I diid a cycling camp in France in July that kicked off Patagonman training. I’ve got a lingering health issue that is interfering with my running but that looks to be on the mend (I am running again). Memphis 70.3 on the books but we will see how much run fitness I can get back before then.
thanks for the thread @JoeX ! I like reading the race reports and hearing about others training.
The great VASA experiment.
Now that I’ve transferred my September race to December, I’ve decided to add in my VASA which has been sitting in the corner since pools re-opened after the pandemic.
I bought a nice VASA erg at the beginning of Covid. Quickly lost motivation as races got canceled. And have never been back to it.
I’m a middle of the road swimmer (35 minutes for 70.3). I only swim 2x per week, but under the T26 program its pretty much ALL quality swimming. Now that I’ve begun to plateau around 35 minutes (was north of 45 minutes when joining T26) its becoming evident that the key to more gains is MORE SWIMMING (shocking I know). But I am REALLY struggling to find time to add more pool trips.
I am going to stay dedicated to typical 2x swims per week, but will now add 2x VASA sessions as well.
I’ll do this for the 16 weeks remaining before my next 70.3. After doing 2 weeks already, its actually kind of rejuvenated my interest for swimming. Simply because its something new and doesn’t take up a ton of time.
Hopefully I can report back SOME kind of gains
IM Copenhagen 2023
My A race for the year, pleased to say it went well.
Overall: 9 hours 39 mins
Swim: 1:05:04
Bike: 5:06:09
Run: 3:16:17
T1: 00:06:52
T2: 00:05:07
Swim went according to plan without any drama, got a puncture on the bike at 60k and lost 10 mins but otherwise as planned (36kph av, ~240w), got on the run and managed to pull out a much better than expected 3:16 marathon to finish strong.
Delighted with the outcome overall, thanks for the encouragement and accountability on this page.
Fantastic. Well done!
Excellent!
Way to go, very strong race!
Game on! 
What an ass kicking by Taylor Knibb. There’s her and everyone else in the sport!
Any IMMD people in here? T-19 days!!! 
I started TR in November and the last few weeks have been very tough mentally. I think TR senses my mental fatigue and then attacks without mercy. 
One more week until the Taper, which I am more excited about than being a kid on Christmas eve.
Reporting back from the 70.3 WC in Lahti. I qualified way back in Poland 2020 for StG 21 but due to the COVID situation at the time was offered to push to Finland 23.
I booked the AirBnb super early and was rewarded with the perfect location. I could see the practice swim area from our balcony, the run course would run along in front of the building and the bike course behind it. Given how many athletes had to commute to and from Helsinki every day or stay in camper vans I considered our weekend already a win.
The organization was all round perfect with numerous volunteers, without exception all of them well prepared, super helpful and extraordinarily friendly. Most of the time I find that what makes a great race (or travel in general) are first and foremost the people and in this regard the event was shaping up brilliantly.
Race day began with cold clear air and none of the fog that delayed the women’s race the day before by 30 minutes. I was assigned the first AG wave after pro and HC athletes and lined up after a brief warm up swim on the way to the start area. Which turned out a good idea, because for the swim start we were jumping from the harbor wall like short course athletes on TV. It was actually quite fun to get a proper dive for a start, somewhere in the middle of my AG wave. The swim course only consisted of straights and 90 degree turns, sun to the right. Sighting was easy and all swimmers were very well behaved, absolute joy. I settled into a comfortable rhythm, slowly moving forward through the field.
T1 was unremarkable, but I remember one moment very vividly. Transitions have become my favorite part of triathlon. There is something wonderful about picking up my bike and pushing it through transition. It is hard to describe, but the way the bike feels all tight and ready to go, no shoes on the carpet, wide eyed spectators. I don’t know, but at that moment I questioned my decision to take a break from triathlon after this race. It is a very rare moment that cannot be replicated outside of a big race.
It began to rain shortly before our race kicked off and now the bike course was soaked. It was probably a very nice course through the Finnish country side, but I was too busy being miserable, wet and freezing. I was also going backwards, fast. That course was very humbling. I am no stranger to being overtaken but this was on another level. It was eye opening how fast the field here was. In other races I often get annoyed by that back and forth with athletes that are going roughly the same pace. Not so here. when someone overtook me, 98% of the time they were gone for good. I think I overtook maybe 2 or 3 people myself, that was it. In the end I rode 215NP / 3.15 w/kg, close to all time PR for the distance, and still I got passed around the field like I was back with the college girls football team again.
T2 was set up inside an exhibition hall and everyone was happy to have a few minutes of being warm and dry. Putting on dry socks was, until now, the best part of my day.
On to the run I did not know what to expect. The course was once again constantly undulating with a long drag uphill for the first half of the lap and a steep descent with a few even steeper kickers to break it up. I set out and made sure to manage my effort such that the climbs wouldn’t spike my heart rate too badly. I’m pretty good at running downhill and would make up some of the time flying down the hills on the other side. If there ever was a use case for super shoes, this was it. On top of the hill on lap 1 I had found my rhythm and began to push the pace a little and slowly work my way forward through the field. There were still plenty of insanely fast guys flying by me, the level was crazy.
Eventually I’d cross the finish line not having suffered too much. I was happy with my performance, finishing pretty much exactly in the middle of the field of my AG. The location, scenery and the wonderful people made this a very special trip.
And as a bonus we got to spend the rest of the afternoon sitting in our underwear on our balcony, drinking beer and cheering on athletes on the run course. What more can you ask for?
Splits 32:27 / 2:35:41 / 1:30:02 - 4:47:08
End of an era. The great Floridian TRI is no more…
Last year they got rid of their 3 distances (1/3, 2/3, full) and switch to a half and full. This will be the last year for both races. I did the race 2x (would have been 3 if not for a storm in 2020). It was a great organized race. I think huge part of the problem is the heat. They haven’t had a wetsuit legal race in over 5 years. By the time the 1/3 get to run is scorching hot. Last time I race it in 2021 temp was in the 80s with high humidity. I think there are not too many people who are willing to take that kind of punishment.
Great write up and great race! Watching it online, it looked like a gorgeous course…if it weren’t drizzling.
I had the same experience in my IM WC event. I’m a top 5 AG finisher at big events in recent years. I was 254th in AG at Kona last year. For all the complaints I’ve read about how “watered down” the WCs have become, the fields are still stacked and way way way faster than you’ll find anywhere else.
So with the cancelation of Ironman Canada last weekend, my race season is effectively over, and I’m trying to figure out what to do next. I signed up for St. George (early May) and Coeur d’Alene (late June) next year (both 70.3s), I’m getting a deferral for Ironman Canada (late August), and I may add one more race to my calendar (either the Bozeman Triathlon or Ironman 70.3 Boulder, which are the same weekend in mid June).
I’m thinking I might switch my plan to the half-distance, low-volume plan for the rest of the year to free up some time to do other stuff but still have some running and swimming on my calendar, and then switch back to high-volume/half-distance in January, and high-volume/full-distance in May, after St. George (my line of thought being that St. George and Canada would be A races and the rest B races).
Does that seem like a reasonable approach?
Seems like a good plan of attack. Maybe keep of month of unstructured fun stuff in there through September.
This fall, I might put a focus on gravel or MTB riding if that’s your thing instead of the trainer. If your goal is to really improve next year, you might also considering doing a big 3 or 4 month block of running or swimming 5-6 days a week, which ever is your weakness.
I was on this race as well, and yeah the guys were bloody fast.
My NP was 230 for a 2h28 split.
Looking around strava and socials it seems that 2h28 sucks for 230np. Some guys have 205np for 2h15.
I really need to fix aero at this point.
@TG333, you might be on the same boat with 215Np and 2h30.
Not a great run as well with a 1h32. Lack of serious training due to extreme heat, challenging course, weak legs…!
On the all i had an ok race, but nothing really great, 4h42 overall, which puts me very far away in my ag.
Next: new bike set in preparation, still sourcing parts to build a superbike .
I think that’s a big maybe and depends on lots of things that are course dependent (road surface, elevation, drafting/congestion/wind). It could just be that your have a PM that reads higher. My Quaq reads ~10w higher than my Power2Max.
That said, it’s probably not great. Here re my last 3 70.3 bikes.
NP / AP/ Time / Powermeter
217 / 207 / 2:17:57 / P2M
219 / 207 / 2:24:50 / P2M
236 / 224 / 2:14:13* / Quarq
The last one had a canceled swim and a TT style bike start and had LOTs of legal and questionably-legal drafting.
True, it can be a PM issue, but i don’t believe it, as NP is on the range of all my 70.3’s.
If
I wasn’t suggesting that your PM had a brain fart that day. I was more suggesting that your PM may read differently than the others you’re comparing to. Maybe yours just always reads 10w higher than those you compared to.
You might also be a bigger (taller?) guy, so will just generally need more power to go the same speed (w/cda and w/kg and all that). The guy going 2:14 on 205np (probably around 190 ap?) has got to be a little dude.
I’m with you on that, although I accept many disagree, but when it comes to comparing power data to other athletes I would only use broad strokes and trends.
