Tri / Triathlon / Triathlons - do they float your boat?

Because it’s uncomfortable and you look like a tit and I actually want to drink the stuff in the bottle!

Has anyone worked around wanting a top tube box for gels etc, but your cables go into the top tube behind the stem?
Do you drill through the box and put the cables through the box?

you look like a tit

Surely that's a given when doing a triathlon?

I thought that was the point? How else can you explain the outfits, bikes and not doing this behind closed doors

I did that by just filing a slot in the bottom of the bento box and slotting it over. Didn't have to re do the cable that way.

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Nice thinking, yeh trying to avoid redoing the cables was my main aim!

Last big day of training tomorrow, 110k on the bike with 2x40k at Ironman pace and then 18k off the bike with 6k @ 5min km, 6@4:30 & 6@4:15. All in race kit and nutrition, feeling fairly confident, just need to make sure I have some good tunes to keep me going!

Everything seems to be coming together, my swim has been going great for the last few weeks, finally got back in the open water again this morning and while not quite the speed I’ve been hitting in the pool I managed 2.4k in under 40 minutes, I’ve had 4 weeks of 30k long runs, and plenty of bike miles along the way!

Hoping to get my bta bottle sorted, my prototype held on by surgu was useful in working out where the bottle needed to be, although despite being empty only lasted 50k, and have a proper bit of 0.9mm stainless steel and some new rivnuts to form a more permanent solution and then I’ll have to get the drill out to mount it in place!

Insane mileage, great work! Good luck for the big day

Good work 💪 ramp runs off the bike are my favourite and great confidence builders if you can finish them strong. Sounds like your set for a good day.

Late night panic, exactly 4 weeks out from my first 70.3.

Training for the most part been going well, placing top 5 in every open water swim I enter (from sprint tri distance right up to 3km), set a new bike ftp of 328w last weekend and in the best running form of my life.

Why the panic? Started the little one at daycare last week and the house was hit like a tonne of bricks with vomiting bug this week. Today is the first day since Tuesday I’ve had energy to do anything more than walk the dogs round the block, hoping to reintroduce an easy bike tomorrow and hopefully pack in 3 big weeks before a taper. At least that was my plan til little one came home yesterday absolutely smothered with a cold, and with defences low I can feel my own head cold coming on!

With prep having gone pretty well and this my only real race for the season, I’m beginning to stress out on missing some key sessions, particularly not knowing what the next month holds with illness. The life of an average triathlete I guess…

I've recently had the same. Since our little girl has started nursery she brings something home to share every few weeks and half of what she gets we get. Prior to this I got a cold on average every other year. I had a couple of months perfect training building up for my first race last month and came down with something a couple of days before. All other races within a few weeks were sold out so I've had no choice but to take a couple of weeks off to rest and get my sulk out of the way and start my build all over again. It's really annoying and the reason I can't commit to anything big, expensive or far away at the moment. All you can do is train as consistently as possible and hope for the best. Oh and take out cancellation insurance when available. Hopefully you get a clear month from now 🤞

If it helps you feel less panicky, quite a few recentish papers talk about the fact that athletes massively overdo it during taper, and don't taper for long enough. I hope the bug clears and you all get better soon.

There's no need to panic, as it sounds like you've done most of the hard work already.

Where possible, maintain volume of training, but if you have a cold then reduce the intensity. It'll maintain what form you already have for a bit. And, as @TW says, most people under do the taper before a big event.

Hopefully it’s like most of the bugs my little ones bring home and lasts for a few days, my parents reassure me that your immune system being bombarded like this is actually good for you…

Managed to nail Saturdays session, it took quite a while to get comfortable on the bike, partially as the first 20k were straight into the wind which I find really affects my head, avg over 36kph for slightly over race power on a similar course the dream would be to hit 35 on race day for a 5ish hour bike split, then the start of the run felt laughably easy but the second 6k at 4:30s then brought a needed dose of reality l, thankfully the home stretch was flat and a tailwind so managed to get into the grove on the 4:15s then a nice easy 2k home.

Have to say the session knocked me for six and felt very tired for the rest of the day, tennis with the toddlers finished me off, and getting up on Sunday was a struggle, managed my 3k open water swim keeping the effort super low and then a couple of hours on the bike to really wrap things up…

Hopefully with a bit of a taper I’ll have the reserves to go for another 5+ hours!

Hope to get a massage at some point this week to ease out all the kinks, keep an eye on not eating everything and then travel to Estonia next Tuesday!

Signed up for an olympic in 5 weeks. I haven't really done any training, and had very little time on the bike especially in the last few months. Mainly just doing it to test the water to see if I want to commit to a 70.3 in the spring.
My ambitions for the race are a good swim, (will be my first mass start swim), not crashing on the 4x10km loop bike course which I only imagine is going to be traffic the whole way around, and surviving the run.

Prototype mk4 of my between the arm bottle holder is complete and installed ready for some final testing.

Realised I have a spare bento box thing that it could be used for as well if I preferred snacks to drink!

No sure how to finish the back, think it’s fine as is but worry slightly it might fall foul of pre race scrutineering…

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Looks neat! I've just ordered an Elite Buta for the same position. Figured if I'm paying for something then it may as well have a straw so I can use it when in the extensions.

One hour to go to race time at Estonia race number 276!

Go and get it!! 💪

Enjoy and good luck!

Sounded like a tough race in Talinn? Windy bike and hot run? Hope you had a good race @Sainsburys_Ed

Out of curiosity what sort of weekly mileage do people doing a half iron typically do? I’m half tempted for next year but due to various injuries I can rarely run over 15km a week- good for a fast 5km in a sprint but I’m wondering if super shoes plus some discomfort on race day would get me round?

15km average per week seems more than enough for a 70.3. Include some intervals in there and you’ll be gold.

Thanks, I did think that but wasn’t sure.
I think it’s actually my bike volume that’s now the issue. Need to find more time!

I’m building up to my first in 2 weeks and while 15km a week (ideally 5km and 10km) is probably fine initially, I do think you’d want to hit upwards of 20km a week to comfortably get around. I was averaging about 30km a week about 6 months out before I was hit with a bad dose of shin splints end of February, followed by no running til end of may. I started building mileage up week on week (30% up to 15k, 20% up to 20k, and 10% from then on), up to a max of 25k weekly mileage about a month ago. A mix of racing sprints, weekend away on the bike and illness means I only managed 5-7k a week for the past month, but I had a 40k week this week and I’m feeling it. Since getting back running in June my running has mostly been 5-7k fast Tuesday, 15 mins zone 2 off the bike Wednesday and Saturday, and long run Sunday.

I have 2 weeks of tapering where I’ll prob hit 20k and 10k before race day.

Maybe you’re mentally stronger than me at just dogging out a half marathon though.

I’d suggest morelike 30k. A short intervals session with a warm up and cool down, another similar distance run (maybe tempo, maybe easy) and then a 15k ‘long’ run would be a sensible ballpark imo.

Depends if you want to get through it or if you have a time in mind

The bike volume will certainly help on the endurance side, but time on your feet is important too