I am coming up on this workout this weekend. I must be on a lower volume plan because my Polar bear ride is followed by only 60 minutes of run.
Either way, looks very tough.

I'm following the TrainerRoad Long Course Triathlon plans. I notice something similar, and I'll be interested to see if someone smarter than me [anyone] chimes in with their thoughts.

My thoughts:

- Have you been seeing big gains in your FTP? The TrainerRoad plans have been giving me amazing jumps in FTP. But now 85% of FTP is higher than my FTP was 6 months ago. I have to figure it takes time for endurance to catch up (not sure that makes sense but I can't think of any other way to phrase it).

- The longer TrainerRoad workouts always kick my ass. Work Outs like Polar Bear (I'm guessing that's the one you're talking about) and Gibraltar are challenging. 80-85% for 90+ minutes is mentally and physically taxing, especially when you look at those workouts in the context of all the other work you've been doing. I'd rather do 60 minutes of VO2 than Polar Bear.

- 85% might be ambitious for a goal race wattage for you (it is for me).

I would guess (or hope) that once you're tapered and a bit fresher you'll see a big difference in how you feel off the bike. Plus, there is a big difference in how your body reacts to 2 hours of 85% on the trainer, versus 2 hours at 85% on the road.

Perhaps your FTP is set too high or you don't have enough base mileage. Have you ever done 3-4h rides at tempo pace?

How was your fueling and hydration during this session?

No one has mentioned it yet but I would suspect an element of mental fatigue. Longer, lower intensity rides and shorter, higher intensity rides might just be easier to handle for you than the mid-range, sustained efforts of the 1/2 iron type effort. Maybe you can make some significant changes by your A race by doing some better mental visualization of the ride and effort required. Plus, you right before your taper so you are probably carrying a decent amount of fatigue, both physical and mental.

---

Alan Stewart

I would say you are an individual with unique abilities, strengths, weaknesses blah blah blah.

TrainerRoad has generalized plans built for the masses. To get the best return on investment
their plans better deliver the results so they are on the aggressive side of approaches.

And if one finds it a bit much most athletes will think "it's me, i just need to HTFU"

.85 IF steady on a trainer is tough, don't be hard on yourself. If you have past experience at the
distance what I would do to fill the gap is to go back over your previous races and see what IF
gave you a solid race and build off of that. So if you raced at .80 and did well try .82 for the next...

But if this was all outdoor training and now you have moved indoors even just transferring the .80
from outdoors to indoors is a boost since riding on the trainer is harder no matter what.

Not really an answer so much as some food for thought. Keep plugging along, I am certain that
even if you aren't nailing the key workouts you are better off than where you were before starting
the plan. Good Luck in your race!

I was also on the half ironman plan on trainerroad. I just tell myself that 1hr45min tempo pace on a trainer will be easier done on the road. I just do my best to finish the ride, put on my running shoes and survive the run off the bike. What i noticed though was that if i did rides like these with high cadence, 88-95 rpm my legs are over cooked for the run. But the times i did a lower cadence ride 82-85 i still had enough strength to run after. Maybe you can exeriment on your ideal cadence.

85% is too high for most and is the very top of what any age-grouper should do.

Try shooting for 77 to 80% and see how your run goes afterwards; and honestly 75 min is too much running after a longer ride, you'll know if the pace was right after 5 miles of running.

85% is too high for a 70.3. Not for everyone, there are guys that can do it but it's not common. Shoot for 79-80 and work on increasing your FTP. Who cares what your IF is if you can drop some serious power and save your legs for the run while riding .79.

You say you were cooked for the run. Was this immediately? Or after a mile or two?

I followed the trainerroad 70.3 plan for Galveston and had great success with it, but I did way more running than they suggested. I think they are too light on running miles to be able to execute these workouts.

Also what has been touched on by someone else, I never ran more than 5 miles off the bike, but I almost always ran way faster than they suggested. That was plenty of time to see if I could run off the wattage, but also see what pace I thought was sustainable for the upcoming race. I don't see much point in running 10 miles at RPE 6 for a HIM.

Another point, I always tried to do these efforts outside on the TT bike.

One last note, I had no trouble hitting .85 for up to 50 mile rides followed by 5 mile runs at almost stand alone HM pace. But come race day I only held .78. Not sure if it was the swim taking a lot out of me or what, but maybe you just have it some days and some days you don't. Get used to going by feel in addition to power, whatever feels like a sustainable power probably is right for that day.