Kona Learnings, L-Carnitine's effect on Performance, Tapers and much more – Ask a Cycling Coach 230

trust me when I tell you that you are selling yourself short…but I like the caution!

  1. As I said earlier, I am a crap swimmer and went 1:12 at IMWI (in wetsuit). Your cardio engine is WAY bigger than mine and, depending on when you get in the pool, I think 1:10 is actually conservative. Sure, technique plays into it and you could totally suck at it, but I highly doubt that will be the case.

  2. Absolutely the right strategy to go easy on the bike. Most strong cyclists think “Great…I’m on my strength and I am gonna show 'em what I can do.” Bad idea…as you note, they almost always blow up. Use your strength on the bike to save yourself for the run. THAT is where the race is won / lost. With your bike skills, you can go “easy”, still put down a great bike split and be ready to run.

Based on your FTP and looking at a .70 IF, you would be ~5 hours on the IMWI course and well below that on a flat course. I would counsel against getting too upright and just work on building longer and longer rides gradually. I personally have the same position for a 40K TT and an IM. But I know I am an outlier in that regard…my point is that you don’t have to get in a more upright position just because it is IM.

  1. a 3:25 is almost an 8:00 pace (7:51, I think). I based that on 80% of your FT pace (based on your 5K time). Now that assumes you have also properly trained for an IM run, etc. If you back it down to 75% FT, then you are looking at ~3:40 (8:23 pace)

I wouldn’t put too much stock in that 13 mile run you did…running 13 miles spur of the moment is always gonna lead to problems…LOL!! BUT it does highlight a key issue you will need to watch…you have the engine to run farther / faster than your body can sustain. It happens very often with cyclists coming into tri…lord knows I did it. You have to run ridiculously slow and short at first and compensate with consistency.

I’ll try and sharpen some numbers based on your comments, etc. but like I said, I think you will surprise yourself!

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Must have been Steven Lewis.

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That was my thought too, until my second open-water swim with 4 weeks of specialty to go. The improvements from 6 months of training ( 2x/week on average) are phenomenal! I’ve gone from 2:15/100m to 1:45/100m in 6 months! Not ‘lead pack’ worthy, but given my cycling strength, I’ll probably catch up with at least a few people from the 1:30/100m pack!

I agree, but it’s always a tough balance between ‘too much information’ and ‘not enough’. There are people who would be hanging off every word of the Carnatine discussion, and people who will be skipping through to the next question.
For me, I skipped through after about 10 minutes.

If they are willing to spend a month in Australia, there is also the Murray Man 70.3 in Barmera, South Australia, 4 weeks before Busso. That fits in perfectly with the mid-specialty plan recovery week, which ends with ‘do a 70.3 race’.

They could spend the next week touring through the wine regions in South Australia, before heading across the continent to WA for Busso in 4 weeks time.

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Something I was pondering on my ride today…

For IM power I target 75% FTP. Will you be doing a ramp test on a tri bike in aero? Just because I know I can push a lot more watts riding up on the bars vs down in aero. A friend did a 20 min FTP test and the was wondering why he was blowing up on the run. Come to find out, he was coming out of aero during the test because it was getting hard and he wasn’t comfortable. So his FTP was artificially high, and as a result, his race power target was too aggressive.

That’s the best way, over the months try one upright for interests sake and comparison, but you’ll want to be testing for the position you aim to spend the vast majority of your race in.

For sure. When I did it about 18 months ago I was 330 on the road bike and 309 on the TT bike. I’m going to make some drastic (my favorite) position changes to try to narrow those two. Basically I’m going to replicate my “in the drops” road position.

I’m thinking 250NP will be a good goal for the IM split. That should set me up nicely to walk the marathon. :wink:

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You have plenty of time to find a position that’s comfortable, aero, and powerful. Think of it this way, the more aero you get, the less power you have to push, and the faster you will be done! :smiley:

What’s your tri bike again? Is it a speed concept?

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It’s a P5

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Ironman Tulsa! If this gets half the crowd support Tulsa Tough does, it will be an amazing race. Bike is about 5K feet of climbing (rollers) and the run is super flat.

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So @Jonathan is assuming that those plans are what he needs to get 5w/kg or is there a real metric based on TSS or other variables that can predict where will you land if adhering to the plans.

Great podcast material by the way!!

Mentioned in the Podcast was hemachromatosis. And what this means. Most people that do have hemachromatosis have 1 gene, you can take iron and store it. I’ve been given the double gene :dna: which gives me the rare gift of high iron intake. Currently sitting at 300, double the usual 120-150 for a person to store. To wave off health issues blood letting is common. Or you can go on drugs for the rest of your life. High iron can lead to joint problems, constant tiredness, recovery is a problem being tired. I’m interested in any other info @chad has in this. What other effects it may have on athletic ability.

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I also have Hereditary Hemochromatosis, with the double gene mutation. I’ve mentioned aspects of it and my treatment in the Blood Donation thread:

I started with about double the healthy iron saturation as well. I did 3 whole blood donations per year for several years. I am down to 2 donations per year along with general iron awareness in my diet and my levels are within the “normal” ranges now.

They covered the basic issue of blood donations in this podcast:

Ironman 2022 course suggestions - Ironman Italy. Did this course this year. 1 loop sea swim (warm water generally wetsuit legal) the bike course is fast with 1 climb (done twice) giving 700m elevation. fast 4 loop run course (flat), finishing on the beach on one of the most epic finishing lines I have been down. Plus its in Italy…

https://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman/emilia-romagna.aspx#axzz64P1rmhyT

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Great show as always! @Nate_Pearson please update us on your Pivot lifting on climbing, I have exactly the same problem with my 429 SL. I do not have a perfect pedal stroke, so the “lightness” on the front wheel improves with a more emphasised “scrape through” at the bottom (sure it is not an issue for you) spreading the torque better. But let us know if the drop of the handlebar works.

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Thanks @mcneese.chad that’s really interesting. I will give it a read. I wonder did you notice when you had a venesection did you at all notice any athletic differences? Heart rate etc?

Oh, yes… I could notice a difference. I control my HH with a normal whole blood donation (around 470ml).

My best estimation (without back to back ramp testing) is that I lose about 6% of my FTP right after my donations. Heart rate and RPE are both elevated at the “old” power efforts, pretty much across the board.

So I just make a manual adjustment to my FTP after each donation (assuming I am not testing right away) and roll with that to start. I still adjust a bit as needed, like any other time. But that seems like a decent starting point for me so I am not overcooking my efforts after the donation.

Given my background, (undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, currently a surgeon), I enjoy Coach Chad’s deep dive. I think though, that maybe some slides or whiteboard figures would go a long way to help folks who don’t have the background get the most out of these discussions. I envision something like Rhonda Patrick’s podcasts where she will flash up a graphic, or a paper to illustrate a point.

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Yes or a post-podcast post on the forum that contains a graphic or paper summarizing it.
So you can listen to that specific section again but with the graphic in front of you