Hi Taylor, how much tri experience do you have, or is this a four weeks to learn gig?
Not bad, not that average IMO ;-).
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Basically zero, I did 2 sprints and an Olympic 4 years ago.
Appreciate that!
Honestly, @Taylor_Brasher, this sounds like sandbagging or humble bragging. Not that you ARE doing that… but it sounds like it.
4.2 W/kg is NOT average for the tri population, or even the cyclist population. It is of course “average” for a certain level of bike racer, but then that’s not really any kind of “average” is it? And you’ve done three tris including an Olympic. That’s nowhere NEAR zero experience.
You’ve apparently got enough training history and performance ability to understand yourself. And four weeks isn’t really time to train ANYTHING to improve. So just do a reasonable training volume, make sure you taper and go into it fresh so you’re at your best, and maybe put some additional emphasis into whatever is your weakest area for the next 2-3 weeks before your taper. You’ll know best what that is.
I’ll offer you one clear tip, from a guy who’s been training for about 5 years with a 2 W/kg FTP and ONE sprint tri for experience: plan your race carefully, at a pace that you KNOW you can complete, and do NOT overstep your planned pace. You want this to be fun, and if you haven’t done a bunch of multisport recently – and it sounds like you haven’t done much swimming or running recently – you do not want to blow yourself up halfway through. Make a plan that ensures you finish AND enjoy the day, and stick to your plan.
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Appreciate it! I guess experience is relative, I have no experience in long distance tri.
Thank you for the pacing tip!
Agreed.
Your biggest risk is overtraining now in a desperate attempt to prepare, and getting injured. Stay within yourself in the next four weeks and on race day - enjoy it as best you can 
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@JoeX appreciate it! Typically with cycling races I’ve just done a 6 day taper keeping volume pretty high before then. With running being higher impact would you recommend cutting back on volume earlier?
Looking forward to the new challenge suffering with friends!
If you stay within yourself, I don’t think you are going to increase training enough to warrant a significant taper.
Let’s say your six-week average, each week is currently training 5hrs on the bike 300TSS, I’d probably just add 30mins a week for four weeks up to seven, then you have travel interfering with training which will naturally reduce your overall load. If you’re already training 10hrs a week, I’d either keep that and focus on race oace efforts or reduce to make space for running and swimming.
Running just increase ten percent per week for four weeks from your current six-week average. If you aren’t running regularly now that will mean starting really short and easy.
Start swimming twice a week, main sets of 50s and 100s. Forget long continuous trawling up and down, just do one long swim on week 4.
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Here maybe ‘disaster’? My first Tri is 11th May (1/4 tri), but first goal was 18th May (1-100-10 tri). But now…Ankle injury. All of a sudden. And I think it is due to a bad physio session. I go (because I had a run injury 3 months ago) to the physio once a week. He let me do a balanced one leg workout on a balance bonsu bal, with some movements added. It felt very hard and difficult. That evening I went for a run, no issues. Day after, rest, no issues. And then next morning ankle pain, I could not walk normall without pain. I rest for 4 days. Cycling, swim in the weekend no issue.
Yesterday I tried for a run. Could not make it for 1k 
. Too painfull. Like an ankle strain. But how? why? I don’t know if I can get this done within 12 days :(. Can you get an injury from a wrong physio workout??
All roads leading back to Kona in 2026…it was clear form the participation numbers that Nice was not much a draw vs. Kona. I had heard stories of people using the Nice year to make it easier to qualify but then purposely deferring so they could race Kona (dunno how accurate those accounts are, however).
Glad to see they upped the number of participants to 3000. Just a shame they can’t find a way to make it a two day event in Kona.
That’s tough! First, I’d call the physio. Second, focus training on swim now any way - had you planned a taper?
When confident, test your ankle on the bike and in the pool - quite often they are unaffected by run injuries ime so can give that light activity to encourage repair without damaging further.
I’d expect the physio to try and see you, and likely advise light activities as encouraging recovery…then it’s fingers crossed for the start line 
A shame for a lot of us, a win for a lot of us - I’m in the first group. Kona is not a financially viable as a European athlete barring ‘the few’, and is a tough watch going into the wee hours to see the pros cross the line.
That said, I know there’s a lot of vocal, dedicated triathletes who will be over the moon to be racing as couples again and/or always at Kona.
I wonder if this helps the PTO focus on a European market?
Maybe I’m in the minority, but other than the prestige and history of Kona, Nice seemed much more appealing to me as a race and as a destination. I would have preferred to qualify for that more than for Kona (not that I had a shot either way). I guess I could always do the regular Ironman France someday if I wanted to.
Anyway, April was good:
| Workouts | Time | Distance | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swim | 15 | 6:27 | N/A | ||
| Bike | 24 | 31:25 | 1,084 km | ||
| Run | 14 | 11:42 | 126 km |
I’m starting my taper for Ironman 70.3 St. George next week, and feeling pretty good. The pool closure may have been a blessing in disguise, I think the endless pool is making me feel a little better prepared for the swim than I would have been otherwise (mostly because the hours are more flexible so I got more swim time than I would have gotten with the pool alone). The bike feels good, I’ve only done a handful of outside rides this month but the fit and my fitness feel pretty dialed in—although the new World Triathlon front hydration rules rendered my setup illegal so I’ll have to change it after Ironman officially adopts them 
Run feels good, but I have minimal heat adaptations and the forecast is looking like it’ll be in the 90s next weekend, so I’ll probably get clobbered.
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Very low quality April on my end. Birthday week for my wife and 3 others - lots of late nights, work got heavy, in the final stages of a kitchen remodel. I did have a good week with volume, it wasnt something I maintained.
PR in the 5k, PR in unbroken swim distance, AI FTP detection dropped me at a nice round 300 a few weeks back. Training is working, just with less than i’d want from an input perspective.
Who knows, maybe this is the right level of input for me right now and i’m progressing just fine.
Starting to contemplate targeting a later in the year 70.3 vs CDA.
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Yeah, physio looked at it. Found no structural ankle problem, but very stiff, and not much mobility (no suprise for me coming from a soccer background with severe ankle injury). But ok, after he worked on the ankle and now 2 days later, he said to test tomorrow if more luck and less pain (starting pain could be there).
But more or less another good month in April. Little less run then I wanted due to this injury but ok.
Had my very first openwater swim last week. More fun then expected ;-).
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Are you bike commuting? 59 workouts and nearly 90 hours in 30 days… You ride… A LOT!
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You need to remember that Kona is a rural town, there are man small towns here in South Eastern Virginia that look like a metropolis compared to Kona. They just not have the infrastructure to handle one day of racing without significant impact on the locals
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April was a good month. Won my age group at a local sprint, setting a new course PR. I broke out an old Spinervals DVD and did a FTP, increased 8 watts from what TRs AI said it was.
Swim 48,700 yards
Bike 471, missed my goal however, the quality of rides made up for the missed mileage
Run 102 miles
Strength and Yoga 4:33 hours, I added Yoga to the plan last week. Aiming to do 2 sessions a week.
Next race May 10. Kinetic Multisports Triathlon Festival Lake Anna, VA (olympic)
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Dedication - Well done maintaining that.
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