It would also depend largely on what level of athlete you are.

That's true, I'm a standard triathlete in my own right. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. I am looking to complete a HIM in May in 5hrs 30mins on a flat, forgiving course.

Then there are a few other other considerations. How lean are you already? I think people who are on the too lean AGers side have worse IMs. My thought are 1kg would make very limited difference in the grand scheme of things. You are already on the light side.

I can see why maintaining some body fat would be useful in a full IM... Is the common recommendation for such events to not aim for the super slim physique? People seem to go on about frame weight and the weight of every nook and cranny on a bike that I assumed the individuals weight would have a significant impact also.

That's because it's way easier to spend $500 on bottle cages to save 16grams than to step away from the cookies for a week.

#pinknotpink

Why do you want to lose weight and what do you think it will do for you?

You are already pretty light, and also your goal of 5:30 on a flat course suggests that you are probably currently not very fast as that's a very achievable goal. Running is probably most sensitive to having excess grams but the bulk of your HIM time will be on the bike where you might run into diminishing returns from loss of power from not having enough muscle.

What is your current FTP and how fast is your swim and run?

I think about 4s per kg per km in running.
On the bike I read 1 minute on a 10% ramp which is 10 km long. (This is also the reason why the disadvantage of a p3x/p5x compared to a lighter bike is on most courses minimal).

My FTP is 140, so just over 2 watts per kg. I know this isn't very good and the bulk of my training has gone into cycling recently. I swim steady at just under 2 min/ 100m and I'm currently running around 5min/km.

Weight on the bike if a very hilly course has a very low significance. If you are losing muscle to lower that weight you can go slower. The run is where a lighter weight will make a difference but unless you are assessed professionally or have some history on what works best for you I would just try and eat healthy, don't eat too much and over stress on calories. What shall be shall be when it comes to weight. On my bigger races I just eat as clean as I can and I have close to 15kg on you. No beer is the killer!

I would have thought that if you weigh less it would be easier to get up the hill? Or are you discounting the effort going up with the speed you will gain on the descent?

I will take your advice on board. I have probably been stressing too much about calories recently since I got the idea of less weight = more speed stuck in my head.


Amen!

More power = More speed
And you need muscle for power. At those numbers I think concentrating on increasing power and probably putting on a couple of kg in muscle might really help.

My bad what I meant to say...

Weight on the bike unless a very hilly course has a very low significance.

Hello

1) I do not think your FTP is 140w. Given your swim and run it is more probably 200w+ ?

2) don't overthink about your weight. You are light. Just train correctly, fuel correctly, and avoid too much cookies, fat and alcohol.
But give your body what it needs to enhance your muscles. At 68kg for 1m75, I don't know what is your muscle mass vs fat mass, but training correctly and eating correctly will help, whatever it reduce (fat reduction) or increase (muscle increase) your body weight.

I did a 20 minute Zwift FTP test that gave me those results, how accurate my trainer is/ Zwift is, I'm not sure. I do know that cycling is my weakest leg of the triathlon, though.




I can avoid the cookies and nasty fats reasonably easy (with a cheat day, of course); if I am to drink alcohol, is whiskey my best option? Low carbs and still does the job haha. (Many of my friends are turning 21 this year and the social demand is extremely high).

If you are really serious about improving your cycling then have a look at http://www.trainerroad.com

They have a really useful forum and podcast as well, so you'll have access to all the knowledge you'll need to make all the right choices.

much agreed. i use zwift, but their training plans suck hard. i’ve used tr and over time i’ve went from 170ish to a touch over 200 ftp.

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also...

for a ramp test you are suppose to completely empty the tank. the last interval is an absolute failure point. your legs simply will not work anymore. it’s not “hard” it’s “impossible”.

i’m wondering with a result of 140, maybe you bailed too early?

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there’s a good youtube channel, “smart bike trainers”, that did a side by side comparison of the zwift and tr ramp test and the results were essentially the same. i’d assume swift’s ramp test is as accurate as a ramp test can be as long as the proper effort was put into it.

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Your bike shouldn’t be average at an FTP of 265 if we’re talking about racing triathlons. 220-225 watts at 6’1” 175 would put me over 25mph in any non super hilly race.

I don’t find his FTP “number” too hard to believe if he’s not a cyclist and is just starting. It’s very hard to bike hard when you first start. Maybe it’s 160 or so but, I don’t think it’s as far off as people are saying.

If he's using virtual power, the number could have nothing to do with reality. It's just a number that you can base progress from, but isn't necessarily actual watts.

Last time I did an FTP test, my FTP was 179 watts or so according to virtual power. I weigh around 90kg and did around 2:35 bike split at Muncie last year (I overbiked though, the heat on the run was a killer).

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200?? Neither his swim or his run would indicate amazing fitness to drop a 200+ watt FTP

Unless 200w is with one leg, it should be pretty easy to achieve for someone who runs at 5min/km during a 70.3