be my zone 2 and into the “grey zone” as I’ve heard endurance triathlons coaches refer to it. My understanding is, at least in some folks’ opinions, this adds additional stress without providing much additional adaptation than staying below the 75% HR range. My power usually ends up pretty steady between 60-65% FTP. For the quality rides (anything above endurance zone), I ignore heart rate and focus on nailing the power targets. Curious if anyone else takes this approach, or thinks I’m crazy for doing so? I did sustained power build at the end of 2019 so I get to start with personal best FTP. Hopefully I can maintain (or grow) it.
Swimming twice per week: one hard group session (75 min) and one easy endurance swim, solo. My strongest leg for sure, do not too worried.
Getting the run volume in seems to be the trickiest part so far. My goal is 5 runs per week: one long, one quality, and 3x20-30min easy runs, always pushing my 1-year-old in the jogging stroller while my dear wife gets some exercise. I’ve been lucky so far weather-wise, but I know there will be stretches that are too cold to take her out, which will mean I have to skip those runs. Maybe I can do some extra strength and core work on those occasions (she likes to sit in my back while I do push-ups and mimic my core exercises 
).
One dedicated strength session per week, 30-40 min of kettlebell work, pull-ups, push-ups, core, and some yoga. I’ve been doing 2x/week for a couple of years, so I’m hoping I can maintain with a single weekly session.
Favorite thing about this training: making up the massive caloric deficit on a daily basis. Glorious food!
Trying not to hold myself to a time goal (sub-11), but rather focus on the process (I really want to go sub 11) instead of the (10:59:59?) result. (1hr/5:50/3:50, plus transitions?)
I really appreciate all of you kind folks on here. Most of my friends are musicians and artists who have no interest in endurance sports, so it’s helpful to have access to a community of similarly interested people. Big thanks to Joe for tracking everyone’s goals. Really enjoying reading everyone’s approaches. The excitement is contagious.
Good luck to everyone in training and racing!
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I did the same- that is a brutal plan! After all that threshold work I was relieved to start the full distance plan
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My race morning meal is traditionally English muffins with Nutella, I bring these with me wherever I race. But usually Hotel toast and porridge works just as well for me when I travel for work and work out in the Morning. Evening before I find preferably an Italian restaurant and have pizza or pasta.
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I live in Namibia - Windhoek, so I’m lucky to be in the Southern Hemisphere. No issue with early morning sessions, because at 5 am it’s a cool 19 degrees Celsius 
. Only issue is doing a brick run after a bike ride and it’s already in the mid 32 + degree Celsius. The positive is that i get to do altitude and heat training. Our winters are mild, compared to the Northern Hemisphere.
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I’m gonna have to give this reading thing a try. It will have to wait after football season. I’m very behind on my movies too. Lol
Just received the SMS/text message with my race number: 812 
2 weeks to go! Just another brief check-in.
We had a fundraiser swim event on the IM70.3SA course yesterday and I was super happy with my swim. Also made more small (tiny) gains in the pool.
TR bike workouts still at 100% despite having a small saddle sore developing. (Managing it as best I can).
Run workouts have been hard the past week as it’s been high 30s C and extremely humid. Still doing most of my runs on the event run course as it’s literally 200m down the road from the office.
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I did IM Lousiville last year as my first IM. I finished but nowhere near what I wanted. clip on aerobars broke about an hour in on the road bike =/ and as we all know the swim was cancelled. I have a FTP of 180. I would really like to push that number higher this season. I was thinking of doing sweet spot 1 and sweet spot 2. Then going right into full IM base->build. I am eyeballing IM Wisconsin so my last 2 weeks would be the last 2 weeks of the full im specialty plan. Would this training plan be fine or am I really hurting myself by not getting in the full specialty plan?
Steelhead fits almost perfectly between my base and build plan, so I will probably throw that in.
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Register and make it official! 
If its a choice between SSB and full speciality, I’d take full speciality, if I’ve got it right?
So you’re proposing ssb1, ssb2, fdbase, fdbuild, 2 weeks of FD speciality?
First off I’d give the Plan Builder a go, enter all your events including steelhead, see what it suggests.
That aside, I think the standard approach would be SSB1 then the full FD base/build/speciality cycle.
Once you have done a lot of structured training and/or high volumes of training for a few years it gets harder to see benefits and whether a tweak here or there is significantly different. So to answer your actual question “would it hurt?” to shorten speciality, probably not much but it wouldn’t be ideal.
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