All the best Joe, race well and enjoy!!
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Swim supposed to start at 8:30…
Could be carnage on the bike, more concerned about that than the swim actually.
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Looks like the swim was severely shortened, and then even shorter than it was supposed to be. Is there really a point to even putting people in the water for sub-10’ swims in an IM?
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Well, I’ll bet that not many got through that under 10 . Yes it was a bit pants but I’d rather have a swim than no swim, and that was one for the kids. Forget finding feet, finding air and finding water was tough as you came over a massive roller and disappeared into the trench behind it!
Lots of stories but for now, once you’ve finished laughing at the swim you can laugh at my bike-faster-than-run-split
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Nice job dude! Nothing to sniff at there, hope you got some clear skies on the run.
I always liked racing in rough weather, but a full distance might be a bit grim 
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That looks like a very long and painful run… 5hrs on your feet is no joke!
Congratulations!
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Anyone who crosses the line deserves nothing but respect….no matter how long it takes.
Congrats, Joe…a medal well-earned.
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Kudos @JoeX !! No matter what. You got it done!!!
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Well done @JoeX
Looking forward to your race report. Until then rest up and eat all the things!
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A finisher is a finisher, and never an easy task!
Congratulations!
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Last 70.3 of the year last weekend. Did NOT go well at all.
Pre Race I was feeling pretty ready to go. Got up with ease, didn’t feel like dying on the 2hr morning drive. Finished my UCAN and bannana breakfast no problem. And a lovely bathroom stop when I arrived at the race sight. Feeling ready.
Had a great swim. On par of where I currently am, Top 5 out of the water I think. Out of T1 and took my first 100 calories. Hunting down 2nd place racer, slowly catching up to him. First place was my local pro rival I’m trying to beat. A great day for me would to have been able to meet him in T2 and have him crush me on the run… So riding target watts (270) I cought up to 2nd place around 10 miles in. Took a short rest in his legal draft, then surged a pass on him. Held 10-15w over for the next 5 miles to try to put some distance between us. By this time my muscles were not feeling like they should have. My glutes and hamstrings are feeling really tired and sore. Almost like I haven’t ridden the bike in a month. By mile 25, I had gotten passed and dropped by him. Finding it really hard to even keep 200w. Said to myself my “racing” is over and its all about doing todays best. Trying to keep positive. 2nd half was just terrible. power is continuously dropping. Thinking I should drop out in t2.
Managed into t2 in 3rd place, sat on the ground and put my shoes on, and walked out onto the run course. Started running at a 7:00 pace(should be able to do 6:30) just trying to do my best. around the start of the 2nd lap 4th place guy came up behind me. We had a chat and ran with each other for a while. Keeping a decent pace with him. Eventually I let him go and started walking thru aid stations. Decided “I’m done, taking the Oly course turn back to transition and turning in my chip.” Sucked it up and kept on course. I thought I’d instantly regret it if I would have quit. Okay final lap, lets finish this bish… longest 4 miles ever. Now down to 7:30/7:45 mile pace. last half mile I thought I’d pick it up and finish strong… yea that was impossible.
Managed to get myself across the finish line still standing. 4th overall (4:30). finishing place doesn’t matter to me really. For me this was a terrible day and could have finished 20min faster. Not entirely sure what happened here. 1 more race scheduled next weekend but unsure about doing it. I just want a break
ETA: Heres my lovely power file
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Maybe cumulative fatigue?
4:30 is still a great time on trashed legs.
Racing at the level you been racing is not easy…
Its like a non-pro tryin to race 75 minutes half week after week… not impossible, but at some point your body will fight back…
Best of luck next week!
We all have tough days buddy, even those of used to the podium! I think you learned something that could useful at a critical point in future. Well done for sticking with it.
If it’s end of season then I don’t see any reason to force the next race though.
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nice work and I get that you are not happy with the result due to your experience. I am like that when I did college track to name one and if I did not win I would beat myself up. Thing it is great you have a good attitude and approach and the next one I am sure you will kill it.
Personally I am going to start to get more serious and see what happens to my fitness and times as I am finally at a point with some personal items that I can dedicate more time.
Oh, you reminded me of something I forsgot to mention. Mid week I crushed a couple opener workouts. Then Friday night I almost felt like I’ve been waiting too long for the race, like I was really ready to go Friday morning and would have crushed it.
Zooming out a bit from 2019, I felt like I steadily declined from June to October. Seems like a repeat this year too.
For sure. I was thinking about all the other athletes that have rough days, that don’t podium often and thought, “They finish their races, no reason I can’t either.”
Hell, as I’m packing up the car to leave I still see people coming into the finish line; I have a lot of respect for the commitment.
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Training at a high level has it drawbacks…
If you have seen this in the pass, maybe a break at this point next year might be beneficial… not saying stop… but as the year progresses, maybe it would be time to take slightly longer break to avoid burning up… metal burn is real and its a pain…
Know what you can do, and failing to do, might lead to try even harder and get even worse… it may spiral out… (or at least that has been my personal experience)
Looking very forward to this fall’s off season. Going to stay healthy and take some rest. By healthy I mean not eating shit food and drinking too much beer (thats how I spent my last break). Going to hit the gym later and get on dat GAIN TRAIN and try to have some fun. Planning a focused swim block sometime in the winter. I have a pretty good outlook on the future.
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19 days to IM Cascais 
Prep is almost finished. This post will help me to summarize in a few bullets a very complex and hard journey.
Swim: Who cares? 
Last two years with pools closed often, my swimming became 10 seconds per 100m slower than before. A few trips to the pools got it down to 1:45/100m for half distance (1900m) and I still plan to swim a 4k twice (one of them in oper water) until the race. That would be more than enough.
Projected race time 1:12:00 to 1:20:00
Bike: High volume, low intensity approach for 8 months
FTP is a bit above 3.75w/kg (I am 54 yo). Nothing too impressive. However, all the work at 55 to 70% of FTP moved my IM target power up and now I can bike for almost 5 hours at 180w and then push more than 30m in FTP vicinity closing with an over 1100w sprint which is very close to my fresh PMax. The endurance is there. Efficiency ratio is at historical highs and cardiac drift is minor.
Projected race time: 5:50:00 to 6:10:00 since the course is quite challenging
Run: Slow running between 45 and 60k per week at or below MAF HR
Some niggles are showing that caution should be always a major aspect. However, I was able to be consistent and came down from 6:20/km at 130bpm to 5:10ish now. Yesterday I ran 30k at around 5:05/km with a lot of elevation.
Projected race time (OMG shall I really risk a projection here?): 3:35:00 to 3:45:00
It will be my first long distance season where I was able to push the volume to 20h/week consistently. However I was doing virtually no intensity just to be able to cope with all that volume.
So far I raced twice locally (very hard duathlon in May and a half distance tri in June) and both went very well so it seems to be working.
Sinxe then, my general figures improved and so did the endurance. I guess I have nothing to fear and just need to relax and enjoy the race.
Having finished the main prep, two additional things to conclude:
Thanks @JoeX and all of you for your will to help out and share your methods behind this IM madness
What would be the final key workouts you guys would shoot for in this final days?
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No worries @Nprazeres we all enjoy supporting each other here, and it sounds like you got the training sorted 
I don’t often get taper right for various reasons, so I’d like to hear what others think.
But thinking about my recent race, after the last long run three weeks out imo the only key sessions are long swims and short easy bricks, the real priority is recovery. So I stay active with DIY and gardening (no heavy or awkward lifting!) and just make sure I don’t stop training altogether. I keep following the TR plan but if I don’t feel like I need a workout I skip them…
You have to keep eating well but you don’t need so much energy so cut back the carbs as you reduce the workload. If you fuel your workouts it’s easy because you don’t have to change anything about your main meals.
The other thing I picked up on was sleep, made more time for the bedtime routine and got better sleep as a result.
Good luck and enjoy Cascais, it’s been a long time coming!
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