Whatever you end up doing, if you're feeling fatigued don't push through it to get one last or longer epic workout in. Take the body signals & rest. Are you doing bricks, even short ones? I would suggest a dress rehearsal with a long ride, where you use all the same food/drinks and timing of calorie intake on that ride. Stay aero as much as you would in a race. Keep an eye on steady power & HR so you're not spiking too much. If you're running long, don't do the last long run on concrete & beat yourself up. Find a dirt road that mimics the terrain you're going to race on--not talking surface, but grade. Start your taper recovery *bonuses* such as massage if you can afford it now. Your stress levels are going to be high around those long run/ride weeks. Keep the injuries & illness away by eating super well & do all the recovery maintenance things you can access (that are legal). Rollers, stretch, massage, recovery boots, anti-oxidants, hydrate, use a very thorough & gentle warm up before exercise, especially if you're older.

Each person is different & if you do not have metrics to track where you are, there isn't much anyone can really tell you here that you *should* for sure need in this last block. People will not typically know you well enough and what you've done or where you are at without looking at your training over time. What I said above, is just common sense prevention & recovery stuff. But then again, it is so easy to do/forget that stuff--no matter how many races you've done. It happens, we get lazy or too distracted by all the shiny objects on the ground to do everything we should ALL the time. Good luck!

A bread and butter workout during IM-prep is 4h on the bike. And going to bed earlier.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

Are there any key workouts I need in the last training block that you've found useful for finalizing pacing or increasing confidence?

"Big Day" training may be an option to improve both pacing and confidence. I am doing two in my buildup to TX, first one went well,
got the next one coming up in another week or two. I found it really did boost my confidence and the realities of my pacing, plus my
nutrition plan. Maybe look into it, link below. Good Luck.

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/...ironman-big-day.html

Can only tell you what my keysessions are in the last two weeks:

-Mo 2 3/4 hours slow run
-Tu 5 hours slow ride ttbike in aeroposition with heartrate 130 (Should be about 85 % ftp for me) (I chop this up in hour-intervals with regeneration in between)
-Th Brick: First bike with two intervals of 75 minutes in IM-Intensity (that is heartrate 138 for me, which is about 92 % ftp), with IM-nutrition, then 1 1/2 hour run with the first half hour in IM Speed.

I wish you success.

4hr bike at IM Power last 60 mins solid
Brick 8 x 2.5km RI30secs at IM race pace.

I used Don Fink's plan for my last ironman and it went well. Swapped it round though so that I was doing long run Saturday the long bike Sunday with midweek to fit that.
Consistency is key but I made sure I could run for 2.5 hours long run at MAF heart rate-goal pace with a 1 hour high rpm spin beforehand and would also do a 4.5 to 5 hour ride with nutrition at goal wattage (around 200) and run off the bike for 10 k at goal ironman run pace 4.55 min per k .
Also lengthened one of my midweek runs to 18 to 20k and changed the threshold sessions on the bike to 13 x 30 sec at vo2max power with 15 secs spin by 3
Didn't swim as much as the plan stipulated and that cost me a ticket to Kona by around 6 minutes (45-49 agegroup Melbourne)

I think it's individual depending on area of focus/weakness.
Also racing IMTX so best of luck.

For me, I needed to dial in nutrition and also pacing over long hard day so I did my key day a couple weeks back.
So it was a 30min swim, brekkie, 4 x 45min @ IM pace on bike (total 4hr bike) and then 90min run off split as 45min, 30min, 15min neg splitting with short breaks @ 45min and 75min for bathroom/hydration refilling.

Gave me the confidence that nutrition and hydration on track, goal pace efforts on track and pacing guidelines therein.
But it was a hard day and only as I had previous nutrition mistakes to address.
But it did give me the most confidence which is prob half the battle so it depends where you feel you need to gain/learn the most at this stage.

Other good indicators have been similar bikes of 4-5hrs with 3hrs or so at goal pace, and a 45 min run off at just above goal pace.

Can't look past the long day really.

Metric Brick

112k bike
26.2k run

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

That's way too much I believe
While a big day probably makes sense doing 20k off a long swim and bike 4 weeks out is likely to leave you fatigued on race day

Figure out your projected bike time and what your Kjs will be to ride it. Do rides that equal or exceed your KJ budget. Make sure you are practicing your nutrition plan. Do your long bike days with small runs of 2-3 miles at the pace you want to run off the bike, then the next day do your long run. Make sure you are taking calories in on your long runs. Do swim sessions with mainsets over 3k. Wear your wetsuit before the race

Oh yea... and dont over do it. Make sure you are getting enough sleep.

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching