2015 Tour of the Gila or Tour of California was my most undertrained events that I can think of. I was flying going into team camp at the end of February, struggled through March and April and unexpectedly got the call to race those on minimal fitness. Got my face kicked in on both.

37 mile Ultra last year my first, went in very undertrained (also ill and underslept but that's another story...). This was my first ultra, having previously done 3 70.3s (5.30ish) and a marathon (looooooong time ago).

I averaged 2 runs per week between April - October (did *some* cycle and swimming, inconsistently). Longest run was 20 miles.

Event took me 9 hours. I picked up a heel injury at mile 16ish so was limping for most of the way. The injury came about because my socks got wet and my feet blistered up, and my heel spasmed because I was trying to land my feet wrong.

Would NOT recommend it, but it did teach me the body is as strong as the mind is willing!

Not sure this counts. A couple years ago I took the year off from any triathlon longer than Olympic. I wanted to focus on my mountain bike racing. I only did five or six sprint distance triathlons. I never once trained for the swim or run. I only rode my tri bike on race day. I finished top in the bike but did not have the speed to keep up with the really fast runners. It was a good reminder of how much fun sprint triathlons are. Also doesn't blow your entire Sunday.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

OK, that was undertrained...and limping 20 miles does not sound fun. Hope you recovered well afterwards.

I don't think it matters much how fast you are for an event like that. What matters is whether you have the endurance and if you have any weaknesses that might become an issue during the course of the event. For example, I did the Marmotte des Alpe a couple of years ago. It was tough (not especially long at 174km but lots of climbing with around 5000m) but I was never in danger of not finishing. Despite being a stronger rider now in terms of FTP, and shorter rides up to a couple of hours, my endurance is nowhere near where it was, since I haven't been doing longer training rides for a while now. As a result I'm not sure how I'd fair and since I've had some niggling issues with one knee, I'd be wary of committing to a big event without testing myself on some long rides of a similar sort of profile.

It was a fondo, 2018 Assault on Mt. Mitchell.

I think my biggest weeks training before were 7 hours total with max ride distance of maybe 75mi and 6000ft elevation before that.

I made it. Bottom of faster 1/3 of results. I suffered for it though. I got a flat at mile 30 and lost the "peloton" and had to ride alone all the way to Marion. Then climb the mountain.

I want a re-do of that day. If I had to do it nowadays I would ride a solo century every week for 2 months before the event.

2016 IM NC (aka Beach to Battleship). Never ran more than 8 miles in training. Wind was brutal that day. Luckily, hurricane damage to the roads cut the bike distance in half. If the bike was a full 112 miles that day, I would have never finished.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

My under-trained races are all sport-specific - ie: I have a 70.3 as my A race and decide to try my hand at a marathon (or vice versa) a few weeks later expecting the fitness to carry over, despite borrowing a few training sessions the other way. I've done this twice, once in each direction.

I still do OK, but I never come away satisfied. When I schedule the marathon 2nd, the back half of the marathon ends up being a slog. When the 70.3 ends up being second, the bike leg isn't nearly as fast as I'd want it to be (the swim and run legs were fine!)

10 years ago I got a challenge and participated in a 200 mile (330 km) race. I raced it on marathon training and daily biking. Longest bikeride was 35 km. Rode in a relative slow group, and had a superb race. The last 25 km i was really tired, but was able to ride 10 km after goalline to my home.

No injuries, bit a bit tired legs/knees the following week.

I think you can do it, if you find a good group, and remember to not going to the front, and drink/eat all the time.

Actually Im in the same boat at the moment. Yesterday my last 70.3 was cancelled, bit the same day there is a 430 km bike race :)

Have a great race - just do it.

Three weeks before the Philadelphia Distance Run [now the Rock n Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon] in 1999 – while cruising through a 10-mile workout at about a 7½ minute pace; I quit running.

With D'Kid due in November, D’Wife high-risk and stressed in four-dimensions [physically, emotionally, hormonally and spiritually], it seemed pretty selfish to be going for a PR at this time.

After running at least every day 17½ years, I stopped for a while. Heck, I had plenty of training in the box, no problem. I ran the race, and finished in a [then] disastrous 2:08; compounded by a 15 minute defeat to my sister-in-law

"The Big Quit" - as we call it around D'MartHouse - lasted 7 years. In fact, I wasn't even close to returning to training when I joined ST in 2004

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Not sure how much this will help you but my most under-trained race was my first 70.3

Didn't swim in the 5 weeks before the event. Only did the practice swim the day before for 800 yards to make sure I was comfortable in open water still

My longest run was 10 miles. But I normally was only hitting 20 mpw. This normally wouldn't be a problem but...

I barely cycled. My longest ride was 32 miles 2 times. I did some large climbs in the cat 3 - cat 4 range

Overall averaged 4-5 hours a week for this event, ended up going 5:20 so not too bad but my main takeaway was that I probably went out too ambitious in each of the 3 sections and did not have the training to back that pace up. Coming from a running background I was able to hold my own come the run still but I was definitely suffering on the bike. I also was a swimmer as a kid so the form was already there, just a little lacking in the fitness and muscular specific adaptations training would provide.

I found I was able to fuel really well for my event. I think given your times and cycling experience you can probably manage this race just fine, just be conservative over the first bit, more so than you probably would initially think and go for a negative split if you are feeling good 2/3 of the way through

My most undertrained event was my first full IM, IMFL 2019. I was very inconsistently training for the 6 months leading up to it, doing 10 - 20 mpw running and 50 - 70 mpw bike with close to zero swimming. I ended up getting a running knee injury almost exactly a month out from the event which kept me from doing any running. I did however do a five mile run the week before. Showed up and actually managed to finish it but I'm still paying for it now haha

My first marathon at the end of my freshman year of college. A couple months of running averaging less than 30 mpw with no run longer than 15 miles. Fortunately, I did understand that I needed to pace very cautiously and finished in 3:51 with not a lot of suffering. Oh to be 19 again.

I think you may have a major pain in the ass by the finish, but should be able to finish if you are cautious enough.

OK, that sounds encouraging. The race I am planning on doing will be a solo effort from start to finish....no sitting back in a group. We'll see.

I think spending time in the saddle to prep for this is important. Power and legs aside, you want to be somewhat comfortable sitting for long periods of time - so this time now could be good prep for that.

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

1st marathon... 3 weeks training about 15 miles per week long run of 10 miles..

Did you lose a bet??

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Let food be thy medicine...

Not a race, but decided to bikepack around europe for a bit, started out in england with some 50-60 mile days for 5 days (with little prior riding), then day 1 in france after getting off the ferry was 180 miles in about 12 hours. Followed that up with 4 more days of 150+. Just stay within a manageable power zone and eat/drink a ton. You'll probably make it, and the body recovers from a ride much faster than an equivalent duration run/hike.

There's a very important question that I don't think has been asked....How old are you?

If you're in your 20s for example, you'll probably have considerably more room to manoeuver. As you get older, I think your ability to handle unfamiliar work loads reduces quite a bit.

Not sure what I was thinking... Actually felt great until about mile 17 then suffered through the rest... Was at end of tri season so I was in shape from that but very low running miles...

Buddy and I did a 100 mile canoe race.

We put in massive 1 hour of training before toeing the start line. Yeah, that hurt a bit. We were laughing at ourselves.

The best part was after I loaned out my backup light to his daughter who was also racing, our lights ran out of juice. So it's dark, after midnight, and we were heading towards the only rapids on the course.
If you're gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough.

As long as it was downstream......

It was a drought year, so very low flow.
Instead of banjos we did hear coyotes.
I yelled out in my best Monty Python voice,"We're not dead yet!"

I went into a 101 mile ultra running race off of what was basically a high mileage Ironman plan. I figured the hours in the saddle would help the lungs, and the 60ish miles per week would be enough for the legs. The seemingly endless time in a pool would steel the brain. Ehhh sorta.

Didn't help that the race ended up with a 70% DNF rate or something wild because of a freak ice storm that crushed most of us in the first 30 miles. My last 20 miles were basically a shuffle but I got it done. The worst part of the undertraining wasn't even the day itself (maybe because my brain shut off and my memory is hazy for most of it), it was the recovery. I don't think I was back to 100% for 2 months, where some of the guys I beat handily were back at in in 2 weeks or so.

So who really won in the end? Everybody, because we all drank whisky at the finish line. And I'd do it all over again because experiences like that are worth the suffering. But if I go back to that distance I'll definitely do some ultra specific training.

I say have at it.

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Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
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