What is your 70.3 PR and future goals?

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

I would say if you negative split an Olympic distance you are doing it all wrong. It's a race, treat it that way. Balls to the wall!

every 70.3 (longest distance ive done) ive ran out of gas around mile 9 or 10 of the run. from that point on its just agony wanting it to be over. its always pacing, i either put too much into the bike or run too hard / fast at the front end of the run. i have my paces and power numbers set but i do tend to veer from them.

sprints and olympics, i feel like im going to die as i cross the finish line. like mdtrihard said, on those distances its nearly everything you have for the whole race.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

I’ve had a variety of different experiences. My first 70.3, I felt like dying and it took 7 hrs and I hated the distance and thought it was too hard.

Then I did another 70.3 years later and got a 5:59 with minimal specialized training and mostly slow endurance cycling and felt spent.

Then, trained hard to drop the 5:59 to a 4:48 in a year and didn’t really feel super tired for the 4:48, just kind of cruised through it. I began to like this distance.

Now I’m going for 4:25 next 70.3 and I can already imagine feeling spent during and after the race. I hope to swim moderately hard and bike like there is no run. I’m probably going to have to give it my all for this time.

My lower abs / groin is tired after races and it’s hard for me to do things like balance on one foot for 1-2 days after the race.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

My sole 1st place in age group came from a race that I went b@lls to the wall start to finish. I was tired but exhilarated.

You can push yourself way harder than you think.

Yeah def

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

2020 Americans need more David Goggins in their life. Myself included. Soft AF.

When I first started out in 70.3s, I'd be tired but generally able to meander around the finish area on my own steam.

Now that I know how to wring a bit more effort out of my body, and with better pacing (and some htfu for good measure), I'll generally have to stop and consider availing myself of the volunteers who make sure you're ok at the end. I know it doesn't sound healthy, but if they're not asking if you're ok...

Last 4 70.3's I did I ended up in the hospital. One involved an over night stay. (I don't do them any more)

Olympics - It hurts to walk after the race

Sprints - I've been very close to puking many times. (My older son has puked)

Sadly - all of these are over 2 years ago as we lost 2020 and I crashed early in the 2019 season (training) and lost most of 2019. I miss 2018......

I disagree with this for most triathlon distances.

For ultralong events, especially ultramarathons, yes, you can push yourself and go longer than you think, and it may actually get to that 40% mark where you can go like 2x what you thought.

For sprint-oly-HIM, and even IMs for those who are in shape, fuggetabout it unless you're pretty new to the sport or distance and thus haven't tested yourself. Race speed isn't a matter of mentally toughing it out, and you need race speed for these distances in tri. Different than an ultra, where not-stopping >>> speed.

I definitely push myself to near max efforts on all my distances, but I can walk around after the race. For sprints and olys I run so. hard I feel like I'm going to black out near the end, but the shorter the race, the better I feel shortly afterwards - I'd consider doing back to back sprints, even.

The key thing for me though, is that ALL of my best races have NOT been when I 'killed myself'. This was particularly true with pure running marathons - all my best ones I was able to negative split and felt surprisingly strong in the final few miles (ran my fastest miles during them) and this was without sandbagging the first half. Same with tri though - my best races were the ones where I honestly felt like I suffered least (not to say I didn't suffer though.)

It's kind of like watching top pros win races though - then ones where they win and dominate, and often hit their PB, they look amazingly good coming through the line. THey're rarely keeled over, dragging themselves to the finish when they PB, even if they emptied the tank.