Riding Steady: Training vs Racing
Riding Steady: Training vs Racing
As everyone finishes the OS, leaves their trainers behind to test their fitness on the road in preparation for their races, I'm seeing a lot of discussion about riding steady, I can't ride steady, OMG HTF am I supposed to ride hills like this, etc. So let's talk about how we want you to ride your bikes in training and racing.
What is "riding steady?"
By this we mean a nearly constant effort, regardless of hills, downhills, winds, etc, with few to zero surges of power/effort. To explain why, let's toss out some powergeekery terms:
- Average watts: the physics of you riding your bike -- rider with weight x, aerodynamics of y, puts up z average watts for 112 miles on IMWI and puts up a 6:xx bike split. Average watts is the physics of what's going on there.
- Normalized watts: a construct created by the guys behind WKO, normalized power attempts to account for the fact that all watts are not created equal. The metabolic cost of watts gets much, much higher as watts increase and normalized watts tries to account for this. In short, normalized watts is how tired you felt after producing your average watts above.
Normalized watts allows us to compare two very different rides, to normalize them. For example:
- Timmy does a flat ride and averages (Pavg) 200w.
- Billy does a big climbing ride and averages 200w (assume BnT are identical twins on identical bikes)
- Timmy's Pnorm (normalized power) is 210w. However Billy's Pnorm is 220w. In short, Billy's body did more work than Timmy to create the same average watts. Billy's ride was harder, more costly to his body.
- If we divide Pnorm by Pavg we get Variability Index (VI), a measurement of how variable or "non-steady" each ride was. Timmy's VI is 1.05, Billy's VI is 1.10. A lower VI ride is more steady than a higher VI ride.
Using these definitions of average watts (physics of riding your bike) and normalized watts (how tired you got while producing those watts), we can now talk about how we want you to ride your bike on raceday:
Produce the optimal average watts while making yourself as less tired (?) as possible. That is, Pavg and Pnorm should be very close = we want to see a low VI.
What does this style of riding look like on the road?
The EN Athlete
Goal watts: based on your fitness, the length of the course, etc, your goal is to ride at 220w. You're riding on the flats at 220w.
- Hills: the road starts to go up. You look at the PM monitor and dial in about 230-240w. You maintain this effort across the crest of the hill and keep it up (or dial it down to about 220w) until you hit about 34-35mph…then you just coast. As you drop under about 30mph you start to pedal again at 220w and your speed bleeds down to your normal cruising speed.
- Headwinds/Tailwinds: are invisible. You just ride at 220w into the wind and 220w with the tailwind.
Contrast this to...
How Everyone Else Rides
- Hills: watch the people around you. You'll see that as the hill starts they step on the gas and may quickly put several bike length between them and you. Remember that metabolic cost of watts increases exponentially, not linearly. There is a BIG price to pay, later in the day, for stepping on the gas like this. Next, you'll see them come off the gas, if the hill is long enough, and this gap between you and them stabilizes. As the hill reaches the crest…watch their body language as the come WAY off the gas. Shagged from their effort they keep these low watts up just past the crest of the hill and then keep pedaling on the downhill, or being to coast right away…their 27mph to your 35mph.
- Winds: step on the gas into the wind (see exponentially higher cost of high watts). Also, resistance increases exponentially with wind speed as well. So your 220w into a 20mph wind gets you 18mph, while their 275w into the same wind gets them ~20-21mph. But when the wind changes, they come way off the gas with the wind. While you stay on 220w. Your speed is now 30mph to their 24mph.
So you and your non-EN friend go round and round the bike course, exiting T1 and entering T2 together. And of course, you're identical twins…again :-). Both of you finish with average watts of 220w. However, your style of riding has created a Pnorm of 230w while your friends style as created a PNorm of 250w. You've both done the same physics = same bike split, but we could say that your style of riding was more efficient, making you less tired.
Rich, Patrick, and many, many EN athletes have been racing like this for years. It absolutely, positively works, in that you can see just how hard everyone else around you is working…and not getting anything for it -- doodes charge up hills, killing themselves to get to the top…and then shut it down, again and again and again. Before long they just go away or end up suffering on the run.
Steady: Racing vs Training
Now, all of this is a style of riding the bike, just as drilling it up every hill and coasting down is a style. It's a skill you learn (see below) and once you got it, you got it. I believe you can choose to ride like this, or not, in training, just as I can choose to ride to ear-shattering rock or mellow reggae, depending on my mood.
Racing: we want you to race as we've described below. Easy to understand why.
Training:
- The Skill of Steady: yes, you need to spend some time developing the SKILL of how to ride Steady. I feel that much of this is riding Steady around people who are not and thereby gaining the confidence that this style of riding absolutely works. Once you have that confidence, then everything that everyone else does around you -- the wrong thing -- just makes you increasing more confident that you're riding smart while they are not. But…
- Maximizing the WORK: for training purposes, mo' work done per minute of training time spent is mo' betta'!! Personally, about 95% of my riding is very much not-steady -- I have the skill, know how to use it, and can turn it on or off as I need to. But when I'm training, I want to cram as much kj, TSS, IF, VI, cadence ranges, etc into every minute of my ride. My effort is all over the place, always hard, all the time. For example, I can ride steady and average 240w, 260w Pnorm for a training ride or I can surge, drill myself, keep the watts up on downhills and generally have FUN on the bike (very important) and average 240w but with a Pnorm of 280w. 280w > 240w = I've made myself more tired = that's a good thing!!
Learning the Skill of Riding Steady
All: ensure you have enough gears on your bike for the terrain you train and race on. Generally speaking, MUCH of the surginess of a given ride is often the result of not having enough gears = drops you into low cadences you're not used to/don't like, so you spike the watts to push against this.
With Power:
Very simply -- look at the dial and don't surge! You have a monitor on your stem. That stem tells you what you're doing. You should know what you're supposed to do, ie, what watts you're supposed to stick to. When you look at the dial and see stupid numbers…stop being stupid! Having enough gears on your bike to maintain a comfortable cadence across a range of terrain will certainly help you to not surge or spike your watts. But the most important tool is just increased awareness. After years and years of riding with power, when I'm trying to ride steady, my eyes just lock into the monitor on hills, downhills, head, tailwinds, standing, etc. The nets it that I NEVER put out watts that I don't want to. My goal is to make zero mistakes, to mistakenly toss out watts that I didn't mean to.
Without Power
Pay attention to the pressure on the soles of your feet:
- You're riding on the flats a 90rpm, creating X pressure on the soles of your feet.
- As the road starts to go up, focus on the pressure and shift up (to easier gears), to keep this cadence and pressure the same.
- At the same time, watch the people around you, using them as a frame of reference. they will stomp on the gas and gap you -- this is a good thing!
- If the hill is steep enough and/or long enough, you'll run out of gears. Just settle in and get up the hill, keeping yourself comfortable. Note that HR is not a great tool in this situation, as HR lags effort by about 90" -- if your HR rises from low Z2 to high Z3…that probably means you've been riding at a Z4-5 effort the whole time and your HR is only just now catching up.
- Again, watch the people around them, specifically their body language. You'll see them come of the gas and now the gap they opened up on you stabilizes or even comes back to you a bit.
- As you near the crest of the hill, focus on your feet again. Keep the pressure the same by shifting up in the gears. You're not going harder, you're simply extending your climbing effort above across the crest and into the downhill. Stay on the gas until you get up to about 34mph…then get very aero and coast. As your speed bleeds off, just start pedaling again at your selected cadence and pedal-pressure.
- Again…watch the people around you. You'll either see them (1) come WAY off the gas and start coasting right away -- their 27mph to your 35mph --, or (2) pedal weakly across the crest and keep pedaling on the downhill, even trying to accelerate beyond your 34mph. It's very, very cool to pass someone pedaling like crazy while you're aero, coasting, stretching, and recovering.
Questions? I'm sure you have many. Ask them here and we'll add this post to the wiki. Thanks!
Comments
Am I alone in feeling that it is 'harder' to maintain watts when on a downhill versus uphill? Using RPE, I think that I am at (say) 220W and when I look at my dial, I see 160-180W for what feels like the right amount of effort. I certainly do not have that problem on the uphills.
What techniques do you suggest for keeping one's power up to the desired level on a downhill?
- shift to your biggest gear and 'work harder'? (which will actually be close to goal effort)
- just shift more rapidly than one would expect and keep a lower cadence than you are normally used to? e.g. 70-75 vice 90=95
Thanks.
Joe,
Not alone:
My point is that throughout this post, you can also read between the lines and see where it really pays to know the course well -- I can spend a bit more here, save there, this is good enough given what comes next, etc.
I don't think you need to devote an entire ride(s) to learning these skills. On any of your rides, if you get into a set of rollers, or a steep hill, or a group, or any variable terrain, just do my stuff above, observe and learn. You'll get it pretty quickly, I expect.
@ Michael - I try to do most of my ABP rides as described above, unless I'm with a group which ALWAYS puts me in the mode of "How Everyone Else Rides"!
@Michael: even the z4 intervals teaches us the value of steady; without our attention and concentration the numbers can vary wildly. It's a skill and can be learned.
So, how do you set up your bike computer, and how do you integrate that in to your workout? Do you look at the average lap power and try to chase a target (middle of z3 or something like that)? Do you look at power at the instant and try to keep it in the zone? Do you use 3s or 30s smoothing or just look at the raw number?
I am also a new power user and trying to get good at it. I'm watching my power number jump all over the place (ie from 120-180 at what seems to be a steady pace). While I know it will take some practice to get more steady, I'm wondering if I need to change a setting for "smoothing" or something else.
@ Michael Bernico: For intervals, I create workouts on the Garmin with prescribed wattage limits. If I go above or below the target range, it beeps at me until I correct the problem. I don't see why you couldn't set an alert for a race rehearsal, race or ordinary training ride to accomplish the same thing. As to what number to look at, I remember Rich recommending that you look at current power, with 3 second smoothing, because (a) the raw number bounces around way too much for the instantaneous data to be useful; and (b) over time, the average gets pretty set, and if you are only looking at the average number, you could be way over your ranges.
Rich:
Thanks for the post! This should go out as an email to the team as an update. It should maybe also point to the Wiki for RR protocols, race day gearing, etc.?
For those freaking on watts numbers jumping like crazy on their PT CPU, it will get better with practice but I will always jump. Just does. One thing that worked for me training form IM CdA in 2009 so I got off the bike near my target watts was to keep the real-time watts about 10 watts above the "gear" I was trying to hold during an RR or target IF during a training session.
Hope this helps.
John
My Joule display is currently:
Current Watts Pnorm
Speed IF
Ride time Cadence
Distance Kj
I have the power averaging set to 10secs. To be honest, I've been riding with power for so long that I don't even notice/worry about the numbers jumping around. I "think" this setting smooths things out, I suggest you give it a try.
On normal rides (riding hard, ABP, intervals, etc). I used the relationship between Watts, Pnorm and IF a lot: I have an IF goal and to get it make the current watts always be bigger than Pnorm, which drives up IF, etc.
My intervals are very loosely scheduled and are usually terrain-based: up this hill, front this bridge to that bridge, from this point to that point, etc. If I think about I'll create an interval and bring it up on the screen so I'm tracking ^ those numbers above for the individual interval.
For IMWI I "may" create an interval for the first 16 miles (the Stick) and then for each loop, so I can have a more detailed sense for how I'm doing for each segment, with a goal of riding very easy for the first 16 and then getting progressively a bit stronger for each loop and the final leg back to town.
When I'm trying to ride Steady...I don't do anything more complicated than just:
So to boil it all down: you have this thing on your stem that tells you when you're being stupid. Look at the thing and if it says you're being stupid...stop doing that
Every 30 minutes I hit the Interval button. It keeps my Pnorm and IF from getting too rigid and reminds me to stay on goal watts.
The other thing it does is keeps me on my 15 minute nutrition schedule.
Related question - when do you use gear 3?? Any time you are gaining elevation? Or just on real "hills", and otherwise going as steady as possible? [for the times when you are trying to ride steady...]
Good stuff everyone. Making me dig into my brain to remember all the protocol stuff.
@Steve - Thanks for the post. Like Matt, at IM CdA I made each hour an interval on the bike and really looked at AVG. watts at times throughout each hour. Worked out great for me.
@Jim - VI relates basicially to spiking watts. If you hold the gear at any level your VI should be at or near 1.
Also, If you haven't gone through the Long Course Bike pacing info here https://www.box.net/shared/2e1hi7n7c5, I suggest you do so. There is an audio portion to accompany the PDF preso. It notes in there Gear 3 is a hill greater than 3 minutes in length to ride up.
Lastly, and unrelated to this stuff . . . . practice riding steep hills and holding your gears. The tendency is to get out of the saddle and be a roadie and climb. But we are EN triathletes and our goal is to level out the bike course. Steady watts up and steady watts down. That's what the grears are for. For IM CdA 2009 training I practiced holding gears 3 and 4 on very steep hils and learned I can ride 3 to 5 MPH on a steep hil and not fall over. It's stoopid slow and guys are passing me, but that patience and discipline on the bike paid off for me on the run. I can't emphasize enough practicing holding gears 3 and 4.
+1 on using the Int button during the race to further refine your REAL effort at any given segment. I do this on all RR rides, ABP rides and anything where the goal is riding steady watts.
Here's why I think this is so valuable in an IM distance race.
If I ride 1st Gear watts in the first hour of the bike I will be 5-7 watts (on average) lower than my overall Goal Watts. I am disciplined enough to stay in that 1st Gear through the one hour mark but when the hour is up I would have a tendency to step on the gas MORE than Goal Watts to try to "make-up" or bridge the difference between the first hour Average Watts and the Goal Watts. So my strategy is at the hour mark I hit that Int button and "forget" what happened in the first hour and move on to pushing Goal Watts the rest of the way as steady as possible. The reality is that the math will fix it all - 4-5 hours of steady riding at Goal Watts will "bridge" a 5-7 watts shortfall in the first 60 mins. If it doesn't, well, then you'll be real close to it and should be able to run a hell of a marathon.
+1 on smaller intervals. I've actually just set mine to auto lap every mile. It's like a fresh start every few minutes. Well, until you get to lap 109, 110, 111...
Today I did a short, 1:30 ride. Was supposed to be 3.5-4hrs of climbing but got a late start, ran into some admin messiness on the front end...decided to ride easy, steady, and will do a hard 2hr ride tonight with my club. Anway, things I was thinking about and trying out:
The coolest part? This was about the 3rd ride in 3yrs where I've actually TRIED to ONLY ride at 70-75%. The other two were Day 1 and 2 of Everest Challenge (16k and 14k gain respectively
). Very cool, and I hope a powerful place to be, to continually remind myself to "only" ride at 220-225w vs the 250-270w that I constantly sit on. Makes me think that IM race day is gonna be a peice of cake, from a mental perspective anyway 
I've done the search and found lots of good stuff. But, I've picked up on this...when RnP 'revisit' something, there's usually something new that clicks.
@Chris: running pace is much different, as there are no watts that are the same regardless of grade, wind, etc. As you know, a grade of as little as 1% will affect your running pace. Personally, I use RPE. I know what a 7:30 mile feels like -- breathing, RPE, etc. So I'll run a 7:30/mi effort (ie, feels like) on a x% grade hill which might give me 9:00 pace.
hills on IM run:
spin up the hills just like you would on the bike. DO NOT power over them. high rpm and slightly shorter stride than when you are on flats. whatever pace it is THAT'S WHAT IT IS. in a race, i monitor my pace only on the flats, but never on a climb nor a downhill.
as you crest the top, resume normal stride and as you descend try not to put on the brakes too much. Let gravity take you down.
people will either walk the hills or they'll power over them and then be shelled at the top and all the way down the other side and cooked for the rest of the run...just like on the bike.
gh
As a longtime runner I agree with Pat...RPE works great....shorten the stride...let the hill take speed out of you...the metabolic impact of trying to power/maintain uphill is far worse than the time cost impact of "spinning" up the hill....second word of advice is to learn to run downhill...it is not easy "freewheel" downhill which allows you to capture the advantage of downhill...not learning to run efficiently downhill typically results in high impact "braking" strides which can crumple quads.
I am riding by HR right now and most of this thread dealt with power to get at the metric of effort expended. I understand that there is a time lag to HR but with longer hills I would think that it could still be useful along with foot pressure / rpe.
I have a 70.3 race reherasal tomorrow. I will be riding a course that I rode last november. I have my garmin hr data from that ride. My avg HR was 140 but the range was all over the place. From 160 at the top of a climb to 120 at the bottom. While riding tomorrow I am going to try and stay in the low 140's the whole time. We will see how it goes.
I know that I am biking faster than last year so I would expect the split to be better but I guess I wont really know if I have succeded or not till the last 5k of the run.
Still, at least I have a game plan now.