Of anyone NOT at the race, in your opinion, was Ali unstoppable or do you think Javier or Frodo could have tossed a wrench in his win? I know--it's all speculation but you know probably better than anyone how they would (or not) challenge.

Many thanks for coming on Ben. Really cool to give us the opportunity to ask you some questions! Congrats on the race by the way!

1) Is Tokyo 2020 still a goal for you?

2) Will you be racing 70.3 World's in Chattanooga?

Cheers!

Awesome having you here.

Yeah, I am curious to know what you think you could do a 1500m free in too.

Also, on the Olympic broadcast of the women's race you could be seen on the side of the road cheering. Your race number was still visible (38?) even though the race was 2 days prior. Does that get girls, free drinks, entrance into the Nike party? My ironman wristband got me a few eye rolls but that was about it.

How did training for a 70.3 event differ from your training in an ITU/ Olympics event?

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

First off, glad to see you on here and giving everyone the opportunity to ask questions. Just a warning, I am sure some A-hole will come along (Pubes where are you??) and tell you that you can't do an AMA unless you Win, are invited, and are welcome around here. It is good to see they are giving an Olympian the respect he deserves and haven't hammered you yet for this ;) Obviously you are way more interesting than me and a 5th in the St. George field is a bigger accomplishment than a win at a super small 70.3.

How long do you plan to continue to race at the 70.3 distance? Is it a permanent move or just "something to do" between now and a build back into the Olympic cycle?

Are you finding the tactics of a 70.3 bike more interesting that an ITU race? Do you prefer the bike over an ITU or 70.3?

There is a club out there for guys punching way above their weight in terms of their partner/girl friend / spouse, you have an open invite to the club ;)

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

Thanks for doing this and for adding to the excitement of this race.

1. What, if anything, surprised you about racing at this distance vs. what you'd expected and prepared for?
2. What was your biggest learning takeaway (that you're willing to share) that can help you in your next 70.3?

Cheers!

Thanks Ben for hanging around to host this Q & A!

With St. George being a new course for you, how did you train for that course in specific before race day? Did you arrive a few weeks out and just hammer at the course soley before race day? Visit a few months out? Go at it sight unseen (I'm doubtful of that, but have you had to race professionally without seeing a course? How do you prepare in those cases?)

This thread has made it obvious that many folks must skip the front page altogether. Ben's Coach, Jim Vance, wrote in details about their training approach leading into Puerto Rico and St. George and also the delicate balance between his short and long course schedule this year.

You can check it out here: http://www.slowtwitch.com/...ining_Camp_6343.html (he even mentions his FTP and wattage outputs..yes, it will blow your mind).

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Lars Finanger
Odyssey SwimRun

Oh that's sweet! Thanks! (I never read the front page.... too short of an attention span!)

haha. well, in that case he mentions it in the middle of the paragraph under the 2nd pic in the article:)

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Lars Finanger
Odyssey SwimRun

That is always a hard one for me. I swim long course occasionally, but I have not swam a 1500m as a race for a long time. I think putting myself at 16min give or take 15 seconds is fair. I can give you a benchmark workout that I do and you can extrapolate all you want from there. 100 all out with 1 min rest after, and then a 500 all out. A typical result for me is a 53 and a 4:55 (scy).

I think I can go sub 31 for a 10km road race. Again, have not done that straight up, but I did a 5km in 15:03 and then a 10km where I started around 5:30 pace for first couple miles and descended from there to finish in just about 33 min (they were 45min apart and on USATF certified courses).

I am not usually a big fan of guestimating my times. They can be a good tool for me for pacing in racing, but claiming I could run a 10km in sub 31 or sub 30 and not actually doing it really does not mean much. The same goes for the 1500m swim. I can also ramble on about how it is fun to get times for the individual sports, and how they are good benchmarks for training, but triathlon is 3 sports packaged into one, and if you finish ahead of someone who may have better straight up single sport times, do they really matter? Putting the three together can be the hardest part sometimes.

I agree a lot with Jordan, but I think it is very hard to compare the different years at St. George. From talking with a lot of the guys and girls at the race, it seems like every year there is a slight change to the course. I found myself looking at the results before the race and found it hard to get a grasp on it. The difference between the winning times each year was pretty significant, and I think that has a lot to do with the changes as well as the weather. I am also a firm believer that a swim course is never the same from year to year (except if you have a buoy anchor like in Kona, but of course conditions play a huge role).

Nutrition for me has played a very big role in 70.3 racing this year. I have found it a bit of a challenge to find the best formula where I can stomach the amount of calories needed. Taking in minimal calories is something that is easily gotten away with in a sprint or Olympic (a gel, a bit of sports drink and some water tops), but is pretty hard in just about a 4 hour race. While it may not be as involved as Ironman, nutrition is definitely something the ITU guys need to really think about before essentially racing at a similar intensity for 2x as long.

VI: 1.04
5min: 373w
10min:363w
20min: 350w
Avg total: 309w NP: 317w

I would love to give you where they happened, but for some reason my trainingpeaks is not showing me where it is happening. I checked in with my coach to make sure I wasn't missing something, but that lightning bolt you can click to analyze the power is not there. We are asking trainingpeaks about it, and Jim is going to analyze further anyway (so that gives you a reason to read the next article ;) )

Like I said in an above comment, I am not the best at guestimating. I swam 4:36 my senior year in high school for 500yd free. I think I could rip at least a 4:45 if you gave me a dive and I got up for it. Hard to say for a 1650...haven't raced that in awhile or done very many hard intervals that long. I guess the one thing I did do in LCM as a test set last year to get my strength up in the pool was a 4500m for time. I was just about 1:10 flat or a bit under for my best one. I think that puts me between 52 and 53 min?

Hard to say for sure. They all are stellar athletes, and it might just come down to who is best on the day. That is one of the reasons I love this sport; we can analyze and speculate all we want, but on race day anything can happen. I know there are guys out there who think they can mix it up with these guys at this distance that are overlooked for various reasons. Showing up healthy, flats, crashes, and any other misfortune are also a part of the race, and the reason these guys are the best is because they usually avoid that stuff...so I guess this is a long winded version of I don't know. I think it would be pretty close for a good majority of the race. I just can't see any of them letting another get away, especially early on...

I feel like I left Rio with a bit of a bittersweet taste in my mouth. I was very proud of my effort and execution on the day, but my placing was just not what I wanted. I would like another shot. That being said, four years is a long time, and the qualification does not start for another year and a half. There are a lot of USA guys that want those spots and it will by no means be easy to go again.

The plan is to race 70.3 worlds. It is rare to race a world champs in the US so I want to take advantage of that. I am going to wait until my spot is official before committing too much though.

Well it never hurts to be recognized as an athlete in Rio

For you and your guesses about other ITU athletes, is/was there much of an adjustment period riding in TT position? I guess being in drops in a lot of ITU races helps but I've been curious whether some ITU athletes have never ridden TT before moving on to long course.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Ben, thanks for doing this! How did you feel about the run course in PR? Or how did the two compare?

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just your average age grouper . no one special . no scientific knowledge . just having fun.

So in some ways this is like asking Einstein about addition, but as the lead swimmer how often do you sight?

Ben, it's been fun to watch you get into 70.3s! I live in Tucson myself; swim mostly at the Rec but occasionally at Ford Masters weekdays or DoD on Sundays. Do you do most of your swimming solo or with groups? I've always found it interesting that the "other" Ben in Tucson does almost entirely masters/group swimming.

Ben. Awesome you are doing a free Q&A.

Interested in the question about sighting and swim tactics. Do you think the fast start was typical or strategic? Who do you think out there is THE swimmer to be reckoned with?

Also as an aside, do you have any idea what happen to Trevor W's race day?

Hi Ben,

Just some generic info questions if you don't mind.
I read the preview from Jim Vance and very interesting on numbers etc and approach. Defo paid dividends clearly.

Some basic questions on volume please:
It appears your coaches approach of high volume easy, and drop volume for intensity blocks/weeks paid off.
Is this something you've been training regularly or a newer approach? In your high volume easy weeks/blocks, do you still maintain some hard bike/run sessions just maybe 1 or 2 instead of 5+?

You're known as one of the stronger swim/biker's of ITU and have shown that.
As a result do you now focus run more on speed or volume or both?

Typical Run (in miles/km's) week in high vol week and intensity vol week?

Favourite session in each discipline?

Best Key session in each discipline in your opinion?

FTP:
So from the previous article you were around the 5 w/kg give or take with 340-350 at 70kg.
Do ITU bike files come in around that level for you or just under? I imagine much higher VI, and 300 or so AP but NP up to 340 or so?

Enjoyment:

Last question, and it may allay more to other ITU athletes also.
Did you enjoy 70.3 St George and 70.3PR from a racing perspective?

You've said ITU is all about pushing hard and trying to be faster than your opponent where possible. 70.3 paces as a result are very comfortable for you and other ITU athletes - bar the pacing and nutrition approaches.
The question is relative to an ITU event, did you enjoy the 70.3 as much?

I imagine the answer is not as much, as we have seen quite a few ITU athletes race ITU until they can, and then try a few 70.3's and sometimes drop off as not as much fun and when used to racing at 95-105% the 85-90% seems to be a less favoured option. Especially if not as competitive at long course obviously.

Any thoughts on whether Brownlee having waltzed in to a very competitive 70.3, and won it from wire to wire would have less motivation for the long course style as a result? Especially seeing as he's still so competitive at ITU.
We all know and are thankful that he has stated goals of 70.3 WC and Kona in the future, but it's gotta almost be an anti-climax to walk in and race off the front.

On the flip side, I wonder now if he escalates his plan and looks to start his Kona qual this year after 70.3 WC's and race it in 2018. If he wins Kona at first attempt it's gotta be 50/50 on reverting back to ITU for another Olympics bash thereafter.

Final question:
You're racing 70.3 WC's this year at Chatt as it's domestic etc, do you have any long term ambitions for Ironman/Kona? (sorry I missed it if asked already)

Hello again Ben,

Thanks for starting this thread, taking the time to thoughtfully answer my questions (and all the others). You are doing a great job of providing interesting insight!

Scott

I actually was not too surprised about anything from 70.3. I have had a lot of great guidance and a lot of great advice given to me over the past 6-8 months about the distance. I have gone over almost every scenario for these races, and I have reached out to a lot of experienced athletes about the 70.3 distance, so I feel I covered my bases.

That being said, I am learning a lot from each race that I do. The biggest thing for me can be having patience and pacing. I may have some good strength, but the back half of the bike and run I am still fine tuning. I still need to dial in my nutrition completely, and each race is setting the standard for me on how hard I need to swim, bike and run to stay with the front guys.

I took a good look at the course map and the bike elevation chart, and I tried to replicate a lot of that in my training. Mt. Soledad (one of the workouts I did in San Diego and mentioned in the article) actually turned out to be kind of similar to snow canyon. I also have just adjusted training so that I can be successful at 70.3. I have done a lot more extended intervals in TT position, and just gotten comfortable pushing watts steady for a long period of time. This kind of relates to a few of the questions above about bike tactics in 70.3 and how I approach it. The main goal is to ride smooth and steady without any big spikes for the entire ride. So far, I have been able to execute this fairly well, and I have been able to still mark key guys on the bike. In ITU you try to do the same thing, but spikes in power are much more constant. While I will be forced to put out 700+ watts in an ITU race around corners, in a 70.3 I might only hit 500+ once maybe twice. So I would say that my main focus in St. George was to be able to handle the strength that was required for a 56 mile bike, rather than a 40km crit.

I arrived the Monday before the race to check out the course. I mostly rode it in chunks, and I drove a significant portion of it so that there were no surprises.

Ben,

Thanks for doing this AMA. I have a few questions for you.

How many coffees did you drink pre race? Do you think you paced your coffee consumption correctly? I have heard a lot of Olympic distance guy can chug too many espresso early and can barely struggle through a well made cappuccino when it really counts!

Congrats on your 70.3 national championship! Is this your first national title in triathlon? Would it feel good to represent the US in some triathlon racing in the future. Maybe 70.3 worlds?

what would you say was a better performance? Alister brownlee at St. George, alister brownlee at Rio, or Alister brownlee at London 2012? Do you think 2012 alister brownlee could beat current alister brownlee on this course?

Also can you tell me your FTP and 30 second peak power on the run?

Thanks and go get 'em Hoff!