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Average Speed during IM
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100km in 4hrs is 25km/h so a 180km ironman bike leg would take 7h 12 mins at the same pace which is well within cut-off so I would stop worrying.
I was flapping about exactly the same thing this time last year before Nice (it was my first IM). My training consisted of a long ride on Sundays plus two turbo sessions of an hour each most weeks. I managed 5x100 mile rides before Nice, all of these were on hilly routes round Kent & Surrey with similar climbing totals to the Nice course, all of them were done alone (Billy no mates) and my average speeds ranged from 14.8mph to 16.1mph. One the day my bike split was exactly 7 hours which 16.0mph.
Where did the extra 1mph come from?
- I use a Garmin to measure my distance & time which auto-pauses at traffic lights etc, so it wasn't that. However it does take a lot of effort to get back up to speed each time you stop so there will be some effect.
- On most of my long training rides I took 3 bottles of powerbar drink plus some flapjack, however on my "rehearsal ride" I did exactly what I was planning on race day. 21 gels decanted into a small bottle a (gulp of which to be taken every 20 mins starting at 20 mins) 7 energy bars cut into 3 bits each (one piece to be eaten every 20 mins starting at 30 mins) plus 3 bottles of powerbar, this was by far my fastest ride. So I reckon nutrition is a big factor. On the day there are tons of aid stations but you need to make sure you are regularly eating.
- By race day I was nicely tapered i.e. not tired from all the other training I had done that week
- With 2000 other cyclist around there is always the motivation to catch the person in front which also helps.
I think the long rides were the most beneficial to me, both physically and mentally. I thought of it similar to marathon training where they reckon the best predictor of success is the number of 3hr/20 mile runs.
I'm doing Norseman this year in August and due to various family/work commitments I am getting less time to train during the week but Mrs NM lets me out every Sunday and i also commute 7 miles each way to work on a fixie 4 days a week. I did my first century ride last weekend at an average of 15.9mph and i plan to repeat this every 2 weeks for the next 3 months.
Wow that was a lot of typing, I guess the gist of it is STOP WORRYING YOU'LL BE FINE!
This is all such great reading thankyou.
NM, lol at Mrs MM leting you out every Sunday!!!
I like spin in that I get to use my leg much faster than I would normally do, if only for 45 mins.
Nutrition is a big problem for me as I seriously suffer from bad stomach cramps once I start on powerbars etc. I have been trying to get used to them but my digestiove system just starts shutting down and I'm learning now just to cycle/run through the cramps.
AL - never tried a spin class but I'd be tempted just to do the three hour bike ride and ride a bit harder. If you've done 2 hours earlier in the day your legs should be tired enough not to be attempting high intensity intervals later on which is what I'm assuming a spin class involves ? I wouldn't do anything really high intensity such as sprint training or 3 minutes flat out intervals - I reckon 10-20 minutes intervals done fairly hard - unpleasant but not sick inducing - are as hard as you need to go. If you were training twice in one day I'd do the hard stuff earlier on and then do a recovery ride later - though as a triathlete maybe a recovery run would be more use - get used to running on tired legs. Having said that if you really enjoy the spin class then why not - it's got to be fun after all as none of us are getting paid to race.
I'm just a runner and cyclist not a triathlete - though a mate of mine (think he's on tritalk as JonOb and he might do some training blog linked from there) did a touch over 10 hours in an Ironman doing those three bike sessions so I reckon the principles can work for triathlon. I can see the argument Smiffy is making - that what suits a 10 hour competitor might not apply to everyone - but I'd still go with it - your pace will be slower but the effort is the same.
That's my take on it anyway - always interesting to see how other people approach training as in cycling people tend to keep what they do to themselves - ask them and the stock answer is always "hardly been out".
FB, any nutritional products do this to me, guess its because on a day to day basis my diet is very basic no preservatives, colourings, additives etc and I'm just sensitive to food.
Thought I should try stick with powerbar as that's what is at IMCH.
Well, if 14mph is "embarrasing really" then I may as well not even start...
Nice to hear that the roads are lovely because road surface makes such a difference. I cycle on a stretch of road when one bit has been newly resurfaced and is like glass and the other bit hasn't been done yet and it can be a difference of 5mph depending on how bad the road is.
Spin... it's ok for winter base training but I wouldn't waste my training hours with it now.
Rio, yeah, organic malt loafs work for me but I'd need a few bento boxes stuffed full of them to keep me going!!!
popsider wrote (see)
love that, 'hardly been out' hehe!! Sandbagging goes on a lot doesn't it?!
Right, have decided, no spin tonight, 3 hour bike ride in rain instead, will forget powerbar, eat malt loaf and try keep my av up a wee bit.
Unless I'm mathematically challenged... 100km is about 62 miles - in 4 hours that's 15.5mph average.
I did a 90 miler in 6.5 hours... that's 13.84mph... and to actually think I was quite chuffed at the time...
>shakes head<
As already said training speed does not translate to race speed, race conditions will account for about +2mph average speed for the reasons others have stated, you’ll also be racing on fresh legs!
A key question which has been eluded to is pacing, how fast to go? Its well known that around 75% of people ride the bike leg of an Ironman to quickly which impacts their overall time, I cant remember your FLM time (was it 3:48?) if it is you should be expecting a 4:30 run at IMCH, anything slower and it could be judged you’d ridden the bike to hard.
Getting the pacing right is a fine art and really only comes with experience, its very difficult to relate your training to potential and actual Ironman pace without having done a couple of Ironman races. Training and racing to HR will help quite a lot but you need to do a couple of race simulation long bike/run bricks to get a reference point, even then there is the potential to be faster on race day given the numerous factors accounting for the increase in speed between racing and training.
The key question you need to consider is just what do you want to achieve at IMCH, if its to get round then you don’t need to be to scientific about your approach, from what ive read of your training and your performance at FLM you are doing well, I very much doubt you will be fighting cut off’s.
Im guessing you are already following a pretty good plan, there is no reason not to stick with it. Like most plans im guessing you’re doing a 3-4 bike sessions a week, 1 long easy, with the remaining 2/3 rides being a mixture of short-medium tempo/steady/interval rides.
Keep up the good work and don’t worry to much about your training speed.
Mine are all about 12 mph, and for shorter rides! Ach well, tri bars going on the bike today, maybe that will help.
Should say "were", before my 7 week "rest" lol.... no idea what they'd be now.
La la la la la *refuses to think about it*
Consider doing some of these rides at different efforts, like a long interval session (you can pick the intervals, just make sure you are working hard and pretty tired at the end of the ride).
Interval examples
Increasing effort, up the effort every 30, 45, 60 mins
Hard intervals with 5 min recoveries, intervals of 15, 20, 30, mins, or do a pyramid session.
Why not find a 40 mile relatively traffic, junction free loop and ride it hard every week or two, take make a note of your 10, 20, 30, 40 mile splits and try to improve. I bet you could knock 10-15 minutes off in a month.
fwiw so long as you can get around the bike i'd relax. although IM training might be mostly about hte bike on race day it isn't about the bike as such but about the run. take it really easy on the bike and don't die on the run. i reckon triathletes get way too excited about being the next lance armstrong or cancellara or just get caught up in the excitement of the day too much. this is evidenced by the poor pirate run splits. although i guess we're all fairly new to IM really with the exception of Rosey and not many of us take it that seriously. of course if you're going for an ambitious time then it's a tough call to know how fast to cycle. sometimes you'll get it wrong.
also, as it's basically May and you have two months left i wouldn't go off doing loads and loads of biek training. you'll just exhaust yourself (unless you've already built a good base of miles over the winter). do like what pops was saying. i reckon one long ride (say a few 60 miles, few 80 milers and a couple of hundred milers). one tough hilly 2 hour ride. one interval workout ( something like warmup, balls out for 3 x 10mins). if you must do other rides as well maybe just go out and do some easy hours. well, that's my plan anyway. might throw in an extra turbo session. in the year after IMDE i did alot less training. but did a fair amount of intervals on the turbo. despite cutting back on training i was just as fast in the summer.
anyway, threshold real ale drinking and pie eating this evening at the beer festival. that should set me up nicely for the weekend. got next week off so i will probably be touring around the countryside checking out new routes and searching for roads without potholes.
Great tips on here guys. Thanks all!
Now the nights are lighter (when I get the chance), ill be doing hard 30-40 mile rides in the evenings, ill try to do one every week, maybe a spin class and still do a long slow ride at the weekend.
I'm certain that Powerbars were designed by some evil genius- the conversation went something like:-
OK so the design brief if to make the worlds most sticky substance that will freeze to a block so hard you will break your teeth eating in the cold, yet go so soft and floppy in the warm that it will weld itself to anything. If you can make is viscous enough to glue the jaws of the consumer together that would be a bonus. Once you've got that done, can you carefully wrap it in the thinnest and clingiest wrapping imaginable so that its nigh impossible to unwrap it wihout taking both hands off the handlebars and/or eating the bar plus the wrapper and then spitting little bits of wrapper out.
lol Plummy, yes, but the average for the whole ride was still 12 mph!