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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [JanneK] [ In reply to ]
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JanneK wrote:
Congrats!!

Two questions:
- on the pictures between saddle and bottlecage there is something? What type of setup do you have there? You also had a rubber band to ensure that botle doestn eject?
- you didnt swim/ride with Suunto watch, but you tool that for the run? Have you tested aero impact of having watch while riding?

Thanks! I would say this is best performance this year from Suunto sponsored athlete

Good eye! I had a spare tube wrapped around the rear bottle cage and back of the saddle. My work with STAC suggested that this placement can actually clean up airflow in that region and lower drag. I had tire levers and a CO2 inflator velcro'd under the saddle. I obviously still need to refine this setup since part of the tube came loose later in the ride and was flapping around!

I put the Suunto 9 on in T2. On the bike, I use my Pioneer head unit for power data, though the Suunto 9 can display power metrics. I haven't tested watch aerodynamics, but I wouldn't be surprised if a watch added significant drag on the bike. On the run, I wore my Suunto to collect data, but I didn't glance at it even once after the start. I'm no stranger to pacing by feel, since I never wear a watch for 70.3 and shorter distance racing. My intuitive pace sense seems to be good, so I didn't see much reason to change that approach. Since it was my first Ironman, I didn't have a precise sense of target pace anyways. I still wore a watch because the data could be invaluable for post-race analysis.

CodyBeals.com | Instagram | TikTok
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Wow Cody, what a great debut. In another thread I said some athletes scale better to IM from their olympic and 70.3 speed and some do not. For example, I would say Ivan Rana does not scale as well to IM (even though he is strong). In another thread I gave Jordan Rapp as an example who relatively scaled better to IM vs 70.3. How do you rate yourself now that you have a single full IM that is perfectly executed under your belt?

On race day, I watched every minute of the run course, which of couse is like watching paint dry from a pure entertainment factor unless you are invested emotionally in how the athletes are doing, and as such, I had the full supercomuting math going on every time I saw a split and kept calculating and re calculating when a "pass might happen" only to see that you first have was around 1:21. I expected the rough math would be a 10 minute fade for a 2:52 high or 2:53, but you barely faded by 5-6 min on the second half. It looks like you were just going on feel and nothing else and trying to just do your race as you said in the pre race interview. Was it all on feel based on key workouts from your 2 month build and keeping the relative perceived exertion in the final 10K like the final 10K of a 70.3 (just slower pace), or were you checking splits?

I think once you saw the lead on Lionel at the turnaround the math would have been easy to know "your slowest run pace" to keep the win because when Lionel is on, he is "only" running 3:50 K's at best to close an IM run.

Sorry for being late to the party! work life got in the way. But now I had a nice long thread worth of answers to read up on this weekend!
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Three more things:

  1. Don't do an IM this fall
  2. Do one next spring
  3. Go to KONA!!!!

An 8:10 at Tremblant can easily be an 8:0x at Kona as you can handle racing in the heat. You swam 52 fresh water with no wetsuit. I think you are ready for Kona. Your career is hopefully long, but you never know as it can become short. You have the capability and tools to podium.
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Awesome performance! Did you use Waxy maize for amylopectin ? and when making these bottles. Do you weigh the powders or convert the grams to volume?


Thanks
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Hi!

1)I live in a flat place, so there're no hills or mountains around.
Do you think it's mandatory to run uphill and downhill to be a better runner?

2)During indoor bike training, do you sometimes make your resistance lower because of your tiredness or elevated heart rate?
For example, you plan is to spin on 250W, but after some time you undestand, that is too high for you, and you set it to 230W.

3)Do you always compete on fresh tires? Can you start a 70.3 or full IM with tires after spending 400 miles on them?

4)How often do you ride a road bike?


Thank you.
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
Wow Cody, what a great debut. In another thread I said some athletes scale better to IM from their olympic and 70.3 speed and some do not. For example, I would say Ivan Rana does not scale as well to IM (even though he is strong). In another thread I gave Jordan Rapp as an example who relatively scaled better to IM vs 70.3. How do you rate yourself now that you have a single full IM that is perfectly executed under your belt?

Thank you so much, Dev! Ever since my half distance debut in 2013 (I won the Ontario Provincial Champs with a sub-4 hour course record), people around me have been predicting that Ironman would ultimately be my forte. I've done relatively better every time I've stepped up in distance, whether it was going from 800 to 3000 on the track, 50 to 1500 in the pool, or sprint to Ironman. I rarely finished a 70.3 thinking that I couldn't continue at roughly the same pace for a while. I also knew that my durability and seemingly gifted fueling ability would make my success at Ironman more likely. So I think that I rate pretty far towards the Ironman end of your scale. The question in the back of my mind is if my best distance could be even longer, a question I don't plan to explore for a long time!

There's no such thing as perfect execution in triathlon! That's the end of the rainbow that we all chase and part of what makes the sport so compelling. My "perfect" day at IMMT would have been having the confidence to line up with Antoine J-D and get on his feet instead of Yoder and Gambles in the swim. Then even split the bike with 270W AP / 280W NP. Then get pushed to the 2:45 marathon I felt I had prepared to run. But I'll take the day I had! =D

devashish_paul wrote:
On race day, I watched every minute of the run course, which of couse is like watching paint dry from a pure entertainment factor unless you are invested emotionally in how the athletes are doing, and as such, I had the full supercomuting math going on every time I saw a split and kept calculating and re calculating when a "pass might happen" only to see that you first have was around 1:21. I expected the rough math would be a 10 minute fade for a 2:52 high or 2:53, but you barely faded by 5-6 min on the second half. It looks like you were just going on feel and nothing else and trying to just do your race as you said in the pre race interview. Was it all on feel based on key workouts from your 2 month build and keeping the relative perceived exertion in the final 10K like the final 10K of a 70.3 (just slower pace), or were you checking splits?

I think once you saw the lead on Lionel at the turnaround the math would have been easy to know "your slowest run pace" to keep the win because when Lionel is on, he is "only" running 3:50 K's at best to close an IM run.

Sorry for being late to the party! work life got in the way. But now I had a nice long thread worth of answers to read up on this weekend!

You're right that I paced entirely by feel. I wore the new Suunto 9, but just to collect data for post-race analysis. I didn't look at my watch at all in this race and I don't even wear one for 70.3. I've always had a knack for pacing by feel, usually predicting my run pace and distance quite accurately in training. I think a nearly evenly split run may have been possible if I had been pressured right up to the finish, but I shudder to think of the physical and mental toll! Pacing by feel on the run helps me get the most out of myself because I'm not limited by pre-conceived notions of what I'm capable.

I did some key training runs that helped me dial in Ironman pacing. I did a couple 50 km run days in this block and many other days over 30 km. Those 50 km days featured a hard swim straight into a 35+ km treadmill run with intensity, then a 15+ km easy trail run in the afternoon. Three weeks out, I ran a standalone marathon on the treadmill in 2:45 including warm up and cool down with some work as fast as 3:25/km in the interval set. What made these workouts confidence inspiring for me is not that I accomplished them, but that they weren't particularly epic sessions; I trained more or less normally the day before and after.

CodyBeals.com | Instagram | TikTok
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [jaelinfunk] [ In reply to ]
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jaelinfunk wrote:
Awesome performance! Did you use Waxy maize for amylopectin ? and when making these bottles. Do you weigh the powders or convert the grams to volume?


Thanks

Thank you! Yes, I used waxy maize. I believe it's usually almost 100% amylopectin. It's also relatively cheap and not difficult to find.

I use a kitchen scale to mix my nutrition on a weight basis. I'm always traveling to races with all these unlabeled baggies of white powder. TSA loves me! ;P

CodyBeals.com | Instagram | TikTok
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Wow, excellent race. It is great to see another Canadian who wins Ironman races and will be a threat at Kona. I've been following your career from a distance and it's amazing to see the progression.

You know better of course but given how well the 70.3's have prepared you for IM racing, have you considered just continuing with the shorter races this year and then focus on a spring IM and then Kona? I believe Dev mentioned it above too and I'm sure you've considered all possibilities but it seems to me that the shorter races have proven to be a great building block and you might upset that if you do another IM too soon.
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [NickMa] [ In reply to ]
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NickMa wrote:
Hi!

1)I live in a flat place, so there're no hills or mountains around.
Do you think it's mandatory to run uphill and downhill to be a better runner?

2)During indoor bike training, do you sometimes make your resistance lower because of your tiredness or elevated heart rate?
For example, you plan is to spin on 250W, but after some time you undestand, that is too high for you, and you set it to 230W.

3)Do you always compete on fresh tires? Can you start a 70.3 or full IM with tires after spending 400 miles on them?

4)How often do you ride a road bike?


Thank you.

1) No, I don't think that practicing hills is essential to run them well. Just like on the bike, it's all about fitness and pacing, much less technique or experience. You can always do treadmill sessions with some incline work, which I've done in the past. The only specific hill work I do outside is brief blocks of 10-45 second hill sprints, usually to reintroduce intensity after periods of downtime.

2) All my bike workouts feature a power range. I'll plan to hold something like 215-240W for an endurance ride, 290-320W for tempo, etc. I'll usually have a tighter "ideal" range, but I won't consider the session a failure unless I'm totally missing the target intensity zone (i.e. endurance, tempo, threshold, VO2). Only then would I stop and reevaluate whether the session was worth trying to push through. The same thing goes for the number of intervals I'm planning. It's usually a range. In fact, I'm waking up without a definite training plan most days. I just have an approximate framework and then figure out how to get the most out of myself each day, whether it's pushing through or backing off. This approach takes a lot of self-awareness, honesty and maturity as an athlete and was counterproductive earlier in my self-coached days.

3) I don't use fresh tires for every race. I can get about 1000 km out of Continental Attack/Force/TT with hardly any visible rounding off or wear. I'll generally replace them for racing before that point as a precaution. I ran fresh Conti TT tires for IMMT, with just 1 hour of riding on them to wear off the waxy finish (important if it's wet!). I ran a Vittoria Corsa G+ Speed as a rear tire for several 70.3s this year. It's no doubt a wickedly fast tire, but I've decided that it exceeds my personal risk tolerance. It feels like tissue paper and it's also the most difficult tire to mount I've ever used.

4) I currently don't own a road bike, but I have a badass old scandium cross bike usually set up with 32c slick tires. It's my gravel bike, commuter and even trainer bike sometimes. I've had periods where it's the only bike I'm consistently riding, but I haven't touched it in a while. This year, all my training has been on my Ventum, mostly on the trainer and less than a quarter outside. I've found that fitness built on the cross bike is readily transferable to the tri bike with a brief period of acclimation to aero position.

CodyBeals.com | Instagram | TikTok
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Sanuk] [ In reply to ]
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Sanuk wrote:
Wow, excellent race. It is great to see another Canadian who wins Ironman races and will be a threat at Kona. I've been following your career from a distance and it's amazing to see the progression.

You know better of course but given how well the 70.3's have prepared you for IM racing, have you considered just continuing with the shorter races this year and then focus on a spring IM and then Kona? I believe Dev mentioned it above too and I'm sure you've considered all possibilities but it seems to me that the shorter races have proven to be a great building block and you might upset that if you do another IM too soon.

Thank you! I'm considering either option right now: another fall IM or my usual fall 70.3 circuit with a focus on Kona qualifying next year. This week has been too exciting, exhausting and overwhelming to make any decisions just yet. I've witnessed otherwise rational pros make regrettable impulsive decisions right after a race, good or bad. Once I'm more recovered and thinking clearly, I'll debrief with my coach next week and make plans. I actually appreciate all the input since I admittedly hadn't given Kona or my longer term trajectory much thought. Like I said, I'm very incremental with my goals! I tend to get anxious and unfocused when I'm looking too far past the next modest stepping stone. That's where a good coach like David can come in and help make sure I'm on track within the context of a grander plan.

One thing is for sure: 70.3 racing will continue to figure heavily in my race schedule. I don't intend to become one of those athletes who steps up to Ironman only to piss away his 70.3 speed. I love the dynamic and engaging nature of 70.3 racing and training way too much to give that up. It's also perhaps easier, or at least less risky, to earn a living through 70.3 racing than Ironman.

CodyBeals.com | Instagram | TikTok
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Hi Cody,

I noticed you went back to the P09 vs the Aerohead for IMMT. Any reason?
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [EnderWiggan] [ In reply to ]
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EnderWiggan wrote:
Hi Cody,

I noticed you went back to the P09 vs the Aerohead for IMMT. Any reason?

The P-09 was back on top in my latest round of STAC Virtual Wind Tunnel testing after some other changes. I wasn't thrilled about that, since the Aerohead is way more comfortable, has a better visor, potentially safer with MIPS, and it looks cooler!

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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Small detail but I saw that you have changed from the modified Giro shoes to BOA dial shoes. Any specific reason?
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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For those racing and attending the Multisport Canada Wasaga Beach Triathlon this weekend, in Wasaga Beach Ontario, we are planning a LIVE Ask Me Anything session with Cody as well as Jackson Laundry (who trained with Cody through the winter and has been having a break-out year of racing himself), that I will be Emceeing just prior to the Awards Ceremony of the Olympic Distance race. Weather permitting, this should be around 2pm in the afternoon!

Thanks to Cody and Jackson ahead of time, for their time!


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Cody Beals wrote:
devashish_paul wrote:
Wow Cody, what a great debut. In another thread I said some athletes scale better to IM from their olympic and 70.3 speed and some do not. For example, I would say Ivan Rana does not scale as well to IM (even though he is strong). In another thread I gave Jordan Rapp as an example who relatively scaled better to IM vs 70.3. How do you rate yourself now that you have a single full IM that is perfectly executed under your belt?


Thank you so much, Dev! Ever since my half distance debut in 2013 (I won the Ontario Provincial Champs with a sub-4 hour course record), people around me have been predicting that Ironman would ultimately be my forte. I've done relatively better every time I've stepped up in distance, whether it was going from 800 to 3000 on the track, 50 to 1500 in the pool, or sprint to Ironman. I rarely finished a 70.3 thinking that I couldn't continue at roughly the same pace for a while. I also knew that my durability and seemingly gifted fueling ability would make my success at Ironman more likely. So I think that I rate pretty far towards the Ironman end of your scale. The question in the back of my mind is if my best distance could be even longer, a question I don't plan to explore for a long time!

There's no such thing as perfect execution in triathlon! That's the end of the rainbow that we all chase and part of what makes the sport so compelling. My "perfect" day at IMMT would have been having the confidence to line up with Antoine J-D and get on his feet instead of Yoder and Gambles in the swim. Then even split the bike with 270W AP / 280W NP. Then get pushed to the 2:45 marathon I felt I had prepared to run. But I'll take the day I had! =D

devashish_paul wrote:
On race day, I watched every minute of the run course, which of couse is like watching paint dry from a pure entertainment factor unless you are invested emotionally in how the athletes are doing, and as such, I had the full supercomuting math going on every time I saw a split and kept calculating and re calculating when a "pass might happen" only to see that you first have was around 1:21. I expected the rough math would be a 10 minute fade for a 2:52 high or 2:53, but you barely faded by 5-6 min on the second half. It looks like you were just going on feel and nothing else and trying to just do your race as you said in the pre race interview. Was it all on feel based on key workouts from your 2 month build and keeping the relative perceived exertion in the final 10K like the final 10K of a 70.3 (just slower pace), or were you checking splits?

I think once you saw the lead on Lionel at the turnaround the math would have been easy to know "your slowest run pace" to keep the win because when Lionel is on, he is "only" running 3:50 K's at best to close an IM run.

Sorry for being late to the party! work life got in the way. But now I had a nice long thread worth of answers to read up on this weekend!


You're right that I paced entirely by feel. I wore the new Suunto 9, but just to collect data for post-race analysis. I didn't look at my watch at all in this race and I don't even wear one for 70.3. I've always had a knack for pacing by feel, usually predicting my run pace and distance quite accurately in training. I think a nearly evenly split run may have been possible if I had been pressured right up to the finish, but I shudder to think of the physical and mental toll! Pacing by feel on the run helps me get the most out of myself because I'm not limited by pre-conceived notions of what I'm capable.

I did some key training runs that helped me dial in Ironman pacing. I did a couple 50 km run days in this block and many other days over 30 km. Those 50 km days featured a hard swim straight into a 35+ km treadmill run with intensity, then a 15+ km easy trail run in the afternoon. Three weeks out, I ran a standalone marathon on the treadmill in 2:45 including warm up and cool down with some work as fast as 3:25/km in the interval set. What made these workouts confidence inspiring for me is not that I accomplished them, but that they weren't particularly epic sessions; I trained more or less normally the day before and after.

Hey for these longer treadmill runs, what percent grade did you use and did you throw in any 5-10% to simulate the Tremblant course....I assume you did not and thus your 2:45 training run on the treadmill and your 2:49 race day execution may, in effect be the "same run".

Thanks for the visibility into the 50K training days and it is interesting that you chose treadmill + trail, I assume so that you can maximize the aerobic load and hip flexor/hamstring benefit while not having such a quad pounding recovery penalty.
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [roa11] [ In reply to ]
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roa11 wrote:
Small detail but I saw that you have changed from the modified Giro shoes to BOA dial shoes. Any specific reason?

Another good eye! I recently got those Shimano RC7 shoes. They make great tri shoes with the simple modification of removing the tongue. I was never enamored with the Empire SLX, despite the purported aero savings (never validated by me). I may have needed a larger size, but I found that comfort was lacking. I've struggled for a long time with intense pain in my forefoot that flares up after 3-4 hours of riding, especially in the heat. I think that my feet were swelling and cutting off circulation. I experimented with different retention systems for the Empire, including velcro and various elastic laces. The problem with all was that they weren't adjustable on the fly. The single BOA dial is awesome because it's easy to loosen or tighten as needed during a race. I really don't see the need for purpose built triathlon shoes when something like this works so well.

CodyBeals.com | Instagram | TikTok
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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Fleck wrote:
For those racing and attending the Multisport Canada Wasaga Beach Triathlon this weekend, in Wasaga Beach Ontario, we are planning a LIVE Ask Me Anything session with Cody as well as Jackson Laundry (who trained with Cody through the winter and has been having a break-out year of racing himself), that I will be Emceeing just prior to the Awards Ceremony of the Olympic Distance race. Weather permitting, this should be around 2pm in the afternoon!

Thanks to Cody and Jackson ahead of time, for their time!

Looking forward! Jackson and I love to banter. Throw us some good questions!

CodyBeals.com | Instagram | TikTok
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Coming out of the swim at 52:XX, was that a controlled effort or as fast as you could hold?

___________________________________________
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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)
Last edited by: realAB: Aug 24, 18 8:04
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
Hey for these longer treadmill runs, what percent grade did you use and did you throw in any 5-10% to simulate the Tremblant course....I assume you did not and thus your 2:45 training run on the treadmill and your 2:49 race day execution may, in effect be the "same run".

Thanks for the visibility into the 50K training days and it is interesting that you chose treadmill + trail, I assume so that you can maximize the aerobic load and hip flexor/hamstring benefit while not having such a quad pounding recovery penalty.

I did all my treadmill running at 0.5% incline in this block. I did a pretty extensive analysis of treadmill running physics back in 2014 on my blog:

Running the Numbers: How Much Easier are Treadmills?

I used to always run at 1%, but I found that to affect running biomechanics more noticeably. 0.5% seems to be the sweet spot for me. I'm well aware that I need to run a little faster on the treadmill in addition to 0.5% incline at paces below about 4:30/km in order to make it roughly equivalent to overground running.

The treadmill can also be harder in some respects. Besides boredom, my gym lacks any fans. So all my hard treadmill runs are mildly to extremely heat limited. Taking into account all variables, I feel that 0.5% incline plus 5-10 s/km faster on the treadmill is a good conversion to overground running.

I would never presume to equate a treadmill workout with an outdoor run, let alone a hilly one after an Ironman swim and bike!! I've overused the treadmill in the past and it's given me an inflated sense of my fitness. It's a great tool, but a crutch like any other. I try to only use it for one workout and maybe an easy run or two per week during race season. I made sure I got at least one longer run on the roads and one quality outdoor session (usually track) per week as well. For the really long runs, the treadmill helped with lower impact, more precise pace control and less mental fatigue. You're right that the aerobic load is comparable, but without the same musculoskeletal trauma as outside. The same goes for the trail runs in the afternoon. Trails are also good practice with focusing and staying mentally sharp when tired, since you can't zone out like the road.

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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [realAB] [ In reply to ]
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realAB wrote:
Coming out of the swim at 52:XX, was that a controlled effort or as fast as you could hold?


Tbh, that was one of the easiest swims of my career! I even had a moment of panic that I'd somehow cut the course! I was prepared for a challenging, painful swim on the gas the entire time, like some of my best 70.3 swims. I was surprised that the pace settled down right away and I comfortably stayed on Gambles and Yoder's feet before dolphin diving around them at the end. The surges I'd expected never came and our small pack was pretty friendly.

I hadn't been swimming particularly well in this block, but I've learned that swim fitness is easily hidden under a mountain of fatigue and returns after a good taper. I also owe a lot to Craig Taylor's program with Guelph Triathlon Project. He's not trying to reinvent the wheel, but his program reflects careful planning and a deep understanding of swimming. He has a great track record developing top swimmers. I'm one of the slowest guys in the group including some ITU swim studs. We also regularly do quality open water work with mass starts and buoys—basically race simulations—which was a missing piece of the puzzle for me in the past and helped develop my open water skill set.

I'm still not particularly confident in my ability to consistently make front pack. So far this year, I've been 3rd out of the water (70.3 Taiwan), well back/2nd pack (70.3 Monterrey & Texas), 3rd out (70.3 Victoria & Eagleman), and now 2nd out (IMMT). Past seasons were far more erratic, especially in rough conditions. I may still struggle in chop or with a bigger and faster front pack in championship races.

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Last edited by: Cody Beals: Aug 24, 18 8:20
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Cody Beals wrote:
ericmulk wrote:
Cody - Congrats on the great race!!! As a swimmer turned triathlete, I found your comments on how you went about improving your swim very interesting. Swimming was your first sport but yet you consider, or until coming 2nd out of the water this past race, used to consider, the swim to be your weakest discipline of three; this is quite unusual in my experience but i can see how it could happen, since kids start swimming on teams at a younger age than they start running in races, much less cycling in races. Your analysis of what helped you improve squares 100% with my experiences, espec the part about drills being a waste of time. Your deliberately switching from a 6-beat to 2-beat kick is interesting b/c in my experience, most swimmers just unconsciously select the level of kicking they need/want. As a well-known swim book put it, many 2-beat kickers just fall into this kick as a way of surviving swimming 6000 or more yards/meters per workout; IOW, they find that using the 2-beat is just easier due to less effort needed in the legs. That's how it happened for me back in my teenage swim years when first started swimming twice a day. In any case, you've provided a really good case for the need to swim long and often in order to improve, and that a person needs to mostly just swim, with very limited drills. :)


Thank you! It's interesting that our experiences with swimming align. If there's one thing I've learned about swimming, it's that there are many routes to progress, especially for triathletes. The key thing seems to be committing to one approach at a time and not bouncing around too much.

I say that swimming was my first sport, but I regrettably never had the benefit of a serious swim team as a kid. I swam on a summer league from age 9 to 16, which was four practices per week and several swim meets over the summer with mostly parent volunteer coaches. I'd do a couple practices per week over the winter as well. My high school finally got a swim team for my junior and senior years, but that was a joke compared to programs in the US. After that, I focused much more on running throughout university, but kept up a little swimming on my own. If I could return to that time, I'd absolutely swim with the varsity team. This background gave me some advantage over an adult onset swimmer, but not nearly the edge a true childhood competitive swimmer has in triathlon.
Two beat kicking was a huge revelation. I remember the first time I employed it in a race, thinking "this feels wayyy too easy... am I in the wrong pack?!" It's the closest thing to a swimming hack that I've discovered. It did take a couple years to get comfortable with. My stroke mechanics are quite different with two and six beat kicks. It feels like I have two distinct tools at my disposal for racing. My stroke rate is naturally quite slow and I find that a two beat kick helps me tempo it up, very useful for open water situations.

Interesting...i've seen some guys become very fast swimmers, for 50-100 yd/m races, just on summer league but obv it is not as good as year-round. And on the tempo, no doubt 2-beat requires a bit higher turnover rate. Thanks for your insights!!!


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for all of the responses. This thread is a goldmine of information.
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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Fleck wrote:
For those racing and attending the Multisport Canada Wasaga Beach Triathlon this weekend, in Wasaga Beach Ontario, we are planning a LIVE Ask Me Anything session with Cody as well as Jackson Laundry (who trained with Cody through the winter and has been having a break-out year of racing himself), that I will be Emceeing just prior to the Awards Ceremony of the Olympic Distance race. Weather permitting, this should be around 2pm in the afternoon!

Thanks to Cody and Jackson ahead of time, for their time!

Fleck, I know you are the anti Kona guy (in that there are more races in the world outside Kona), but can you just brow beat Cody into going to Kona next year. We want to see the male equivalent of the Lori Bowden vs Lisa Bentley vs Heather Fuhr all Canadian smackdown in Kona this time featuring Coady and Lionel.
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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I’m sure Seear will help us! ;)

devashish_paul wrote:
Fleck wrote:
For those racing and attending the Multisport Canada Wasaga Beach Triathlon this weekend, in Wasaga Beach Ontario, we are planning a LIVE Ask Me Anything session with Cody as well as Jackson Laundry (who trained with Cody through the winter and has been having a break-out year of racing himself), that I will be Emceeing just prior to the Awards Ceremony of the Olympic Distance race. Weather permitting, this should be around 2pm in the afternoon!

Thanks to Cody and Jackson ahead of time, for their time!

Fleck, I know you are the anti Kona guy (in that there are more races in the world outside Kona), but can you just brow beat Cody into going to Kona next year. We want to see the male equivalent of the Lori Bowden vs Lisa Bentley vs Heather Fuhr all Canadian smackdown in Kona this time featuring Coady and Lionel.
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Re: Ask Me Anything: Debut Win & 8:10 Course Record at IMMT! [Cody Beals] [ In reply to ]
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Cody
Congratulations on your win!

For your bike, you mentioned you did a lot of VO2 and anaerobic during the winter months. Did you also have long easy ride on the weekends?
Did these long easy ride help you hold higher power (220w-230w like you mentioned) during the race?
Thanks
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