IF your short on time, do the lung bike and don't bother running after it. Bricks are a little overrated in my mind. The fitness and mental aspect of riding another 30-40 minutes longer will benefit you more. IF your training higher volume, most all your runs are bricks since you probably biked within 9-12 hours of most of your runs. MY legs when running most of the time for the first few miles feel like I'm heading out of T2.

HR - No idea. In long rides, my HR at IM target power has ranged form 115-145 depending on conditions. In 70.3's it run 15-20bpm high out of T2 and slowly settles down even when riding almost even slits in terms of power. It then slowly rises again over the course of the run to where I'm only 5-10bpm below my max HR that last 2 miles. For me, its' a nice reference and can cue me into overheating, hydration or nutrition issues to a certain extent... or that I still have some air in my stomach from the swim.

Don't mess with salt pills. Odds are you don't need them and they can cause GI issues if you don't drink enough fluids with them. Their major benefit might be fluid retention that helps reduce dehydration later in the race.

I can;t suggest if you should or shouldn't run 2 miles without knowing you run training history the last 4-6 weeks. It could be the straw that broke the camels back. It nearly was for me because I was running 20 in the middle of one of my biggest builds and it just pushed my over my limit. Also, what I gained most form running 20, that one time was the conclusion that I don't need to run over 18 miles or about 2-1/2 hours if I have good consistent run load. Better to save my legs so I can bike more/harder. Quite a few FOP AG'rs don't run over 16 miles or about 2 hours. You only have to run 26.2 once, and you'll do in starting in the afternoon after swimming and biking at least about 6 hours before. You can't really simulate that very well, so why try.

Look at it this way. If you felt pretty good after your 16 & 18 mile runs, assuming you had a descent run mileage the previous week(s), then a 20 miles won't tell you much or benefit you much 4 weeks out. It will present a risk of injury that will be hard to come back from this late in the game. Maybe instead try and spread out the mileage to hit the same weekly running load, but don't worry about it otherwise. That's my advice.

Remember rule #1 late in your training for any "A" race.... DON'T GET INJURED!. An injury can piss away a lot of the hard training you put in for months... and for what? to run and extra 15-20 minutes longer?

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

This weekend:
* Do a 4:00 MAX ride done as 1hr building to IM / then 3:00 done as 25min IM - 10min 70.3 - 15min IM - 10min easy to low IM
* Make this weekend your longest run ...

Next Week(end)
* Run 4-5 miles tomorrow
* DO a long ride that has you on the bike as long as you expect to be for race day (first hour easy to low IM effort) ... emphasize fueling and pacing
* Run 8k (45min max) off the bike to dial in early run pacing and see how well you executed the ride ... pace should be contained
* Long Run Sunday is whatever you have left to total 26 miles FRI + SAT + SUN

Bike HR ... the goal for you (and easier on a flat course) may be to set a ceiling you simply want to BUILD HR to across the bike. What most athletes find is an even effort to slightly building will see HR creep up across the 112m. Too many athletes will set a "target HR" and sit at that the whole ride / run and inevitably pace gradually drops across the ride

After that weekend take 2-3 VERY easy days ... then set up your final 17 days leading into the race

Good Luck!

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Dave Latourette
http://www.TTENation.com

Avoid the urge to do more, especially the long bike/long run brick. You have put in the work, rest up and avoid injury in the next few weeks.

Thanks guys, great feedback. Much appreciated.
The last thing i'd want to happen is get an injury at this point.

Guess I was thinking the long brick run would help with confidence, but suppose not necessary for these points.
Overall, haven't gotten as much training in as I would have liked, but it's my first IM and pretty happy with where I am so far and will try to just see how it goes.

On the stomach issues, didn't even think about how I did an OWS in the Schuylkill Tuesday night before my attempted Wed morning long run. Good chance I took in some delicious Philly river water that probably was part of the problem along with the salt pills.