1) not uncommon. not sure it's always a good idea to even HAVE time goals, especially if you are unfamiliar with the demands of the race.

2) coaching is good. you yourself can probably get 80-90% there (to your 'potential') but the coach can make that happen faster and get you those final percentage points.

3) recovery time depends. i did a 70.3 last sunday and went for a run the next day. not saying that it was smart but i have a streak to maintain. usually, when trained well and if i nailed nutrition/pacing i feel pretty solid about 3-4 days after the 70.3

Go for a walk.

As I get older the effects of the race usually hit me the hardest on the third day after the race. Used to be the second day. Then I slowly start feeling better. But depending on the race conditions it is usually a week before the feeling of fatigue is gone. Hotter/humid races take me longer than the same distance on a cool day.

As far as coaching I find a good coach can get you that extra 10-15% out of you. There is a lot of information out there now on training that was not present 15-20 years ago. They can help in how a particular workout is constructed to maximize the time spent. For most of us we are just chasing our previous best time so coaching is a personal decision.

A few things.....if you are wetsuit dependent, do an race that you absolutely know will be wetsuit legal. IE- dont do a race in the southeast in summer time. A race in NC anytime after May and you are pushing your luck with wetsuit temp.

2ndly- goal time....sounds like you weren't realistic to what you were doing in training to what you can do in reality. A good athlete should be able to nail their "goal" time to within i'd say 2% and the only difference being outlier weather conditions. If you can only run X pace in training your not going to suddenly handle Y pace because it's a race. So be better and more accurate, that also allows you to see races much more successful.

As far as recovery, I do the "1 hour of racing = 1 day of recovery" mode. But recovery can mean different things; 20 min spin on the bike to loosen legs or 20 min swim; total rest, etc. But it's fairly safe to apply the 1 hour of racing before you jump back into "training". One last thing, if your offseason has begun, take an offseason...take some time away, take some recovery. 2 weeks off, 2 week "unstructured" etc.

What kind of penalties did you get? I take it you got a drafting ping?

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Yes Drafting. As for the wetsuit I started to bank on the colder water the last couple weeks and got sloppy with my swimming.And for me to swim good I can't be out of the pool at all.

do you normally give your age group athletes goal times? I have a coach this year for IM chattanooga and for that race, we haven't really talked about a goal time so much but more goal watts for the bike (which translating that to time can be challenging), and a pace range for the run (obviously that can be translated to time). The swim. well, I'm a slow swimmer but I've worked on my pacing since not looking at my watch on the swim and obviously need to go by feel. Of course, my goals are fairly modest and I just end up focusing on the pacing in each leg. obviously I have some idea of time each leg but I don't focus on whether my bike legs should be 5:50 or 6:00 or 6:10.

You did the Outer Banks 70.3 right? Is that one a particularly hard course? I was looking at the times for my AG, and it looks like they are a great deal slower than what I have seen in the three 70.3s I have done so far. Maybe your time was not so bad.

Yep.Windy ride!!! Hot run!!! Swim times where slower than everyone I spoke with expected.so maybe some current issues. And my time sucked. 3rd in AG but think thats lack of strong athletes in that group.

Yes and no. For almost all 1st time agers goal time especially for middle of road AGers is kinda wonky. Just go race and either you'll enjoy the experience or not.

Do I have a goal time for every athlete for every race? Yes....do they know that time. No because many times "goal times" suddenly become expectation/pressure.

Now we talk about what to expect and good/bad days will be. And it is very course dependent. We go over paces/effort levels but I no longer say swim should be X, bike Y, run Z. I break it down mor into each leg ranges so it's not a hard time so to speak. You could have a great race but miss your time "goal" so does that suddenly change how you feel about it?

But me personally, I've gotten away from a "goal" time because it can imo do as much harm as it can help.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I remember the first 70.3 I raced was hard. Harder than I expected.
Overbiked and then jogged/walked the half marathon in 2h of A LOT of pain.
It took almost a week for my legs to fully recover so I could run again. Walking was hard the first couple of days.

Suck aside, I think you can give yourself a hefty hard course adjustment for that race. Either no good athletes showed up, or that was a monster hard day. If I took my time from my last HIM, I would have been in contention for an overall podium. No way I am that good.

that makes sense. I'm guessing my coach has had goal times for me but she never tells me them. But we certainly discuss what my goal pacing is for different legs. And then qualify that with discussions about conditions and obviously how I feel during the race. As a middle of the road age grouper, I usually set pretty modest goals for myself. Under X time I'm pleased. The further under X time I get the more pleased I am. And then some like perfect race time. If I reach it great. If not. oh well. back to work. I do some sprints locally where I'm competitive in my age group and I know the course so I have a pretty good idea of my times there. But definitely getting up to HIM and IM distance there's just a lot can wrong in that amount of time on race day. I felt a little under the weather for a sprint race and can suffer through an hour+ of have a decent time. but at HIM and IM distance. no way.

I'm a MOP racer, 40-44. I find recovery from a 70.3 dependent on whether or not my muscles cramp up. No cramping = feel fine the next day, no prob to race the next weekend. Cramps of the bike/run, my muscles feel shredded for the next 1-2 weeks.

Re: recovery time, after any given 70.3s it's been taking me about 3 weeks to fully get back to 100% again. I've only been doing tri's for 3 years and started running a few years before that. Not much other athletic background so this is probably a good comparison if you're more of a n00b like me :-P. I race often but have been injured a lot so there's not been a ton of consistency on my end. (I'm 31 btw)

Did you find drafting at 70.3 as beneficial as when you've drafted at shorter distances?

Lol. Yes. The wind on the bridge was brutal. Who says I've drafted in shorter races... unless you have been around me😎

I did the Oly and my swim was not what I expected it should have been. I accidentally veered off course a bit (100 meters :-/) towards the 70.3 bouys. I did feel like there was some type of current or something, but I don't know if it was not being up to par for the swim or just me being terrible. It was slower than my time last year.

Edit: Also, they changed the direction of the swim from last year to counter clockwise, so going south down the sound. I would have figured that would have been with the current, but it felt rough for me. The water was rougher last year than this year, however.

The bike got windy on the return across the bridge. That slight incline felt like a mountain with the wind. The run was def. hot. I'm not quite certain of the 70.3 course since it runs through the Mother Vineyard area, but the Oly course had practically no shade. My times were better on these two legs over last year's so not to difficult. However, I have been training down here through the heat, whereas Fishbum came from PA. I imagine it was a lot less humid up there!

Fishbum, you weren't the only one caught drafting. When we were waiting for the awards they had to postpone it 20 minutes to factor in the penalties a lot of the folks got that affected the final placements.

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Yeah the lady who owns Tri sports down here was telling me about all the people hit for drafting

So how would you guys handle next year?

Continue to get better at Olympic/70.3 or go to 140.6?

I'm starting to get a off season plan together that includes working on my wattage as well as my stride. I changed my running stride over the past year-and-a-half to become more of a neutral Striker and upping my run Cadence. As well as working on my swim stroke because late and swims it starts to deteriorate and it really falls apart.

The other thing I participated in this year that I really enjoyed was an individual time trial. So I hope to find some more of those next season.

It depends on your goals.
If you want to finish an Ironman because of the challenge, regardless of performance, go for it.
However, I think that if you really want to do a "good" Ironman, focus on getting better and better at the 70.3 distance for a while. When you feel confident you can race a 70.3, step up to 140.6!

What excites you most about doing the races? The grand sense of accomplishment? Continuously improving? Hitting some major time milestone (<6:00; <5:30; <5:00, etc.)? The sense of being in the race?

If it is the grand accomplishment, then go for a 140.6. That is pretty freaking impressive.

If you are still in the continuous improvement mode and gunning for a key time accomplishment, then keep on with the 70.3 quest.

If you crave the sense being in the race, then maintain the big base, but mix in some local sprints and Olympics for fun. You have a shot at gunning for podium in the shorter races. What about gunning for the Age Group Nationals in Cleveland?

It can be both you know

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Depends on your goals. I would pick goals to achieve before moving up. Unless you just want to race any distance you want to do.

But imo you should nail things at each distance before moving up. You won't get overwhelmed and you actually see yourself becoming a better athlete.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I agree. However I'm not one for sitting still.amd oddly enough as I worked towards Olympic/ half I got slower at Sprint's. I'm guessing do to lack of speed work.