Taper?

You have to taper for a 7.03 mile race? /pink (See your signature)

race report tonight or tomorrow.

long story short the course wasn’t what i was used to... i’m used to pancake flat and waco has some killer hills on the run. i wanted a faster time, but i’m very pleased with my performance overall!

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Ok report time.

For reference, both previous 70.3 races were at Texas 70.3 in Galveston. Essentially pancake flat.

2018 time...

S: 50:18
B: 2:47:25
R: 1:53:52

5:38:52
135th place out of 331 in my age group


2019 time. This race was a DNF due to weather. I was 1 mile from the finish line when a storm blew in and everyone still on course had to shelter in place. i was fading pretty bad so i gave a really good pad for that last mile to get my total estimated run time. I know the run time isn’t accurate, but for all intensive purposes its close enough for me because i know i would have gotten very close to that given there was only one mile left.

S: 47:32
B: 2:37:38
R: 1:50:37

5:23:01 (estimated due to DNF on run)


2019 Waco time (results from 80/20 training plan)

S: 44:38
B: 2:38:49
R: 1:57:25

5:34:49 total
47th out of 236 in my age group.

So the numbers are not exactly what i was looking for or expecting, but the course was not either.

The swim... I’m just disappointed. I did shave 3 min off my total time, so that’s a win, but i was hoping for more. i know this comes down to my poor swim technique and nothing else. My endurance was awesome in the water. Not once did i ever get tired, feel like i was running out of gas, or have a “i want out of the water now” feeling. I was also punched in the head twice, i was not hurt... that’s just part of the swim!

Galveston is flat. There is a total of one climb on the run. That’s it. Everything else is flat. I was not prepared at all for the rolling hills of Waco, and the crazy climbing on the run.

Link to the course map for the bike. Note the 1500 ft of climbing.

https://m.ironman.com/~/media/05ff194cb90346ae851e1cbad6e70754/im%20703waco19%20coursemap%20bike%2092619%20dd%20web.pdf

I was 1 min off a PR for the bike, and that’s with all the elevation / climbing. I couldn’t be happier with that. Sure, i wanted a faster time, but in reality i will take what i got. Back to the endurance part, i never got tired on the bike once. I knew my target wattage for the whole ride and i was under that number by 3 watts, so i think i did pretty dang good. I pretty much stayed “on the left” the entire course passing people. Rarely was i passed, and that’s a great feeling. Passing means lots of surging to jump in front of someone or a group to respect draft rules, so i was hitting 400 - 500 watts regularly, then dropping back down to race pace where i felt really comfortable holding race pace and not tiring out from the surge.

Link to the course map for the run. Note the 471 ft of climbing.

https://m.ironman.com/~/media/d254604328924826abd3a912fcb8c8ae/im%20703waco19%20coursemap%20run%2041219%20cc%20web.pdf

The run was absolutely a killer. I came off the bike running my target pace (legs hurt like hell from the bike) until i got to the climbs. When i got there i saw people walking the climbs and i honestly got nervous. I didn’t ever use power as a metric during training for running (i do have a stryd pod and used it all through training for pace / cadence) but it is a metric i have kept my eye on just for informational purposes because i intend to use it as THE run metric for my next training block. Had i respected the stryds suggestion i would have had to walk some of the hills but i absolutely refused to do that. At the worst i shuffled / trotted some of them. The ascensions / descents were on the first part of the loop, 2nd part of the loop was relatively even, but still had some ups and downs. i was happy that the hills only really made me drop 30 or so seconds off my target pace when i was not on the hills. On the 2nd loop when i got to the 3 mile remaining mark i was able to push and pick up the pace and stay around 15 seconds over my target pace without blowing up.

The entire run was absolutely painful, but when I wasn’t running up hills / trying not to fall down hills i was relatively pleased with my performance.


Not once during this race was my heart rate / endurance ever an issue. I had carb loaded fairly well the 3 days out before the race and i feel that i have my race day nutrition down pretty well. I never felt even remotely close to bonking or any sort of fatigue. it helped that it was upper 40s at the swim start and close to 70 at the end of the run. the only limiting factor i ever ran into was 1) the damn hills and 2) what my legs could actually do.


Lastly, the Waco course is beautiful. If nothing else, the race was worth it just to be able to do it on such a scenic course.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

From everything I've read about this Waco course, I'd consider this definitely a successful race. It was, by all accounts, not a fast course and your AG rank is significantly better than your previous ranks, which demonstrates that.

Nice job!

Congrats on your race finish. Even if it wasn't as good as you'd hoped, it sounds like it went well enough.

I'm particularly impressed with your swim times - both the actual fast swim time (great job!) as well as your swim split year-over-year improvement given that you did essentially NO IN-WATER SWIMMING (!!!!) for this block.

I'll be honest - I'm as big a proponent of the efficacy of Vasa and any here, but I was worried that you'd have a bit of a rude awakening when you hit actual OWS given that you literally did about zero water swimming for the entire block (!!!).

I've never done as you have with near-zero swimming for a whole block, but I do notice little niggles and weird partial fatigue in my arms/shoulders on the RECOVERY (not the power pull) part of the stroke when I haven't been in the water in awhile and having been only doing Vasa, and I don't consider myself 'race-ready' until I've made sure I've ramped up some pool swimming in the weeks before the race to make sure it's all go. It doesn't take much, but I do notice it.

In either case, I would definitely say that you and sgy are the new official 'let's skip pool swimming COMPELTELY and still rock the swim' experts on this forum.

I actually think you should start up an entire separate thread with greater detail on how you trained with the Vasa and zero pool for this entier block, with honest assessments of what worked well as well as what didn't compared to your prior pool experiences, given that your sub60 IM swim puts you well into the group of very capable swimmers.

Lightheir, to be clear this is a sub 60 HALF Ironman swim, not full. Waco is a 70.3. Just wanted to make that clarification and make sure you and i were on the same page there!!

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Ack!

Ok, I totally mixed that up - I thought you were doing a FULL IM. Does change the swim assessment a little, as it differs somewhat for swimmers in the 40+ range and the faster swimmers.

In either way, congrats on your swim improvement!

I would absolutely kill to be able to swim that in a full!!

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

No worries, you only need to go twice as fast next time!

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

I think swim was probably slightly long, so I wouldn't be too upset with your time there. It's always hard to evaluate open water swims. Best thing you can do is look at pro swim times from race to race and I'd expect them to be a bit faster with a wetsuit.

On the bike, that's a much better ride than your Galveston ride. Not only is Galveston flat but most of the road surface is excellent. Once again comparing to to pros, Starky rode 5.2% slower at Waco and applying that math to your ride this would be an equivalent of 2:30:5x or so on the Galveston course. I rode 6 minutes slower at Waco then I did last time I did Galveston despite pushing 15w more at Waco.

Congrats on your performance. Serious question here, if you say that you never felt tired from endurance during the whole Triathlon, do you feel you should have gone faster?

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- Jordan

My Strava

Honest answer...

I was questioning that the entire bike and run. For the bike i had my eyes on the computer the majority of the time trying to maintain a certain wattage. “Follow the process” stayed in my mind the entire bike leg. It was a bit difficult because again, I race mostly in houston and the surrounding areas so every race I’ve done (including olys and sprints) are pretty much pancake flat and the only variation in speed / wattage is making turns / corners / u-turns. The up and down undulation of this course kept it interesting. i kept telling myself to not overdo it on the bike because i still had to run. I wanted a good consistent run, I didn’t want to fade late i the run like i always do.

When i got off the bike my legs were absolutely toast, more so than i remember from any other race. I had to brace myself on the bike just to get to the bike rack. i was worried i put too much into the bike and was going to hobble the entire run. By the time i was out of transition i was running on pace just fine. that said, my overall body fatigue was not there. My body was not tired, I didn’t feel drained.

It was the same on the run. My legs were killing me essentially the entirety of the run, especially my knees since I wasn’t used to elevation changes. My body never really felt tired till the last few miles of the run when i decided to “empty the tank”. At about mile 7 or 8 (cant remember) i swapped from my infinit nutrition to on course coke and water. When I crossed the finish line i stumbled a bit when i got my medal and hat, but i was walking fine pretty much immediately. again, the damn hills messed me up on my pacing so it was hard to really gauge what i was doing / should do in the moment going up and down. I just did the best i could.

The cool perfect weather was definitely a help as well.

My max heart rates for each leg...

Swim = 159 max / 148 avg
Bike = 159 max / 146 avg
Run = 167 max / 152 avg (heart rate only climbed past average in the last 3 miles where i decide to go as fast as i could without blowing up)

I think overall i paced as best i could for unfamiliar conditions. i liked that my legs were my limiting factor for the bike and run, not my entire body. its probable i could have put more into the run (the flats, DEF not the hills).

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

thanks a lot for your perspective! it helps put things in their place a bit better.

i know trying to compare different courses for PRs is absurd, even one course between different years as conditions can influence things so greatly.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

also sean, i looked you up... we’re in the same age group... you killed the course! awesome time dude!

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

thanks!

Best shot of me on the bike ever.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Aweome photo and I love the bike. Also, thanks for doing what you did, i enjoyed following along.

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

Thanks! I was happy to do it. It was fun. I’m glad that some here enjoyed my documenting it.

I wish that my previous races and Waco were more apples to apples comparison. I will say i absolutely know the training plan worked and made me MUCH more fit than what i was. I’ll be doing Texas 70.3 again next year, and ill be using the same exact training plan. I’m looking forward to seeing how much faster I am after two training blocks.

I wont document the entire thing all over again, but I’ll be sure to come back to this thread and update with race results in April.

that said I’m still happy to answer any questions anyone would have regarding the plan or how it effected my race.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Maybe I missed it...

How was your power at Waco vs. Galveston? Rough idea what % of FTP you rode (or planned to ride) for each?

I just started TR and like it a lot so far, but I’m not running much since it’s offseason. Mostly bike, weights/strength, and some yoga. Looking ahead i can see how fitting in swim/run to the mid volume plans would be tough.

Last year I had a coach and I’d do 1 high effort bike and run during the week, 2-3 recovery ride/runs, and then long run and long ride on weekends (with intervals). I THINK the low volume plan might be good to fit in everything else. I like having 60-90 minute mid week workouts that you get destroyed on. As I progress, maybe doing that 2x a week instead of 1 will benefit...Just thinking out loud here...

I picked up around 20 watts of average power between my last race and this one. The temperatures / weather conditions were pretty similar.

20 watts may not sounds like a lot (i was expecting more to be honest, but i was sticking to what the numbers were suppose to be be for my race zone), but one key takeaway that i will reference over and over again was the RPE of the ride. It was taxing on my legs for sure, as I’m sure it should be, however the rest of my body didn’t feel tired. I genuinely feel the plan built me a very strong aerobic base. My average HR dropped 12 BPM on the bike between the two races and i raced faster and harder with a lot more surging. Again i really wish the bike leg was a very flat out and back like Galveston but its hard to directly compare this very rolling hilly course with lots of turns to that one directly.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Thanks for putting this together and staying with it. I've read the 80/20 tri book and reading about your experience has been super helpful in understanding how those principles affect someone day-to-day, week-to-week.

It seems like you faithfully followed an 80/20 plan for a half and, while you were maybe a little disappointed with the headline time, you nonetheless moved way up the age group standings and were rightly satisfied with your overall performance. So I guess the big question is, would you do 80/20 again for your next race? Is there anything training-wise you wish you had done more or less of this time or plan to add or subtract for next time?

Thanks again for sticking to the post and providing the updates! Really informative stuff.

I absolutely will be sticking with the same exact plan for 70.3 Texas next year. The only addition i will throw in will be using the strength training plan that 80/20 provides. This past round i decided to just stick to the s/b/r for time sake, and now that I know how that goes across the entire block i feel i can add in the two strength sessions a week.

Things i wish were different in the plan...

I enjoy running and i wish there was more running involved in the plan. the plan is split i time spent in each discipline in relation to how much time you spend in that discipline in the race, so you spend the most training time on the bike, then the run, then swimming. I was a runner (not competitive) before a age group triathlete and i really want my run to be my strongest leg of the race, however the plan is setup to grow each discipline in relation to the race itself. I think if i ever decide to focus on one discipline that is not the bike, i would have to deviate from using the “canned” 80/20 plans and go the custom route which means $$.

Also, I’m going to have to force myself to get in the water more. The thing that sucks is there is essentially no safe open water near me, and i absolutely HATE lap swimming, and there is only one pool near me that is predominately used by slow older folks just doing water aerobics. I did pick up a couple of minutes, but there were so many times in the water i was having to fix my posture, try and stay flatter, make sure my catch was right, and as soon as i would not actively think about it, my form would go back to crap. My strength and endurance in the water was def up from strict vasa training, but as i already knew it wasn’t going to benefit me in the water regarding form and technique.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Between the water being cold, the wind being against you, and everything else, that’s a very respectable swim time. Way to go! I’m gonna follow you on the 8020 path. Even if it’s just to really build my endurance base.

Oh and TJP_SBR, sorry I didn’t directly answer your question. Ive tried to previously ride around 80% because that was what i read you were suppose to shoot for for a half Ironman bike leg. For this one i was shooting for around 90%ish, which is what the 80/20 high zone x was or me. I figured if riding high in zone x wasn’t working i could drop it back a little. I was only off hitting my target by a few watts.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador