I actually like having the instant power on my display vs. the averaged power (3s, 5s, etc). I found that I was yo-yoing a bit with even the 3-sec setting. Even with the bouncing around of the numbers I have learned to be pretty accurate with the instant setting. Just make sure you test whatever setting you choose to make sure you can apply consistent/even/accurate power. And like Jennifer I don't even put the speed on any of my displays as it just doesn't matter when I am racing.
+ 1 on Jennifer's comment. I NEVER have speed displayed, training or racing. I just don't care about that. If I'm racing, it's all about time. I do have distance and time displayed, and if I'm curious about how I'm doing, I just check my time at key distances to see how I'm doing relative to my target. I have (on my Joule): 3 or 5 sec rolling avg power, HR, % grade (barometric), IF for the current interval, time, and cadence. Since I can add two more displays by toggling any one of those, I most often look at distance/kilo joules, or elevation/total climbing; or TSS/NP.
Current speed is too dependent on subtle uncontrollable variables like gradient of the road (they're never perfectly flat), wind, turns, etc. If I were to see average speed, I'd have to do too much math to figure out what it means, since in a race I care about TIME first and foremost.
Okay, I'm a little late to the party here, and I don't like to do the opposite of Al and other WSMs, but I DO have speed displayed. My readouts on my Garmin Edge 500 are Time, 3s Power, Lap Power, Cadence, HR, Speed, and Distance. My computer auto-laps every 2 miles. So I basically have a new "game" to play with myself every ~6 minutes or so. My game is to try to keep my cadence above 90 at all times and keep my power pegged to my goal (70% for IM, and 83% for HIM based on the TSS tables for me). This will change a bit as Garmin adds NP and IF. I DO NOT like to give myself the ability to make stupid decisions on race day. So I test and RR and dial everything in, then just trust the numbers, my coaches, my RRs, and my plan that I will be able to run effectively. I use my tests and RRs to modify my plan, but don't deviate from it unless something goes dramatically wrong on race day.
RPE- there was some discussion on RPE earlier in this thread. I do NOT use RPE on the bike. That would simply give me the right to try to overperform if I feel good or slack off when I feel bad. I would rather take that decision away from my brain on raceday. I have HR displayed and only glance at it every once in a while, I know where it is at certain effort levels, but will only do something about it if it gets super high for some reason and luckily it hasn't yet during the bike leg of a race.
Speed- I have speed readout on my computer to take away another thought decision. I do NOT care how fast I am going, that will shake itself out and I race simply to the power numbers. However, I like to see speed on there because when I get above 34mph, I stop pedaling and get super low/aero and shake out my quads. When I get below 10mph I get out of my aerobars and take the bullhorns and stretch my neck/back. If I did not have speed on my computer, I would have to guess when it's okay to either stop pedalling or stop being aero and like I said, I would rather just follow rules then let myself actually have to make decisionss.
If my bike computer craps out, I have my 310XT on my quick release and I will swap them out and the 4 readouts on that are 3sec Power, lap power, cadence, time. I need the time on there because I take a swig of my infinit every 15 mins.
I clear the history on my Edge 500 and 310XT before every race. I change my powertap batteries before big races and several times a yr. They are cheap compared to everything else in this sport so I just do it (I buy them in bulk on Amazon). If my powertap dies during a race I will wing it, but I won't worry about that until it happens.
Just curious, my other passion is golf and I have a 2 handicapp in Golf, the average in world is 16 and pro's are 0. In most local tournaments I know if I shoot 72-75, its a good chance Im going to be in the top 5. So with that said!
Do we not know for Age groupers like myself(47) of what time or ballpark range would be a good target time for each discipline: I know that their has to be some stats on this. Everyone know that if you do 9hrs or less on a IM, you did everything really great! But 13 plus hrs, one might say he/she needs more work to be done-depending on age/disabilty etc
I have seen that 37 min for a HIM is good for the swim part to be competitive:
What about biking and run part?
I think if one has some targets to strive for, we may have a better outcome in all these events that we train for. I have seen that some of the EN members doing 290 FTP for 2/ 20 minutes with a 2 min break. I would like to know what medication they are taking to do that. But for 40 mins and hold that wattage that long, is unreal.
Do we try to go harder and give it all we got in the race? Do you just stick to your training numbers and know that you have 90% or more chance of having a good race, wihtout giving all you got.. Thats right its not about fitness, its about execution! Do you feel that training is not given all you got, because you do train in different zones as a accumulation of fitness?
Another note: It appears that training for 2012 is changing? So this year I have been training on tired legs or training my legs to go slower by doing brick workouts. Prior knowledge was, You need to run off the bike to simulate what you will be doing in a race. So 2012 , no Brick workouts. Just better quality run workouts!
Would it seem stupid to ask, If one wants do a HIM in 5hrs, should a training plan be based on this or that type structure? Or if you want to do a IM event in 12 hrs your plan should consist of this/that weekly plan? So if you want the end result to be this or that time period, then the plan should consist this or that type of training?
lastly: Should training plans be different for different ages? I think I might need more recovery than a 20 year old doing the same plan.
Stephen, you really need to stop trying to compare yourself to others. Plus a good time would vary by race. Maybe you should go to the race website and look at previous years results in your age group if you really must. You really should just follow the plans and if you put the effort in you will get faster. The OS is a great way to get your run and bike faster. Stephen what level plan are you using? You keep saying you have tired legs. Maybe your plan is too hard? Maybe you should take a couple days off?
I am with others regarding speed. I don't have it on my garmin 500 display. That being said, there is actually a time when it can potentially be used and matter. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere else, but may have just missed it. It has to do with being aero. I had a coach once who was a cyclist mainly (Cat 1) and he said in a race, if you are going slower than 14 (or maybe 17...not sure, but I think its 14) and it is not related to a head wind (ie climbing for the most part), you can come out of the aero bars, as there is very little benefit from an aero standpoint to stay in the bars. Better to be a little more comfortable and be able to apply a little the power into the climb (of course, following your EN gears). I have an SRM and can't change the display, but I might try to find a way to have speed available especially as I go into climbs. Some rollers (I'm thinking the rollers as you start climbing back to town in placid as an example) I stay aero for, but if it looks like I'm going to be moving slower, I come out to climb.
Again, as stated above, comparing FTPs is completely pointless as it's what's done with that power that's important. w/kg is a better comparison tool, but there are plenty of ways to gain extra time on course that have to do very little with FTP, weight, etc.
Targets to strive for are what's written in the HIM wiki link Rich posted and the HIM calculator that I posted in another one of your threads.
Time, as mentioned by Al, is important in a race, however, I don't think Al meant that it was a central governor the way I think you're implying it to be. More of a "you're being timed, cause it's a race" not a "you did it at this time you are at this level" or a "you want this time so do this." There is no this plan is for X hour finishers and that plan for Y hour finishers. The plans work to improve everyone. If you read the explanations of the plans in the wiki you'll notice that they are not divided by ability, but instead how the plan advances. Everyone gets to the peak of the plan.
As Tucker mentioned, perhaps you are feeling tired legs because you've chosen an advanced plan or ran your plan into a wall without taking a couple needed days of rest. You can check out the Boomers and Beyond forum for lots of good advice on adapting your training as you get older.
The training plans and the execution plans work. Changes that are being made are, of course, hopefully making them better, but it doesn't mean they were flawed before. Follow the advice given and move forward. You may be over-thinking this way too much.
Finally, while I'm sure you didn't mean it in a rude or disparaging way, I found this statement "Everyone know that if you do 9hrs or less on a IM, you did everything really great! But 13 plus hrs, one might say he/she needs more work to be done-depending on age/disability etc" to be naive and discourteous. Everyone has a different expectation and desire for completing an IM. And everyone is different regarding genetics, time to train, etc. And the beauty of EN is that we have people from every single place on the spectrum. Please don't define people and their abilities based on a time.
That is what I did the this week and took 2 days off, instead of one. I just have to pay attention my body, vs just doing what is on paper. My running was much easier. Maintaining a 7:30 pace today for 35min was easy. Last weekend 8:30 was too hard for 5 minutes.
Good point on last paragraph, but its amazing the number one question that you get when you have done a race is!!!!!
"What was your time"
Everything one does to do a event does not matter. Most people just look at the bottom line. If one did not have a good time, 'Then coaches, others want to know what you did wrong, what was your execution plan, your calculations were wrong, etc, etc, trying to find fault ,
So I hope it was not definning people on abilities, but on the fact that is how one is rank in each age group is by their time. It does not matter on everything else that is involved.
It reminds me of my golf score, The score card does show , how you made par or birdie, but the final score is what counts!
Posted By Jennifer Burbatt on 20 Oct 2011 08:43 AM
Why do you think that feeling horrible the first 20 miles of the bike is not the same as the run? Because the run is the last leg and the bike you are kind of just getting started so you should feel pretty good? For me, the reason I never wanted to apply this before is that the bike is not my favorite leg, so it takes me a while to get into the groove and I have distinct highs and lows across a bike of feeling good and feeling not so good. I've always thought that by going by RPE vs. power would really just be more in my head than actually something wrong where I should back down.
Bottom line, it's a long day, if you're feeling horrible or have a hige RPE early on the bike the risk of trying to continue to push through it is extremely high. You're better off just backing down slightly. In addition, it's relatively common to not feel well after the transition from bike to run independent of your pace.
Remember, it's not one or the other (RPE vs power). It's always both. The only time I ignore RPE is when it's low, not when it's high. What I mean by that is that I don't use it as excuse to go harder. Although I might pick it up slightly if it's in the latter part of the bike. Keep in mind, a low RPE is a common occurrence in IM. It's essentially the reason why so many people screw it up because they don't have a PM to keep them honest. You can definitely follow your PM into a brick wall though (if you ignore a high RPE and/or a high HR). I've seen it done many a time. I won't sit on target power for very long if my RPE continues to stay high. I'm just a big believer in patience, patience, patience...
I'm not so religious about having speed displayed. I ignore it but don't think it's a big deal if it's being displayed. There's lots of data on my Joule that's being displayed that I don't really care about. I'd just stick with the YLC if it displayed NP.
Two thoughts - if you're shooting 72-75 at golf, I'm sure that took years and years of practice and competition to get down to that consistent level. Along the way, you worked on various things like strength, swing mechanics, body position, mental stamina, relaxation on the green, etc, etc. And you focused on getting better than the time before as much as how you did relative to others. Same thing with any activity: improvement comes from attention to detail, committed, disciplined, consistent practice and a cycle of analyze, plan, work on improvements, rinse and repeat. The cool thing about triathlon or any endurance sport is that this sort of persistent practice is usually rewarded with improvement, and there's a direct correlation between what you are able to do in training and what you can do on race day (unlike golf, where the heebie-jeebies seem to have a much greater sway.
Going "all out" means something different for a 100 meter sprint or a 70.3 mile swim/bike/run. Each requires a maximum effort, and the trick is learning how to throttle down to a level that can be sustained over the entire length of the race. But at the end of each race, one should feel, if some one put a gun to my head, I couldn't go another step. The tricky part is thus not going so hard that you feel that way at mile 67.3. While the race day execution advice WILL get you there, only repeated races will teach you just where the edge of the envelope is. So, early in one's career, you have a choice - go too easy or go too hard. Too easy, and you have room for improvement; too hard, you're walking before you finish, and it's not as obvious what you need to do to improve.
As others have pointed out, even though we are compared to others, in the end the real competition is with yourself.
PS - regarding the increased need for recovery with age. I, for one, don't buy it. "Age is a question of mind over matter; if you don't mind, it don't matter." - Leroy "Satchel" Paige.
Remember, it's not one or the other (RPE vs power). It's always both. The only time I ignore RPE is when it's low, not when it's high. What I mean by that is that I don't use it as excuse to go harder. Although I might pick it up slightly if it's in the latter part of the bike. Keep in mind, a low RPE is a common occurrence in IM. It's essentially the reason why so many people screw it up because they don't have a PM to keep them honest. You can definitely follow your PM into a brick wall though (if you ignore a high RPE and/or a high HR). I've seen it done many a time. I won't sit on target power for very long if my RPE continues to stay high. I'm just a big believer in patience, patience, patience...
Ahhh. I know I've backed off before in a race, though much too late since I really wasn't considering other factors. I'm definitely going to focus on the interplay more carefully and see where it goes. Thanks for explaining and answering my questions!
I love these forums, people give their experience, expertise, opinions, etc. Locally, it appears everyone is scared that you might beat them, they don't want to tell what they are doing behind the scene.
when i mention, FTP, TSS, IF, VDOT etc, etc, People will say, "What is he talking about!, or I just go all out and dont worry about any type of numbers. Ok, that is why i see you walking the last 6 miles on HIM or 8 miles on IM.
For me so far, my 5k time trial has drop 3.40 seconds , since I started in the spring.
Swimming has drop 7 minutes
Power has increase 30 watts
I have gave it all and thensome in training, maybe that is why I have been a little worn out caught a cold in week 15 and was out for 7 days.
I did 99% of every training day that was suppose to be done during the week.
Two thoughts - if you're shooting 72-75 at golf, I'm sure that took years and years of practice and competition to get down to that consistent level. Along the way, you worked on various things like strength, swing mechanics, body position, mental stamina, relaxation on the green, etc, etc. And you focused on getting better than the time before as much as how you did relative to others. Same thing with any activity: improvement comes from attention to detail, committed, disciplined, consistent practice and a cycle of analyze, plan, work on improvements, rinse and repeat. The cool thing about triathlon or any endurance sport is that this sort of persistent practice is usually rewarded with improvement, and there's a direct correlation between what you are able to do in training and what you can do on race day (unlike golf, where the heebie-jeebies seem to have a much greater sway.
Going "all out" means something different for a 100 meter sprint or a 70.3 mile swim/bike/run. Each requires a maximum effort, and the trick is learning how to throttle down to a level that can be sustained over the entire length of the race. But at the end of each race, one should feel, if some one put a gun to my head, I couldn't go another step. The tricky part is thus not going so hard that you feel that way at mile 67.3. While the race day execution advice WILL get you there, only repeated races will teach you just where the edge of the envelope is. So, early in one's career, you have a choice - go too easy or go too hard. Too easy, and you have room for improvement; too hard, you're walking before you finish, and it's not as obvious what you need to do to improve.
As others have pointed out, even though we are compared to others, in the end the real competition is with yourself.
PS - regarding the increased need for recovery with age. I, for one, don't buy it. "Age is a question of mind over matter; if you don't mind, it don't matter." - Leroy "Satchel" Paige.
Sometimes, I read what you WSM's have to say and I start thinking that, maybe, I haven't peaked at 40, and, maybe, I can get a little faster, even in masters category. So glad I fell into this endurance world where sticktoittiveness has some benefit over the years. As opposed to my days trying to hang on to the competitive hoops dreams that were just delusional as I got older and still wanted to control the games that were really about the young 20-25 year old studs.
So glad that, in the endurance world, I don't have to settle for grazing out in the pasture. The nice thing about not having a background in any of the S/B/R, is that I can improve on everything, even as I settle into masters.
Thanks for the jolt!
Sorry if this was a little off topic from the original post.
Also keep in mind that HIM racing is fundamentally different from IM racing. In my experience, if you're a strong, experienced cyclist with an excellent knowledge of the course, you can gamble a bit on the bike and not lose on the run. For example, there are about 4-5 specific hills on the Wildflower Long Course that I know I can ride pretty hard, gaining about 3-4' on my not-riding hard self and I absolutely know I won't give that time back on the run.
Ironman racing...your non-racing twin has hours to bring that 3-4 minutes back. It's just not worth it.
Stephen, one additional point. You can lay out a goal, say a 5 hour HIM. and you can get a pretty good idea of the FTP and Vdot you'll need to get there. However, it doesn't make sense to start training based on those numbers. Let's say your FTP is 220, and you'd need a 260 to ride a 2:30 (made up number you'd need to hit 5 hours). Well, just starting to ride a lot at 260 doesn't mean that your FTP is all of a sudden there. It's even tougher on the run due to higher injury risk. Bottom line, do the test, train based on the fitness you have, increase that fitness, and then re-test and repeat. Knowing these external benchmarks helps to set the right goal, not to help you 'figure out how to train' for a goal.
Comments
+ 1 on Jennifer's comment. I NEVER have speed displayed, training or racing. I just don't care about that. If I'm racing, it's all about time. I do have distance and time displayed, and if I'm curious about how I'm doing, I just check my time at key distances to see how I'm doing relative to my target. I have (on my Joule): 3 or 5 sec rolling avg power, HR, % grade (barometric), IF for the current interval, time, and cadence. Since I can add two more displays by toggling any one of those, I most often look at distance/kilo joules, or elevation/total climbing; or TSS/NP.
Current speed is too dependent on subtle uncontrollable variables like gradient of the road (they're never perfectly flat), wind, turns, etc. If I were to see average speed, I'd have to do too much math to figure out what it means, since in a race I care about TIME first and foremost.
RPE- there was some discussion on RPE earlier in this thread. I do NOT use RPE on the bike. That would simply give me the right to try to overperform if I feel good or slack off when I feel bad. I would rather take that decision away from my brain on raceday. I have HR displayed and only glance at it every once in a while, I know where it is at certain effort levels, but will only do something about it if it gets super high for some reason and luckily it hasn't yet during the bike leg of a race.
Speed- I have speed readout on my computer to take away another thought decision. I do NOT care how fast I am going, that will shake itself out and I race simply to the power numbers. However, I like to see speed on there because when I get above 34mph, I stop pedaling and get super low/aero and shake out my quads. When I get below 10mph I get out of my aerobars and take the bullhorns and stretch my neck/back. If I did not have speed on my computer, I would have to guess when it's okay to either stop pedalling or stop being aero and like I said, I would rather just follow rules then let myself actually have to make decisionss.
If my bike computer craps out, I have my 310XT on my quick release and I will swap them out and the 4 readouts on that are 3sec Power, lap power, cadence, time. I need the time on there because I take a swig of my infinit every 15 mins.
I clear the history on my Edge 500 and 310XT before every race. I change my powertap batteries before big races and several times a yr. They are cheap compared to everything else in this sport so I just do it (I buy them in bulk on Amazon). If my powertap dies during a race I will wing it, but I won't worry about that until it happens.
Al,
Just curious, my other passion is golf and I have a 2 handicapp in Golf, the average in world is 16 and pro's are 0. In most local tournaments I know if I shoot 72-75, its a good chance Im going to be in the top 5. So with that said!
Do we not know for Age groupers like myself(47) of what time or ballpark range would be a good target time for each discipline: I know that their has to be some stats on this. Everyone know that if you do 9hrs or less on a IM, you did everything really great! But 13 plus hrs, one might say he/she needs more work to be done-depending on age/disabilty etc
I have seen that 37 min for a HIM is good for the swim part to be competitive:
What about biking and run part?
I think if one has some targets to strive for, we may have a better outcome in all these events that we train for. I have seen that some of the EN members doing 290 FTP for 2/ 20 minutes with a 2 min break. I would like to know what medication they are taking to do that. But for 40 mins and hold that wattage that long, is unreal.
Do we try to go harder and give it all we got in the race? Do you just stick to your training numbers and know that you have 90% or more chance of having a good race, wihtout giving all you got.. Thats right its not about fitness, its about execution! Do you feel that training is not given all you got, because you do train in different zones as a accumulation of fitness?
Another note: It appears that training for 2012 is changing? So this year I have been training on tired legs or training my legs to go slower by doing brick workouts. Prior knowledge was, You need to run off the bike to simulate what you will be doing in a race. So 2012 , no Brick workouts. Just better quality run workouts!
Would it seem stupid to ask, If one wants do a HIM in 5hrs, should a training plan be based on this or that type structure? Or if you want to do a IM event in 12 hrs your plan should consist of this/that weekly plan? So if you want the end result to be this or that time period, then the plan should consist this or that type of training?
lastly: Should training plans be different for different ages? I think I might need more recovery than a 20 year old doing the same plan.
Thanks, just thoughts that go through my head!
Stephen what level plan are you using? You keep saying you have tired legs. Maybe your plan is too hard? Maybe you should take a couple days off?
I have an SRM and can't change the display, but I might try to find a way to have speed available especially as I go into climbs. Some rollers (I'm thinking the rollers as you start climbing back to town in placid as an example) I stay aero for, but if it looks like I'm going to be moving slower, I come out to climb.
Dave
Again, as stated above, comparing FTPs is completely pointless as it's what's done with that power that's important. w/kg is a better comparison tool, but there are plenty of ways to gain extra time on course that have to do very little with FTP, weight, etc.
Targets to strive for are what's written in the HIM wiki link Rich posted and the HIM calculator that I posted in another one of your threads.
Time, as mentioned by Al, is important in a race, however, I don't think Al meant that it was a central governor the way I think you're implying it to be. More of a "you're being timed, cause it's a race" not a "you did it at this time you are at this level" or a "you want this time so do this." There is no this plan is for X hour finishers and that plan for Y hour finishers. The plans work to improve everyone. If you read the explanations of the plans in the wiki you'll notice that they are not divided by ability, but instead how the plan advances. Everyone gets to the peak of the plan.
As Tucker mentioned, perhaps you are feeling tired legs because you've chosen an advanced plan or ran your plan into a wall without taking a couple needed days of rest. You can check out the Boomers and Beyond forum for lots of good advice on adapting your training as you get older.
The training plans and the execution plans work. Changes that are being made are, of course, hopefully making them better, but it doesn't mean they were flawed before. Follow the advice given and move forward. You may be over-thinking this way too much.
Finally, while I'm sure you didn't mean it in a rude or disparaging way, I found this statement "Everyone know that if you do 9hrs or less on a IM, you did everything really great! But 13 plus hrs, one might say he/she needs more work to be done-depending on age/disability etc" to be naive and discourteous. Everyone has a different expectation and desire for completing an IM. And everyone is different regarding genetics, time to train, etc. And the beauty of EN is that we have people from every single place on the spectrum. Please don't define people and their abilities based on a time.
That is what I did the this week and took 2 days off, instead of one. I just have to pay attention my body, vs just doing what is on paper. My running was much easier. Maintaining a 7:30 pace today for 35min was easy. Last weekend 8:30 was too hard for 5 minutes.
Good point on last paragraph, but its amazing the number one question that you get when you have done a race is!!!!!
"What was your time"
Everything one does to do a event does not matter. Most people just look at the bottom line. If one did not have a good time, 'Then coaches, others want to know what you did wrong, what was your execution plan, your calculations were wrong, etc, etc, trying to find fault ,
So I hope it was not definning people on abilities, but on the fact that is how one is rank in each age group is by their time. It does not matter on everything else that is involved.
It reminds me of my golf score, The score card does show , how you made par or birdie, but the final score is what counts!
As others have suggested, reading the HIM execution article should answer your questions.
Fwiw, of the ones above, I'm mostly about just displaying real-time power. I like having NP displayed too just to give me some peace of mind.
Bottom line, it's a long day, if you're feeling horrible or have a hige RPE early on the bike the risk of trying to continue to push through it is extremely high. You're better off just backing down slightly. In addition, it's relatively common to not feel well after the transition from bike to run independent of your pace.
Remember, it's not one or the other (RPE vs power). It's always both. The only time I ignore RPE is when it's low, not when it's high. What I mean by that is that I don't use it as excuse to go harder. Although I might pick it up slightly if it's in the latter part of the bike. Keep in mind, a low RPE is a common occurrence in IM. It's essentially the reason why so many people screw it up because they don't have a PM to keep them honest. You can definitely follow your PM into a brick wall though (if you ignore a high RPE and/or a high HR). I've seen it done many a time. I won't sit on target power for very long if my RPE continues to stay high. I'm just a big believer in patience, patience, patience...
Two thoughts - if you're shooting 72-75 at golf, I'm sure that took years and years of practice and competition to get down to that consistent level. Along the way, you worked on various things like strength, swing mechanics, body position, mental stamina, relaxation on the green, etc, etc. And you focused on getting better than the time before as much as how you did relative to others. Same thing with any activity: improvement comes from attention to detail, committed, disciplined, consistent practice and a cycle of analyze, plan, work on improvements, rinse and repeat. The cool thing about triathlon or any endurance sport is that this sort of persistent practice is usually rewarded with improvement, and there's a direct correlation between what you are able to do in training and what you can do on race day (unlike golf, where the heebie-jeebies seem to have a much greater sway.
Going "all out" means something different for a 100 meter sprint or a 70.3 mile swim/bike/run. Each requires a maximum effort, and the trick is learning how to throttle down to a level that can be sustained over the entire length of the race. But at the end of each race, one should feel, if some one put a gun to my head, I couldn't go another step. The tricky part is thus not going so hard that you feel that way at mile 67.3. While the race day execution advice WILL get you there, only repeated races will teach you just where the edge of the envelope is. So, early in one's career, you have a choice - go too easy or go too hard. Too easy, and you have room for improvement; too hard, you're walking before you finish, and it's not as obvious what you need to do to improve.
As others have pointed out, even though we are compared to others, in the end the real competition is with yourself.
PS - regarding the increased need for recovery with age. I, for one, don't buy it. "Age is a question of mind over matter; if you don't mind, it don't matter." - Leroy "Satchel" Paige.
Ahhh. I know I've backed off before in a race, though much too late since I really wasn't considering other factors. I'm definitely going to focus on the interplay more carefully and see where it goes. Thanks for explaining and answering my questions!
I Agree with that Jennifer.
I love these forums, people give their experience, expertise, opinions, etc. Locally, it appears everyone is scared that you might beat them, they don't want to tell what they are doing behind the scene.
when i mention, FTP, TSS, IF, VDOT etc, etc, People will say, "What is he talking about!, or I just go all out and dont worry about any type of numbers. Ok, that is why i see you walking the last 6 miles on HIM or 8 miles on IM.
For me so far, my 5k time trial has drop 3.40 seconds , since I started in the spring.
Swimming has drop 7 minutes
Power has increase 30 watts
I have gave it all and thensome in training, maybe that is why I have been a little worn out caught a cold in week 15 and was out for 7 days.
I did 99% of every training day that was suppose to be done during the week.
Amen brotha!! Well said!
So glad that, in the endurance world, I don't have to settle for grazing out in the pasture. The nice thing about not having a background in any of the S/B/R, is that I can improve on everything, even as I settle into masters.
Thanks for the jolt!
Sorry if this was a little off topic from the original post.
Great discussion.
Also keep in mind that HIM racing is fundamentally different from IM racing. In my experience, if you're a strong, experienced cyclist with an excellent knowledge of the course, you can gamble a bit on the bike and not lose on the run. For example, there are about 4-5 specific hills on the Wildflower Long Course that I know I can ride pretty hard, gaining about 3-4' on my not-riding hard self and I absolutely know I won't give that time back on the run.
Ironman racing...your non-racing twin has hours to bring that 3-4 minutes back. It's just not worth it.