Six weeks to North Carolina 70.3. Training in the Louisiana summer heat is challenging but nothing new. Hope to have some milder temps soon. Feel like I’m still on track to have a good race. Not as fast as most on here, but I just keep on moving.
Main focus is still on dialing in my nutrition. Really need to find the breakfast that works best. On course I seem to have that dialed in. Me and the wife rotate years on who has the racing focus while the other supports the kids school work/training, and for some reason the body doesn’t seem to like the same foods as it used too.
August was a month “off” following my A event on 28 July.
The day after Outlaw Full we flew to Italy on a family holiday. Walking around Naples and Pompeii were very interesting in the days after doing a full distance!
The rest of the month I concentrated on riding the bike. I’ve entered a UCI Gravel World Series event in Wales on 22 September (just for fun) and have been loosely following the gran fondo MV speciality plan - after the holiday in August I managed 39 hours 30 on the bike and 4 hours of running. Only one swim session but going to get back into that in September.
I’ve still not decided what I’m going to do in 2025 yet. I don’t think it will involve a full distance but I do quite like the idea of doing 2 or 3 70.3s in the first half to the year and decide what I’m doing from there. I would like to do a full distance again but the commitment to training is so big i don’t want to go through all of that every year given the impact it has on family life!
Great to see these strong performances. Hope my tri journey that started 4 weeks ago Will have some stories like those also in 2025.
Currently try to swim 3 times a week. First CSS was 9:40 and 4:35, now 4 weeks later 8:46 and 4:07!
Will need lots of meters to improve :-). Unbelievable how fast you all can swim. Body position is difficult. With pull buoy I go way Faster…
Last week i met with my Neurorsurgeon, he is the lead neurosurgeon in the US Navy, he told me he has Seals with the same injury that return to full duty 12 weeks post injury.
I have been cleared to remove my neck brace for sleep.
Next week I can remove brace around the house if neck is supported, can also start riding on trainer but of course with brace and very easy.
10 weeks post injury is the projected return to the pool date
12 weeks post injury return to all activities including running.
Cleared to race next year including Ironman, so hopefully heading back to Maryland and pursue that Kona Slot
Did anyone here do it before it went away? I read it was an extremely cold swim when it was in June; I’m curious what it’s going to be like in late July.
It had some oddities with weather over the years. It was either super hot, or it snowed.
In 2010 it was hot and windy. Swim was cold, but similar to CDA. Race start time was 2 PM. We sat out in the sun getting cooked in our wetsuits pre-race waiting for the waves to start. The late race start was intending to have evening finishes in downtown Boise for the spectators and race atmosphere.
Course:
Its a point to point race. Swim is in a reservoir, again it was cold, but for the PNW not bad. Bike course was rolling outside of town with a downtown finish. Run was a couple loops of downtown green space/park. Overall a nice course.
The race used to be in late May or June, multiple years they had to cancel portions of the race due to weather. There are pictures where one year they swam and then rode straight downtown, it was snowing/raining/cold racers were wearing their wetsuits on the bike. I would like to think that late July is a better timeframe for better weather.
Late July might be all the way in the other direction, looks like Boise had triple-digit highs and AQI that week this year. I’m still tempted, it’s now the closest Ironman-branded race I can drive to.
I hear you on the training time for a full. I’m really enjoying the training, but it’s literally ALL I have time for. I think my wife would kill me if i signed up for another full next. But every other year or so… that could work. The 70.3 distance is so nice for this and so many other reasons.
I might head up to watch/support some friends in 2025. Unfortunately it falls too close to my A race so possibly in 2026. Hopefully it’ll be a nice bike course. I’ve ridden in Yorkshire a couple of times and it was fairly pleasant
I was a bit surprised by the announcement but (if I race next year) it’s moved quickly towards top of the list.
I did Bolton twice so it was unlikely I’d ever do it again, and nice to have a full in England that’s a bit more accessible. If the bike route is good, it could be a crowd pleaser.
Possibly a stupid question: I don’t love the downtube aero bottle that came with my bike, so I’ve just been rocking regular bottles (one BTA and one BTS). Is there any aerodynamic benefit or penalty to leaving the aero bottle in place if I’m not gonna use it? Couldn’t find anything after some cursory googling so I’m guessing it’s so marginal it doesn’t matter either way, but I’m curious if anyone has an opinion.
What types of handlebar is mostly used in 70.3 or full IM? And when it is more hilly route? Because I want to upgrade my bars but because I also use my bike a lot indoors I think I prefer a base bar like the profile desing c with some more angled ends…
Or is it better to just use the common flat base bars??? But as new athlete I think I will ride the bars sometimes and maybe some angle to place the hands (just like in the hoods on a road bike) is better. Or is there no difference and just go for a normal flat base bar?
Is there an advantage over using a full TT cockpit over a base bar with clip on aerobars?
Indeed ;-). But maybe I did not express myself in a correct way (not native english ;-)).
Main question I am asking myself is the tri base bar with angled ‘wings’ (or how do you name these things?) better for when riding more uphill sections, than the flat base bars? (which you see mostly).
Sorry it’s a bit late. Training has been going well and I’m currently in taper with IMWales approaching this Sunday.
I’ve been incorporating drills in my swimming, which I think has been helping. My B race local triathlon ended up being a duathlon due to rough seas. So entered a couple of local swims (1,500m & 3,000m) to get the feel for being punched and kicked etc. Thoroughly enjoyed those and I’m averaging 2:00min/100m which has been my target, so pretty happy with that. My sighting seems to be pretty good too.
The bike has been my strongest discipline through training, mainly due to picking up the slack caused by my running injury last year. As such, I can get around the course in 30 mins less time than anticipated, although I’ll likely save some of that for the run though as the weather looks like it is going to be warmer than usual. Plan is to average 175w (FTP 250w 3.5w/kg) for the bike, keeping HR as low as possible.
Really happy that my knee is good. I initially thought I would be walking a lot of the run, but it strengthened up well. A marathon is uncharted territory for me, especially at the end of a lengthy swim and bike, but looking at somewhere between 05:30-06:00min/km for the run. Hopefully go under 13 hours.
Tapering isn’t much fun either. Have felt tired, but eager. Just want to get out there and smash some hills, but the tiredness has me questioning that
I’ve been incorporating drills in my swimming, which I think has been helping. My B race local triathlon ended up being a duathlon due to rough seas. So entered a couple of local swims (1,500m & 3,000m) to get the feel for being punched and kicked etc. Thoroughly enjoyed those and I’m averaging 2:00min/100m which has been my target, so pretty happy with that. My sighting seems to be pretty good too.
The bike has been my strongest discipline through training, mainly due to picking up the slack caused by my running injury last year. As such, I can get around the course in 30 mins less time than anticipated, although I’ll likely save some of that for the run though as the weather looks like it is going to be warmer than usual. Plan is to average 175w (FTP 250w 3.5w/kg) for the bike, keeping HR as low as possible.
Really happy that my knee is good. I initially thought I would be walking a lot of the run, but it strengthened up well. A marathon is uncharted territory for me, especially at the end of a lengthy swim and bike, but looking at somewhere between 05:30-06:00min/km for the run. Hopefully go under 13 hours.