Don’t do it. You’ll give up so much time….
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Cheers for the insight @Nicco & @JoeX
Yes would the full distance again. 2 in 4 weeks, am I mad?
Good to know about the bumpy roads. Lost a rear bottle in Italy with 160g Carbs & 1 PH 1500 tab over some rough roads. Looked like a graveyard of bottles on lap 2. That with a metal cage bend to be super tight.
Pretty much had to stop at 3 aid stations and force them to give me 3/4 gels to make up. Will be making use of a hydration bladder going forward. The rear bottle just seems too risky on bad roads.
It sounds like the run is not as bad as I was expecting then. Seen 320m gain vs 420m in Wales so supposed it would feel pretty similar.
Would be great to meet up if you are out there. My big problem at the moment is accommodation booking this late, it is all super expensive. Probably looking at renting a camper van now.
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I’ve not sorted accommodation yet, waiting to figure if I deffo do it and might be going with a friend who does bike transport for races.
If I find something I’ll let you know!
Also, isn’t wales more like 600-700m or so?
It’s a much easier run than wales either way.
Only sure fire way I’ve found of keeping a bottle in a rear cage has been gorilla xt plus a strong band (Garmin Mount style).
Eventually everything will eject otherwise!
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I don’t know Wales.
At Portugal it’s a steep and fairly long run out of the water to T1.
That same steep run is repeated on the run course but it’s not a mountain. The rest of the gradient changes are quite smooth as is the tarmac.
At the right time of day it’s a beautiful sunset running out of town too.
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Looks wet.
It can make sense. Depends on the amount of climbing, severity of climbs and how technical the descents are. I went road at Mont Blanc (70k bike, 1900m D+) and it was the right choice, both for the weight saving, more comfort in climbing position and not losing time on the technical descents. I went Tri for 70.3 Slovenia (90k / 1300m D+) and I believe it was a wash - rough road surface and some technical sections may have justified the road bike. For Oman (90k / 700D+) and Gdynia (90k / 750 D+) tri bike was the correct choice.
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Does anyone have experience with putting in blocks of focusing on a single discipline? Like what did you do, how did it impact your triathlon season and how well do you think did an off-season swim, run or bike block carry over into your race season?
I haven’t improved much if any over the past three seasons and this lack of progress made me quit triathlon at least for a while. I can’t find the motivation to squeeze so much time out of my week just to participate in another race.
Now I realize that I’d miss triathlon more than I expected. So what can I do? I can’t spend more time on training, my average of 10hrs/week is all my job and family allow. For that amount of training my swim and run are pretty good, I can swim and run near the front of my AG. Biggest weakness is the bike, where I am shipping time in all scenarios. What realistic gain, if any, can I expect if I prioritize cycling for a while, at the cost of my swim run? Can I get my swim and run form back in 3 - 4 months? Would gains on the bike carry over when I go back to more balanced tri-training?
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Well executed I think it’s a positive thing, although ideally you don’t drop the other two entirely, have one easy session of each at least.
Switching completely to running didn’t work out for me at all, but the times I’ve had bike focus or run focus it’s worked quite well I think. Don’t think I’ve done a swim focus yet, I was planning one but got sick instead.
That was a way off the road, I went back the next day to take pics 
Ironman 70.3 Jones Beach is in the books. TL;DR: first ironman event. Sucked at swimming. Killed bike. Did well on run. Lots of wind and rain all day.
What a day. With this being a new event, they have some logistics to work out as far as getting cars in the lot. I got near the venue at 6:05 and was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic until I finally parked at 6:40. I would imagine some people were late due to that.
Besides that’s, great event considering the adverse weather conditions with bands of Tropical Storm Ophelia spicing things up. The swim was shortened at 6:47am. Thank goodness for that because I suck at the swim. I liked up with the 50-55 minute group. Lining up with them, I got so chilly being barefoot and it being really windy and about 58F. At least the water was nice and warm. My enjoyment ended there lol. With the first few strokes I got beat wave after wave as I was going for my breath leading to a quick panic attack. I took a second and just went into “get through this crap” mode lol. I just did most of the swim on my back and came in 25 minutes later (fastest swimmers were out in 13). Bottom 8% or so lol. Felt a bit dizzy as I got out but it quickly went away by the time I ripped my wetsuit off and got my bike stuff ready. Most of the bikes were out of transition when I arrived.
The bike was pretty crazy with 20-30mph winds plus gusts. Also, some of the route was concrete with expansion joints which caught more than a few riders and nearly got me less than a mile in. Most of the route had crosswinds so overall not too bad except over the 3 bridges to main Long Island where they blew much harder. I passed a fricking ton of people and was only passed by 4. I only averaged around 178W (was hoping to hold 200+ but I feel I lost a ton due to stabilizing myself in the crosswinds) but still managed 22.8mph. I didn’t drink nearly as much of my maurten fluids but still had 4 gels over the ride and felt strong. Getting through traffic was sketchy at points even with 2-3 lanes of closed parkways. In sections with 1 lane wad the worst and left to freewheeling and braking. Came in 14th for my age group and 81 overall. Top 2.8% overall. 2:27 bike time.
Run went very nicely. First mile was too hot, but pulled it back and kept it easy until the last couple miles and somehow managed to get a PR for half marathon. I believe I could have broken 2hr if I started the push a couple miles sooner. 2:03 run time.
I finished in 5:12:07. My goals were, finish, 6hr, 5:30. I’ll take it, even with the shortened swim.
It felt amazing crossing the finish line and finding my wife and kids. I definitely got the results from the training I put in (nearly no swimming, doing the bike and run by the plan). TR got me there! Thanks for reading!
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I am in a run focus plan for 8 weeks right now.
4/5 run wo a week
3 bike wo, half distance low volume base.
2 swim
This because, my swim is ok and would need a huge tome investment to break the 30’ for 1900. My run used to be my strength, but anyone seem to be faster and faster and I’ve realised that I’ve never improved my run splits. So im in a kind of mararthon plan, hopping to gain some fitness, without loosing anything on the bike.
I’ll tell you…
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So with my IM70.3 done, I’ve been thinking about doing a half marathon since I went so easy during the run (150bpm average 2:03 and it was a PR by a minute). I found one 11/19 so I would have 7 weeks to build after my recovery week. Any suggestions on training plans to follow for that? I actually enjoyed the sessions from TR, but I don’t think TR has any run-only plans lol. Something with 3 runs per week would be fine. I want to finally break my 2hr barrier while still having fun cycling (Zwift race season).
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@Benwgoodfellow, congrats for your race and for your nice run split. For the benefits of us all, can you please details a bit what you’ve changed from your previous IM attempt? How many long runs more? How long? Did you have a different fueling strategy or use different products?
Fast AG can also reply to this, guys who have managed to run at their potential, +/- 30’ than their standalone marathon.
Thanks, would mostly say it was down to limiting burning matches throughout the day. Often hear it said that Ironman is death by a thousand cuts.
-Didn’t do a maximal sprint though T1 (likely normal my highest HR of the day)
-Didn’t surge to follow, 2 possible wheels at the start of the bike
-Stayed to a stainable RPE & power based on training rides
-Made sure to stay on top of fueling & always have extra to hand if needed
-Actively held back at the start of the run. (watching IM Wales the week before really made me appreciate how important pacing is)
Need to consider my past 3 IM’s (UK, Wales & Nice) are probably the hardest bikes on the circuit. So the comparison could be a little unfair.
NP is actually very similar for all 3 - 239, 246, 242, 243
Avg power is not - 212, 224, 214, 235
Nor duration - 05:36, 05:07, 04:59, 04:28
To give TSS values of - 302, 294 , 274 , 250
So on paper, this should have been my freshest starting the run & it felt it.
From a personal performance point of view, I am really happy with the numbers.
But the result on paper could be seen as one of my worst. 36min from the winner & a 41.63 PTO score. That is worse than 70.3 Swansea where I had a flat front tire for example.
Shows how at this level race dynamics can play massively into the actual result.
Going forward. I need to up my swim to make the 12-man strong group at 50 minutes, take advantage of a legal draft (as much as I don’t like it) & be willing to make surges early in the ride to stay in the mix race & potentially save energy later on.
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IM Portugal and IM Barcelona.
Been looking at both for an option as a return to the long distance stuff next year. And in my normal over the top prep I’ve tried to make sure both are suitable for family and a nice weekend away etc. So on that front Portugal looks the better option to me. Regardless of that I’ve chucked the courses into Garmin and they are both coming up fairly similar in elevation.
Barca = 942m
Portugal = 1,188m
Based on what everyone says about Barca being a super fast course does either one of those numbers look right? If anything I’d say Portugal looks too low.
Any info is always welcomed. Ta
1,188m for Portugal does sound a little low.
haven’t raced it yet (2 weeks) but the GPX file they provide has it as 1600m
The event note says 1400m
Then the website has it listed as a “Bay Swim, Hilly Bike, Rolling Run”
From the profile, it is 20km climbing, 20km descent, 50km flat. Then repeat for lap 2
Sound an interesting course, looking forward to it.
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Sounds way more realistic. Best of luck in Portugal. Have a blast. Looking forward to hearing about it.
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