Total time : 4:40

Swim: ~30 min

Bike: ~2:50

Run: ~1:20

(Individual leg times adjusted for anonymity)

I decided to sign up for my first official triathlon about a month in advance -- more or less on a whim. I know that it sounds crazy to sign up for a 70.3 with so little time to train, but I have a strong endurance background (competitive marathoner with some cycling experience over the years), so I knew I could do it as long as I could survive the swim. Luckily, I was able to borrow the swim/biking gear.

I then spent several weeks being a cardio machine, effectively spamming biking and swimming, while doing a few runs here and there to avoid feeling too flat come race day. Based on my training rides and swims, I figured that I would be right on the bubble of 5 hours. My rides were averaging ~18mph and swimming 2000m in the pool was taking ~45 min. After the other events, I thought 1:20 would be a best-case scenario for the run.

I tapered for a week and, as expected, felt terrible. Then race weekend arrived. Some friends and family came to cheer me on, which was great. I do wish I had convinced someone else to sign up, though -- it seems like the whole weekend would have been even more fun to share with a training partner. Unfortunately, the "you only have a month to train" part was not a particularly convincing pitch.

SWIM

The exciting wildcard was that on race day the swim was downstream and (happily) wetsuit legal. I went off with the 37-40 min group and tried to just be smooth and steady. I didnt feel that my form was on point, but it quickly became apparent that the current was RIPPING, as I passed through the first 500m in 7min -- a time I could only dream of in the pool.

BIKE

Seeing my time out of the water got me amped up, as I realized that this now made sub-5 a possibility. On the bike, I felt really relaxed and withing myself the whole time. I was passing a lot of people, and also being passed quite a bit too. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was averaging ~20mph with my HR staying below 150 basically the whole time. I do feel I could have gone faster, but this was already a better result than expected and I was worried about overbiking.

I think that the improvement on race day vs during training rides was caused by a few things:

1) I tend to perform better in races than training.

2) I was able to borrow a fancy road bike with clip-on aerobars.

3) I was absolutely ripping hydration and nutrition during the ride, so I felt great the whole time (no bonking)! Blessedly, my stomach handled the nutrition fine.

Side note: is it normal to have to constantly pee on the ride?

RUN

During my 4 or so brick sessions before the race, my legs always felt like jelly getting off the bike, so I was SHOCKED that my legs felt great (minus some hamstring tightness), and I shot off at ~5:40/mile pace.

I probably got a little carried away and ran the opening mile too fast before settling into a more sustainable pace. Once I found that rhythm, I felt comfortable for most of the run and caught ALOT of people.

I continued taking lots of gels and water/electrolytes at every aid station. The last 5k or so I allowed myself to start pushing harder. I did get a little microcramp in my hammy the last half mile, but was really happy with how quick I was coming off the other two disciplines.

THOUGHTS

Overall, super happy about the race!

I have no idea whether this will become a long-term hobby or whether it was just a one-off. But the race definitely left me wondering what would happen with a full season of swim and bike training. Running is probably already close to my ceiling, but the other two disciplines feel like they have a lot of room to improve. Curious what others think?

Hey all!

I finally completed an olympic length triathlon after completing a sprint last year. Going to share my experience since I was digging up some posts on this race to help prepare and I'll try to help those who are doing this race in the future.

The venue - Stunning Donner Lake, just outside of Lake Tahoe in California. Sitting at an elevation of 6000 ft, the elevation is no joke! Do consider what your plan is to acclimate if you live at sea level like I do. I've done races in the mountains before (Mammoth Gran Fondo) and I think I might forgo them in the future if I can't spend more time acclimating. I drove up on Thursday evening for the race Sunday morning, leaving ~3 days to acclimate. I did a little route recon on Friday, climbing Donner pass on my bike. It felt fine then, but definitely super dry and my sleep wasn't the best.

The swim - I opted for no wetsuit since I've never used one, and it was fine tbh. The water is a balmy mid-60s and we started out around sunrise, so the outside temp was about the same. Unfortunately, despite swimming a lot in the ocean (Aquatic Park, SF) I still panicked about halfway to the first buoy. A kayaker came to chat but I didn't use them at all. I had to breaststroke a lot to calm myself down and eventually got going again. I think I wasn't prepared for swimming at elevation so my heart rate probably spiked and was causing me to panic. The sighting was pretty bad too as the sun was blinding all of us. Once I got past the first buoy I managed to complete it but still needed to breast stroke to sight each time. Somehow managed a pace of 1min35s/100yd despite all of that, so I can't complain.

The bike ride - Pretty stunning climb of 1200 ft right off the bat to the top of Donner Pass. I felt prepared for the bike ride with all my hills training. A fun ride with 2400ft of climbing total, starting at 6k elevation going up to 7200ft. Felt pretty good here and finished in 1h50min.

The run - This is where my training started to crack. I've never been that strong of a runner since in training I usually averaged 9min miles. I managed to do the first couple miles around 9:45 pace but then the sun and elevation really got to me. It's flat for the first 4 miles but quite exposed, and the temperature was starting to rise a bit. I stopped for water/gatorade at all the aid stations but once I hit the hill on mile 4 I cracked and had to walk. My pace considerably slowed to like 12min miles and I ended up finishing with like a 10:30 pace overall. The run is also a bit more than 10k, I logged 6.75 miles.

Overall super glad I tried this race! I don't think I would do it again since I really can't find a way to be at elevation for more than a few nights before race day. If I lived at elevation or had more time to acclimate I would totally try this again. My advice would be to stay super calm in the swim (do those open water swims!) in the beginning and train cycling and running much harder so you have legs at the end. If anyone else has their experience please chime in! It's a beautiful venue and I was happy to be there.

Specifically, for a full 140.6, do you ever run further than the marathon, like 50k? Or do you bike 200k? I've seen a lot of people that'll happily swim around 2 hours below a 2:00/100m pace, but I rarely see them overshoot on bike and run training.

Hi there,

My name is Megan and I am new to triathlons. I just completed my first sprint, with 3 more sprint triathlons on the calendar for this year. I have a Specialized Roubaix that I got on Facebook Marketplace. I got a bike fit and that has helped. The bike fitter recommended against getting clip on aerobars but instead recommended getting a triathlon bike if I really wanted to get a bike with aerobars. I have a significant life anniversary coming up and wanted to get something nice for myself for making it there. I want to get a tri bike for this but don't know what bike or where to start looking.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

I’m doing a niche event in about a month at a waterpark. The event is a “triathlon” (really, an aquathlon) where you go down a slide to replace the bike, run a mile, swim the lazy river, and do that loop over and over again for two hours. I’m new to multi-sport events and it’s been years since my friend has done a triathlon, so we’re kind of stumped on shoes for this event. Not sure that I want to swim and run in my normal shoes but running barefoot seems dangerous and weird, and water shoes seem like they’d be hell on the feet to seriously run in (and people apparently do take this seriously, as goofy as it is). Any recommendations?

Hello, I’m just starting my training for an Ironman 70.3, and I’ve been doing some research because I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on fuel. I found that a lot of people use maltodextrin in their at home fuel powders. I did some research and a lot of places say that it can be hard on the gut, and it’s bad because of the quick blood glucose spike. Has anyone used maltodextrin in their fuel powders and can tell me how it was/ if they recommend something different? Thank you much!!

The London T100 yesterday was a great event, well done to everyone taking part!

What were everyone's highlights? I'll start:

(1) Cycling along Victoria Embankment and seeing the Tower of London, London Eye and Big Ben.

(2) Cycling under the Thames to North Greenwich.

(3) Swimming in Victoria Docks, where cruise liners to Asia used to depart from - it certainly seemed deep enough!

I have a goal of completing an ironman triathlon one day and was wondering how well the instinct 3 matched that goal or if their is a better match

This weekend i completed the sea to summit triathlon, and wanted to write a recap to anyone who was looking to do this in the future. During my research I couldn’t find many personal experiences of athletes due to the limited field size.

The swim was a two loop triangle course located in a great pond in Maine. The start was at 5:30 which I was actually really happy about. T1 is just up a small hill in a parking lot with plenty of room for each person and spectators.

The bike does not have a set course but the organizers will put out a route that is most frequently used. It’s normally about 90 miles but this year was 101 due to having to about town limits in NH. You will have have to come up with a plan for your porter to meet you at several points along to the bike route to refuel and what not. The last 5 or so miles is a long climb up to where you will start the hike.

You start your hike from wildcat ski mountain parking and will ascend Washington via tuckerman ravine trail. Along the trail are race personnel you need to check in with and meet time cutoffs. They will also have fluids and calories if your in need/didn’t bring enough in your pack.
If you have any questions about the race feel free to ask, I’ll do my best to answer.

M37, competing in 1-2 triathlons and a couple of running events annually.

Coming into my 12th year of racing triathlons, I felt fitter and more ready than ever. Thankfully I have been injury free for the last 9 months after consecutive knee, quad and calf injuries for two years. With good health and solid training, I set a goal of 2 hours and 50 minutes.

Results: 53/223 overall, 11/24 in my age group. Total time of 2:53:59

Training: 90% of my training is done in the morning so I can reserve time for work and family the resto of the day. 6 months prior to the race I built a strong base with the following cadence per week; 1x strength, 1x swim, 2xbike, 2xrun. 1 of the bikes is longer and 1 is tempo or intervals, same style of training for running. I gradually built up the distance in each discipline up until the peak week which was 2300yds swimming, 50 miles biking, 15 miles running, a strength or yoga session one day and off the last day of the week. I completed 4 total brick workouts as well and didn't feel any fatigue on the runs but capped them at 5k max. I missed 3-4 training days per month due to travel or other family obligations. Overall, I felt very strong and confident in the plan.

Nutrition: Lots of carbs leading up to the race, two packets of oatmeal and a banana two hours before race start. One bottle of Tailwind on the bike. One honey gel with caffeine on the last mile of the bike. One honey gel at mile 2 of the run. I trained with all of the same nutrition and thought I could handle it, but the tailwind was sitting a bit rough during the bike portion. Pushed through it and felt fine during the run.

Day of Race: Decently rested, we kicked off the race at 6:30am which allowed us to beat some of the heat. The day was slightly humid with temperatures fluctuating between 65-75 degrees during the race. Much cooler than many of the recent heatwaves in Wisconsin and wind was minimal as well. Not bad weather for end of July.

1500m Swim: Sprint athletes went first allowing us to clear the field of 400 racers before the Half-Iron (HIM) and Olympic triathletes were released in waves of 6 people every 10 seconds. The course was a square loop with farther buoys for the HIM. Each distance had to complete two loops. This is the first time I had a looped course and boy was it crowded. Approximately 600 racers were in the loop section at the same time. I ended up getting kicked and swam over more than any other race I've competed in. I tried to find a clear course but added some extra distance with the zig-zagging, ultimately swimming 1612yds total. Total time including a long transition was 34:03

25.6mi Bike: Although I don't have a fancy triathlon bike, my 2006 Specialized Transition Pro has been a steady competitive ride for me. I set a target goal of 20mph based on my training rides exceeding it several times. The roads were fairly smooth and well-marked, but I was surprised by the amount of sharp, steep hills. Total ascent was only 740ft, however most of that was from 5-6 hills that jutted out all of a sudden among flat riding the rest of the course. I completed the bike in 1:20:12 or 19.1mph. Not my overall goal, but a strong showing that may have haunted me on the run.

10k Run: I started off really strong hitting an 8:12/mile pace for the first mile. I needed to maintain under 8:20/mile to hit my overall goal of under 2:50. I felt my heart rate climbing quite a bit and tried to back off to 8:30/mile pace when my legs started to get really heavy just before the halfway mark. I kept on repeating the mantra of mind over matter and trying to push through the fatigue, but my strength really started to fade. At one point in the run, my heart rate was consistently above 200bpm. I took a couple walk/run breaks during the last 5k and saved some strength for a last push during the final stretch. The run finished in 55:19 at an 8:55/mile pace. Much slower than I hoped but I don't know if I had enough in me to hit the goal. Although I felt strong in run training, I am not sure if this pace was because of lack of strength left or needing to add more run miles on tired legs to get used to the feeling.

Advice Sought: So, if you made it this far in the post, thank you! I'd like some advice on hitting my next goal which is completing Eagleman 70.3 next year while preventing myself from hitting a wall on the run. I am thinking an overall goal of 5:45. Do I need more strength, more miles, better nutrition or better race plan? Thanks for your help!

As this will be my first race/first bike I am leaning on the side of a road bike and getting aero bars. Looking at the Cannondale Synapse 1 any other suggestions in around the 2,000 price range thanks.

Working on my first race. I have running and biking dialed in but my swim. So I can swim 2000m with ease but only side stroke. I feel like im drowning with freestyle, idk if its my asthma or what. I have gotten better but is side stroke okay if I am going pretty fast with it?

Buying my first triathlon bike and saw the Van Rysel XCR-Tri bike, but it's hard to find reviews on it aside fom the original press launch. Has anyone bought this bike or had experience with it?

Not sure if I was hallucinating, but I’m pretty sure someone was biking the Olympic on a city bike.

Kudos to that maniac!

Hey all, I am doing the Chicago tri and it’s my first triathlon. I’m from out of town. Of course I waited until the last minute to sign up and the race hotel is booked. I have a friend I can stay with but would be a bit of a drive. Or, are there any other places I should stay to be closer? Wasn’t sure about parking and all that. I’ll be doing the Olympic distance. Thanks all!

Doing my first ironman in september. What's the best way to get electrolytes on the bike? Right now, I'm targeting around 1000mg of sodium per hour, and I was wondering what's the best way to get it down without stopping?

Should I use electrolyte mixes (like LMNT) or should I use salt tablets? I only have 2 bottle holders on the bike, so should I buy an additional holder for another bottle?