How to get faster on bike w/out sacrificing the run
Hi, I did an olympic tri june 5th, and HIM June 11...Usually finish in the top 20-30% of the swim..I do not put much time in swimming..usually happy with the placement..it is what it is...the bike..different story..always middle of the pack...the run..top 25-35%..ran 7 min miles for the olympic..7:30 to 7:45 for most of HIM..on a hilly course..nowhere near flat.....I did the Nov OS religiously, and followed the HIM advanced program...i use heart rate to guide me on bike,pace on the run...on both races kept it at zone 3, with a little zone 2 on the bike..i had nothing left at the end of the HIM...I have experience with going to hard on the bike and blowing up on runs
...i felt the race execution, especially the HIM was near perfect...i passed people on the bike in the last 15 miles by keeping steady, then really passed lots on the run
...felt both were races were close to my potential, and was very happy with execution...BUT...i WANT some minutes cut off on the bike, without slowing on the run....is this wanting my cake and eating it too??? I love passing the youngsters on the run...55 yrs old here, and next race is IMOO..How do i get stronger in 12 weeks on the bike??????
Brian
Comments
IMOO..as a side note, i grew up in arcadia...i enjoy hearing about all the rides you do in the area
Regarding an olympic distance, I have tried very hard to cook myself on the bike but it has never happened. Every time I've found that the tradeoff between run pace decline and bike improvement was worthwhile. In the Chicago Tri last year I really went hard on the bike and was over 1mph faster than my prior oly PB on a pretty flat course...and my run pace worsened by only 10 sec/mile to about 7:15. My net gain on that trade was about 2 min. Man I wish I had a powermeter last year to quantify that better. I can't wait for my first Olympic on June 26 to try to overbike once again.
But I realize HIM is a different story, I will play very conservative the first time around. There seemed to be advice in the wiki for FOP athletes turning it up a bit earlier, etc, but having never don an HIM I won't be taking any of those tips until I do one race to get a baseline.
Can't wait to hear what advice others have.
@ Brian - your specific question is : "55 yrs old here, and next race is IMOO..How do i get stronger in 12 weeks on the bike??????"
I believe the hard fact is your task in the next 12 weeks is to build endurance (is this what you mean by strength?) on your bike. You should not expect to get faster for shorter distances, or significantly improve your FTP if you are using power to guide your training. You should find improvements during this time in your abiity to hold an effort at about 80% of FTP for longer and longer times. You will see this play out when you do your race rehearsals in 6 and 9 weeks, and riding for 6 hours at 70% seems "easy".
From an age persepctive, I've found that the EN protocol of back-to-back long rides on Sat and Sundays didn't work as well for me as splitting those up during the week, say on Sat and Monday, and doing run intervals on Sunday. Those longer, harder than race (IM) effort bike help me the most to get "stronger" for the IM if I was rested for each one. Also, if you have the opportunity, doing at least one of those longer bikes in a group of riders who are a little faster than you really helps.
So the question/discussion is about how to get faster on the IM bike in the next 12wks. I think it's very important that we limit the discussion to that and not cloud it with training/racing faster at the Oly and HIM distance. Those three (SC, HIM, and IM) are very, very different situations
Objective for the IM bike:
Which is to say, you don't build bike strength to ride a fast bike split. You build it to ride a comfortable bike leg, that sets up the run, that's also, by the way, pretty fast.
Notes for the next 12wks:
In the end, there is no secret to getting strong...it's just work. Do more work and you'll get stronger. However, the rub is that in IM training there is precious little slack to go around: an extra hard effort here, more volume there, an added bike workout some other place nearly all the time has to be "paid for" with a compromise someplace else downstream. I bump into this all the time with my own training as I consider going out for a 4th ride, adding time to my weekend rides, etc.
The best advice is to realize this above and to approach becoming a faster IM cyclist as a multi-year process. Ask Tom Glynn, recent Kona qualifier and 5:0x bike split at IMTX what his progression of bike fitness has been over the last 4yrs with EN...
Just to approach this from a slightly different perspective - if you can at all swing it, buy a power meter. A PM is going to do two main things on race day to ultimately help you be faster overall: prevent you spiking and prevent you lollygagging. Right now you're probably doing both on the bike and don't even know it.
As for bike fit and improving VI here's what I found
IMKS 2010: 2:59 VI 1.09 191wNP
Lower bars....drop 15cm
IMKS 2011: 2:52 VI 1.07 198wNP
Even though slightly higher watts I speed I believe what of improving my VI and inc. aero postion
Here's a little secret: I don't do bricks. I know my body and I do better when I run faster, on fresh legs, often. So these have been my go-to's:
I've raised my bars and will measure my drop now, set a stretching goal for myself.
I agree with Tom on this.