Bike Durability
A week has passed since my last race of the season. During this time, I've had an opportunity to reflect on the race and look over the data from the bike. One of the things that jumps out at me is my lack of durability on the bike. This lack of durability impacts the tail end of the bike and the run. During my previous build for Texas, I had trouble during my first RR due to my lack of durability on the bike (hindsight). That was my first time riding for that length of time at what was suppose to be race pace. As things got difficult in terms of effort, my nutrition began to suffer. The second RR went much better as my body had accumulated more volume in the time in between RRs. For ChesapeakeMan, I did not have an opportunity to perform either RR which I think impacted me tremendously from both an execution and durability stand point. I think there is tremendous value in riding 112 miles x 2 prior to your race as it allows the body to adjust and adapt to the distance.
The other thing that was probably wrong was my goal pace on the bike. Based on testing and averaging data I came up with the number 196, which is 70% of my FTP. Was this pace to hard for the distance and did that have an impact on nutrition?
Questions:
1. How does one build durability over a season?
2. How much of an impact does that fact that I had no previous training prior to beginning Triathlons 1.5 years ago? I have to think this has a tremendous impact on pacing and durability over the course of a IM distance race. If two people have the same FTP the one whose been logging more miles for a greater number of years has to be more durable
3. Is there a more accurate way to determine pace based on FTP, distance racing, number of miles logged, and number of years in the sport?
Thoughts
Comments
John you have done a great job this season; you have lost a lot of weight; since being here you have learned a ton of good stuff too.
1.5 years doing triathlons isn't a long time and you are already an Ironman, that is impressive as well.
You build durability with a progressive overload of the training stress the coaches lay out in their plans. These adaptations happen from the cellular level and works its way up. It all takes time my friend 1.5 years gets you JV hang on as the body adapts Varsity is right down the road.
I don't know of a calculator to determine that but that would be one I'd put in my favorites. Long story short is it all takes time. Race on the low side of your FTP (sub 70%) going into your run as time goes by during a race; you can always amp things up.
It is certainly the case that peeps usually continue to improve with more years in an endurance sport — this assume solid application, year in year out. So in some respects, for you, it is a waiting game. (see the 3 year plan in the wiki https://app.box.com/s/wk0o18x6fypdhmww16r9).
In relation to your question about an appropriate IM goal IF, this is something you need to work out based on RRs and race performances.
Here is the advice from the wiki
"Power Athletes: ?Goal Watts, as a percentage of FTP: ?5:00 - 5:15: ~74-75%
?5:15 - 5:30: 73-74%
?5:30 - 5:45: 73-72%
?5:45 - 6:00: 72-70%
?6:00 - 6:15: 69-70%
?> 6:15: 67-69%"
I assume your IF was chosen as per these suggestions?
The RRs also help finessing the IF — if you can run at goal pace after the RR, then the IF is likely to be suitable.
Just a couple of other thoughts.
First, a good predictor of an appropriate IM bike IF can be estimated from your best Pnorm for a 5 hour ride — if that Pnorm is less than an IF of 0.75, then you should target a less aggressive IM bike IF. If this is the case, then there is definitely a case for more race specific long rides than otherwise. This is thought is based on former EN WSM Chris Whyte (I think he still posts on SlowTwitch as LakerFan).
Second, have you done many Big Bike Weeks? Once I included BBWs into my training season, the IM bike just became another number of the distance dial, rather than a huge ride that I only do three times per year (2 x RR, plus 1 x IM).
I do at lest 3 BBWs per season now. Once after the OS is over, once before I start my HIM/IM build, and once before my IM build starts.
Cheers
Peter
By cycling durability, to you mean endurance?
If yes, then yes, miles help, especially miles sustained consistently season after season. Actually, that's a little vague. Probably the most valuable ride you can do, week in and week out, is a 2-3hr ride, of just about any flavor, assuming that this is in't too onerous given a trainer, indoors, etc. IOW, the bottom end of the Saturday OS bike we have you doing in the winter is a good enough solution. This and riding 3x per week.
But I see is a fundamental lack of getting in some very, very important bike workouts. Those race rehearsals are the single most important workouts you'll do all year. They are every bit as important as the race itself and you need to find a way to get these in. Not only are they excellent endurance building opportunities but they are learning opportunities. Opportunities to make all of all of the mistakes you might otherwise make on race day.
Building on Coach's comments, there's no substitute for a two pronged attack of weekly intensity workout + consistent ride week in week out. There are lots of ways to get this, which don't necessarily involve structured training. Things I was doing in the decade before I started triathlon which I think helped me get off to a running start were: mountain biking, bike commuting, week long (or more) bicycling "vacations" (500 miles/week). This was bascially my training for the first 5-6 years of my tri career as well.
Maybe it was just time, but after I added weekly intensity focused rides on the trainer for the first time, my results then jumped to another level.
Work works, and there's no short cut to building a multi-year base. Most people will find they get their PRs 6-10 years into doing persistent training. But. many people give up before they reach their potential, not realising how long it takes.