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Average Speed during IM
Ok, am petrified that I am just a plodder on the bike.
What have people averaged on the bike during training and what have people done on the day?
All stories, good and bad welcomed please.
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Zurich roads are a lot different to where you live ! Road surface is great - there wont be any lights or anything to get in your way - so its just riding, no faffing around. I always race much faster than I train.
Swim and bike cut off is 10 hours - so even if you took almost 2 hours in the Lake - that leaves you 8 hours to get round. That would be 14 miles an hour ?
about 1-2mph faster on race day. and that's training on a route that matched IMDE fairly well. i suspect where you are your routes are tougher than imch.
i wouldn't worry. you've got two months. on race day you'll be rested and also you'll be warmed up after the swim. nice roads, no need to put your foot down at all. also, while it's good to hit the run in a reasonable state, if need be you'll be able to dig deep till your vision is blurred and meet the cutoff!
of course being warmed up can mean you head off way too fast. so perhaps work out where you need to be in order to meet cutoffs. then you won't need to panic as you'll know you're on target.
there's a spreadsheet thingy on the IMCH website. was looking at it earlier. i was trying to find out the cutoff times but have failed.
Calculate your personal race timetable for your friends
Excel-file; xls 108kB (Download)
IMCH cut off times
Thanks Cougie & JD.
At the mo it takes me 4hrs to do 100km, pretty slow, embarrasing really.
Keep up the good work !
* Athletes arriving at Forch „Relax Station“ after 4.00 p.m. will be stopped and accompanied by a motorcycle escort, as the roads around Zurich must be reopened to public traffic shortly later. Athletes passing the Landiwiese in direction Heartbrekhill after 4.45 p.m. will be taken out of the race.
so, you need to be at heartbreak hill 174 km by 4:45 or it's game over.
If you arrive at Forch „Relax Station“ (152km) after 4.00 p.m.you get to draft a motorcycle! i'd do your best to get through before 4pm. the motorcycle guy won't care if you make the cutoff or not and could get in the way.
that's faster than me on a pretty flat course today 62mph in around 4:25! if it took me longer than 4:30 i was going to ditch IMCH. so i met the cutoff
Just go out and do 3 hour rides on rolling courses as hard as you can, once a week (45-65 miles), add in one weekly club evening time trial (30miles) with a ride out/warm up and ride back and either a hard interval session like 2*20 minutes or if you are fast enough a chain gang (25 miles plus). Then a couple of 5 hour rides on top and you'll be flying.
JD - 62mph is pretty good
another edit : I do about 60 miles in 3 hours if I head out round Leicestershire - sort of rolling country lanes - that's pressing on not just touring - a steady long ride might be 3 hours 20 for the same distance.
the fastest I can get uo to is 13.5 mph AL.......so I wouldn't worry.
Popsider its very rare for me to ride with other people due to kids and stuff. I can get a few club rides in before the IM, maybe 3 or 4 and thats all.
Will try push it a bit more but hate feeling wasted on the bike.
Will definitely be putting more time in on the bike now at least 4-5 times a week. Perhaps I should be doing extra light turbo sessions at night too, what do you think?
Seren, you are wonder-woman on a bike!!
How many miles or hours a week do you think I should be getting in. Not just to get by but to seriously improve my bike fitness.
I am absolutely determined to up my bike fitness.
What are you doing now?
I have never been able to train faster than 14mph but my best IM bike is 6 hours, it never transfers over to race days.
You will be quicker, believe in yourself.
I find that hard to believe Smiffers?
Not that it helps much but my average in Nice according to my computer was 14mph and I did a 8.26 bike split
It's true Moulds, I just can't seem to train very fast. I can do a short ride of say 30 miles and average 15mph but long rides I have never been able to do that sort of speed.
You will find that most people who claim to train at really fast speeds are either group riding for part of it, have badly set up bike computers or are just training on pan flat courses. And they never seem to get any quicker on race day
My take on it is too many people train for long distances by riding long distances at a slow speed - they'd be better off doing the three sessions I posted above or variations of them - so the club time trial could be riding a 10 mile course of your own but do it against the clock and log your times so you have a motivating factor, the chain gang can be a hard turbo session of long (10-20 minute) intervals and again done to power, speed on the back wheel or if it's all you've got heart rate. It's all about developing sustainable power not being able to turn your legs over for 7 hours. These are hard sessions which is why I'd rather do at least some of them with other riders - just makes them easier mentally - but if you have the will power you can probably train more effectively on your own as you can go at the pace you need to go.
One or maybe two sportives just to get used to being in the saddle for 7-8 hours are fine but no need for any more.
Pops we are talking about people who are new or newish to long distance cycling and want to get around an IM bike leg knowing that they will then have to do a long run as well. For some people it is 'all' about just turning your legs over for 7+hours.
It is a race of three halfs!
Long steady miles builds the neccessary stamina and probably more importantly the confidence. When they have a race or two under their belt and have the confidence in themselfs to push then it is of course best to have a more structured plan with harder sessions to push the limits.
Also a newer cyclist, just as in any other sport, will not be able to handle too many hard sessions without risk of injury or burnout. A solid base built on easier rides will mean they are more likely to survive that transition to harder sessions.
Personally I think longish rides of 5-6 hours over a rolling route provides the best option for newbies, they can supplement that with a more specific session a week if they are doing, say a hilly race. With another medium ride of 30-40 miles done at a brisker pace than the long ride and you have a simple effective strategy to get someone over the initial hurdle of 'complete'
It'll vary a bit - but not that much - I know it sounds a bit controversial but I don't think 5 hours for a beginner is effective training - you've got to enjoy it too though so I wouldn't say never do easy rides in nice countryside or stop at a cafe mid-ride and the occasional really long ride does condition the body to sitting on a bike which is useful if you have to run a marathon straight after.
Edit: cross post but yes for people who want to get faster on the bike leg I'd follow my advice rather than do the long slow distance stuff. I'd rather they did 2-3 hours hard effort than 5 hours easy as their staple effort - though a few 5 hours plus would be good. It's only an opinion and I'm open to people saying I did the opposite and did really well - but if I was giving advice that would be it.
oh jees, we're not getting back to suffolk punch style we should be doing 30 mile hard rides are we? i think that argument was conclusively settled!
AL- if you're averaging 25kph, you are fine, the roads in switz will be smoother and faster than any you have ever ridden on in this country, you will also have closed roads, not having to stop for roundabouts, traffic lights or max power reading chavs trying to run you off the road really does help improve your average pace. you're right to be thinking about it, but you've no need to worry.
Meldy doesn't NEED a spazzer pill
I think, there is some specific work you can do on shorter rides which can be of benefit - riding hard for 30 miles and then the last 10 miles tired was a useful midweek session for me where time was a limiter. I think if I had the motivation now I would do a specific turbo session as the payback for the time is better. This is for me- it may be different for others.
Your long rides should not be easy, nor should you feel so shattered at the end. I was really bad at getting motivated for them, but a long brick 4/2 really does have major benefits.
well I'm happy to hear there's others who don't ride any faster than me - I was getting a bit despondent at 4 hours for 100km!
Popsider, I vary my training - I do shorter rides in the week plus some speed work, then I like to do sportive-type rides on the weekend as I'm all too likely to cut it short when having to work out a route for myself!
Right I am going to focus on maintaining bit more effort on bike, and not gaze off into space reducing my spin to a twaddle.
Today, am thinking 2 hour bike ride, then a 90 min spin class tonight.
Thinking the spin may help with short faster spins and interval training.
Or should I scrap spin and just do a 3hr bike ride?
Anyone want to be my bike mentor?
Im a fan of spinning classes
a very useful indicator of how you will perform will be the Bala ride. Chances are that you will race (as previously said) considerably quicker than you train. Miles on the bike is key. How does it go, swim a bit, bike alot, run a bit, any spare time bike more.
I question the real value of spin. Different position, way too high on the intensity (for IM training), different biomechanics....... I've never really seen a conclusive debate for or against spin as part of a cycle training schedule. And as I've never done it this is an entirely vacuous statement on my part, but I've typed it now............ Discuss!!
I'd be pleased with 60km in 4 hrs!
For IMF last year my average speed over all my training rides was 14.4mph, in this I completed 4 5+hours rides at average speeds of 13.4mph. I finished the bike leg in IMF in just under 7.5hrs (about 15mph) so my experience was that I did pick the pace up during the race by about 1.5mph compared to my long rides - think I could have done better if I hadn't been such a lazy ass during my training though
as others have said training and race day are different; the road surfaces are different; your mind state will be different
Thanks for starting this thread AL. Some useful info here. I am also concerned about the bike cut off but guess that with no stops etc the average comes right up.
I did manage Vit bike leg in about 3:37 with very little training and the roads were open to traffic. I guess to double that and add a bit should still give me a bit of time to play with (and I have trained too so should be quicker)