Guide

Every setting, its default, and what coaches and sports scientists suggest. Change them in the Connect IQ app (TRI HUD › Settings). The defaults suit a first full-distance race.

Your numbers beat any default. If you have a coach, a sweat test or a fuelling plan you trained with, use those.

Race

Setting	Default	Guidance
Race distance	Full	Full 3.8 / 180.2 / 42.2 km, Half 1.9 / 90.1 / 21.1, Olympic 1.5 / 40 / 10, or Custom with your own distances.
Plan: swim, T1, bike, T2, run	From the distance	Minutes per leg; 0 uses the preset (full: 75, 6, 360, 4, 270 = 11:55). Your plan drives the projected finish and the ahead/behind number.
Cutoffs: swim, bike, finish	From the distance	Minutes from the start; 0 uses the preset (full 2:20 / 10:30 / 17:00, half 1:10 / 5:30 / 8:30). Many races differ: check your athlete guide.

Bike

Setting	Default	Guidance
FTP	0 (no power meter)	Your aero FTP, tested within six weeks. With 0, the bike screen leads with HR.
Target IF	0.70	Full distance: about 0.65–0.75 for most age-groupers (0.62–0.68 for 12 h+, up to 0.76–0.82 for sub-9:30). Half: about 0.72–0.85.
Power cap	90% of FTP	The red line, for climbs. A minute over it buzzes “EASE OFF”, at most every 10 min.
Power smoothing	10 s	3 s reacts fast, 30 s is calm. Instant power invites surging.
Bike HR cap	Off	For riders without power: about 80–89% of your threshold HR.

Run

Setting	Default	Guidance
Goal pace	From the plan	Seconds per km; 0 uses your planned run time over the run distance.
Run HR cap	Off	About 80–89% of threshold HR for a full-distance run. Heat mode lowers it by 10 bpm.
Lower cap for the first 10 km	5 bpm	Keeps the opening kilometres honest.
Run-walk	Off	Run minutes and walk seconds, e.g. 5 min / 60 s; a buzz at every switch.

Fuel

Setting	Default	Guidance
Carbs per gel or portion	25 g	What one prompt means. The interval follows: 25 g at 75 g/h is every 20 minutes.
Bike carbs per hour	80 g	About 90 g/h of mixed glucose and fructose is the best-supported ceiling; above that only if your gut is trained.
Run carbs per hour	50 g	Usually lower than on the bike, about 40–60 g/h.
First fuel	15 min into the bike	Start early; waiting until you're hungry is too late.
Fluid per hour	600 ml	About 400–800 ml/h for most athletes, up to about 1 L/h in heat. Replace 60–80% of sweat loss, not all of it: overdrinking is the main cause of low sodium in long races.
Drink per prompt	150 ml	A few mouthfuls; the interval follows from your fluid per hour.
Salt every	Off	Minutes between electrolyte prompts, if you take capsules.
Fuel logging	Prompts count as taken	Or tap the field on touch watches that pass taps to fields; untapped prompts repeat.
Heat mode	Off	Fluid +25% (capped at 1 L/h), run carbs −15%, run HR cap −10 bpm.

How the numbers are worked out

Race clock	Time since the activity started, from the watch’s clock. Leg timers don’t touch it.
Projected leg	Your planned time until 5% of the leg is done (25% on the swim), then your pace so far over the leg distance.
Projected finish	Race clock + what’s left of this leg (projected) + the planned time of the legs after it.
Ahead / behind	Projected finish against the sum of your plan; “on plan” within a minute.
Cutoff margin	The next cutoff minus when you’d reach it at the projected pace. Amber under 30 minutes, red when negative, a buzz under 15.
Carbs behind	Your plan accrues every second at the current leg’s g/h from the first fuel; behind = plan − logged.
Normalized power	The 30-second rolling average to the 4th power, averaged, then the 4th root; IF = NP / FTP.

Prompts and warnings

Fuel prompts (EAT, DRINK, SALT) vibrate, beep if tones are on, and fill the screen; any two are at least 75 seconds apart.
Warnings need a full minute over the limit (45 s for running too fast) and repeat at most every 10 minutes: power over your cap, HR over your cap, pace too fast in the first 2 km. Cutoff warnings repeat every 15 minutes.
No prompts during the swim.

If the field gets a smaller slot

In a layout with more than one field, TRI HUD shows the leg’s main number and the race clock. Use the one-field layout for the full view.

Pacing and fuelling ranges summarise published guidance (TrainingPeaks, Best Bike Split, Roadman Cycling, Joe Friel, 80/20 Endurance, Jeukendrup, Precision Fuel & Hydration, the ISSN position stand on caffeine). They are general guidance, not medical advice.