Maybe virtual racing sucks...

Yes !!

Wow you guys are so cool. No one cares what you don't like. I'm finding it to be a fun motivation over an otherwise dull summer. Maybe you both suck?

On the actual question, that was a killer bike course. I'm setting my goal appropriately after those hills. That said, I'm only taking a couple hours in between. I think full on sleep might mess with my system a little.

In a legit 70.3 I'd target a 1:19. In the 3-day VR races I went just under 1:14. So today I think an okay goal is splitting the difference with a sub 1:18 given the east coast heat today.

The back-to-back-to-back "race" weekends are piling up too.

I'm just gonna run smooth for 10 miles then try to close out like I'm drinking mimosas all day tomorrow, which I am.

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Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

I would look at the amount of training and racing you are doing before blaming sleep for a poor performance.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Not a lot of racing, but a living boatload of training. I am at peak condition right now.

How long have you been in “peak condition?”

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

If I only had four hours of sleep, I would be a mess.

The part I've found most annoying is nutrition. The short/medium gaps between events make me want to eat for real but I definitely don't want to run with a sandwich in my stomach.

I've been sticking to things I'd eat over a full IM (granola bars, liquid nutrition, extra gel shots while biking). By the time I'm done all I can think about is pizza.

Maybe the sleep want the problem, but the gap in nutrition?

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Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

Kind of a general answer to a particular question. I am not peak in that I had training structured to peak me at this moment. I am more like high plateau. I was targeting peak performance for an HIM race in early May to get an IMNZ70.3 slot when COVID shut the world won. So, I pivoted to running at least 13 miles every weekend on adventurous streets in a then-abandoned city. And, I pivoted my riding to outdoor loops on a hilly course at a very high level of effort. My pool reopened 5 weeks ago, so my swimming is back to top speed.

If I did an official race today, I would do very well, but not great. I am at a level that I could do a real 70.3 on no notice. My 2 prior VR Olympic distance races I rode and ran at a pace I would do if standalone. I backed off my 56 mile ride a little to try to protect the run today, but the run still sucked big compared to expectation.
I did not do anything special for nutrition on the 5150 races. I did the runs and bikes after dinner and woke early Saturday AM for the 10Ks. The HIM was definitely different. I drank a couple bottles of calories on the bike, drank some more recovery stuff (chocolate milk) at midnight. Then, got up before the run to eat a little typical pre-race stuff, and I carried a bottle of calories on the run. It definitely felt off. However, I felt like crap on the run this morning almost immediately-- legs were very heavy and really did not want to engage.

My current AG ranking is good, and I will definitely get points. But, I feel like I gave up at least 5 minutes of opportunity (6-7 places better).

I can't believe you even needed to ask this. I mean come on.

I think you’ve assessed it well there. I reckon your body has gone into recovery mode and you’ve jolted it awake by attempting a run at race pace. That being said, if you did the run on tonight or on Sunday I think you’d have been at race pace or even better

So you're living off bars, gels, and chocolate milk, and fantasizing about pizza? Your nutrition seems to be lacking. You're over restricting caloric intake if you're dreaming about eating junkfood often. You need to get more low cal whole foods into your body to fuel those beastly effort. I find I think less about eating trash when I'm properly fueled. I sleep better too...😉

Probably a combination of things to be honest. Sometimes you just have to chalk it up to just having a bad day. You probably are at peak fitness, but werent having a peak day. I'd take what was said already, work on doing better next time and just forget about this one

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Strava

I think about pizza during the last 2k of a 70.3... I think it's fine.

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Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

Sleeping is probably the least appreciated training and recovery tool

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

There's no such thing as a high plateau. If that's where you are then it's just over-training/over-reaching and you need some rest. A peak is a short and highly perishable thing.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

I can relate. Provided it's not all the time, it's perfectly normal during a race.

I've got a one year old and a three year old. If I had more than a few hours uninterrupted sleep in the past 3 and a half years, I'd look incredible. Or so I keep telling myself.

Kids are weird. How can something so small make so much noise two hours after they've been put to bed? Who chugs a whole bottle of water right before going to sleep, then wakes up throughout the night for more milk or water? Then gets up at 0530???

Rockstar - sounds amazing

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

Fully agree. This VR thing is actually 3 weekends of racing up till now. If you didn't take some kind of extra rest after the short races and before this weekend's race you are likely a bit burned out. Especially if you aren't in your 20ies anymore.
I really had to bike very conservatively on the virtual Kona course today. I think people need to be careful with back to back weeks of high intensity racing.
Sam

Good for you that you're a training stud and yeah I suck and pretend racing isn't for me.
You would grind me to dust and that sense of humour of yours is just so cool.
I wanna be just like you when I grow up.

He asked a specific question and noted his sleep was 4 hours. Disrupting the natural sleep pattern was not a good idea. I think this was the cause for his poor performance.

There really isn’t debate about sleep being the being the best way to recover and perform at a high level. But that isn’t what was asked.

This is what I suspected, but I don't have any science on it. And, it was a little different from typical sleep deprivation, in that the short sleep was preceded by an intense activity.

I structured the timing to try to give some rest between activities and also run in the coolest part of the day. I think I would have run better if I simply ran straight off the bike and did not try to mix sleep in the middle.

I will get some VR points for this, but my performance kinda sucked.

I think you answered your own question as well... I can't imagine I would psychologically be in a good place to run hard after disrupting a sleep cycle and then starting to struggle solo.

Physiologically, I've had the experience of not being able to attain the same heart rates on early morning exercise compared to that later in the day. This is apparently common... an (over 10 years old) article that might have some info worth looking into: https://www.nytimes.com/...utrition/10best.html


This article also mentions most world records are not broken in early-morning competition. Personally I put in most of my training in the morning, but I've almost never tried executing race effort just after rolling out of bed.