If you’re local to Cardiff they do good “open water” sessions at the international white water centre from about April/May - usually on Thursdays/Saturday mornings.
I’m also doing the Penarth duathlon (injury permitting) ahead of Ironman UK later this year (injury permitting!).
Think I may have to admit that Covid has defeated me.
Looks like no more IM for me 
I’m in Dinas Powys so 10 mins away. I’ve heard about those sessions. A friend was doing them before COVID.
Penarth should be a nice little duathlon ending at an ice cream hut!
I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve under estimated the organisation required to travel for a IM 70.3 . For Weymouth, I have to get a train the day before, sleep over, race then get the train home the same day. I’ll have to lug everything I need on public transport and there’ll be no one to hold my Dryrobe!
Is there any advice on logistics that can help if you’re going it alone. I’m more anxious about this than I am about the race itself
In a similar position for Staffordshire 70.3.
I’m beginning to worry about things like where to store my nutrition whilst racing (using my road bike), should I invest in a new two-piece for that race plus my full distance race… etc etc.
Sorry that I can’t help, but will be following this post for sure.
I’m considering storing my nutrition in my stomach. My hotel is close to the train station, transition and the pub.
I’m not sure what’s being asked but, it’s just like a weekend away alone…with a bike.
Usually I build the bike in my hotel room, as you’re in a train you’re just wheeling it on and off.
You register and put your bike in T1 overnight.
Nutrition is on course, but put an energy bottle on your bike or in the Blue Bike Bag. I put a spare gel in the Red Bag usually.
Split transition can be awkward at some races. I cycled to Boltons T1 to drop off the bike and hitchhiked back - another triathlete will give you a lift I’m sure if that’s the case for Weymouth. Ironman buses do the race day journey to start.
Sorry @JoeX my last weekend alone was an overnight for a funeral five years ago.
Is the blue bag /red bag a transition thing? I’m realising that there are more nuances to HIM that I need to get to grips with to iron out the controllable.
Before I booked I checked and the hotel said they’re expecting the racers so I’ll check if they’re happy to look after my ‘normal’ bag
Research; on-course nutrition, baggage, what’s allowed to be stored in T1, as I’ve been allowed to leave my transition bag by my bike before. I get the impression that the Ironman organisation is less flexible.
Thanks.
Yes, it’s an Ironman thing - download the Athlete’s Guide from the Ironman > 70.3 Weymouth website and read it through a few times.
It will have schedule of when you can register, when you can rack your bike in transition, and so on. Helps me to structure my weekend before I get there.
Thanks, I’ve already tried to do this but I’m getting the “coming soon” message. to be fair it’s eight months away. I found the below link from 2021 on the net. I’ll read through it to get a jist of what I
can expect from the team at Ironman.
The 2021 version is likely 99% the same for 2022…if nothing else, it will start to give you a framework for what you’ll need to do.
But, here in the US, setting up for an IM 70.3 is not too different than setting up for a local OLY / Sprint. Or at least it wasn’t the last time I was doing tris (a few years ago).
I’m a 100% nutrition in my bottles guy, previously was doing glucose only in bottles (with electrolytes) and had some watered down honey in a gel bottle in my top tube bag (drilled/rivnutted my carbon frame to hold it). I realized I was taking the honey less and less so have moved to 2:1 in the bottles of 600ish calories each. I’ll try to take one sport bottle of water at some point during the raise chug some and squirt the rest on me for cooling then chuck it.
Pre race I have another bottle with 300ish calories I drink before the swim and I have one with 600 in it in transition that I try to drink as much as I can each time I’m there.
Water only usually on course on the run.
As noted above race guides are usually 99% the same year on year and for races that are similar setup like t1/t2 the same location vs t1 and t2 being different. They’ve got the logistics down.
I’ve been lucky and my mom is a master race sherpa for my dad and I. She gets a little overwhelmed when my partner is racing too and not helping her… but I am usually done early enough to help her ;). I’ve only done one race 100% on my own, I was late and the bike maint guy let me sneak in to setup (bike already there), I have a nightmare about it the night before every race now.
Hi team. My wife and I signed up for our first IM 70.3 relay experience in Roanoke on June 5th. I am the cyclist, she is the marathoner, and we will pick between two swimmers soon. Last year was my first road biking year since I was a teenager, and wifey ran three marathons for the first time ever. Now 50 years old, I feel like a kid again and I’m really looking forward to trying this out. Our year one plan is to be OK finishing last, because that still means we finished. We will increase the intensity of training in year two and three and then reassess if we still enjoy it.
Last year I went to Bear Mountian six times and back from my home in NYC. These were century rides with about 6,800 feet of elevation. The course in Roanoke has a roughly similar mountain to climb and I can’t wait to take it on in race conditions.
I am still waiting for the right equipment to attach my bike to our Wahoo Kickr, and then I’ll kick off TR training during these winter months. My goal is to enjoy the process as much as the race itself.
I’ve really enjoyed reading this whole thread and have learned quite a bit already. All advice welcome for this first-timer. 
Hi @JoeX - IMLP / Lake Placid (July 2022) will be my first Full Distance Triathlon and my second triathlon overall (first was an Oly in 2021).
After some training plan analysis paralysis I’ve landed on TR’s High-volume IM Plan. I got an early start, kicking off the plan Jan 6 so I’m at ~1 hour swimming/~6 hour cycling/~3 hours running a week right now.
However, I only do two of the four weekly HV IM plan swims since I’m already in good shape for the swim.
Let’s do this!
Cool, doing IM Canada, and 70.3 Washington.
Coach had a 1.5hr ski with 45min at tempo on the calendar today, but it’s stupid cold so I instead asked for an FTP test.
First time doing a 20min test. I’ve mostly done ramps and a couple 8min. Let me say that it SUCKS just as much as racing a 5k all out. 2min in you know you’re at your limit. 9min in and you need to talk yourself out of quitting. 11min in and you question everything. 15min in and you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 16min in and that light seems further away. 17min in and you know you can do this. 3min passes by quickly. 17:01 in and…ONLY ONE DAMN SECOND HAS PASSED! 18min in and you want to die. 19mon in and it feels like you’ve been at it for an hour. 15s to go and you’re crosseyed and getting tunnel vision. 0s to go and you feel like you want to vomit.
The last 4min feel the same honestly as the misery of a ramp test, except there’s that damn clock going slower and slower. The kicker is that the 16min leading up to that point is way way way harder than the first 16min of the ramp test. Ugh. Still, probably a better measure for us triathletes I know. It’s just misery on steroids…like a 5k!
That’s enough complaining, the old FTP was 356 and 4.1W/kg. New FTP is 366 and 4.3W/kg (rounding up) wooo!
At this point I’m wondering though if raising my FTP means not necessarily biking faster as the faster you go the more Watts you need to increase your speed. (Drag is proportional to velocity squared) Maybe at this point my bike Wattage is fixed but I’m lowering my IF for a stronger run? Has anybody else run those numbers and played with that strategy? Be very curious about how it worked.
Big numbers, congrats!
I’m a low 4 as well, albeit at a measly 275-280. At this relatively low raw power w/cda is pretty important and so I’ve focused more on power in aero than raw FTP. I would sacrifice improvements in pure test FTP by spending more time in my aero position, up to threshold intensity and effectively focus on race day output instead of TR bragging rights.
I never considered lowering my IF on race day, but found out that I can maintain a low 4 on 3 rides a week and spent more time running and swimming in the lead up instead.
Also, 20 min tests suck.
I think IF would go the other way. The faster you are, the shorter the bike time is and the higher in IF you can go. Most of the IF targets I’ve seen already take the ability to run into account.
I would also say that CP20 can give you a decent starting point for a race target wattage (CP20 x 0.9 x 0.7), but you really need to use your long rides to see how it feels and how you run afterwards.
Edit to add, the best predictor of how things will go on race day are previous races instead of benchmarking tests. Use that experience to set IF targets for race-day. Previous runs go well; push IF up a touch. Previous runs blow up in your face; lower IF.
Goes to show there’s lots of ways to skin the triathlon cat 
I do my tests and most of my work outside of areo position until I get into race season, then I focus on getting myself aero on those rides. The thinking is that I’ll build a big engine then take the efficiency hit when I go aero, hoping to gain say 3 Watts in overall FTP but only lose 2 Watts by not being as specialized in that position. Your personal math went the other way it seems. (Plus I get those sweet sweet bragging rights) 
Like @matthewgreer said, yes IF can go up as you get faster, so I’m not quite talking about 0.6 or anything like that, but more or less shifting downwards in that old Time/IF chart
If I go from yellow to dark gray for instance with a 0.02IF drop, that might cost me around 3min according to BBS but what would I gain in the run? I’ve run pretty well off the bike in my short course races pushing 0.9-0.95IF and ran really well off 0.85IF HIM a couple years ago. (My last full 2 years ago has a giant asterisk as I was recovering from a nasty cold, 0.74IF @ 5hrs and legs finally fell off 20km in) Ugh, it’s just so hard to say, but I feel like it’s a decent strategy. At least it’s not a terrible one.
Anyways, it’s January and here I am overthinking a November race.
This is generally what I have always done. Never test in aero, slowly start to work more aero in on the trainer as races come near but never am I doing a ride 100% aero inside. Usually only a few rides outside on the tri bike before a race and they are aero all the time.
In the past when I’ve modeled in best bike split before a race using say .85 IF (for a half), I usually finish near the time but closer to .8 or lower. According to Garmin my last race was .77IF (I hadn’t reset my FTP apparently but it was close enough), 87th overall on the bike… I rode outside 1 time on my race bike ~25 miles and with my dad so probably a lot of sitting up.
My personal experience has been go for raw FTP and dial back a hair on race day to deal with aero and it has worked for the most part. I am trying to work it in earlier this year and will also try to get outside more on the race bike before my 70.3, but inside I plan to stick to whatever lets me get the best workout in, which is usually not aero. Building rocker plates soon, maybe that will help.
