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On race day - how much faster on the bike?
So, prior to IMCH there was a bit of conversation about how the roads of Zurich would make you faster due to their smoothness or race day would inevitably make you faster etc. Or being on the aerobars on the nice wide virtually traffic free roads would make you faster. Of course you could blitz the bike and die on the run etc so pacing is a factor. But I think it might be useful for future newbies to know perhaps?
For me, i confidently expected to go 2mph faster and had hoped to hold around 16mph. In the end that didn't happen and also i couldn;t hold an aero position on the second lap.
So, my best (by best i guess i mean most like the race day ie course similar, me being in good form) training ride vs race day was
JD - training 72 miles @ 13.4pmh (1700m climbing) - IMCH 112 miles @ 14.6mph (1500m climbing).
i was hoping for a negative split on the bike, in the end the second lap took 20 mins longer. that looked fairly standard across the results i checked even of the faster people.
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I always think race day is good for 2-3 mph faster than training speed though, a combination of being rested, closed roads and the fact youre actually racing.
Interesting question. In my training I rode just over 5000km and averaged 26kmph for that whole total. In the IMCH race I averaged 27kmph. Not much difference. However, as I live in the flattest country in the world, only about 300km of my training was over hills. So my average kmph for training was artificially higher than it might have been.
Having said that, my IMCH time was over an hour quicker than I had predicted and was just over 1kmph quicker than my training average. I put that down to adrenaline on the day and a jolly good taper rather than the quality of the roads.
Most of my training was at about 30km/h, on race day I averaged 25km/h.... so 5km/h slower, pretty similar terrain, pretty similar roads.
I think I might have taken the "take it easy" a bit too far.
I have ridden hilly sportives at around 16's to 16.5's but recorded just north of 17.5 on race day , I think I had a just negative split which would have been better had i not stopped to tighten my aero bars.
Your set up , how aero you can get and stay and your tyres etc make a difference in a ride that long my 19mm section tufos at 165psi are good for 0.3- 0.4 mph over a standard set up of road clincher tyres at 120-140 psi. But I know which I would prefer in the wet !
Race day adrenaline and perception changes would make more difference than the road surface, it is nice in Swizt but not massively different.
I have trouble averaging over 14mph on rides over 40 miles or so but my IM bike split av speed has been over 18mph on similar terrain. I remember my first, the longest ride I did before was a 94 mile grovel averaging 13.5mph but on race day I averaged 17mph.
there's no way you should be getting a 2-3mph difference. if you are walking most of the marathon when you wouldn't for a standalone then you've not bike trained effectively.
The 3 century rides I did in training I averaged from 16.5 to 16.7. race day was 16.9, so slightly faster on race day but with higher average heart rate too.
My experience was more or less what Melli describes. I trianed as fast as I could and was not significantly faster on race day. My training routes are relatively traffic light free - also the computer kindly skips over any stops to give data just for riding time. I seem to go faster up and down hills in races, but still dawdle on the flat.
Aerobars weren't working for me in training so I took them off and raced more or less sitting up. I wonder how many folk had aerobars on but either didn't use them or got back/stomach aches and cramps?
Really interesting reading - i had always written myself off as too slow to do triathlons. Can cycle long distances but only really average 12/13 mph.
Went to South Africa last year where I cycled with a super-competitive group for 2 weeks and we regularly averaged 15-16 mph over 40 miles on cr*p mountain bikes on hilly road terrain and strong head winds. One day it was 18 mph. For the record my heart rate average was 180bpm!!!
It felt like a supreme effort but was amazing what a bit of peer pressure can do.
So my question is, if you can average 14mph training on a road bike over long distances then it's possible you might be fast enough one day to do triathlons proper?
Debster, you can get faster, doing intervals whether on the road or turbo will help, as doing some harder shorter temp rides or even maybe some 10/25 mile time trials.
You can do intervals on the bike in exactly the same way you would for running.
carl - prepare to be surprised. yes, that is what i average in training. i live on the outskirts of york and have virtually no traffic lights in my routes. i make a lot of effort to make my rides as continuous as possible and stop once only for rides over 4-4.5hrs.
shuddup Barley - iMs are against my religion
Getting road bike adjusted today - it's x-small and the reach is still too far for me - so will see what difference that makes. Only been out once on it and didn't measure mph. All previous rides were on a hybrid or mountain bike so if I can just pick up an extra couple of mph on the road bike.....
Many people are lazy when it comes to long rides, I know I am, but doing your whole long ride at IM pace is going to be too much for most people. It is a recipie for overtraining. Several factors influence race day that mean you - all thing being equal - will go faster, road conditions can be a factor but also adrenaline and your whole perception of effort will change so if you are working at a IM goal HR in training are not going quicker on race day you should ask yourself why?
And if you are walking large parts of the run (assuming you are not having other problems) it is either because you overdid the bike or you have not run trained effectively. When will people learn it is 'not' all about the bike!!
I'd have thought at least a couple of mph moving from a MTB with MTB tyres to a road bike.
There are caculators on the web that work out what kind of speed you get for a given power output on various types of bike/terrain- never really looked at them but googled one here
Interesting what you said about the value of peer pressure and how you surprised yourself riding in a group. I think it's really important people ride with groups of others who are at least as good as them - not all the time but just to give you the idea of what you can sustain if you have to. Cycling is an easy sport to take easy if you know what I mean - riding with others is a good way of learning what your real capacity is. Some people wont need that but I reckon most do. I know they aren't for everyone but local chain gangs can bring you on - there's three ironman triathletes in my cycling club and they all reckon joining up with us has really improved their cycling leg.
training at race intensity is not a recipe for overtraining if you build up the time progressively. i've often said on here that people try to go tp long before they are fit enough to and that overly long rides early on are counterproductive. a shorter ride done at the right intensity would provided a better training stimulus.
my point about the mara is not about how much you walk per se but about the difference between your IM mara and what you would do for a stand alone mara on the same day (same fitness). that difference is all about the effect the bike has had.
i thnik using an HRM and cycling with others (poss a bit better than you) do a similar job: they teach you to keep the pressure on rather than coast. it seems to me that runners especially take time to learn effort on the bike. you can't coast when running really.
don't forget that an IM bike effort wouldn't be quite as hard as a 100TT effort so IM intensity isn't all out for the distance (though i think the fitter you get the closer these are)
No it is not just about that, it is about how you train to run off the bike as well. Too many people do not apply themselves to running off the bike and think a few little brick sessions will do or do fast 10k after a bike sessions then think it will prepare them. Look at the run splits for many people and you see a big slide in times, that should not happen if you train to run off the bike properly.
The whole culture of 'it's all about the bike' is wrong. It is a triathlon not a bike race.