I have confidence that Barrelman will happen. Local organizers and athletes.
I don’t doubt the will of the organisers or the athletes, but the public health restrictions could be the stumbling block. Fingers crossed though. I’ve been wanting to do Barrelman for ages.
My event - IM Austria - was officially cancelled last week. As was the Mallorca 312, and Outlaw Nottingham (half-Ironman). So well and truly stuffed there, just like everyone else!
So I’m now looking forward to The Heb in September which isn’t an Ironman but a 2 day adventure race billed as newbie friendly and set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, UK. Now I need to go dust off the cyclocross bike in prep! 
I’m flying at the moment too! Be cool if outlaw x goes ahead, it’s my first half and cool to know other tr users facing the challenge
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I like what you’re saying here. Ive been on TB HV for 3 months now and been thinking of also trying the BarryP plan to add some running back in to the mix. Like you’ve done, doing the 6 weekly runs, starting with short periods.
I want to try with 10min/20min/30mins (1hr40 per week) at super slow pace (Z2). Not sure about the weekly progression though, as the HV cycling has me on the bike 6 times a week. I don’t want to compromise the quality of my TR workouts.
Please keep us updated with your progress. Looking forward to hearing how you go as my situation will be very similar to some extent.
EDIT:
I just read the link you posted. Sorted. I’m gonna give that progression a bash and see how it goes.
Great work @JoeX. Really good to read how you all are getting on.
My work has gone crazy, silly hours and had impacted my training early April, I am now at a more modest 10 hours or so a week (70% bike). Pretty much all done in the morning before the madness of work kicks in. Not that I am complaining I know there are lots out there not working and my heart goes out to any of you impacted.
To be honest not so bad as maintenance is all I need at the moment, May training will ramp up a tad and still heading for Italy but not sure that will be on, we will see.
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I’m not counting my chickens, they are cancelling Outlaw full imminently. If it is on and I haven’t got a place I will come and cheer you on though
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I’ve been waiting (and training) for weeks for them to cancel. I’d probably be training anyway just in case any late season race opportunities though these seem extremely unlikely. Doing a virtual tri camp this weekend that is mainly cycling on RGT as it’s free during lockdown, a little running outside and some swim-related indoor workouts.
My club is still operating in some sense. We’re coaching some indoor rides, some strength and conditioning workouts. Might start a “beers with chad” type live Q&A with the coaches.
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@JoeX Thanks for keeping up with all and the motivation. My local sprint event is still on for September as of now. Finished up PlanBuilder Specialty round 1. I This week I started Sprint Base LV. FTP (Virtual Power) went up another 5W to 195W. Training during this shutdown has been tough as a lot of time is spent trying to get kids remote learning. Due to this and low adhesion to MV, Im just going to stick with LV and add rides and runs as able. Local open water still too cold, but a few weeks away from opening my pool, so will start with really short of band swimming again. On the plus side, my littlest is getting closer to dopping the training wheels and my 9 year old has now done two 14 mile rides with us - and starting to making up some hills!! Weather is finally starting to improve, so hopefully many more family rides. Good luck all and stay healthy.
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Cheers @JoeX
Same here as for everyone, no word from the organizers yet and so I continue as if 70.3 Gdynia is happening on August 2nd while nationals have been postponed indefinitely.
I am quite happy with how things are progressing. As mentioned earlier I am recycling the plan that served me well for Oman. I’ve managed to maintain my running pretty good, but I can sense degrading core strength. I still don’t do much if any strength and not swimming is not helping. Hitting 3:25 1k repeats on bouncy carbon shoes I feel like my legs are connected to the rest of my body with a piece of damp toast.
Bike is okay, plan builder has built me a MV half distance plan. FTP is up, I would guess slightly above 4 w/kg on the road bike, slightly below on the TT. I’ve fiddled with my position to get lower, as a result my RPE in aero has gone up significantly. I am also struggling with longer duration vo2 intervals. Plan builder pushed me right into Shortoff+1 and Owens with little build up and it psyched me out completely. Replaced Shortoff+1 with Shortoff and barely hung in there. Next week I couldn’t bring myself to do Owens and listening to the recent discussions on the podcast I did short-shorts instead. In the end I went for Brasted+1 which I completely owned, raising intensity on the final set and hitting a number of season and all-time PRs in the process. This really got me thinking how to manage my vo2 going forward. It seems that I can do much more work with short-shorts than with longer intervals. Is there a significant upside for a 70.3 triathlete to suffer through Owens, when a Spanish Needle or Brasted can deliver pretty much the same duration in zone and be so much less stressful mentally?
I also noticed that during vo2 I barely get my breathing and HR where it should be. On the trainer I rarely exceed low 160s bpm, that’s when my legs hit the rev limiter. Compare that to 1k intervals running, where I am in the high 160s to low 170s for 3 minutes. Is that normal or does it mean I need to somehow get my legs to catch up with my heart and lungs to train effectively?
And I went mountain biking a few times on the time not swimming or commuting has afforded me. Good lord how I missed shredding the trails. It’s really been good for my soul to be in the woods for a few hours, not caring about power numbers and only about the next coffee stop.
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I believe it is normal as you have more blood that needs to support you for running than cycling; you are mostly using your legs for cycling, while running is a whole body motion, so it would make sense that you would need more blood to support running at the same “intensity”. I have also read a lot that supports this, as well as I have the same thing (I can hit 170 in stupid efforts on the trainer, my HR max for cycling hit around 180, my HR max for running was like 194 or something). I think if you were an exceptional cyclist you miiiight have those numbers close down, but I think if you were an equally trained cyclist AND runner, the running HR would be higher. Similar to how x country skiers have a higher VO2 max, its inflated due to the inherent nature of the sport.
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As achin said.
Id expect HR to be 10-20 bpm lower on the bike for the same perceived exhertion on the run.
I havent been for an outdoor ride in ages, Ive just been so busy despite the lockdown. Maybe Ill sneak out for a few hills next week when its sunny 
Joe Duckworth (very good UK AG athlete) is doing 10 ironman in 10 days from home.
12km rowing
180km Zwift bike
42km Zwift run
He did day 2 today and is looking for riders for the next 8 days to keep him motivated.
I’m doing a shift tomorrow with him. 8:15am start. Unsure if I’ll manage 180 but may do 3 hours or so.
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Hi all
I am not sure if IMC is a go at the end of August but I am pretty sure I am not willing to be quarantined for 2 weeks traveling to Canada for a race. So most likely that’s out.
No swimming
My Achilles won’t heal
So I am biking a lot.
I think all the biking and many running records will fall once racing resumes.
- everyone racking up monster indoor miles.
- no races to beat up the bodies and the taper and recovery interruption
- I am fairly sure it’s very hard for anti-doping agencies to do their job properly.
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I guess you’re both right, it sure makes sense that more muscle recruitment in running allows for a higher HR. But now my mental concept of how vo2max and vo2 training works breaks down. What processes do actually define vo2max, where is the bottleneck we’re trying to improve with vo2 training? How big is the cardiovascular component? Because if my lung and pump are the bottleneck, and I can tax them higher running, then what is the point of vo2 workouts on the bike? In that case, wouldn’t I be better off sparing myself the mental effort and pretty big recovery debt I incur with vo2 bike intervals in favor of more quality work running?
I am sure that I am misunderstanding something here but I’d really like to understand how vo2max compares across disciplines and how I can make sure that I am allocating my training time effectively. My body seems to respond very well to high intensity, but it is also very tough to recover the work. I am basically maxed out with one violent interval session running per week and a vo2max session on the bike, and they have to be separated at least by a day or two of easier work.
Really enjoyed training this last month. I dropped all tri plans for the year and went back to SSB2 MV with a similar running structure to the FD build plan but with the long run shortened.
Making good progress on the bike, best 25 mile TT last year averaged 250W and could barely walk afterwards, last weekend I averaged 262W for 70m outdoors in TT position as a comfortable tempo ride. Really hoping there’s a few TT’s at the back end of this year now.
Heading into build in a few weeks and with no definite races I’m tempted to try something different. Sustained power is the logical choice but I’m thinking general build or even short power for the fun of it (although it probably won’t be very fun having focussed on long steady state for a long time).
Hi,
Just finished SSBMV2 and having a rest day today before taking ramp test tomorrow. Last week of SS2 is pretty hard with Leconte and weight peak -1. I had to adapt my running as I was kinda tired. Did just some easy zone 2 runs.
Next week I’m gonna start Full IM LV, but I still have to adjust it with plan builder(base or build??).
like @TG333 I am also wondering if one should do high intensity on bike and run at the same time.
stay strong
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Okay, somone else is likely to chime in more accurately with all sorts of acronyms and corrections…but …basically you can take in and utilise only so much oxygen depending upon what you are doing.
Thats what VO2max is referring to, and when youre cycling youre only using your legs to turn pedals…when youre cross country skiing, arms, legs, core…even your eyebrows are working hard, so you are using more muscle, and therefore more oxygen than is phyiscally possible when ‘merely’ cycling.
Same with running. And to cope with the greater muscle utilisation, your heart pumps faster to supply the oxygen.
FDLV Base is lower TSS and fewer rides than SSBMV2, deliberately so to cope with the demands of running so I wouldnt draw direct comparisons with last week for next week - you should be fine if your run volume is currently similar to week 1.
As a plan i think its balanced enough for most people but you know yourself, so if you want to dial back the sprints or leave out the walking breaks thats fine.
Right, understood. Thanks for clearing that up. What you are describing is the consumption side of vo2max, how much my body can utilize in a certain configuration. More muscle recruitment, more demand, that is clear. But there must be a supply side as well, how much oxygen I can absorb in my bloodstream and distribute to the location of demand. I am wondering which part of the equation i am supposed to train and improve.
If the demand side - utilization of oxygen in active muscles - is my bottleneck then it makes sense to train vo2 for each discipline separately, assuming the supply side does not limit performance. If however the supply is my limiter - o2 absorption into the bloodstream and distribution of blood across my body - then I wonder what benefit I can expect from bike vo2 work, when run vo2 would present a greater demand to the supply chain. In that case I’d be better off focusing my vo2 on the more effective running, don’t I?