The Ironman Training 2021 Thread

Throwing a question out there. Of Ironman UK and Ironman Wales which one of the two would you guys pick. Both have hard run and bike courses with similar ish elevation. I would potentially be looking at a KQ in the future and was wondering on your guys opinion on them ?

IM Wales has just been postponed to 2022 if anyone hasn’t already heard.

Neither course is “easy”. In the old days Bolton had less elevation on the bike course, but for some reason they made it harder. I wouldn’t say there was much in it now, you need to be very strong on the bike to be able to run fast after. I would suggest that the weaker your swim, the more you favour IMUK for the lake.

Check out Coachcox for recent qualifying times in your AG.

When you say “in the future” how far? I started at IMUK and it wasn’t exactly a confidence builder. If I’d had my time again I would’ve done “faster” courses first and built to the harder ones.

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Thank you. I did not realise it got postponed. Thinking more about next year. Maybe that helps my decision. Will be limited entries then for wales next year if any.

How does Outlaw full compare to IMUK/Wales?

I know that doesn’t help KQ and that, but I think I m more drawn to a PB attempt over iron-distance rather not qualifying for Kona. :slight_smile:

Judging from the bike profile it is OK apart from a massive hill at the end. Seems rude. But relatively speaking how hard is that compared to the other 2? The Outlaw might actually be tomorrow, I’ve lost track, we must have some participants in our midst. Good luck if it is and you are!

Are there any flat-ish courses in the UK? I did the Ultimate and would vouch for that being flat-ish, any others?

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It’s next weekend and I am told it’s flat as a pancake bike and run…so yeah PB course. Ive seen the course contour and it’s got some bumps but no mountains.

I briefly considered it myself as it reopened last week and Barcelona is well, who knows?

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Fun day here. At about 67 miles into todays 80 I was down in the aerobars doing about 25 when I hit a hole in the road. The bike veered hard left which scrubbed on a lot of speed. I think I did a head stand similar to what Mohoric did at the Giro. I stopped my Garmin before I called the wife, the Garmin crash waring works spectaculary.

The bike and the De Soto Tri Fli Bibs are intact. I have been debating between wearing a Giro Aerohead or a Vanquish at IM Chattanooga. My mechanic asked how much I sweat, well last weeks ride I was sweating bullets by mile 18 so yesterday I ordered a new Vanquish.

I was able to ride back to the car, for my own piece of mind and my training partners a couple of times I picked my speed up while riding aero.

I know without the helmet I would not be here.

Train Hard Train Safe.

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On your long rides and runs…how many “breaks” do you take? Bathroom stops, refill bottles, etc. F you look at moving time vs elapsed time, what’s the difference?

oooof - that sounds awful. Glad you’re okay.

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For me it depends on my goal for the ride.
I have a regular 100miler up the coast. Sometimes I do it as an easy ride with a couple of coffee stops. Other times I ride it hard and only stop when nature demands it

Cheers JoeX. You’ve hit the nail on the head. I know it’s me that’s the issue so I think I did answer my own question. It’s pretty impossible to be coached at the moment because of constantly moving free time.

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I don’t usually take any, but in the heat it’s different. And it’s been 27-30° the last few sessions:

I did a 02:04:30 run yesterday 00:03:30 extra on elapsed - took a break at halfway in the shade to drink 750ml before doing the rest. Also stopped to pull my sock up, ankle was bleeding :slight_smile:

I did 04:23:00 on the bike on Saturday 00:12:00 added for elapsed which seems like a lot to me. I stopped to take some pictures maybe four times, and had one actual rest at about 03:30:00

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Hi All.

I did my first half distance yesterday in Eastbourne. It was hot. I felt really good in the swim (29.35) happy with it and how it went bearing in mind the little swimming i was able to do. The bike went alright but was abit annoying as the roads are not closed and had to stop quite a few times at round abouts and the sharp corners as was not sure if oncoming cars etc. So i lost alot of speed there. (2.52) The chain came off as well and i rode over the aero bottle so had a stop to fix the chain. And then the run.

It was so hot and decided to have a little extra nutrition on the bike to try and help with energy wise. I also went to the porter loo at the t2 just for a number 1 which was. I felt solid and ready to roar. With the extra heat and everything i stupidly decided to have 2-3 gels in the first 40 minutes. This lead me at mile 5 to i think go into hyponatremia where i just had too much carbs in my stomach. Energy wise i felt great. My form did not decline my stomach just hurt so badly. No cramping pain or anything like that. Just felt like there was a massive dubmell pushing against my stomach and it would not let me move faster. But still felt really good energy wise. So between 5-10 miles I slowed right down and tried to dilute my body with loads of water at aid stations. By mile 10 i was feeling really good and so much better, the pace picked up for the final 3 miles and didnt stop running at all.

All in all as my first event i cant be upset but given that i still felt really good at the end i cant stop to think i had so much more in the tank to give. 5.14 for my first event. Weymouth 70.3 up next

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Agree with you here Joe, my first tri was IMUK which i did on no structure, did IM 70.3 Edinburgh the year after. Both were so hard it put me off for a couple of years. I wish I had started with the flatter, faster courses.

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Hi everyone. Anyone doing a “80/20 Endurance” plan?

I’ve been doing the 70.3 level 2 plan for about 4 weeks (in preparation for IM 70.3 Cascais-Portugal), and I like it a lot. Coming from the TR plans, it feels great to finally have real run and swim structured plans. I was also able to up my volume overall, since the intensity of the bike workouts is lower.

@JoeX if you can add me to the callout it would be great.

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Well done Andrew, I had friend down their cooking, I mean racing, as well! :hot_face:. That’s a solid time there as well, especially given conditions.

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Someone I know and ride with occasionally does multiple stops on his long interval rides. These are supposed to be productive, working, hard rides. But there will be multiple store stops, fluid stops, bathroom, etc. On a 95 mile ride his moving time was 5 hours, but total elapsed time was 6:41. I don’t get it. 1:41 break time? I’ve done similar rides on my own and my only breaks are if I have to pull over to pee, or I ride back to my car to swap out bottles (pre-made) and then get back on my bike ASAP. It makes your training data look good, but I don’t think it’s preparing you for a race if you’re constantly taking long breaks.

I think it depends on the day. If you’re on a tough hilly day with some buddies then plentiful breaks and chats can be great. I wouldn’t be doing them every week though and relying on them for fitness.

Like you if I’m on my own I’ll push it the whole way around. I happened to check one of my spins from a couple of weeks ago - 4 hour spin with 3 mins of coasting.

I used 80/20 plans for 70.3 races a couple of times. I liked them a lot. Before I trashed my knee a couple weeks ago I was following TR polarized and filling in my runs and swims. It kind of gave me a similar feel to the 80/20 plans.

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Lol it seems every weekend whe man he does long stuff, there’s extended breaks built in. We used to have the same coach who gave us similar workouts. He is actually a coach himself now. It’s just odd to see a long ride, and then 90 minutes of breaks built in. He’s had multiple coaches over the years and learned from each of them. But I don’t think any of those coaches ever taught him to stop and take snack breaks and get water/ice and chit chat for 30 minutes outside the store in between intervals.

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as i said … it depends on the purpose of the ride.
just because it is not what one person does, does not make it wrong.
I have a mate who does 80-90% of his long rides as bike-packing trips - but it works for him.