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Low VI or hammer for Oly bike?

gschlossnaglegschlossnagle
in General Training Discussions

I've got an Olympic Tri coming up this weekend and am trying to decide how to race the bike.  Advice in the wiki seems to be moderately self-conflicting.  Should I go out and try to maintain a low VI at ~90% or 'murder the hills', forgot about VI and just shoot to maintain at least 90% FTP? 

Comments

  • jneedelljneedell
    George,
    I have the same issue. Doing OC Tri on Sunday. I am thinking of hammering the bike as it is a tough run course (massive hill(s) at the end) anyway so I will likely have issues on keeping pace anyway. I am also considering using the bike as an FTP test anyway. Maybe consider the course to pick your strategy.
    Thanks,
    JN
  • mattsullmattsull

    I shoot for .90-.95 IF in an Oly. I do try to ride steady though, shooting for a VI as close to 1.0 as possible. Basically feels like an FTP interval. Hammering the hills would be like throwing in some VO2 work. That could negatively affect your run.

  • Tom GlynnTom Glynn
    I'd agree with Matt. High watts, low VI
  • mgraffeomgraffeo
    I think of it like I think of IM execution, in gears.

    1st gear = goal watts minus 5% (for the first 10 minutes, and for downhills)
    2nd gear = goal watts (for flats and small rollers)
    3rd gear = goal watts +5% (for long hills)
    4th gear = goal watts +10% (for short hills)

    The important thing is to think of 4th gear as a soft ceiling, meaning "exceed this number only because you did it on purpose". There may be times when it's advantageous to crank it for 20-30 seconds. This sort of effort has very little impact on VI, and in the right situations, can really impact bike speed (for example, a downhill, followed by a short uphill, then another downhill). However, you shouldn't find yourself at 120% without even realizing it (like looking down at the PM on a longer hill).
  • Chris GChris G

    For an olympic I would pretty much ride as hard as you can.  You are not going to be able to get much over .90 no matter what you do when the downhills/turns/etc are factored in.  At least I never can.  That said I would not climb much above FTP either, maybe 110 percent at the most.

  • cwhytecwhyte

    Again, great responses here from Chris and Mike. The only thing I would add is just to bring a different perspective:



    Remember, these gears (2 through 4) that Mike describes above were created as a result of optimal-paced modeling for variable terrain. Whether the course is ~25 miles or 112 miles, the variability doesn't change. The only thing that changes is the overall intensity.



    Sometimes we make this harder than it needs to be. IFs of .70 - .75 for IM, .80 - .85 for HIM and .90 - .95 for Oly with the same VI goals (relative to terrain) are pretty damn good guidelines. You just have to be humble or aggressive enough to realize what end of the range you need to be on. ;-)



    Thanks, Chris

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