What if your training by power? I don't see anything telling me what zone to be in for the 2.5 hrs.
Here's what I see for Big Day Bike instructions:
30' @ 65-70%/Zone1 to 2/Easy. 2.5 hours at goal Ironman race effort. Remainder of time is 70-75%. Aim for a negative split.
"Ironman race effort" might be anything from 0.67-0.78 depending on how fast you do the 112 mile IM bike leg. For most of us,. 69-71% of your FTP is the level to try and hold for those 2.5 hours.
What if your training by power? I don't see anything telling me what zone to be in for the 2.5 hrs.
Here's what I see for Big Day Bike instructions:
30' @ 65-70%/Zone1 to 2/Easy. 2.5 hours at goal Ironman race effort. Remainder of time is 70-75%. Aim for a negative split.
"Ironman race effort" might be anything from 0.67-0.78 depending on how fast you do the 112 mile IM bike leg. For most of us,. 69-71% of your FTP is the level to try and hold for those 2.5 hours.
...and what IM effort power is/should be is explained in the Ironman How-To wiki page that I linked to in my original post. That said, I'll find the Big Day guidance in the wiki and will clarify it, then edit these Big Day workouts in the plans to point to this guidance in the wiki.
@ Tom - one other point....one of the purposes of the BTD is to see how everything fits and clicks. IM race effort, whether by Power or RPE or HR, is a pretty ez pace to hold when compared to all the interval work we do. I treat the BTDs like mini rehearsals, not quite as OCD as a rehearsal, but a day where I can put some attention into how I feel in X position for how ever long, or is climbing easier like this or that, or where is the best position for my head/neck, or can I see my dashboard ez, and, of course, how does my run feel afterwards.
If the warmup is, for me, 55-70% depending on the hills around, and my IM Race Effort 2.5 hours is gonna be around 70%, then, yes, they are very similar intensities. It is what it is. I approach it as
1) go real ez for the first 20-30 minutes, then 2) work like I was pacing the IM which would be 70% on the flats, plus ~ 10% of that on the climbs, and keep some steady power on the downs. And, I softpedal on the >30mph downs. Sound familiar? Might mean that my overall IF comes in a little lower than the 70% I was shooting for but I'm really looking to see how I feel on the run. Then I compare efforts from BTD 1 to BTD 2 to RR 1 to RR 2.
I have found that the more I think of the run as the main part of the BTD, the better I can cap my efforts on the bike's harder parts.
I believe that the BTD is one of the times that RnP are talking about when they say "Build Fast, then Far''. This is one of the latter.
But, as far as your original question (sorry that I got off on a tangent), is that my IM Race Effort is very close to my Warmup Effort no matter what metric I'm training with.
Comments
Here's what I see for Big Day Bike instructions:
30' @ 65-70%/Zone1 to 2/Easy. 2.5 hours at goal Ironman race effort. Remainder of time is 70-75%. Aim for a negative split.
"Ironman race effort" might be anything from 0.67-0.78 depending on how fast you do the 112 mile IM bike leg. For most of us,. 69-71% of your FTP is the level to try and hold for those 2.5 hours.
...and what IM effort power is/should be is explained in the Ironman How-To wiki page that I linked to in my original post. That said, I'll find the Big Day guidance in the wiki and will clarify it, then edit these Big Day workouts in the plans to point to this guidance in the wiki.
If the warmup is, for me, 55-70% depending on the hills around, and my IM Race Effort 2.5 hours is gonna be around 70%, then, yes, they are very similar intensities. It is what it is. I approach it as
1) go real ez for the first 20-30 minutes, then
2) work like I was pacing the IM which would be 70% on the flats, plus ~ 10% of that on the climbs, and keep some steady power on the downs. And, I softpedal on the >30mph downs. Sound familiar? Might mean that my overall IF comes in a little lower than the 70% I was shooting for but I'm really looking to see how I feel on the run. Then I compare efforts from BTD 1 to BTD 2 to RR 1 to RR 2.
I have found that the more I think of the run as the main part of the BTD, the better I can cap my efforts on the bike's harder parts.
I believe that the BTD is one of the times that RnP are talking about when they say "Build Fast, then Far''. This is one of the latter.
But, as far as your original question (sorry that I got off on a tangent), is that my IM Race Effort is very close to my Warmup Effort no matter what metric I'm training with.