Ironman puzzle, need advice (Page 2)

Originally posted by Baowolf

Hmm. Bike calories should be 300-350 per hour and run 200-250. Water intake varies widely with temp. In a 50F IM you would take in 25% of the water you would in a 95F race. So you didn't bonk from low calories. Wind can be sucky on bike times.

Everyone's plans are different, but here are my Peak week workouts followed by a 3 week taper.

Run: 10,7,10,6,17 miles
Bike 40,40,30,114.
Swim: 4300, 4300, 5500 yards.

I have completed 9 IM's 2-3 recovering from injuries at race start (calf pulls, PF, muscle spasm, etc.). I'm not overly talented, 50 years old, learned freestyle at age 40, best IM 11:44:xx. You are faster than me on the swim, similar on the bike, but your run needs some work.

Did you do any bike run bricks? A 100 mile bike 6 mile brick run can give you a good idea of where you are training and nutrition wise in that last month or so before your peak.

Enjoy the journey. I view any IM finish as a victory, a good time is icing.

Originally posted by spudone

Agree with most of that, except I would be careful making any specific calorie recommendations.  I'm not a very big guy and my upper limit is about 250cal/hr on the bike.  Also you mentioned differences in water intake, but high temp races can also affect your ability to digest.

I know my calorie limit from training and I use that as a guideline.  But I allow myself to adjust during a race if needed.

Originally posted by marcag



this is good.

At 8mph, aero drag is small. Most people can generate more watts sitting up and this will easily compensate for the very minimal aero penalty.

Now, for the disc wheel. Handling problems in winds are usually more attributed to a deep front wheel than the back. Had you trained on the 404 before ?

Overall it sounds like you had more of a hydration/nutrition challenge. Good position, bad position, aero....you came off the bike in bad shape which should not have been given your pretty conservative watts.

You'll figure it out with time.