Marvelous Manatees - Stronger than Ever! (Page 15)

Originally posted by canadarn2001 I have the wheels my bike came with...not sure what they are?

Originally posted by jmkizer

The wheels and hub will usually say what they are. Some bikes come with really nice wheel sets and others, well, that;s where they cut some cost.

I did think of another thing with the power meter, I have used it for pacing the bike in a 70.3.  Basically, you want your bike to be Z2/Z3 so that is your range. You start out lower in the range after the swim and T1 to let your body settle down a bit.  My notes say "Ride Z2 for 20-30 minutes. Ride 75% of FTP.  Then increase to 80% FTP."

To do this, I set my Garmin to show Lap Normalized Power and set it to lap every 5 miles. That way, at mile 50 you are not trying to "fix" your power from mile 12, etc. 

Of course, if you are doing this as part of your race plan, you'll need to stay on top of your FTP.  This would not go well if you were using a guesstimate FTP.

Originally posted by amd723

This is one of the things I meant when I mentioned using your PM correctly. Janyne uses it correctly, I do not. I always have the intention of watching my power and riding as Janyne describes and then I ignore it. One reason could be not setting up my bike computer appropriately. So, if you get a PM be Janyne not Ann-Marie!

Originally posted by scotyIt appears I missed a step so here goes.NAME: Scot OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook, Twitter, Strava, IG and Garmin Connect. I believe Scot Hendren is my user id on all of them.STORY: Live in the NW corner of Arkansas I recently turned 56 so I am officially close to 60 than 50. LOL I'm a partner in a seamless gutter business married 9 years and raising our grandson age 5. In 2019 I decided I need to get into better shape so I quit a moderate smoking habit and started running and bought a bicycle. I had ridden bikes 10 years earlier. I had bought a Garmin watch from FB market place and the guy I got it from was part of a tri team. We talked for a little bit and I decided to join the team. I was hooked. I have yet to do an iron distance as I still struggle with the swim. In November I ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, OK. While training for it I injured myself and like any good runner I kept on running. After the marathon I had to go and see what was wrong with my leg. Turns out I had a torn meniscus. I stopped running until recently. Oh yeah I am also a recovered alcoholic with over 16 years sober.FAMILY STATUS: Married to Lisa, raising grandson Avery. Avery loves to run me in on my races.CURRENT TRAINING: As earlier stated I am just getting back to training.THIS YEAR'S RACES/EVENTS: Republic Tiger Tri-Republic, MO Joplin Summer Roundup-Joplin, MO Tri-Fest Bentonville , AR San Antonio Marathon {possibly}GOALS/OBJECTIVES/DESIRES: to learn. I am here to learn from others. If I have something to offer even better.WHAT MAKES YOU A GOOD MANATEE: This one I am not sure about.

Originally posted by scoty

It appears I missed a step so here goes.




NAME: Scot

OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook, Twitter, Strava, IG and Garmin Connect. I believe Scot Hendren is my user id on all of them.

STORY: Live in the NW corner of Arkansas I recently turned 56 so I am officially close to 60 than 50. LOL I'm a partner in a seamless gutter business married 9 years and raising our grandson age 5. In 2019 I decided I need to get into better shape so I quit a moderate smoking habit and started running and bought a bicycle. I had ridden bikes 10 years earlier. I had bought a Garmin watch from FB market place and the guy I got it from was part of a tri team. We talked for a little bit and I decided to join the team. I was hooked. I have yet to do an iron distance as I still struggle with the swim. In November I ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, OK. While training for it I injured myself and like any good runner I kept on running. After the marathon I had to go and see what was wrong with my leg. Turns out I had a torn meniscus. I stopped running until recently. Oh yeah I am also a recovered alcoholic with over 16 years sober.

FAMILY STATUS: Married to Lisa, raising grandson Avery. Avery loves to run me in on my races.

CURRENT TRAINING: As earlier stated I am just getting back to training.

THIS YEAR'S RACES/EVENTS: Republic Tiger Tri-Republic, MO
Joplin Summer Roundup-Joplin, MO
Tri-Fest Bentonville , AR
San Antonio Marathon {possibly}

GOALS/OBJECTIVES/DESIRES: to learn. I am here to learn from others. If I have something to offer even better.

WHAT MAKES YOU A GOOD MANATEE: This one I am not sure about.

Originally posted by juniperjen

Happy Friday everyone!  How's everyone doing? 

It definitely feels springy out there but it's never that simple here. 

Actually excited for the treadmill. We just got a 'sample' nordic track due to my husband's job and it is pretty sweet. Definitely looking forward to using it which is unusual for me ... 

Originally posted by alaskatri Congrats on the treadmill. Given my northern latitude, I do most running on a treadmill. Our treadmill is pretty old, but it does have the iFit capability. I've just never used that aspect of it. This thread has me thinking about it though. Things have been a little rough here. Finishing up a trial that went 6 weeks, with jury still out, including an added week where I was out with COVID. I really wasn't sick from it much, but did have chest congestion in the mornings when I would wake up. Annoyingly, that has carried on even post-covid. It takes me an hour or so in the mornings to really get my chest and nasal passages cleared out. I am supposed to head to CA in a couple weeks, but my dad is having health issues and I may end up going early. He first had heart issues when I was a freshman in high school, and he is now in his 80's, so he's done well for a long time. I am supposed to do a 5k while down there on the 15th, but have done very little running recently given the covid issues and just being so busy elsewhere. I am planning to do it regardless and will likely end up doing a walk/run scenario. Currently trying to plan some summer vacation time as well. My daughter got an apartment for next year in college with a roommate. It is on campus, but a bit further up away from the main areas of campus, so she decided she would like her car down there with her. So we are currently planning a father/daughter drive through Canada in early August to get her back to school. Hope everyone is doing well!!!

Originally posted by canadarn2001 ADVICE NEEDED please! Ok...so if I am going to do an upgrade on my tri bike, which do you recommend me doing first? 1. Race wheels 2. Power meter I never really thought that I would ever need these additional things on my bike b/c I am just not that "techy" or "competitive" but now that I am using Zwift I really like seeing power/watts and how I can incorporate that into training to be more efficient. As for race wheels, well...people keep telling me I need them?

Originally posted by BlueBoy26

I got the race wheels first.  This was based on two things.  1) My coach told me the Power Meter was worth it if I were doing a full Ironman but if not then it wasn't worth it.  2) My bike mechanic said the two upgrades that are always worth it are the seat and wheels.  This is because anytime you sell a bike you can take them off and keep them for the next bike so you are never out anything.  

I still haven't done a full ironman and still don't have a power meter.  I do power training on a dumb trainer with $25 speed/cadence sensors.  If I am indoors, virtual power on a dumb trainer is good enough for me.  I pace by feel and HR in races.   It is easier for a coach to set hard limits to ensure that you don't bonk in a race with a Power meter, but the tip I saw in a post race interview with first over all pro-woman in a 703 race was to train with power and to race by feel.  She said that the power meter can lead you to underperform because it is based on your training thresholds and on race day you are tapered and rested so you often have a little bit more in the tank that will be left on the table if you aren't pacing by feel.  Pacing by feel is a dying art.  It takes a level of experience and practice.  First time racer or for a full iron race, etc. where you are more prone to blow up the power meter will keep you in the race so coaches are going to want to you use the power meter to make sure you get to the finish because it is more important for them that you don't blow up than that you squeeze out 1-2% more watts. 

 

Note:  If you want power for indoor training in Zwift you can get top of the line speed/cadence sensors for $100 and the cheap stuff for under $30.   Then you get all the watts data in Zwift that you want to see. 

 

Originally posted by canadarn2001 I do use Zwift and got a Wahoo Core Kickr this past November so I have a PM on my trainer. I have seen gains in my FTP since starting Zwift. I have gone from W151 -> 167 so that feedback is helpful. I don't have a fancy bike computer, just a cateye. In races, I have always gone by feel. I don't have a heart rate monitor (just my garmin) but honestly I don't pay much attention to it. The bike is not my strongest discipline but not my weakest either. I just feel like I want to be able to improve my bike as I think this is where you can gain time in a triathlon. I train with people who are stronger and faster than me so I feel like this is helpful (sometimes I'm holding on for dear life) but when training/biking in groups I am not sure I'd be able to use my power meter unless I was riding solo. Definitely something to think about. My friend who I rode with today just got power pedals but says he hasn't figured out how to get them working yet.

Originally posted by jmkizer

It sounds like you'd need a Garmin (or Wahoo or similar) bike computer to connect to your power meter if you go that route. I know that you can connect it to your watch as well but I cannot glance at my watch and pedal hard at the same time so that would not work for me.  You may have more talent in that area though!

Originally posted by canadarn2001



I cannot look down at my watch either while riding. I think I have a list of thing now on my 'want'..

1. Power meter
2. bike computer
3. heart rate monitor.

Originally posted by canadarn2001



I cannot look down at my watch either while riding. I think I have a list of thing now on my 'want'..

1. Power meter
2. bike computer
3. heart rate monitor.

Originally posted by BlueBoy26

Tridot:  A lot has changed since I did the program in 2016.  First off in 2016 I didn’t have any works outs being synced to the cloud to all my workouts were manual entries.  I didn’t have a bike trainer, but did my first power training when I was on the Tridot program in 2016 using stationary bikes at the gym where I swim.  There were no Unicorns, Ponicorns, Pegacorns (I’ll explain later).  There were not Mark Allan Videos.  There was no RaceX app.

 

The synced data is the way to go if you are going to do Tridot training.  Tridot uses data to develop their platform and workouts and if you aren’t syncing data you are better off to just get a pre-written plan because that is away all you will get from tridot.

When you sync your data it analyzes it to see if you were at the Watts/paces/Hear Rates that were prescribed for the workout for the durations prescribed.  It then gives you a score from 1-100 of how well you executed the workout.  90 is like getting an A (Exceeds expectations), 80 (above average) is like getting a B, 70 is getting a C (average), 60 is like getting a D (below average), 50 (failing).  If you get a score of 100.  You get points for each work out and at you hit mile stones you get things like discounts on Trodot Race Apparel, bonus features like optimized swim drills, weigh training workouts, etc.  If you get a perfect 100 you get a Unicorn which is an addition 5 point.  Three unicorns is a week is an Pegacorn, and a Ponicorn is a 100 on a recovery workout (no bonus points.  Only bonuses on Priority workouts).  These bonuses were the think that I like the most about the TriDot training.  They weren’t perfect.  I had one work on a race week that said to do interval at race pace which game out to Z4, but the training plan listed them as Z3 so I didn’t at the Z3 pace so I would get a high score rather than in Z4 to get the training effect that they were intended for.  I also would have long rungs with tempo work at the end and if I went out too fast at the beginning of the workout and went into the tempo zone I would cut my tempo intervals short at the end of the workout so that I would hit the target times in each zone and get the high score rather than doing the intervals at the correct duration.  So not perfect, and a coach would not approve of cheating on workouts to get higher points.  It is like public schools that get funding based on test scores so they teach to the test and skip things that leave holes in the education that don’t get tested.  It was fun for me though to game the system.

Tridot synced bike workouts to TrainingPeaking which pulled them into TrainerRoads.  It was nice to have my bike workouts all set up for me, but they were the were really poorly structured.  I would have a workout that said do 3x30” intervals and 4 x 4’ intervals and it would put all the intervals in the first 20 minutes of the bike ride then have 40 minutes at recovery level power with not variation in power or cadence.  No drills, no in-riding instruction, to coaches tips, etc.  These were the worse structured indoor bike training workouts I have ever seen.

The Mark Allen videos were okay.  They explained the purpose of your workout and tips on how to complete it.  I didn’t feel they really added anything to the training plan though.  You already had instruction on how to do the workout without the video.  The videos were not cameo of the GOAT, but he could have been reciting nursery rhymes or poetry and the Cameo would have been just as cool to see.  He also did Monday motivational videos every week, but again he could have said about anything and it would have been cool to see him, but what he said was not what stuck with me and not the value in the TriDot training. 

This is supposed to give you a custom race plan.  You looks at race elevations, if you have a file of the race course, it make weather adjustments for humidity and temperatures, etc.  I thought this would be a good tool, but it was garbage.  I think it was trying to calculate too many things and lost its way.  I did a half marathon in November at 1:20:13 as a “B” race then when I went to do an “A” race half marathon in March on a similarly flat course with similar altitude and similar temps and humidity I put my predicted race time a 1:26:30.   That didn’t make any sense and all and my actual race time was 1:17:30.  There is group page for TriDot athletes to ask each other questions and someone said they got a race plan that was 50 minutes slower than her last race (distance?) and that her actual race was 50 minutes faster than the race plan (go figure).  Lots of people confirmed that RaceX was like throwing a dart.  You would be better with not race plan at all than to follow the RaceX training plan.  Very disappointing. 

 

The Training:  I have been averaging about 7 hours a week for the past couple of years.  I do a lot of high intensity workouts to were my baseline TSS is around 350-400 a week and when I peak for races is get up to 500-600 TSS.  With TriDot it pushed me from 7 hours a week up to 9-1/2 hours a week.  I felt the effects of training fatigue for the first time in years. My peak weeks I was in the 530 TSS.  So the training was good.  It was not really dialed into races through.  I have two “B” races and two “A” races on my calendar.  I got not taper at all for the “B” races and workouts were scheduled on race days right over the top of the races.  They is just unprofessional.  I get that the workouts are planned by robots, but they can surly work out the software to not schedule workouts on days that have races already listed.  The tapering for the first “A” race kept all the swim and bike workouts per the robot generated plan.  I got a swim TT assessment schedule two days before my first “A” race.  There were reduced volume “race week workouts” of the run though (possibly because it was a running event).  So the taper was not very steep.  I ended up modifying it (i.e. dropping the swim test) and shortening the bike intensity/duration on race week.  The second A race kind of slid through the cracks.  It was my marathon planned 6 weeks after the half marathon.  Prior to staring the 8-week training I was up to 16 miles long runs every week for marathon training.  When I started it just the long runs the first 3 weeks down to ½ marathon length long runs.  Then I got a rest week after the half marathon then I got a 5 week build to the marathon.  That build only got my long run up to 13 miles.  So when you have two races all the optimized training focuses on the first race and nothing past that.  I had on phone call with a TriDot coach and he said that if I have been working with him he would have had me not put the half marathon on the race list so that the optimization would have built to a marathon the whole 8 weeks instead of building to a half marathon the first 3 weeks followed by a build to the marathon (that was too short to get to where I needed to be).  Also, since my marathon is on a Monday the computer missed my week of taper for the marathon.  After talking to the coach I went ahead and planned my own 2-week taper.

So…TriDot works great if you know how to game the system and make adjustments when it gives you plans that are glitchy.  If you have a coach they will be very deliberate in helping you game the system to get the workouts that you should be doing and the computer generated glitches that I saw a lot of in my 8week training. It seems silly that you pay for a computer generated training plan so you don’t have to spend a lot of time planning your own work outs or have a coach, then you spend just as much time verifying that the workouts are as expected or you ended up getting a TriDot coach for them to spend their time verifying that the workouts are as expected.  It guess it is not worse than the coaches that use a coaching software to help them with their work.    

 

At $150 a month the Mark Allen addition of TriDot would not be worth it to me.  There is a $100 version that does everything the Mark Allen version does but without the Mark Allen cameos.  There is also a 30$ version that does everything that the $100 version does but without all the bonus features that you can earn with you training point (swim drill, weight training programs, etc.  There is a $15 version that does everything the $30 plan does except you can only enter one race on your schedule (and it might be limited to a sprint/Olympic distance race). Since multiple race algorithms don’t work as they should there is really not advantage to being able to enter multiple races.  So, the $15 a month plan it the best Tridot option.  It might be something I would do if I wanted to do something different than what I have always done leading up to the USAT National Olympic race in August (not registered for it, but interested if I can justify another destination race this year). Everything but the $15 plan is overpriced in mu opinion, but the idea is for there to be one plan that is affordable to most and then premium plans for those who are willing to pay for them.          

 

        

Originally posted by canadarn2001 I cannot look down at my watch either while riding. I think I have a list of thing now on my 'want'.. 1. Power meter 2. bike computer 3. heart rate monitor.

Originally posted by BlueBoy26

Tridot:  A lot has changed since I did the program in 2016.  First off in 2016 I didn’t have any works outs being synced to the cloud to all my workouts were manual entries.  I didn’t have a bike trainer, but did my first power training when I was on the Tridot program in 2016 using stationary bikes at the gym where I swim.  There were no Unicorns, Ponicorns, Pegacorns (I’ll explain later).  There were not Mark Allan Videos.  There was no RaceX app.

 

The synced data is the way to go if you are going to do Tridot training.  Tridot uses data to develop their platform and workouts and if you aren’t syncing data you are better off to just get a pre-written plan because that is away all you will get from tridot.

When you sync your data it analyzes it to see if you were at the Watts/paces/Hear Rates that were prescribed for the workout for the durations prescribed.  It then gives you a score from 1-100 of how well you executed the workout.  90 is like getting an A (Exceeds expectations), 80 (above average) is like getting a B, 70 is getting a C (average), 60 is like getting a D (below average), 50 (failing).  If you get a score of 100.  You get points for each work out and at you hit mile stones you get things like discounts on Trodot Race Apparel, bonus features like optimized swim drills, weigh training workouts, etc.  If you get a perfect 100 you get a Unicorn which is an addition 5 point.  Three unicorns is a week is an Pegacorn, and a Ponicorn is a 100 on a recovery workout (no bonus points.  Only bonuses on Priority workouts).  These bonuses were the think that I like the most about the TriDot training.  They weren’t perfect.  I had one work on a race week that said to do interval at race pace which game out to Z4, but the training plan listed them as Z3 so I didn’t at the Z3 pace so I would get a high score rather than in Z4 to get the training effect that they were intended for.  I also would have long rungs with tempo work at the end and if I went out too fast at the beginning of the workout and went into the tempo zone I would cut my tempo intervals short at the end of the workout so that I would hit the target times in each zone and get the high score rather than doing the intervals at the correct duration.  So not perfect, and a coach would not approve of cheating on workouts to get higher points.  It is like public schools that get funding based on test scores so they teach to the test and skip things that leave holes in the education that don’t get tested.  It was fun for me though to game the system.

Tridot synced bike workouts to TrainingPeaking which pulled them into TrainerRoads.  It was nice to have my bike workouts all set up for me, but they were the were really poorly structured.  I would have a workout that said do 3x30” intervals and 4 x 4’ intervals and it would put all the intervals in the first 20 minutes of the bike ride then have 40 minutes at recovery level power with not variation in power or cadence.  No drills, no in-riding instruction, to coaches tips, etc.  These were the worse structured indoor bike training workouts I have ever seen.

The Mark Allen videos were okay.  They explained the purpose of your workout and tips on how to complete it.  I didn’t feel they really added anything to the training plan though.  You already had instruction on how to do the workout without the video.  The videos were not cameo of the GOAT, but he could have been reciting nursery rhymes or poetry and the Cameo would have been just as cool to see.  He also did Monday motivational videos every week, but again he could have said about anything and it would have been cool to see him, but what he said was not what stuck with me and not the value in the TriDot training. 

This is supposed to give you a custom race plan.  You looks at race elevations, if you have a file of the race course, it make weather adjustments for humidity and temperatures, etc.  I thought this would be a good tool, but it was garbage.  I think it was trying to calculate too many things and lost its way.  I did a half marathon in November at 1:20:13 as a “B” race then when I went to do an “A” race half marathon in March on a similarly flat course with similar altitude and similar temps and humidity I put my predicted race time a 1:26:30.   That didn’t make any sense and all and my actual race time was 1:17:30.  There is group page for TriDot athletes to ask each other questions and someone said they got a race plan that was 50 minutes slower than her last race (distance?) and that her actual race was 50 minutes faster than the race plan (go figure).  Lots of people confirmed that RaceX was like throwing a dart.  You would be better with not race plan at all than to follow the RaceX training plan.  Very disappointing. 

 

The Training:  I have been averaging about 7 hours a week for the past couple of years.  I do a lot of high intensity workouts to were my baseline TSS is around 350-400 a week and when I peak for races is get up to 500-600 TSS.  With TriDot it pushed me from 7 hours a week up to 9-1/2 hours a week.  I felt the effects of training fatigue for the first time in years. My peak weeks I was in the 530 TSS.  So the training was good.  It was not really dialed into races through.  I have two “B” races and two “A” races on my calendar.  I got not taper at all for the “B” races and workouts were scheduled on race days right over the top of the races.  They is just unprofessional.  I get that the workouts are planned by robots, but they can surly work out the software to not schedule workouts on days that have races already listed.  The tapering for the first “A” race kept all the swim and bike workouts per the robot generated plan.  I got a swim TT assessment schedule two days before my first “A” race.  There were reduced volume “race week workouts” of the run though (possibly because it was a running event).  So the taper was not very steep.  I ended up modifying it (i.e. dropping the swim test) and shortening the bike intensity/duration on race week.  The second A race kind of slid through the cracks.  It was my marathon planned 6 weeks after the half marathon.  Prior to staring the 8-week training I was up to 16 miles long runs every week for marathon training.  When I started it just the long runs the first 3 weeks down to ½ marathon length long runs.  Then I got a rest week after the half marathon then I got a 5 week build to the marathon.  That build only got my long run up to 13 miles.  So when you have two races all the optimized training focuses on the first race and nothing past that.  I had on phone call with a TriDot coach and he said that if I have been working with him he would have had me not put the half marathon on the race list so that the optimization would have built to a marathon the whole 8 weeks instead of building to a half marathon the first 3 weeks followed by a build to the marathon (that was too short to get to where I needed to be).  Also, since my marathon is on a Monday the computer missed my week of taper for the marathon.  After talking to the coach I went ahead and planned my own 2-week taper.

So…TriDot works great if you know how to game the system and make adjustments when it gives you plans that are glitchy.  If you have a coach they will be very deliberate in helping you game the system to get the workouts that you should be doing and the computer generated glitches that I saw a lot of in my 8week training. It seems silly that you pay for a computer generated training plan so you don’t have to spend a lot of time planning your own work outs or have a coach, then you spend just as much time verifying that the workouts are as expected or you ended up getting a TriDot coach for them to spend their time verifying that the workouts are as expected.  It guess it is not worse than the coaches that use a coaching software to help them with their work.    

 

At $150 a month the Mark Allen addition of TriDot would not be worth it to me.  There is a $100 version that does everything the Mark Allen version does but without the Mark Allen cameos.  There is also a 30$ version that does everything that the $100 version does but without all the bonus features that you can earn with you training point (swim drill, weight training programs, etc.  There is a $15 version that does everything the $30 plan does except you can only enter one race on your schedule (and it might be limited to a sprint/Olympic distance race). Since multiple race algorithms don’t work as they should there is really not advantage to being able to enter multiple races.  So, the $15 a month plan it the best Tridot option.  It might be something I would do if I wanted to do something different than what I have always done leading up to the USAT National Olympic race in August (not registered for it, but interested if I can justify another destination race this year). Everything but the $15 plan is overpriced in mu opinion, but the idea is for there to be one plan that is affordable to most and then premium plans for those who are willing to pay for them.         

Originally posted by BlueBoy26

Tridot:  A lot has changed since I did the program in 2016.  First off in 2016 I didn’t have any works outs being synced to the cloud to all my workouts were manual entries.  I didn’t have a bike trainer, but did my first power training when I was on the Tridot program in 2016 using stationary bikes at the gym where I swim.  There were no Unicorns, Ponicorns, Pegacorns (I’ll explain later).  There were not Mark Allan Videos.  There was no RaceX app.

 

The synced data is the way to go if you are going to do Tridot training.  Tridot uses data to develop their platform and workouts and if you aren’t syncing data you are better off to just get a pre-written plan because that is away all you will get from tridot.

When you sync your data it analyzes it to see if you were at the Watts/paces/Hear Rates that were prescribed for the workout for the durations prescribed.  It then gives you a score from 1-100 of how well you executed the workout.  90 is like getting an A (Exceeds expectations), 80 (above average) is like getting a B, 70 is getting a C (average), 60 is like getting a D (below average), 50 (failing).  If you get a score of 100.  You get points for each work out and at you hit mile stones you get things like discounts on Trodot Race Apparel, bonus features like optimized swim drills, weigh training workouts, etc.  If you get a perfect 100 you get a Unicorn which is an addition 5 point.  Three unicorns is a week is an Pegacorn, and a Ponicorn is a 100 on a recovery workout (no bonus points.  Only bonuses on Priority workouts).  These bonuses were the think that I like the most about the TriDot training.  They weren’t perfect.  I had one work on a race week that said to do interval at race pace which game out to Z4, but the training plan listed them as Z3 so I didn’t at the Z3 pace so I would get a high score rather than in Z4 to get the training effect that they were intended for.  I also would have long rungs with tempo work at the end and if I went out too fast at the beginning of the workout and went into the tempo zone I would cut my tempo intervals short at the end of the workout so that I would hit the target times in each zone and get the high score rather than doing the intervals at the correct duration.  So not perfect, and a coach would not approve of cheating on workouts to get higher points.  It is like public schools that get funding based on test scores so they teach to the test and skip things that leave holes in the education that don’t get tested.  It was fun for me though to game the system.

Tridot synced bike workouts to TrainingPeaking which pulled them into TrainerRoads.  It was nice to have my bike workouts all set up for me, but they were the were really poorly structured.  I would have a workout that said do 3x30” intervals and 4 x 4’ intervals and it would put all the intervals in the first 20 minutes of the bike ride then have 40 minutes at recovery level power with not variation in power or cadence.  No drills, no in-riding instruction, to coaches tips, etc.  These were the worse structured indoor bike training workouts I have ever seen.

The Mark Allen videos were okay.  They explained the purpose of your workout and tips on how to complete it.  I didn’t feel they really added anything to the training plan though.  You already had instruction on how to do the workout without the video.  The videos were not cameo of the GOAT, but he could have been reciting nursery rhymes or poetry and the Cameo would have been just as cool to see.  He also did Monday motivational videos every week, but again he could have said about anything and it would have been cool to see him, but what he said was not what stuck with me and not the value in the TriDot training. 

This is supposed to give you a custom race plan.  You looks at race elevations, if you have a file of the race course, it make weather adjustments for humidity and temperatures, etc.  I thought this would be a good tool, but it was garbage.  I think it was trying to calculate too many things and lost its way.  I did a half marathon in November at 1:20:13 as a “B” race then when I went to do an “A” race half marathon in March on a similarly flat course with similar altitude and similar temps and humidity I put my predicted race time a 1:26:30.   That didn’t make any sense and all and my actual race time was 1:17:30.  There is group page for TriDot athletes to ask each other questions and someone said they got a race plan that was 50 minutes slower than her last race (distance?) and that her actual race was 50 minutes faster than the race plan (go figure).  Lots of people confirmed that RaceX was like throwing a dart.  You would be better with not race plan at all than to follow the RaceX training plan.  Very disappointing. 

 

The Training:  I have been averaging about 7 hours a week for the past couple of years.  I do a lot of high intensity workouts to were my baseline TSS is around 350-400 a week and when I peak for races is get up to 500-600 TSS.  With TriDot it pushed me from 7 hours a week up to 9-1/2 hours a week.  I felt the effects of training fatigue for the first time in years. My peak weeks I was in the 530 TSS.  So the training was good.  It was not really dialed into races through.  I have two “B” races and two “A” races on my calendar.  I got not taper at all for the “B” races and workouts were scheduled on race days right over the top of the races.  They is just unprofessional.  I get that the workouts are planned by robots, but they can surly work out the software to not schedule workouts on days that have races already listed.  The tapering for the first “A” race kept all the swim and bike workouts per the robot generated plan.  I got a swim TT assessment schedule two days before my first “A” race.  There were reduced volume “race week workouts” of the run though (possibly because it was a running event).  So the taper was not very steep.  I ended up modifying it (i.e. dropping the swim test) and shortening the bike intensity/duration on race week.  The second A race kind of slid through the cracks.  It was my marathon planned 6 weeks after the half marathon.  Prior to staring the 8-week training I was up to 16 miles long runs every week for marathon training.  When I started it just the long runs the first 3 weeks down to ½ marathon length long runs.  Then I got a rest week after the half marathon then I got a 5 week build to the marathon.  That build only got my long run up to 13 miles.  So when you have two races all the optimized training focuses on the first race and nothing past that.  I had on phone call with a TriDot coach and he said that if I have been working with him he would have had me not put the half marathon on the race list so that the optimization would have built to a marathon the whole 8 weeks instead of building to a half marathon the first 3 weeks followed by a build to the marathon (that was too short to get to where I needed to be).  Also, since my marathon is on a Monday the computer missed my week of taper for the marathon.  After talking to the coach I went ahead and planned my own 2-week taper.

So…TriDot works great if you know how to game the system and make adjustments when it gives you plans that are glitchy.  If you have a coach they will be very deliberate in helping you game the system to get the workouts that you should be doing and the computer generated glitches that I saw a lot of in my 8week training. It seems silly that you pay for a computer generated training plan so you don’t have to spend a lot of time planning your own work outs or have a coach, then you spend just as much time verifying that the workouts are as expected or you ended up getting a TriDot coach for them to spend their time verifying that the workouts are as expected.  It guess it is not worse than the coaches that use a coaching software to help them with their work.    

 

At $150 a month the Mark Allen addition of TriDot would not be worth it to me.  There is a $100 version that does everything the Mark Allen version does but without the Mark Allen cameos.  There is also a 30$ version that does everything that the $100 version does but without all the bonus features that you can earn with you training point (swim drill, weight training programs, etc.  There is a $15 version that does everything the $30 plan does except you can only enter one race on your schedule (and it might be limited to a sprint/Olympic distance race). Since multiple race algorithms don’t work as they should there is really not advantage to being able to enter multiple races.  So, the $15 a month plan it the best Tridot option.  It might be something I would do if I wanted to do something different than what I have always done leading up to the USAT National Olympic race in August (not registered for it, but interested if I can justify another destination race this year). Everything but the $15 plan is overpriced in mu opinion, but the idea is for there to be one plan that is affordable to most and then premium plans for those who are willing to pay for them.          

        

Originally posted by marysia83

Wetsuit question: how awful and difficult it is to swim breaststroke in a wetsuit?

I am obviously not planning to do so, but breaststroke has always been my back-up stroke in triathlons. I completed all my tri races, including HIM, without the wetsuit, and this will be my first year using it. I had two situations in the past when BR saved my race: 1) I got panick attack in the water and basically couldn't put my head under water. I completed the swim with breaststroke "don't wet your hair" style. 2) As I was swimming towards the shore, the water got choppy with splashes all over the place, and I had a hard time breathing swimming free, as water just run to my mouth. I finished with breaststroke (I was able to have my head high enough for inhale that none of the water got to my mouth while breathing.
For my upcoming races I train free and hopefully I am strong enough and the conditions are good enough all will go perfect, but I do want to have a back-up style. I do practice backstroke as well, but it gives me more anxiety than BR.

If for some extreme reason I have to swicth to BR (and back won't work either), how bad it will be to swim that style in wetsuit? I am definitely plan it to try it once I go open water, but thought I would ask you all for your input. I thought it migyt be just uncomfortable for the legs, but I read somewhere that due to the buyouncy it is hard to manouver the stroke, as most of the body will be up in the water, which is not what BR needs.

Again, this is to plan the worst case scenario