No, I’ll be able to train fine. XC Ski season doesn’t really get going until mid December 
And on the draft packs, if you want to KQ in my AG, you’re biking alone. I did FL in 2019 with 50 fewer Watts, a road bike, and a head cold. Still managed a top 100 bike split. There were no draft packs to be seen after say km 30 once I passed the faster swimmers/slower bikers.
I’ll be racing Ironman Canada next year, assuming it doesn’t get cancelled for the third time, which will have slots for 2023 so I’m hoping things go well with the May/October St. George/Kona double to free up some slots, but I think there’s still going to be a backlog of deferrals for another year or two.
This was my thought as well…races like FL or AZ are really tough as the courses aren’t hard enough to weed out those who may have a weakness to be exploited. A weaker rider who has a very good position can have a great time in FL.
if you are putting your shoes on in T1 and not doing a running mount, there is zero advantage to a tri shoe, IMO. Yeah, maybe drainage or ventilation on a tri-spefici shoe can be nice, but not necessary.
FInd a good pair of shoes that are comfortable and relatively easy to put on and let those be your guiding criteria. Whether they are road or tri shoes is immaterial.
I think that’s a false equivalent you’re making there. There are comfy road shoes out there just like you can find stiff tri shoes. You may not get the full lockdown a racing shoe with multiple boa dials gives you, but some tri shoes comes with soles as stiff as they get.
For strong bit comfortable road shoes you may want to have a look at Bont. They’ve got a unique approach to sizing and fitting and will probably your best bet for a fast shoe that delivers proper race feeling but doesn’t destroy your feet before the run.
The flying mount yes is the “double black diamond” move of triathlon. But the flying dismount is more like a blue square. If you usually take off your shoes and leave them clipped onto the bike going into T2, then tri shoes are a wonderful option and I’d go that route.
I do leave my shoes on the bike… because unmount is about 1,000,000 easier that fly mount a bike…
thanks all for the recommendations…
I sort of see it in this hierarchy;
Short course tri - cheap tri shoes
Long course tri - cheap road or expensive tri shoes
Essentially I’m saying that in short course, the time on bike means the quality of the shoe isn’t that important but the seconds to minutes faffing around with road shoes can mess up your head, if not your race.
Also I’m working on the basis that cheap road have a better quality than cheap tri shoes in my experience - crappy tri shoes might gain you some irrelevant seconds in transition for long course, but the discomfort outweighs that. So either get half decent road shoes of shell out $$$ for fancy tri shoes.
Here is my IM Chattanooga race report Excuse the long post
This journey to Ironman Chattanooga began two years ago when my training partner Suzanne and another friend Melissa signed up for Ironman Louisville.
I did the TR HV Ironman plan.
Wake up 4:10, hot shower and stretching. Walked to the lobby of the hotel for a cup of coffee. Breakfast was 12 ounces of coffee, two scoops of Infinit Mud, two Mocha Gu’s, banana. An ensure at 5:30 and second one at 6:30
5:15 met Suzanne out front of my hotel Residence Inn the closet hotel to the race, we walked to transition. One of the nice things about having a cute training partner is she was able to acquire the use of a pump rather easily. We had a group of ten other friends racing most of which were on the bus our bus to the swim start. I sipped on water and a bottle of Infinit Hydrate took a Maurten gel around 7:30
Swim: Water temp 73, I jumped off the walkway breast stroked for a couple yards then settled into my regular stroke. Every time my left hand hit the water, I counted it up to 100 then started again. Somewhere near the halfway point my left foot, both calves, and both hamstrings took turns cramping. Thankfully they were not bad cramps and with the wetsuit I could just bob in the water. Exiting the water, I saw my wife and daughter in matching Team Bill tee shirts and holding a banner.
Swim time 1:04 89th age group 1121 overall
T1. It was in the mid-50s, so I thought best not to swim in my Tri Top, however I forgot to unzip and battled with it for short time. A freaken pedestrian 7:17
Bike: I live in Virginia Beach, there are no hills here, fortunately two of our friends found a course just over an hour from here where we could get 3k of climbing in 80 miles. This proved very beneficial. Started out big 19 for the first four or five minutes out of T1, shifted down settled into a easy high cadence pace. The roads were rough but nothing bad. I sipped water for the first 20 minutes. At 20 minutes I popped an 8-ounce Pepsi. At 40 minutes I started drinking my concentrated bottle of Inifinit. On the first loop the hills were very manageable, somewhere after 30 there is a long climb but not as bad as people let on. On the down hill there were some rumble strips, my friend Melissa crashed hard here, facial abrasion, fracture clavicle, head injury. She is slowly recovering. At the bottom of the hill, you make a hard left onto my now all-time favorite road, Hog Jowl Road more rolling hills, I had a rice cake. Hit special needs which had fresh bottle of Infinit, an Almond Butter and Honey sandwich and another Pepsi. I slowly ate this over the next 10 miles or so. The hills on the second loop were a little tougher, but except for the hill leading to Hog Jowl Road nothing took me out of my rhythm. Since I had the cramps on the swim, I took the bike relatively easy and stretched out the calves frequently. Hit 100 miles just seconds before 5 hours. The one hassle on the second loop was the traffic, I think I got stuck behind 5 or 6 different cars.
Bike 5:46 10th Age Group 210 Overall
T2 5:52 stopped to use the port a john before starting the run.
Started the run with a very easy pace my plan was to go slow to go fast. On a hill by the river my wife and daughter were holding the sign again and the wife was yelling you are in 8th place. Walked all the aid stations, alternating between water, Pepsi, and Gatorade. Every four miles I took a swig of my Infinit run mix. Somewhere between 6 and 7 miles there was an aid station with a sharp right turn after the last table, I missed the turn and probably ran an 1/8 of a mile or more. I must not have been the only one to miss the turn, the second time there they had cones up. Although I was prepared for hills on the bike, the hills on the run were unrelenting. I had hoped to run up Barton on the first two times but made it about halfway both times. After Barton the hills got worse, but I plowed through. My cheerleaders were now standing on The Pedestrian Bridge. The first 13.1 were right on target at just over 2 hours. But the wheels fell off here, I ended up walking the second 13.1 way way more than planned, it was more mental than fitness. When I was running, I was still running between 8:10 and 8:30 and racers and spectators kept saying I looked good. Around 23 miles I had to stop and dry heave twice and let out a huge fart that got cheers from the athletes around me.
This time on The Pedestrian Bridge there were more spectators yelling and screaming GO BILLABONG. But the best one was when Lionel Sanders looked me in the eyes and said, “you are looking good, finish strong”. At the end of the bridge, we were greeted by a large tunnel of spectators screaming and yelling. I hit the finishing shoot found my wife and daughter, as I crossed the finish line, I tried to do my best Cristiano Ronaldo celebration.
Run 4:19
Finish time 11:24, 9th of 143 (6%) 55-59 194 of 1864 overall (10%)
I was hoping for a sub 11 but given the hills on the run and the lack of hill training I am satisfied but a little disappointed in my run.
Next year concentrating on 70,3s, Eagleman and Agusta on tap, and possibly North Carolina.
My training partner Suzanne finished her first Ironman in 13:01.
I’ve done both
I have come down to racing in tri shoes - your feet are wet at the start of the ride and the venting helps, no fafffing around with dials or buckles especially when you are hurrying and the brain is still woozy from the swim, and they are gonna smell like piss at some point so I keep my nice road shoes for training and for the road bike.
Fantastic write up and performance, what drama, what…schoolboy humour! 
Nice job, Bill….I did 70.3 Worlds there and the hills on the run are TOUGH!
Congrats on a great performance!
Well done, I’d be very happy with that effort given the hills!
Best wishes to your friend for a speedy recovery.
Beast and very nice result
Right apologies for the delay but it’s been a busy weekend followed by a busy week! 
But it roll call for September so here’s my log going into IM Barcelona:
| W/C | Plan/Race Week | Bike TSS | Run TSS | Swim TSS | Lift TSS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30/08/2021 | 70.3 simulation | 500 | 279 | 84 | 0 | 16h 26m |
| 06/09/2021 | Marathon | 22 | 327 | 76 | 0 | 7h 38m |
| 13/09/2021 | Taper | 290 | 45 | 133 | 0 | 9h 6m |
| 20/09/2021 | Taper | 57 | 67 | 240 | 0 | 5h 9m |
| 27/09/2021 | Ironman Barcelona | 372 | 248 | 47 | 0 | 13h 56m |
A few points that maybe interesting;
To taper week over this year I had averaged 10h 3m training per week;
—4818m swimming (since pools opened in march),
—296 bike TSS, and
—28.9km running
In the last six weeks my bike TSS averaged 304 and my run hrTSS 193
In the last three weeks I did a hell of a lot of DIY and redecorating, more than sensible for recovery but this is not uncommon for triathletes!
Through the year I used TR plans;
*I’ve asterisked the FD plans because there wasn’t a great deal of plan compliance with those. I felt that I had already built my fitness and I just need to get in some long distance work, plus I still had an Olympic race to do and recover from in the middle of those and a last minute marathon which naturally messed with training too.
That said, the weeks I did complete felt good and “jumping” into 4.5h bike sessions and bricks was no problem. If you have done the tri plans before I would take a look at the HV as they aren’t as demanding as they used to be or the bike only HV plans.
I am enjoying recovery and looking forward to 3 months of not triathlon.
Over to you all - has offseason started? Are your races finally happening? Or is season just starting for you?
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