Come behind the scenes for every workout, watt, dollar, gear choice, sauna session, and questionable decision along the way.

Note: This blog will be moving to www.triengel.com – this will be the last post here.

Here We Go

Before this year started, I had a goal in mind.

The marathon in May, Rockford 70.3 in June, and Muncie 70.3 in July were all stepping stones toward something bigger.

Something a little scary.

Something a little stupid.

Something that makes me excited enough to wake up early, stare at tire pressure charts, question my saddle height by 3 millimeters, and willingly sit in a sauna until I look like a rotisserie chicken.

On October 18, I’m racing IRONMAN California.

The goal?

Sub 8 hours.

Not “have a good day.”

Not “see what happens.”

Not “age group podium if the stars align and everyone else forgets their bike shoes.”

Sub 8.

Eight hours is one of those numbers in long-course triathlon that feels simple until you start doing the math. Then it starts getting rude.

A rough version looks something like this:

• Swim fast
• Bike really fast
• Run a marathon really, really fast
• Don’t overheat
• Don’t underfuel
• Don’t flat
• Don’t bonk
• Don’t panic
• Don’t drop your nutrition
• Don’t make 47 bad decisions in the first two hours because you’re feeling amazing and Taylor Swift was playing in the car that morning

Easy enough.

Quick pause here. Subscribe below so I’m not talking into the void for the next 3 months.

Why Sub 8?

A few years ago, Dan Plews went under 8 hours at IRONMAN California.

I learned a lot from Dan over the years. Training. Pacing. Fueling. Heat. Coaching. All the stuff that sounds boring until you realize it’s the difference between flying and walking through an aid station wondering why your hands are tingling.

Watching him do it planted a seed.

At first, it was just one of those quiet thoughts you don’t say out loud.

“Could I do that?”

Then it got a little louder.

Then I took 18 months off racing because I was burnt out and needed to remember why I liked this sport in the first place.

I moved back home.

Fell in love.

The motivation started to come back.

I ran a marathon in May.

I raced Rockford 70.3.

Then I won Muncie.

And somewhere along the way, the thought stopped being a whisper.

It became the thing.

Age Group Records

There’s an age group world record number out there.

Sub 8 is a number that very few human beings on the planet have ever achieved — pros included.

7:49.

Set by Frederik Wester from Denmark at IRONMAN Copenhagen in 2025.

That is absurd.

That is spicy.

That is the kind of number you look at and immediately start bargaining with your bike fit, shoe choice, nutrition plan, and whatever gods control wind direction.

But that’s not the goal.

It’s a number to chase, sure. It’s a rabbit on the horizon. But I’m not building this around a record.

I’m building this around Sub 8.

As far as I know, no American age grouper has gone under 8 hours.

That’s the line.

That’s the mountain.

That’s the big dumb beautiful thing I want to try to climb.

Why Share Everything?

Because I don’t want this to just be a race report that shows up after the fact and says:

“Training went well, race day happened, here are my splits, please clap.”

That’s not the interesting part.

The interesting part is everything that happens before the cannon goes off.

The spreadsheets.

The good workouts.

The bad workouts.

The AI I use.

The days where I feel like an absolute weapon.

The days where my legs feel like someone filled them with mulch.

The gear choices.

The nutrition testing.

The heat training.

The mental side.

The financial cost.

The full-time job balance.

The recovery.

The mistakes.

The weird little details that probably matter more than people think.

This is going to be a behind-the-scenes look at everything it takes to try to do something very few people have done.

Not the polished version.

The real version.

The “I spent 30 minutes deciding if my front tire should be 60 or 61 PSI” version.

The “I moved my aero bars 5 degrees and now I think I invented speed” version.

The “why am I eating another bowl of rice at 8:30 PM?” version.

The “my WHOOP says I’m recovered but my soul disagrees” version.

What I’ll Be Writing About

The plan is to blog at least weekly from now through race day.

Some of the topics I’ll cover:

• How I’m building the training plan
• Key workouts and race simulations
• Swim, bike, and run benchmarks
• Heat training with CORE
• Fueling and sodium strategy
• Supplements, caffeine, bicarb, ketones, and all the expensive little powders that make endurance athletes financially suspicious
• Bike fit and aerodynamics
• Gear choices
• Shoe testing
• Recovery
• Mental health and training
• Balancing work, life, relationships, and the pursuit of a completely unnecessary but deeply meaningful athletic goal
• The actual cost of trying to do this
• What goes right
• What goes sideways
• What I’d do differently

Basically, if it touches the Sub 8 attempt, I’ll probably write about it.

If I test it, I’ll share it.

If I mess it up, I’ll definitely share it.

Those are usually the more entertaining posts anyway.

The Paid Stuff

I’m also going to offer a paid subscriber option for $8/month. Because this sport is F%&$ING expensive.

The $8 Dollar Dreamers.

Because of course it had to be $8.

Paid subscribers will get the full nerd drawer.

The stuff I usually keep tucked away in TrainingPeaks, Strava, WHOOP, and notes-app chaos.

That includes:

• Exact weekly training plan
• Full workout details
• Power numbers
• Discount codes I can share
• Run pace targets
• Bike files
• Race simulations
• WHOOP data
• TrainingPeaks fitness, fatigue, and form
• Full Strava details
• Fueling plans
• Gear costs
• Supplements and testing
• What I’m buying, what I regret buying, and what I’m pretending was a smart financial decision
• Honest notes on how I’m feeling physically and mentally

Free subscribers will still get the main story.

Paid subscribers get the garage door opened all the way.

The watts. The numbers. The receipts. The sausage being made.

It will probably smell like Maurten and anxiety.

Why This Matters To Me

I’ve done a lot in this sport over 18 years.

I’ve raced Kona.

I’ve won an Age Group World Title.

I’ve lost. A lot.

I’ve had days where I felt unstoppable and days where I wondered why I ever thought swimming in a crowd of adults at sunrise was a good hobby.

But this feels different.

After stepping away, I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel this pull again.

I wasn’t sure I’d want to chase something big.

Not because I couldn’t train hard. I’ve always been able to do that.

But because I wasn’t sure if I could care in the right way again.

Not obsession.

Not fear.

Not trying to prove I’m still the guy I used to be.

Something better.

Joy.

Curiosity.

Hunger.

The kind of goal that makes you nervous, but in a way that feels alive.

Happiness beats fitness any day of the week.

But if you can have happiness and fitness?

Now we’re cooking.

The Goal

October 18.

IRONMAN California.

Sub 8.

That’s the project.

That’s the story.

That’s the thing I’m going to chase.

I don’t know exactly how it’s going to go. Nobody does. That’s the fun and terrible part.

Maybe everything clicks.

Maybe I get humbled.

Maybe I’m 6 hours into the race, trying to convince myself that drinking another bottle of carbs is a personality trait.

But I’m going to give it everything I have.

And I’m going to bring you behind the scenes for all of it.

Welcome to the Sub8Stack

Let’s get weird.

Note: This blog will be moving to www.triengel.com – this will be the last post here.