I think they did make some small changes that made it a little faster. Such as now you ride farther out 117(?) and they cut out the hill in town and some of the hills on the backside.

Yep, first IM and first marathonfor that matter , so wasn't sure if the legs would play well with eachother from discipline to discipline. Bike was a lot harder those last 20 miles than in any of my training rides for some reason, and I took it relatively easy on my legs in the swim. I've read a lot of .7ish for AG athletes, is that off? I see a lot of teh higher people are more near that mid to high .7 though, but heck, i was within 11minutes of the top bike split for my AG, so I waffle on if it's worth it. Run is where I need to work on it I think.

1) Do serious bike volume year-round. I have like 4-6 weeks of "run focus" at fall when only do ~300 TSS/week.
2) Do 6 weeks vo2max, 6 weeks LT, 4 weeks tempo, rinse and repeat over the wintertime (like october-end of april) and then do specific training for your event ie make every ride longer, but reduce frequency. I rode 4-5 times/week on the trainer all winter for 1-3h (avg 1.5h, 3h only once per week).
3) Loose weight or do a very flat race. If you loose weight, do it early.
4) When you start doing the specific training for your event outdoors, still include some quality at every ride. Like 2x6@105%, 30 min@90%, 15@100 etc. This is to keep your sharp edge and not just ride along saying to yourself "i wont race at high intensity so no reason to train at it", like I bet so many triathletes do. You'll get specificity by making every outdoor ride 50+ miles.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

Agree (like many others have).

I weigh about 72kg when fit and have an FTP of about 310 in race season so about 4.3 W/Kg. I'm old and don't have the best aero position. I also raced IMMT with too much shit on my bike like gels, 3 bottles etc, etc... yeah dumb ;-( I know. For IM I averaged 3.08 W/Kg and ran well.
5:09 split, which I think is close to top 1%.

Had on on site mechanics mess up my crank as well (which is another story).

My guess is that if I were to become an aero weenie student of yours that I would have some free speed to gain.

When just focusing on cycling my FTP creeps over 320, but 310 seems to me about as high as I can go balancing SBR, family and work.

What I find so humbling is seeing Curt Chesney's numbers and the like. No matter how good we get (most of us) there is someone who is infinitely better :-)

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Founder of THE TRIATHLON COLLECTIVE (Closed Facebook Group). A SBR discussion group without the white noise/trolling!

Thanks, some follow up....

1) Do serious bike volume year-round. I have like 4-6 weeks of "run focus" at fall when only do ~300 TSS/week.

Do I sacrifice time on my feet for time in the saddle because the bike is where I stand to gain the most time? This is part of my dilemma as I usually am off the bike during the winter and running trails at low intensity/high volume. Do I skip out on run volume this offseason and focus on the bike knowing that is where I stand to gain the most? How much should I still be running as I build my bike?

2) Do 6 weeks vo2max, 6 weeks LT, 4 weeks tempo, rinse and repeat over the wintertime (like october-end of april) and then do specific training for your event ie make every ride longer, but reduce frequency. I rode 4-5 times/week on the trainer all winter for 1-3h (avg 1.5h, 3h only once per week).

3) Loose weight or do a very flat race. If you loose weight, do it early.


Weight is really interesting to me given my background and its funny because everyone has an opinion. Some say to gain weight in the offseason which helps you recover from the season and helps for the coming year. However, I have seen others that say to lose, lose, lose and stay as light as possible. It seems to be a contest on ST too, to see how thin we can all get before our races. Can you tell me what benefit there is in losing early in the offseason?

4) When you start doing the specific training for your event outdoors, still include some quality at every ride. Like 2x6@105%, 30 min@90%, 15@100 etc. This is to keep your sharp edge and not just ride along saying to yourself "i wont race at high intensity so no reason to train at it", like I bet so many triathletes do. You'll get specificity by making every outdoor ride 50+ miles.[/quote]

I think this is spot on, this is just my third year in the sport and I have a few friends I train with. I have tried to have them add intensity to our long rides but everyone says its a waste of time. Looks like I will be heading out solo a lot next year.

I rode 2:19:30 on 3.8 w/kg (290np, 76kg) at Tremblant. My cp is around 4.1-4.2, so I rode .92 there, which was pretty aggressive. Needless to say, the last 5k of the run was struggle city.

I was thinking my position/set-up must suck based on some of the other splits and wattages I've been hearing, but I think it had more to do with 1). being in the first age group wave, swimming relatively fast, and riding north on 117 into the wind completely solo and 2). being fairly spent on the climbs in the last 10 miles and riding those on comparatively less watts.

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Twitter | Kancman | Blog

More answers!

1) Do serious bike volume year-round. I have like 4-6 weeks of "run focus" at fall when only do ~300 TSS/week.

Do I sacrifice time on my feet for time in the saddle because the bike is where I stand to gain the most time? This is part of my dilemma as I usually am off the bike during the winter and running trails at low intensity/high volume. Do I skip out on run volume this offseason and focus on the bike knowing that is where I stand to gain the most? How much should I still be running as I build my bike?

I run only enough to make some slow gains. I see them as just keeping my run fitness stagnant, but improving by improving my bike. I'm not sure if that's really whats going on but it feels like it. Fresh enough legs for solid bike workouts is key though, find your sweet spot.

2) Do 6 weeks vo2max, 6 weeks LT, 4 weeks tempo, rinse and repeat over the wintertime (like october-end of april) and then do specific training for your event ie make every ride longer, but reduce frequency. I rode 4-5 times/week on the trainer all winter for 1-3h (avg 1.5h, 3h only once per week).

3) Loose weight or do a very flat race. If you loose weight, do it early.


Weight is really interesting to me given my background and its funny because everyone has an opinion. Some say to gain weight in the offseason which helps you recover from the season and helps for the coming year. However, I have seen others that say to lose, lose, lose and stay as light as possible. It seems to be a contest on ST too, to see how thin we can all get before our races. Can you tell me what benefit there is in losing early in the offseason?

Loosing it early = you can afford to put a little on during the rest of the early/midseason without feeling it is impossible to achieve race weight. I try to loose it in the run focus block, after the off season, to get a cushion for the bike focus. Then I loose some, like what I gained over the winter IF I gain, in the specific prep phase.


4) When you start doing the specific training for your event outdoors, still include some quality at every ride. Like 2x6@105%, 30 min@90%, 15@100 etc. This is to keep your sharp edge and not just ride along saying to yourself "i wont race at high intensity so no reason to train at it", like I bet so many triathletes do. You'll get specificity by making every outdoor ride 50+ miles.[/quote]


I think this is spot on, this is just my third year in the sport and I have a few friends I train with. I have tried to have them add intensity to our long rides but everyone says its a waste of time. Looks like I will be heading out solo a lot next year.


There is no reason to go alone! Just go up the front and tell them that you want to pull for X minutes. All my mates are totally OK with it and I only drop them sometimes ;) Can even be motivating.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

My 3.7w/kg FTP is done on like 3 hours of trainer cycling a week. To be fair I'm only training for short course (oly and sprint noy 70.3 short lol), most/all my sessions are done at 0.90IF or higher, with a mix of threshold, VO2 and anaerobic.

 
I'm at the pointy end of Ironmans and am pushing out 5w K/G at threshold.

Just recently won Challenge Weymouth riding at 269w average 290Normalized and running 3m 54 pace for the run although it was only 38.4Ks so would have been a 243 marathon and not the 2.29 which was recorded.

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Triathlete specializing in 70.3 Distance and Ironman.

joeskipper.co.uk