I think they’re thinking “when she trains for IM and gets more aero she will be winning”
I totally agree that AGers dont need Tri bikes, but an Olympian ITU athlete who trained for four years specifically for the Olympics on that bike in that position doesn’t tell us anything about Tri bikes imo.
Aero maybe overstated but there’s no denying the physics.
New subject: Has anyone ever found that they go too hard on the swim leg?
How did you become sure that you were going too hard?
Upper 50’s here in the UK is tri suit only… dry off on the bike and just cool enough on the run!!! Plus 70.3 pacing is harder work than FD so should warm up in 20 minutes or so. You certainly will not be too cold forgoing all the deep winter kit 
I was going to go with a jacket and gloves and pivoted exiting the swim and went with arm warmers and a vest. I can’t say I regretted it, the weather turned out pretty good until that rain storm around 1PM.
I had a great swim and fast bike, I been fighting running injuries since March, had three weeks of running coming into the race, was able to slow jog the run for a reasonable result.
I thought road logistics of this race (70.3 Maple Valley) were going to be a nightmare, but upon reflection the IM team and the local Police did a fantastic job. I would recommend this race, very nice venue.
When you calculate your % of ftp for a power target during a race, do you calculate that as your avg power or your NP?
Also I finished St. George on Saturday. Will have a race report soon. Hands down the hardest race I’ve ever done.
Anyone doing Chattanooga Sunday? High of 78!! All three of my 21 milers were done in the middle of the day in heat index of 100+.
That is a great forecast - good luck!
That’s awesome! Yeah, we got so freaking lucky with the rain. If that 1pm storm had hit on the bike? Man, that would have been… not ideal.
I also did a game day pivot, full gloves, toe covers, and a long sleeve jersey. Skipped the leg warmers and any sort of hat under the helmet. Overall happy ish with that decision, but would do leg warmers if I was doing it again. It took me almost an hour to find any sort of power on the bike, and I attribute it to my legs being cold out of the swim and getting cooled by the wind. I got progressively faster throughout the course, and coming north was finally feeling pretty good.
Overall, it was a good course! Especially good for those of you kinda bored with ‘run through the downtown of a city’ races. The run course was basically a gravel MUP path through trees along a river. The only con here is practically no spectator support, so it’s just aid to aid running, if that’s something you dislike.
But yeah, course was good overall!
The high doesnt matter much…
its the exposure to the sun that makes a huge difference.
Ive done races at 55 degrees where I would feel like dying because of the sun cooking!
Hopefully is 78 and cloudy!
no race for me this year there even though I am close but it will be hot regardless. enjoy the down river swim.
Recap of St. George…will follow up with pictures later.
I was in M40-44. Qualified with a roll down to like 22nd place at Gulf Coast 70.3 so I kind of felt like I didn’t really earn it. I’ve worked hard since May to hopefully put up a good effort and prove that I belonged.
We were the first wave after the PC athletes. There was a nice plush red IM carpet leading down to water’s edge. It was really nice, they do a good job with the WC. I was near the front, so I was probably one of the first 60-70 people in the water (out of 350). I suck at swimming, was hoping for 38-40min without a wetsuit. I felt like I had a good steady effort the whole time. Probably about a 7.5/10 effort, but my time sucked. 44min, and I think my swim line was a bit squiggly. I wasn’t way off course, but enough that I wasn’t always swimming in the right direction.
Oh well. LONG run into T1. Split transition and all bike stuff had to be bagged. Grabbed my bag, got to my bike, and almost my whole rack had already gone (told you I suck at swimming). I bought some rule28 calf guards and I tried putting them on at my bike. Should have practiced more, because it took way too long. In a wetsuit swim they would have been on under my wetsuit. Oh well.
Bike was eventful. I was targeting 191w power which would be my highest 70.3 power ever. Smooth good roads for the most part. Some out and backs getting away from the swim start. In the first 1/4 of the course there were several long steep descents. I come from flat areas. This is not my strength. I hit 41 at Augusta in 2019 but I’ve never been on long sweeping descents like this. Just held on and tried not to panic. Was regularly over 40+ on the first part. There were a FEW flat sections that I enjoyed. Right on my power target and sailing through. But then it gets interrupted by big climbs and long descents.
At about mile 20 I could see dark clouds on the horizon. Uh oh. A short while later I saw lightning. And it made me wonder if we were going to hear a horn halting the race (I’ve had races cancelled before due to lightning. No horn. As I got onto red hills parkway, the skies opened up and sent driving rain and wind at us. I’m already sketched about descending. Red hills parkway is a LONG STEEP SWEEPING descent and I’m getting pounded with rain and wind. It’s blowing me 4’ over at a time, roads are soaked, and my wet brakes are not very reliable. I thought I was going to wipe out. Made it to the bottom and it flattened out a bit, but now had a terrible headwind and more driving rain as we got onto snow canyon parkway. Someone rode up next to me and said “this is nuts!” I told him I was about to pull the plug. I almost lost it a couple times and figured I was due to crash soon. I actually unclipped my right foot 2x thinking I was going to pull over and ask a spectator when the storm was going to pass. But my brakes wouldn’t stop me in time, so I kept going. Got into snow canyon, we were going so slow. Through the parkway and into the park, there’s some flat spots. I was pushing 250w going 8mph. I actually pulled off to the side and checked my rear brake because I thought it was rubbing. It wasn’t…it was just slow. Shortly after the rain and wind stopped. We were getting ready to climb. I got a new cassette for the race, 11-28. I wish I went with 11-30 at least. I was 400 watts at like 65rpm going 5.5mph. The whole thing was a grind a d I was out of gears. I knew from park entrance to exit was like 3.8 miles so I was just counting it down. Made it to the top! But I knew the back side was going to get wild. The roads were still wet, but they were still stew (for me). The next 10 miles were terrifying. I hit 52+ mph and couldn’t slow down. I was trying to feather my brakes but I was still gaining speed. Just tried to hold on and not die. Miles 50-55 I averaged 36mph. Next thing I know we’re at mile 54 and making our way to the end. Thank god. 85% of my FTP is 191.25 and my NP was 192. After all that mess, lol. My avg was 19.6 for like a 2:51. I did a 2:33 at Gulf Coast 70.3 on 164 NP of that gives you an indication of this course…
T2 was fast. I beat a guy out who cut me off right at the line. That was nice. Grabbed run bag, socks, shoes, grabbed my stuff and ran for the exit. Took a gel right away because I lost a bottle on my bike and was trying to make up calories.
The run was very hard but I had benchmarks that made it go by ok. I knew the first 3 miles were a climb. Then it flattened out a bit. Then a other climb (red hills parkway, which sucks. You can’t see the top because it goes around a corner. All I could think about looking at the sea of runners was Moses leading the Israelites out of the desert, lol) until you hit the turn around at 5ish miles. Then run a bit to skyline drive. There is a short STEEP climb I wasn’t aware of before skyline. That was hard. Then running DOWN skyline was survival mode. Trying not to wipe out. Then just do it a 2nd time. On the 2nd lap I took a couple walk breaks up red hills parkway because my “run” was at like a 12min pace. About 20-30 seconds of that and I’d get right back into my run. On lap 2 with about 3 miles left I said fuck it, let’s empty the tank. I pushed it for those last 3 miles. Swearing, spitting, and grunting. Got to skyline and pushed it down the hill. Ran had all the way to the finish line for like a 1:48 run. Gulf coast was like 1:53 so a faster time on a harder run course after a harder bike…I was pleased.
Finish time was 5:31. It was right in the middle of the pack for men, and I’m pleased with that. The only parts I am meh about are the swim and T1. But my highest NP followed by a solid run…I’ll take it.
Did we all race the same Maple Valley 70.3? I started my bike at 7:42 am and it poured on me multiple times on the bike course. Mostly out near Enumclaw and then again near Nolte State park. I wore full finger gloves and a plastic bag under my tri kit (think similar to a vest, but better wind/wet protection and less bulky). I froze what felt like nearly to death after the rain. I will invest in a light jacket for future wet races, which given the time of year this race is we will likely always have iffy weather. Ironman really should move this earlier in the summer, it would be an epic course on a dry day. 
I took the bike super slow and cautious due to conditions and my confidence riding in the wet/rain. It didn’t help one of my riding partners crashed pretty hard three weeks earlier on the course and I had a crash in a race out in the same area of few years ago…needless to say I’m still regaining my bike confidence after watching the most recent accident. Despite a very slow bike (1 min faster than my St. George time in May, a much harder course) I had a good race and had lot more than normal to give on the run! As a full time working mom with two kids under 5 I’ll take sub 6 hours any day and be happy! So exciting to have a fast IM course in the PNW.
Good job out there… Swimming is hard man… Very hard…
I know 3 people who did the race…
One was 60ish OA…
Having lived in numerous sunny places the sun does not really bother me, but i know what you mean 55 in direct sun in Colorado can be tough. Plus my Mexican/indigenous ancestory assists.
Southern California
Colorado
Hawaii
Iraq
When you workout in these areas you have to put up with the sun in these places to survive
Been a while so I thought I’d check in with a 9 month to go status. Managed to bag a slot at Swissman next year through a comp and in doing so strategically got rid of my coach. Long story which I’ve bored you with before. Anyway the plan is to follow the fink method (roughly) right up until the end of Jan and then I’ll use the EndureIQ plan to take me up to event day. I know the sessions from EndureIQ from the prior coach.
I’m going to chuck in a few self made events along the way to keep me happy and enjoying being fit.
p.s. still absolutely despise swimming
Florida has a different kind of sun… Once is out your run is over … other wise… Dead is a certainty… 
Just out of curiosity, how much CTL (fitness) score do you peak in a 70.3 and/or Ironman training plan, and what score do you arrive at the race, after the taper?
Training Peaks is telling me my plan will get me to a peak of 89, and arrive at the race with 81. How does this compare?
NP, I believe IF is calculated from NP too.
Hey everyone, been MIA that last 2 months. Mainly put all my attention to 70.3 Worlds as much as possible and wanted to have a good day after the bad day I had at CdA Ironman. From CdA to 70.3 Worlds I dropped my weekly average training time to 15 hours per week leading up to race day.
I was pretty nervous heading into race day as this was my first Worlds experience and knew that it was going to be a really competitive race. It also doesn’t help to be in one of the faster age groups, 30-34.
Swim - 32:30
T1 - 4:15
Bike - 2:14:49
T2 - 2:16
Run - 1:28:41
Overall - 4:22:29
Im pretty proud of how my day went. With this being my first non-wetsuit legal swim, I thought I was going to be slower in the water, as Ive been struggling in the water all year long. However, I just know that once I get on the bike, I will put time into most of the other racers. Only 4 people rode fastest than me in my age group and only a total of 8 amateur men rode fastest than me during the day. And I actually rode a bit conservative based on my NP of 278 and AP of 262. I usually shoot for a NP of high 280 to low 290, and AP of 280.
Once I get on the run, I know that I just need to survive and not hemorrhage too much time. My main goal of the run was just run to the best ability that I could. Being a strong cyclist, I do tend to struggle running. I do think this course suited me a bit as its more of a strength running course and I was surprised as this is a PR for a 70.3 run for me. Hopefully this is that start of me figuring out the running a little bit and I can keep building on it, and slowly get fastest over the next races.
I was surprised that I finished 12th in age group, 31st overall amateur male, and 61st overall counting professionals. I didn’t expect to be anywhere near these places for my first 70.3 Worlds! And with it being in St. George again next year, Im really motivated to go back and improve on these results. Motivated enough to even extend racing this year and try to get that spot secured before the end of the year.
Reporting back from 70.3 Slovenia.
Once it became clear that I wouldn’t be able to travel to st George in September I was looking for a consolation race, ideally on the same weekend as worlds so I wouldn’t have to rebuild my training plan. Slovenia looked like one of those obscure but charming locations, it fell on the same weekend and I could drive down there, so I went for it.
Training went great. I wasn’t breaking through my most recent plateau, but at least I felt like I was expanding that plateau slightly. And so I went into the race secretly hoping to get near the AG podium.
On race day I’ve found myself in the the first wave into the water. Not sure how that happened. I can usually swim near the front, but am under no illusion that I could swim at the front, but there I was, hoping the space in front of me would fill up. It didn’t and so I got ready for a beating. Hectic beach start, went out as hard as I could and tried to hold every pair of feet that went past me. Did not succeed until 700 or 800m into the race at which point i finally latched onto a small group and could regroup. Got out of the water after 32min on a long course, 8th in M35.
Quick transition and onto the bike. this was an honest bike course with 1300m of elevation, shared between two sustained climbs and nothing but severely lumpy bits in between. A 20k commute to the first climb and from there on it was pretty brutal, I figured that pacing the bike leg would be the most important task of the day. The sustained climbs weren’t wild, but the rolling parts in between were a handful with several double digit kickers in between. On a group ride the course would have been a lot of fun, in a tri / TT setup a nightmare to pace properly. Eventually I arrived at T2 after 2:50, dropping to 17th in AG but feeling confident in the upcoming run. I averaged 213NP (3.17w/kg) over that period, a 2w improvement for 20 minutes longer over previous races.
I went into the run slightly too fast and clocked the first 5k in 19:20. Clearly that wasn’t sustainable and so I tried to pace myself better for the following parts of the run. Catching up on so many others didn’t help though and I continued picking up runner after runner. I managed to keep my pace around 4:10/k, but not without suffering like a dog, I think I lost color vision near the end. It did not help that the course, again, was long. The k21 marker was set before a 90° corner, after which you turned onto the promenade overlooking the longest 100m of my life, maybe 400m in reality.
I finished in 5:00:10 and 8th in M35, not particularly happy with my result but at least relieved it was over.
I’ll allow myself some off-season couch and family time before thinking about the next season.