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What Intensity For Big Bike Week

SwanieSwanie
in General Training Discussions

For those doing a Big Bike Week, what intensity do you do your rides at? The wiki gives some guidelines on distances but doesn't refer to any intensity. Are they done at a steady power level or with intervals? And is a big bike week before a HIM the same as before an IM?

Comments

  • Peter GreaggPeter Greagg
    Hi Steve
    Have you looked at this where Coach P talks about distances and intensities?
    http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/108/Default.aspx?topic=Big+Week+Volume

    Cheers
    Peter
  • Al TruscottAl Truscott

     I pay close attention to my daily TSS and also my ATL (7 day rolling TSS average). I've never averaged more than 130-150/day for a 7 day span; I suppose I could handle more over a 3-4 day weekend, but would need a couple of days to recover. Since you're prepping for an HIM, I think you'll want to do a bunch of rides @ 85% IF. The length of the ride will depend on how deep a hole you're willing to put yourself in. Before I had a power meter, I once had a great race at Troika (HIM) when I did an 8 day bike trip, which was basically 3 hours morning, 3 hours afternoon of 75% work, but it was paceline type stuff, so 20% of the time I was working harder than that. We had one rest day in the middle. Then I did a serious taper for a week, and hammered the run on race day.

  • SwanieSwanie

    Thanks thats exactly the info I was looking for.

  • Dave TalloDave Tallo

    I've generally followed about 70% for the first 90' of a ride, and then repeats of 40' at 80% with 5' recovery. 2 days of 4-5h rides like this, then a day of 3h at easy. Repeat. I was able to sustain for 10-14 days in the past in moderate temps.

  • Coach RichCoach Rich
    What Dave said, and generally I feel it's powerful to go very easy for the first hour or so, to drill in the value of that for race day, and then finish strong with the last hour at 80-85%. The more common alternative is to go too hard early and really struggle at the end, ending up with lower Pnorm for the total ride than if you have paced it properly.

    Also, the longer, more consecutive days you go, the more it's about "just riding" than trying to make it any more difficult, especially if you also plan to do any running around this. 3-5hrs a day, day after a day, has a way of making itself pretty hard without your help :-)
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