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How do you manage your energy in triathlon?
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I believe the key performance factor in durability sports is how endurance athletes are able to manage their energy levels while swimming, running and pedaling from start to finish.

just wondering how do you guys manage your energy in triathlon?
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Noot] [ In reply to ]
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Are you asking how to pace a race?
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Noot] [ In reply to ]
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What distance? Sprints = no nutrition; Olympic = some nutrition; HIM = some nutrition plus; HM = more nutrition.
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Noot] [ In reply to ]
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The basic premise is that the longer you're going for, the less close to redlining you'll be ie in a race that's an hour long, you should be hitting 85-90% of your total maximum effort levels, for an 8hr race this percentage will be significantly lower. In addition, the longer you're racing for the more nutrition and hydration will come into play.

In terms of measuring pace come race day, you won't for anything in short distance, but the longer you're going the more likely you'll closely monitor the wattage you put on the bike and the pace you're running at. RPE is also a good indicator of 'how hard' you're going, especially for longer races if you do long training blocks leading into each race.
Last edited by: jaredhartshorn: Nov 17, 19 10:33
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [ClayDavis] [ In reply to ]
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yeah, I'd say how to get a good pace in the race
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Noot] [ In reply to ]
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Have you done any races yet? If so, what distances? (Or if not, what distances are you preparing for.)

How did your S/B/R compare to your pace in training or other single-discipline races? A major element of pacing is assessing, understanding your body, and adjusting for future races.
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Noot] [ In reply to ]
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For swimming I go off feel. On the bike and run I know what heart rate I can sustain without blowing up.

As mentioned, shorter races are basically all out, but knowing what pace you can hold is increasingly important as distances get longer. In a 70.3, exuberance in hour two will hammer you in hour five.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Titanflexr] [ In reply to ]
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Titanflexr wrote:
For swimming I go off feel. On the bike and run I know what heart rate I can sustain without blowing up.

As mentioned, shorter races are basically all out, but knowing what pace you can hold is increasingly important as distances get longer. In a 70.3, exuberance in hour two will hammer you in hour five.

Definitely!

I find HIM's the easiest distance to pace and manage.

Nutrition wise, it's short enough you can kind of play fast and loose (I find as long as I have 2-3 bottles on the bike and a few gels, and feed off the run course, I'll be ok, with no real special timing or effort put in to managing things any further)

Pacing wise, it's long enough that, if I start breathing heavy or pushing too hard it's easy to think "it is a long day, save it for the last 10k or the run" and dial it back.

In shorter distances, I tend to forget that pacing mantra, and go too hard. In longer races, nutrition becomes more important to dial in.

Long Chile was a silly place.
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Titanflexr] [ In reply to ]
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Any particular reason you use Hr instead of some other metric ie power? The current research seems to indicate that it's probably too variable to use as an effective pacer, I'm curious to hear your reasoning for using it
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [Noot] [ In reply to ]
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Sprint - nothing for nutrition / go all out.
Last Olympic - just electrolytes as a test / on bike try to hold a power number I come up with, max HR on run
70.3 - pre race meal, 2 bottles EFS Pro on bike, a couple gels on run / don't know my FTP so I just have a number a like to hit, on run as hard as I can until I start gasping for air then back off just a little.
Last 140.6 pre race meal, Swim = nothing, Bike= all water in front BTA, 9 Clif Bloks chews squares, 2 SFuels bars, 7 salt chews (Lost SFuels Race concentrated nutrition bottle somewhere on bike course). Run = gel when I felt I was fading (5 gels...I think) / raced by HR on bike and run because I'm still trying to figure it out.

http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [jaredhartshorn] [ In reply to ]
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jaredhartshorn wrote:
Any particular reason you use Hr instead of some other metric ie power? The current research seems to indicate that it's probably too variable to use as an effective pacer, I'm curious to hear your reasoning for using it

Personally, I love using power and do race with a PM. The benefit of power is that it is instant, whereas hr has lag. This is key on the bike where it’s too easy to jam up hills way over ftp.

The problem with power is that it doesn’t account for conditions like hot weather, altitude, even slight illness. If I think I should be able to do 220W on 145bpm, but trying to hold 220W puts me at 155; I need to lower my wattage target to what I can maintain at 145, because I know doing the bike at 155 will not end well.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: How do you manage your energy in triathlon? [jaredhartshorn] [ In reply to ]
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jaredhartshorn wrote:
Any particular reason you use Hr instead of some other metric ie power? The current research seems to indicate that it's probably too variable to use as an effective pacer, I'm curious to hear your reasoning for using it
Titanflexr wrote:
The problem with power is that it doesn’t account for conditions like hot weather, altitude, even slight illness.
Ditto this. I blindly rode to a power target early on, but then I discovered that heat plays a major factor and HR is a much better indicator of how fast I am burning the fuse. I will start riding to my power target, but then I will back down if my HR is too high.
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