Jim Kelley's (aka Birkierunner) General and Long Course Group (OPEN) (Page 2)

I feel your pain. I'm an equally slow runner for longer distances. My average 5K is in the 22min range, but for anything longer than a 10K, I naturally find that 9min pace and camp out...but I can run those miles for a really long time. On of this year's goals is to drop the longer distance pace closer to the 8:30 mark by mid-summer. 

New week...new question for the group.

Since this is my first real season of Triathlon, I have a lot of learning to do. I'm curious what everyone sees as their top 3(ish) mistakes you made as a rookie in the sport. 

Alternative flavor to the question...what are the top 3(ish) things you wish you had known in your first year racing long distance (70.3 or 140.6). 

1. Nutrition

2. Nutrition

3. Nutrition

In the beginning I did not take my nutrition seriously and basically winged it when it came to a nutrition strategy for my Ironman races.  The result was a couple of DNFs due to stomach shutdown as a result of trying to take in too many calories.  I have come to regard nutrition as the 4th discipline of Ironman racing.  It doesn't (and shouldn't) have to be complicated but at least go into your final preparation and race day with a plan that you have practiced in your long training days.  This should begin with a sweat test to determine your fluid needs in training and racing.  Everyone will differ in what they prefer for their calories but it is never too early in the season to start figuring it out.

Good advice, thanks Jim. I've honestly struggled quite a bit here since I started seriously training. My plan has been more "eat healthy" as opposed to "eat for a purpose". It's probably time to shift my focus into properly fueling my training. 

I've offered to give a presentation on training with power for the in-shop presentation series at our local bike shop in March.  I know Steve trains with power but who else in the group does?  Which powermeter do you have?   What are some questions you have about training with power that might be good to hear as I put my presentation together.

I train with virtual power via TrainerRoad...but that's it for now. I've been looking into a Stages Power meter recently, but the cost has held me back.

With prices falling across the board on power meters, my plan was to hold out for another year...or try to find a good deal on something used in the interim. 

Welcome Todd!  Looks like you'll be joining Steve and myself at IM Canada!

I'll start off by saying the thousands of athletes have successfully trained using just HR and RPE...many Ironman World Championships have been won with just those or less.  However, the advent of the power meter has presented athletes and coaches with a very powerful tool.  Although HR can be used to guide training, the HR metric is affected by a variety of things including fatigue status, hydration, life stress, and most importantly cardiac drift.  Drift becomes more of an issue in longer workouts and races, but it essentially a gradual increase in HR over time without any accompanying increase in effort.  Therefore, if you are relying strictly on HR to guide your workout or race pace you will not be hitting the appropriate target.   With a power meter, a watt is a watt.  You exert a force on the bike (measured in watts) and the bike moves down the road.  Various power meters do differ in their accuracy (and precision for that matter) but as long as an athlete uses the same power meter and bike setup all of his power readings will be relatively comparable to his/her situation.  So, if you measure your FTP (or critical power) and base your training zones off of that, it doesn't matter how accurate your particular power meter is relative to another athlete who may be using the same (or different) power meter.  By measuring your FTP (or critical power) either through formal field testing (e.g. 5' and 20' tests) and/or analysis of many training sessions you can design a race plan based on the length of the race and the characteristics of the course.  I use Bestbikesplit to design race power plans for my athletes. 

Today there are a variety of power meter brands and types.  DCRainmaker's website has an entire section on power meter reviews and he posts yearly buyer's guides.  I personally have been using a hub-based Powertap for a long time.  I had it threaded to a training wheel so in order to race with it I put my Zipp disk in the corner and put wheel covers on my training wheel to get the aero benefit of a disk while still having power available to me.  I likely with be getting the new Powertap P1 pedal power meter this spring so I can then race with my Zipp disk.  The pedal-based system can easily be moved from bike to bike.  The same is true of other pm types but the Powertap pedal sounds like its the easiest product to use and it has the Powertap reputation backing it up.  So, which one should you get?  Well, it really depends on your wallet, current bike, wheels, etc.   Everyone's situation is different.  Browsing through the DCRainmaker site is a good place to start.

Welcome Carl!   I was born in MIddletown, CT     You'll love IM M-T   It is one of my favorite IM venues.  Being in the Northeast you'll have access to hills to train on.  Racing hilly courses is all about spinning up and controlling your power output on hills and saving your legs for the run.  Great to have you join us

Hey Robert!  Good to hear from you and welcome.  There are some really good duathlons in the area during spring that you should check out to get some early races and intensity in.  I'm doing Apple Duathlon for sure and likely Gear West Du (often cold temps).  For half ironman races check out Orthology Triathlon (formerly known as Liberty Triathlon) - they also have a short distance. Its out at Lake Rebecca Park Reserve in Rockford, MN (I'll be doing that one as well as prep for IM Canada).  Welcome!!

that's a feeble attempt to try to escape pre-race trash talking