How did you make this table?
Thanks for the roll call. Better late than never.
Last couple weeks has been pretty hectic at work so training has fallen off a bit. Coming into xmas we are moving house so the next little while will be just turning over the arms and legs so it isn’t as big an effort when I start back proper post xmas.
Did my first team tri a couple weeks ago at Noosa Tri, the cyclist pulled out so I had a great opportunity to test myself on a 40k TT max effort. Ended up with a time of 1:06:03 which I’m pretty happy with. was aiming to hold about 220w with an AIFTP of 227. Ended up with:
221w avg
1033w max seated
233w avg 20 min
229w NP
.921 IF
Adjusted FTP of 244w
Pretty stoked how I did! Have just been using plan builder which is going to get a huge shakeup for the new year.
Trying to figure out a race plan but it is looking like Port Macquarie or Cairns 70.3 and Mooloolaba 70.3 next year with as many short distance races just to get some race time in for open water, transition and race day nerve experience.
Thanks for taking us through your race day experience, great write up!
Inspiring stuff.
Congratulations.
Great finish! Hope you recover well!
What’s your training history and FTP progression look like? Putting in a VO2 block for triathlon seems to me like something that would be effective punching through a sticky ceiling in your bike power. But if you’ve been seeing steady gains and have been able to keep that big training volume consistent, I’d keep going with what works until you start to plateau.
Content warning: death
No specific ask or statement, just sharing: 2 of the last three races my wife and I have gone to, she’s seen someone die. St George half last year she saw the swimmer being worked on after they pulled him from the water. This weekend in Florida, we saw the athlete collapse the finish line before being carried to medical. He died soonafter.
Anyway, no real statement or anything, but just throwing it out there. I know it’s rare, etc, but still, it’s tough to see.
Ouch, that’s rough. How is she (and you) handling it?
Personally I like to think of how many lives triathlon has saved. Lots of addicts found there home with us. People that were severely overweight before coming over. People with depression. People that got their heart examined because of a story like this.
It happens more often than I think we’d like to admit.
This list has 17 for 2022.
Usually during the swim and usually an older, but not senior male with a previously undiagnosed heart issue. A lot of times they are experienced athletes with previous history in triathlon.
That is definitely not a link I am sharing with my wife! It is very sad. Life is short and none of us know when our time will be up.
Same thing happened with my wife at IM 70.3 Calgary in 2021 with a swimmer getting pulled out and worked on and passing away. Not fun to have to see that and it really took the shine off the race when we found about it after–felt awkward to be at the awards ceremony with everyone carrying on without even mentioning what happened (they only acknowledged it later on Facebook).
Thanks for the roll call Joe. Got back to some consistent training in September and October following quite sporadic training in July and August that saw me losing a good bit of fitness. Finally starting to creep back up now after a couple of months (it takes a while for us 50+ to see the gains lol). For September and October I stuck mainly to Z2 with some Z3 intervals. Toward the latter part of October added some occasional Z4 work. Here are the numbers…
September
- Total Time = 52:39:25; Total TSS = 2984
- Bike: 40:32:19, 1211.6 km
- Run: 8:34:36, 80.4 km
- Swim: 3:32:30, 8527m
October
- Total Time = 51:20:44; Total TSS = 3457
- Bike: 32:58:09, 1148.8 km
- Run: 11:14:10, 102.4km
- Swim: 7:08:25, 17708m
Did a 15k in September that was embarrassing; hence the increase in run training volume and time in October. For November I’m keeping with some Z4 in addition to the Z2 base work for bike, and am doing some threshold in the run 1x per week. As a result, fitness is improving.
Unfortunately, the end of November and first two weeks of December have been loaded up with lots of work. Hence, structured training will fall off, and I won’t be able to fit in the planned 70.3. So racing has shut down for the year…first year in a while without a single triathlon being done. Schedule just didn’t work out this year. So will just concentrate on further building base until start of next year.
Goals for 2023 in order of priority:
- Podium in State Cycling TT Championship
- Sub 5:00 in 70.3
- Finish a 140.6 without ending up in the medical tent
Will report back next month, and good luck everyone!
Mark
Congratulations on a fantastic outcome and race despite the struggles. Really happy for you that you met your goal.
Would you rec IM FL? I’ve done Boulder and Chattanooga (love this course) 140.6 but looking for another next year.
Mark
Has anyone travelled from the UK with gels in hand luggage recently? I’m off to Calpe in a few weeks ans have hand luggage only
Thanks. As for recommending FL, I picked it for a couple reasons, not necessarily because the course is fun. Roads on the bike could use some re-paving, even by Northern US standards they were in pretty poor shape. And the run course is too narrow on a road that has a 1m wide bike path on the shoulder then onto gravel. Traffic in both directions. It gets a little congested.
I picked it because I’m a large guy (88kg) and I wanted a pancake flat run. That it is. Also, the dates worked out good with my work schedule. Finally, as for bringing family, you can’t beat the cheap cheap cheap offseason beachside condos. Makes their experience pretty damn good.
Jesus, one of those the SWYD is my local training bay. Same age as me too.
Thanks! I’d say progress has slowed but is not stopped. I have decided to do a 2 wk mini block before thanksgiving rest week.
My idea is by doing vo2 I can increase my threshold and thus my Z2/SS zones - and start riding base again a few watts higher.
Nice
It’s the off-season for me after 70.3 world champs where I managed 9th place in the M40-44 age group:
- Overall: 4:25:47
- Swim: 30:09
- Bike: 2:25:31
- Run: 1:22:51
Pleased with the swim (2 minutes faster than 70.3 Staffordshire) and run (4 minutes faster than 70.3 Staffordshire), less pleased with the bike! But a great experience overall, and we had a lot of fun after the race in Zion, Park City and Salt Lake City - Utah is a lovely place!
Looking ahead I want to target swim and bike improvements, meeting my coach next week to see what he says. Thinking about attempting a full distance event next year alongside 70.3, and likely Xterra now a UK event is on the 2023 calendar.
Xterra UK for me too 