PedalNowNapL8r wrote:
Sam from one big unit to another (by triathlon standards, hilarious that 6’4” 170ish is considered a “big unit”!), really appreciate your candor here and insights. Two questions from me:
1. The bike is clearly your A weapon at this point. Are you changing your training ratios accordingly or do you still maintain a more traditional split?
2. This isn’t intended as a buzzkill question but it’s always fun to celebrate wins but more instructive to contemplate more disappointing finishes ('disappointing' being used here as a HIGHLY relative term). So any updated thoughts on Nice especially after such a successful race in Chatt? Clearly w/kg was at more of a premium in Nice, but I think you also alluded to potentially overcooking the bike based on the power numbers you posted, and then paying for it on the run. Would you race it any different strategically after reflecting on it? Also, have you thought about any changes in training approach based on any Nice lessons learned?
Thanks again for taking the time to drop in here - awesome thread so far
Great questions!
Below I'll answer a number of the questions that I see in the feed I haven't answered yet (In no particular order).
1) Fluid intake on bike: Uh OHH. I may have given a overestimate yesterday. I better be prepared to be eaten alive on here...After further thought my estimate is as follows.
I started with 1 24 oz bottle and 2 20 oz bottles. (68 oz)
At special needs I picked up 2 24 oz bottles (48)
I picked up one Gatorade Endurance and drank most of it (16 oz)
At 7 other aid stations I grabbed a bottle and chugged as much as I could and then got rid of it. Estimating 10 oz at each= 70 oz
Drank one full 20 oz bottle at the last aid station
=68+48+16+70+20=
222 oz of fluid
The calories were mostly liquid. 1400 calories of First Endurance EFS in my bottles. Then I had 800 kcals of Cliff Shot blocks in my bento box. Finally 200 calories roughly in the Gatorade Endurance.
Big Unit Debate: I suppose the secret fun is that I'm called the Big Unit for lots of reasons.Big Physique (Although as you pointed out 6'4" and 175 is hardly massive (I know you'll ask I weighed 173 for this race but am normally closer to 180)) Big Power, Big Appetite, Big Feet...You get the rest.
Sunscreen: Zealios Sunscreen is the best stuff I have ever used. It is pretty expensive but when I have used it I have never once been burnt. For this race I applied once the morning of the race and no sunburn. In training most days I apply once. I actually wake up and put it on first thing most training days. If I swim first I may put on twice. No joke.
Nice Thoughts and Lessons: Very thoughtful questions here.
1) Yes my bike is my A weapon and I have absolutely thought about how to modify my training with this. In between Nice and Chatty I even modified my training.
What I have discovered on the bike is that I don't really have to do that much hard structured interval work--especially for IM. Going into Chatty I was actually the least confident about my bike as I have been as I did one interval session in the three weeks between. My bike training seems to be best by riding a few days a week from 4-6 hours at a fairly comfortable pace and then ending with some type of higher intensity work. This kind of training has a small toll on me and allows me to put the intensity and real effort into the pool and on the run. It sounds almost too simple but the longer aerobic work builds my engine for the all three sports, keeps my strength, and then allows for the real specificity to be applied in the other two disciplines.
This off season/winter the plan is to do a lot of high quality swimming. My newish thing however is to not swim one length of the pool with bad form. If I am not focused and swimming poorly, I get out. It's worth less than zero to swim poorly to me. So I will swim as much as I can with high focus, discipline, and making it count.
2) The races where you suck are just as or more important than the races you crush. I'll cover both Nice and IM LP here.
Nice a few things happened.
I simply was still recovering from my overtraining. Digging yourself a hole takes a while to get out of. I lost a lot of my confidence in August as an athlete and this affected me mentally. Yes, I overbiked. This was a result of a terrible swim at Nice. I was so far back I figured why not just push it very hard and try and get in the race.
Unfortunately, when I got to Chatty I discovered that my front brake was rubbing. I know I lost some time because of this. I am honestly surprised I was able to run at all in Nice as the power I pushed was higher than anything I have ever done--peak 10, 20, 60, and 90 minute of all time! Even if the brakes hadn't been rubbing I still would have gotten my booty kicked. It was not a big man's course and watts per kilo was too important (look at how Starky rode--as compared to his usual Fastest Bike Split). I also didn't know the descent well enough. A great lesson learned that you have to race courses that suit your ability.
Lake Placid. What I did in the build up to that race was absolutely mental! You can look at my IG for July and see some of the updates I was giving. For a 4 week period my average running pace was 6:18 per mile (for 100k's a week). Another example is I was doing two rides a week that were over 300 TSS on the bike alone (with a run and swim in addition). Nearly an IM two days a week--then a 20 plus mile long run every week. I simply was going to hard, too long, and at too high of a frequency! I bought into the mentality that more is always better and left everything I had in training. When I got to my taper (Which was still hardly a taper) my body totally shut down. I nearly put myself in a situation that could have ruined my career. I got lucky! Thankfully I pulled out of LP. Then three days later I got in a bike crash that forced me to lie in bed for four days. At the time it sucked. I look back and thank the heavens. If that hadn't happened I would have kept pushing!
As many people have said. What you do in training doesn't matter. All that counts is what you do on race day. I learned in Chattanooga that winning an IM on the day is far harder than I thought but that training for an IM is far easier than I thought. Yes, I still train hard. I still trained about 30 hours a week for Chatty but not 35-40 with well over 25% of that being Z3 or above.
Thanks for all the questions. I'm enjoying this. I will do my best to get answers out at least once a day.
Sam Long
AKA The BigUnit
IG: @samgolong