Looks pretty good to me, and looks within usual guidelines but I’m no expert. Perhaps check this out when you get a minute:
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Interesting to read. I like that you adapt based on how you crave/feel.
A take-away from endurance diet for me is that endurance athletes often eat to little rather than enough…
Also, regular 2h swim? 
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I wish! More like a one hour swim plus an hour run
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Hi. Will also be doing Weymouth 70.3 next year. I’ll start the MD LV plan in April, until then I’m working on raising my ftp and not getting fat!
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So here we go, I’m starting my Ironman 2020 preparation next week.
I’m doing Nice in June and I will be targeting sub 11h. I’ve done in last year (shortened version - 10h42) and I would actually love to do exactly the same time on full distance 
It will be a crazy year and I’m already excited for the challenge. There are 2 additional difficulties this year:
- seeing my preparation last year, my partner decided it’s very cool and she wants to do triathlons too (she is a pretty strong runner, but no bike and poor swimming)
- we’ve had our 3rd baby 3 months ago
Anyway, I’m pretty good at scheduling
Swim: I’m going to swim almost every day, although it’s often for only 1-1.5km. I didn’t really progress on speed lately, but I finally learned (not perfect yet though) the bilateral breath and I already feel like it’s a game changer. I’m able to hold the same speed as before with less effort, although I’m still drinking a ton of water. I’ve also took some SwimSmooth plans and videos - they are very useful. I’m targeting a huge improvement as compared to last year, but it’s quite easy for me to fit a lot of sessions into my schedule
Bike: Don’t have really huge goals and with the newborn it’s a bit more complicated. But, I’m at 287 FTP now (as compared to 191 last year at the beginning of my preparation) so it’s cool. I will be targeting 330 FTP by the end of my preparation and I’m quite confident that I will hit it following TR plans as last year
Run: Last year I didn’t run a lot due to some knee problems but a funny thing happened after my Ironman this year. I went to a soccer game - I didn’t play for several years due to this painful knee. It was quite hard during the game, and I was really suffering for the next 3 days. And then … all the pain and strange sounds disappeared. Like magically removed. So I will increase my mileage now I’m commuting back from work running 2 sometimes 3 times a week - it’s 13-15kms per trip usually. I’m still doing this, and I will probably add some more runs in the morning (possibly replacing some bike sessions) although the logistics are a bit painful
Weight: I’m going the drop a lot starting now (already started actually) - this is one of the mistakes I made this year. I’ve kept eating too much sugars and drinking alcohol as with such a high volume of training it wasn’t really increasing my weight. But I ended up being heavier than I should have been by at least 2kg.
So yeah, let’s go ! It will be hard sometimes but last year I loved every minute of it.
Trust the process
Good luck everybody !
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Calling it IM Roanoke doesn’t just sound as appealing as IM Blue Ridge. Most are a bit curious as to how they’re going to handle the logistics of T1 since the parking lot there at Carvin’s Cove is quite small. That might be one I sign up for one of these days, but right now is in the middle of the Xterra season so not ready yet to give up off-road tri races to do a HIM. Good luck with that one, I’m curious to see what the actual bike course is.
As a fellow VT grad, I was thinking the the half iron distance race I might do was going to be the same weekend as the VT/PSU game, and as a season ticket holder I wasn’t going to miss that one. As it turns out, the race is the weekend after so it looks like I will be participating in the 2020 thread @JoeX.
Now I’ve got about 170 messages to catch up on… as part of the way I’m going to make my goals is that I"ve got to spend less time on social media… I think I can eventually squeeze in about an extra 30 minutes a day on the weekdays during my peak weeks… so that’s almost 2.5 hours of extra time I was just responding to threads… I’ll still try to be active in the strava group, and once I catch up to this one, will probably only follow this one thread… time to get ready for work!
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Sounds like we are pretty similar, I have only done 2 sprint tris. not worried about the bike and have ran halfs in similar times. Interested to know are you just aiming to finish/make cut off times or are you going for a specific time? I’m signed up for IM UK in July
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For now my goal is just to finish. Obviously I am competitive and will most likely set myself some kind of goal time as I progress with training.
An old source from 2011 states that 30-34 age group average finish time is 12 hours 11 minutes
I would like to beat the “average”, ha.
I am starting the low-volume full distance base plan tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Also, it is at the very early stage, but I wish to take an analytical view of this journey, so I will document it here: https://fitwith.tech/
My goal is two-folded. Learn “web development” basics, and become a better athlete.
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SSB1 done and feeling good and FTP up and holding it on the TT rig.
Also had a swim smooth stroke correction session which identified a couple of quick wins which is making gains in the pool. Coupled with a change in work circumstance meaning I can hit the pool a lot more in the week, I’m hoping to see more big gains here.
Have just finished up with a session in a wind tunnel. From a ‘relaxed’ baseline of 0.2417, we got down to 0.2005 and feeling pretty good. Mostly positional tweaks and not much to spend other than a new stem. (And a marginally quicker helmet if I really want to chase small and expensive gains).
Another big change has been devouring ‘nutrition for endurance athletes’ by Monique Ryan. Much more conscious of my macros and calorie requirements. I feel like I’m eating like Nate but body composition is definitely changing for the better.
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How do these work? Do people meet up with SS coaches or is it a video review?
(Not SS but) I went on a Total Immersion weekend boot camp. worked for me.
It was/is a 1:1 session with the coach. You warm up, then swim a little whilst they film you from all angles (including underwater). You then sit on the deck running through elements of the footage where you can quite literally see your issue compared to an elite for example. Then it’s back in the pool with a couple of things to work on which is much easier having seen how not to do it! My coach followed up with drills specific to the changes we’re trying to embed and the video recording, including all the discussion as we viewed it together. Highly recommend it.
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Me too
So Wales is in doubt again… I missed 2019 as it was taking longer than expected to recover from a traumatic broken hip, and yesterday I slipped on some icy decking and broke it again. Not quite as badly as last time but I’m non weight bearing for 6 weeks, then partial weight-bearing for another 6. From then it will be a case of seeing what kind of strength I have and whether rehab will be feasible at the same time as training into spring/summer.
Oh man, I’m sorry to hear that! Fingers crossed for you.
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Sorry to hear! Wish you the best recovery. Fingers crossed so that you can continue the journey afterwards 
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Thanks both, I’ll get there eventually but it might not be 2020, the priority will be making sure the hip rehab goes well and getting strong again.
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Everytime I try to start sweet spot base at the minute I get sick.
Going to give myself another full week off in an attempt to start again.
Training in cold air seems to give me exercise induced asthma which keeps me up at night every winter…so despite my garage renovations I’m thinking the gym wattbike & woodway treadmill may get a lot of use this winter.
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Interesting to read! Out of interest, what made you decide on the wind tunnel compared to a velodrome based test?