Maybe 155's or 145's might be better. I resisted for 10 years changing from my 200's, I am 6'5".
But now with 175's I can spin better, and stay in the aero position with more comfort.

Think outside the box, you never know until you try some tweaking.

But you hip angle sure seems tight if you are short, but I am NO bike expert.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

So admittedly you have been moved a lot in position and have seen a decline in performance?

No the decline in performance started before the move in position.

  
You say you are typically the fastest in your AG and sometimes fastest AG overall. You also say your normal IM run is 3:38 - 3:50. I guess riding that fast, sub 5hr IM, your running splits should be faster much than 3:38 anyways. It seems to me that this has been an issue for a while now not just a recent occurrence your last 2 IM's. Do you do any faster paced running or run with a running club? How about long runs, do you do enough of them?


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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

Actually I said fastest in 70.3's (I actually qualify to be a pro due to my 70.3 results in previous years) not IM distance. 2009-2011 I placed in top 7 overall AG at IM Florida and Top5 Overall Im Texas. In 2012 my run started declining. I manage the same type speed workout winter thru spring, hitting similar numbers every year. no different this year. no clubs, but last few months leading into Ironman, I drop most of my speed work for recovery runs. I would think if that was the answer, that my run may slow in an IM but not paralyze me, which is how I feel....totally shut down.

Recovery? Are you allowing your body enough time to rebuild from the training stress? Sounds to me like you are digging a deep hole and it might be time to stop shoveling.

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Read the entire thread....lots of technical advice here and hopefully that is where you find your answer.....I don't know why but I feel compelled to ask you to seek some medical opinion. You are super fit and have lots of experience at the distance, I wonder if there isn't some physical/ physiologic problem....

Do you think that your run is overtrained at all? Like you head into the IM without feeling fresh when it comes to the run legs? Since your bike is so strong would it make sense to focus the next off-season on improving your run with some base or a total run focus on marathon speed/endurance?

Does each "failed" run feel like the same thing happens, dead legs at mile XX? Basically, hitting the "wall" early? You said you biked "easier" last time and went out at an "easy" run pace, did it feel any different? Did you get farther into the marathon before the wheels came off? Do you think it's mental? I mean the "here we go again" once you hit a bad patch and not being able to shake out of it.

What's your age and weight? To be such a great cyclist perhaps, you've got lots of muscles and pounding is doing you in on the run? Perhaps run form as well? It's super tough when you start feeling tired to keep good form.

Solved.

Except, he goes on to say that for the race where it broke down, he purposely went 20 minutes slower on the bike than the 1st AG person and still blew up by an hour+

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Right, because time is the best comparison metric for effort and training stress.

I don't know, Thomas Brunold is 46 now. He still crushes the bike in his "backyard" every year at IMWI and still runs a low 3 hour marathon. Of course I think think he's also another one of these freaks of nature of German descent that seem to gravitate towards triathlon. Jan Ulrich probably missed his calling...he just doesn't realize it.


Sounds like the OP has been racing thsi way for many years without issue, but something changed. I propose that either his bike fit changed, or he has some soft of structural issue related to long term overuse that popped up.

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TrainingBible Coaching
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It's like the guy in the other thread that rode a 6 hour bike split, but swam and ran really fast. He could have easily rode 280TSS, meaning that his issue is either a low FTP or really bad aero... or both. If he can improve this he could ride 260TSS, ride a lot 5 hr split, run 5 minutes faster and win his age group. The faster you go, the less time your out there. Pros can ride 0.75+ in an IM because they are faster. It's a shorter race for them so the intensity is higher.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

If you are consistently #1 of your AG on the bike, in an Ironman, and have followed those bike rides with a fast enough run to become a multiple times Kona qualifier, and then decide to do the bike 20 minutes slower than guys you normally beat, chances are, you are decreasing your effort. I think that's what he was implying when he gave that example. He was trying to imply that he took a chill pill on the bike and still suffered on the run. Since he doesn't race with a heart rate monitor or power meter, how else do you expect him to explain the effort that he was putting out so that people can help him out?

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Well, this response isn't very specific, but I'll bet you have accumulated stress/fatigue that is raising head on race run. This could be training/life/age/etc. It could also be your cranks...but I don't think so :-)!

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

All great comments. And I agree with them all....thats why I considered all as the problem, was just hoping to narrow it down to 1. My 2012 IM I took the training stress into consideration and put myself thru a full recovery after every race I did and trained for the Ironman the same way(no 2 hard days in a row) and semi recovered after each with swim day or off. This approach was due to my 2011 bad Kona. However, this approach did not work for me either. So in 2013, I went back to having "B" races and training thru with limited recovery to none (1 day off ) after each. Since these races were short or xterra, I always did well and even did well in the 70.3's...but when my IM came along at the end of the year the same horrible run happened. Maybe a different cause for each IM, maybe not a solution, maybe my 1st 3 years of IM were pure luck!

High-level training over an extended period of time is very difficult. That is where the intangibles come in. Your current problems are not happenstance. There is a cause and effect to all of this. You just need to figure out the cause. I am willing to bet you that the cause is more complex and whole life issues as opposed to just training. If training was just a formula, it would continue to replicate itself. Certainly it appears you are an amazing athlete with some early success. However, it takes a number of years to get your lifestyle ironed out to the point where everything works together. That is a much harder thing to do then just following a training plan.

I'll also bet that if you stick with it and figure this out that you will be right back to your high-performance ways.

Best wishes,

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.