What I learned from my first HIM

Thanks for your insight.

Hey the fgirst one is always a PR... FINISH! Thats my goal as well so I will take your observations to heart and prepare as best I can..

Congrats on your first HIM and PR!!!

I was like you on my first HIM.  I Went in thinking I had done enought and hit the wall big time!  Very similar experience as you except for the swim, have a swimming background.

You achieved what should have been the major goal for the race...you finished!!!  This will serve you well on your next race.  Some of the best lessons learned come from bad races or failures.  Good job on your first HIM and good luck on the next!

Welcome to long course racing and all that comes with it.

I'm going to be very blunt so that you don't continue to make similar mistakes.

Don't make another two beginner mistakes and think strength training your legs makes you a stronger cyclist and that bricks are some kind of magical triathlon run cure.  You're way off base.

Cycling makes you a better cyclist.  What happened to you had nothing to do with leg strength.  It had everything to do with endurance, fitness, bike execution and very unrealistic goals.  Assuming you raced Galveston on Sunday, a 2:30 bike was a top-10% bike split.  What lead you to believe you could hang at the FOP on the bike?

Remember that everything compounded for you in a bad way.  The swim took more out of you than you thought, which meant the bike took more out of you, so the run was bound to be a death march.  I'm impressed with the 2:18 all things considered.

Bricks for long course racing are almost a complete waste of time.  They serve a more debatable purpose for short course racing when you have less time to get your run legs going.  Like I said... that's even very debatable.

I often quote Jordan Rapp when it comes to bricks as I thought he articulated it well...

Running off the bike is a neuromuscular skill. Basically, you train your body to quickly make the switch from the neuromuscular firing pattern for cycling to that of running. This is why bricks are more important for shorter events and why, over time, the more experienced you are as a triathlete, the less you actually need them. 

Nobody needs to practice running sh*tty (running on "tired legs"); the point of a brick is the exact opposite, to practice running WELL (with good form) after cycling. 

If you understand this, it will help to explain when to run off the bike, and also what you are (or should be) trying to achieve with that workout. 

The point is to learn to run correctly. And then to train and race/pace appropriately such that you can maintain good form. 

There is some skill involved in running correctly. And there is some skill involved in running off the bike effectively. But running off the bike effectively necessarily requires all the skills that are required for good running. Practicing running off the bike a lot without the required skills is like trying to learn calculus without knowing algebra. 

Learn to run well. THEN learn to run well off the bike. But no matter how you look at it, running off the bike is ONLY a skill. Running - in any context - is certainly a skill, but it's also overwhelmingly fitness-reliant (like swimming). So the best training is to do whatever will allow your run training to be most effective. And that's NOT going to be running when you are tired from cycling. 

Same reason that a pull buoy, paddles, etc are so useful in the pool. They help you take good strokes even when you are tired. Likewise with running, do what you can to help your running - if you're shelled, run when it's cool, or run where it's flat, or use a treadmill to help with turnover, etc. 

You don't need to practice your Ironman shuffle. Your body is very capable of figuring out how to simply get from A-to-B.

PR! Congratulations!

It sounds like you learned a lot, and that's the important part. You'll be better for it--there are more long-term lessons in a good hard bonk than in a perfectly executed race.

But don't expect to have it all figured out your next time out either. A lot can happen over a 5-8 hour period...lots of opportunities to make mistakes, and it's really hard to stay focused the whole time.

Those opportunities are the crack. That's why we keep coming back.

GMAN knoweth what he sayeth.

Good job.  Learn from it and rock the next one.

I take it that you don't like bricks.

I've got my first HIM in about 3.5 weeks.  I welcome all the advice I can get.  Obviously, I have no experience at this distance but it seems a 2:30 bike goal was very aggressive (that would have been 22.4 mph).  I'm setting what I hope are reasonable split goals for my first but honestly, I just want to finish.

For those experienced at this distance, what do you recommend as longest brick during HIM training.  I'm receiving weekly plans from a friend and this week shows a 30 mile bike / 10 mile run brick on the weekend.  To date, most bricks have been only 2-3 miles on the run.  Last week I did a 46/2 - the run wasn't terrible but again it was only 2 miles.  I was definitely running a faster pace than I plan to come race day.  It felt "slow" but was 30 sec/mile faster than my goal pace.

Some triathletes see them as the holy grail. But the data doesn't back that up. Lot's of running/swimming/biking is the holy grail. And keeping a reasonable pace on race day. 

I was definitely running a faster pace than I plan to come race day.  It felt "slow" but was 30 sec/mile faster than my goal pace

Any pace will feel slow after a few hours on the bike. The scenery has been zooming by--now it's crawling.

That's a  big danger point on race day, so I think bricks are a good way to practice getting off the bike and controlling that. I try to focus on form and cadence until my legs feel normal again. Once you feel normal, not sure there's much advantage to going very far unless you're testing out your nutrition plan coming off the bike.

For the cadence part, I try to take short choppy steps, which helps keep the pace down too.

That's the plan for race day as well. But sometimes the wheels fall off on race day.

How did you set your goals? You seem to have been far off from your goals, too far in my opinion unless something major happened like stomach issues, pulling a muscle etc.. However in your case it seemed to be mainly fitness related (not sufficient level of fitness for these goals. Or seing it the other way around, the issue was related to goal settinig, your goal did not match your level of fitness & experience). Maybe your genetic potential allows you to achieve those goals, but this takes time, more training, and race experience.

Congratulations on finishing your first HIM though, and do not be too disappointed, because if you had set your goals more realistically you would probably judge your performance more positively now! Do not chase some number, satisfaction and accomplishment comes from doing what you can do, and sometimes a little bit more! So possibly adjust your goals for the next race, and prepare better! Good luck!

Yes, another reason why bricks are valuable.

Honestly, I don't think there's a 'wrong' way other than being generally undertrained.

Bricks - not necessary but not a problem.

Training on tired legs? No problem as well. Heck, I did ALL my training for my HIM last year on back-to-back long and hard bike Sat then long and hard uber hilly trail run (2.5hrs) on thrashed legs, and it only helped ( alot) to get used to adapting to that sort of beatdown. I absolutely don't think it's a good idea to avoid leg beatdown, in training - in fact, for most of us AGers who aren't doing like 20 hrs per week, the more often you put yourself into that beatdown mode, the stronger you'll emerge from it. This includes hard bricks.

I can't disagree more. Training "beat down" all the time makes it hard to get in quality workouts and is a good way to get hurt. You need to manage your fatigue and you training load not just beat the heck out of your body all the time.

So I'm looking to learn a little something here.  I read what you posted from Rapp, and I get that training in a tierd state is less than ideal - I don't know that I fully agree with it, but I get it.

However, long course racing necessitates correct pacing.  Especially on the bike, it's going to be very hard to know if you overcooked your effort on the bike, by either doing no bricks or doing just a couple of miles.  You also won't know if you screwed up your nutrition.  I would think there is an argument for some 30-45min brick runs to tell if you messed things up during the ride (and/or swim come race day).

Agree. You're trying to get the most out of the work you put in, not put in the hardest work.

Shaggy, let me first congratulate you on completing your first HIM, I hope to do the same in a few months. Way to go.

Thank you for the advise. I read somewhere, don't remember were, for a HIM that you should work to get your weekly training peak around: swim 6300yds, bike 150miles, run 30miles.

Could you elaborate on your bike and running training in the months prior to the race? for example, distance or time of longest run and longest ride? and your peak weekly volumes? wondering if you were close to the above mentioned volumes?

Congratulations again on completing a HIM.

As was stated before, the importance of bricks is reduced if you are a more experienced athlete. I don't need to do a single brick this year to know those things because I already know them. I will use my early season races to tweak my pacing and by my A race it will be nailed down, all without the fatigue that comes with hard brick workouts.

Thank you so much for sharing this! I have my first next month and am starting to get nervous. My only goal is to finish and I will be focusing on pacing and managing the heat since I think it will be hot. Whatever gets me to the finish line!

Question about the sunscreen: do you reapply in one of the transitions (if so, which?) or do you sunscreen up before the race? I am thinking I will be out there for around 7 hours so will be there in the afternoon so I was thinking maybe reapply in T2 with a spray?

Great thread and good ideas throughout.  My first HIM sounds similar to the OP, though my expectations were pretty low, so I wasn't disappointed.  I like bricks because they help me practice 'race' pacing and testing nutrition.  I agree that training on tired legs isn't great, but whose legs aren't tired if they're training for a HIM?  Bike training is the key to long distance racing, IMHO.  If you go too fast/hard on the bike, then your run is going to suffer regardless of how many miles you ran in training.  So for me, more time on the bike is the key element to long distance races.  I learned the hard way too.

In any case, congrats to the OP on finishing your first HIM!  Welcome to long distance racing!

My first Olympic is coming up in 18days and while I just want to finish I am also thinking about times:

Swim 0:38

Bike 1:45

Run 00:53

For a total of 3:20

Therefore I understand some of the OP's frustration, nevertheless:

CONGRATULATIONS, you are a Half-Ironman (we should call this Ironboy/Irongirl)!