IM Lake Tahoe question about IF for the bike and run
My goal was to hold back and keep my watts within a range based on my fitness today of what I would hope to do for IMLT with the same elevation. I also was experimenting if my compact and 11/28 would be enough gears to allow a high cadence to be able to run. On the last climb up to the Summit I realized I will definitely want an 11-32. My cadence was slowing to 65 and as Coach Rich says "climb at no less than 75rpm’s". I was able to hold my power but at the expense of bigger gears. HR was fine but RPE was going up. The altitude is very dehydrating. I paid attention to my sodium and hydration intake. I averaged 200 calories/hour of my own liquids and Honey Stinger Chews. I had a Power Bar with me but had no desire to eat. The dry air and altitude really made my mouth dry. I was able to do 500mg sodium per hour. I could have gone higher.
My question is about my data.
My IF for the bike was .88 (I thought I was holding back) watts were about 75% of FTP. VI -1.15, TSS - 287
My IF for the run was .85. TSS - 180.
Total TSS 467 - yup I'm tired.
How close should the IF be for the bike and run? On the run it took about 30 minutes to bring HR down and RPE felt ok until the last 3 miles when the heat got me.
Thank you for the feedback!
Comments
Sheila... yeah, your data (for the bike) is a little confusing. Something is not right ... for a half iron, most mortals will be able to manage 0.79-0.82 IF over the 56 miles, with a TSS of 180 +/- 10. Not sure what you mean when you say your "watts were 75% of FTP". Was that average watts or Normalized Power watts? The IF is a simple fraction of Normalized Power (watts) divided by FTP (watts). Your actual FTP may be higher than the one you were using to derive the IF and TSS. Someone doing 0.88 IF would have spent much of the run walking. 0.88 IF is a number more in line with what many people will be doing the 25 miles of an Olympic Distance bike.
For the run, your "IF", which is a less precise way of evaluating things than some other metrics, will depend on factors such as gradient, elevation, and temperature. Probably Heart Rate is a better way of assessing whether you worked hard enough or not, in addition to pace and RPE. The HR (on a half iron) should start out in the high MP range, and be finishing up within your HMP range. The actual pace you are running will probably be slower than implied by those numbers.
Whatever your "true" numbers are, the following: "On the run it took about 30 minutes to bring HR down and RPE felt ok until the last 3 miles when the heat got me" tells me you probably were biking within your limits, and then paced the run well, going about as fast as you were capable of.
Al - thank you for helping me on this. I am going off the numbers that WKO and Training Peaks gave me. I might have some misunderstanding of the intensity that I should try to ride for IM. The 75% of FTP is what I thought would give me the IF of about .70. I think you can see how I am crossing hairs here!
If my bike IF was .88 and a TSS 287 and a VI of 1.15 then I must not have an accurate FTP. Do you think that is the problem? I really was able to pace the run fairly well. I can retest next week, but it will only be 10 days post race.
Newbie questions to training with power is very humbling.
Sheila - I fully understand about being confused over how to use power in training and racing. I must have had a power meter for at least 3 years before I started to get comfortable with the acronyms, and get a feel for how it all fit together. It took a year with EN, learning from the online resources and forums, and training and racing based on that, to get me where I thought I actually knew what was going on!
To start, we need to make sure that you have the right # plugged into whatever program or device you are using to do the analysis. If that is WKO/TrainingPeaks, that means double checking that your "threshold" in the Power Training Zones area is indeed the number you think your FTP is supposed to be. Or, if you are basing this on a head unit, like a Joule or Garmin 500, then double check the FTP # in the setup for the unit.
Assuming that your analysis is indeed based on the number you *think* your FTP should be, then, yes, your assumed FTP is too low. A TSS of 287 is what you should generate in a well-paced Ironman bike leg, not a half iron. So you would need to re-test. Next week would be as good a time as any. I'd suggest doing next Tuesday run intervals on Monday instead, not do the run listed for Monday, and then substitute an FTP test for Wed's bike FTP intervals.
After you get you "new" FTP, then you'll need to do a bit of planning for your upcoming Race Rehearsal in week 15. I'd suggest soon after you do the re-test, that you read about Race Rehearsals in the wiki (link below), write a plan for yours, and post it in the General Training forum, to cast the broadest possible net for feedback. Then, after the RR, post a follow-up describing how it went, lessons learned, and questions you have.
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/91/Default.aspx?topic=Race+Rehearsal+Protocol