I completed 8 weeks of Half Ironman HV Base. Finished it feeling very healthy. This is my first season taking on a HV plan.
I’m now 2 weeks into Half Ironman HV Build. I feel great so far despite the long ride shooting way up in volume…as well as the sudden injection of intensity on both rides and runs. So far I am managing the workload well, and my body is responding better than I anticipated.
NUTRITION: my big change this season, so far, has been semi-tracking my nutrition intake. I had this idea that I wanted to bulk up a little bit during the base phase (I do a lot of heavy lifting during base). Force feeding myself about 4000 calories a day was successfully achieving the weight gain i was looking for. However, once the build phase started my weight gain has completely tapered off. My early/initial takeaway is that I was DRASTICALLY under fueling myself in past seasons.
Those workouts don’t look like tempo. They are sweet spot. There is no way you can be doing tempo and get a 0.86 IF at the end of the ride. That’s why they are mislabeled. Probably best to send a ticket to support. That is about the same as Phoenix+1, which is a SS 7.9
Still a few days to the first race of the season, last FTP change was 21. February when I got an AI FTP detection at 330W. No my workout levels are mostly at 5.0 and above and the next FTP test scheduled is a few days before the event. If I change my FTP in May, should I increase my racewatts? Or should I do a new AI FTP Detection a little bit before?
Doing some lactate testing im working below LT1 @ 75%, which would be the racepace Im looking to hold in Roth. Thinking I could go to 85% for a 70.3 and still be under or close to LT1 lactate after 2 hours with the current FTP.
I wouldn’t change my race plan based on a ramp test (or an estimated ramp test result), especially on race week!
Do some race simulation workouts in the next 6 weekend and base race effort on that. Something like a 2hr bike w/ 1 hr run off, both at target race effort and using race fueling. Use RPE from the end of the run to adjust bike effort up or down or not at all.
Guessing you’re not using plan builder then. Ramp on race week is weird for a number of reasons, not least tapering.
I would have practised race watts before then, in a brick session - as you know it’s all about whether you can run your fastest off the bike rather than the fastest bike you can get away with.
I have only tested shortly before a race once, and that’s because I had detonated in training and needed a downshift to finish the race rather than perform at peak.
It’s shown as a B race that happens to line up with the beginning of the specialty phase, so maybe not too odd of a thing for Plan builder to do. I think for “B” races plan builder just gives you a rest day immediately before and maybe the one right after, but doesn’t do anything else.
It’s one of those things that plan builder does that I don’t think a real coach ever would for long course triathlon. For a 70.3 that’s a B race, I think a real coach would move a week from the specialty phase into the build phase to align the race at the end of a recovery week/mini taper and then easy into the week after the race for some recovery from a 4/5/6 hr race.
For a C race, I’d move some stuff around in a week and maybe take an easy day before the race.
For an A, design the full plan and take a full multi-week taper and a legit, full recovery afterwards.
Maybe the way B’s and C’s are handled by plan builder works well for bike-only racings which occurs at a might higher frequency than triathlon? The races are shorter and don’t seem to have the recovery needs that running imposes.
Using plan builder, but dont think I will stick to the plan suggested. Thinking of it, changing FTP and also then racepace wattage in the specialty block would be weird for me. Because I have a clue where I should be at during the race.
This year my FTP is “only” at 330W, last year I was at 365W in June. But I could not hold 300W+ for 2 hours without bonking off the bike. So this year I think my 70.3 pace would be about 275-290W and for Roth I will go easy at 250W but having an awesome run off the bike
What I do is use Rouvy or FulGaz to simulate a 70.3 race as an additional ride in the training week. One ride early season with lower watts, then raise that as I feel getting closer to race day.
For long course I’d use Hoffman plus a solid 10-15k run to validate my race watts.
From experience I aim for 0.75IF on a 70.3 if I plan to have a good run. I think only a small percentage of people can hold 0.8 or 0.85 for 2 hrs and have a good run. 0.8 is a bonk on the run for sure for me. I’ll happily give up the 3-5 min on the bike to not bunk.
I have done 4 70.3 races, 3 of them with a bike at 0.85 and 1 at .90.
The one at 90 went to shit, the 3 at .85 was where I expected to be. I usually struggle more to dare to hold the speed in my position since pushing 275W means speeding at 40kph.
This year I want to try to run even stronger off the bike, so I will aim to achieve closer to .80.
Hi all, looking for some suggestions on damage limitation.
I have a 70.3 in 6 weeks. Started plan builder since the turn of the year but struggling BIG time with consistency (2 children under 3) and motivation. My last race was a 140.6 in November last year.
Swim: to begin with, I’m a terrible back of pack swimmer. Only swam 3 times this year, with the longest swim at 1500m. Even with regular training, I struggled to go below 2:30min/100m in races.
Bike: last workout was March 8. My ftp is 200. Race is a hilly one. Despite the inconsistency, I expect to enjoy the bike course.
Run: most consistent of them all, but barely. I do a long run every weekend, longest run currently at 19km. I have yet to do do a single brick session at all this year.
If I am able to keep myself accountable to train daily now for 6 weeks, what can I do to make the most impact on the race? Swim more? More bricks? Long rides?
Swim more, but find out why you are not swimming faster. (Would guess sinking legs is the biggest drag).
Running I would not do any big changes to, you dont need to do brick sessions.
Bike: What volume plan are you doing? Try going low volume and just add longer warmup/cooldown if you have the time to extend sessions instead of doing more sessions.
Story of my life!
Its hard but I would suggest getting classes and figure out whats is wrong mechanically. Its hard to tell because you probably have many years of bad mechanics and will take eyes on deck to see the flaws and then time in the water to correct the problems.
I am currently working on my technique with an instructor… in 3 sessions Ive been pointed the following problems:
Elbow hitting water before had (correction is higher elbow)
Hand entering palm first (correction is finger tips first)
Not holding water on catch and pull… (correction is learning how catching water feels and try to feel the water when swimming)
Elbow too low in the water during the pull
Pulling the elbow back and not the whole arm
hips should be higher
My arm is exiting early
AS you can see its a lot. Ive been trying to hit the pool 3 times per week and really concentrating on drills and slow swim to practice better habits.
With 2 young children is hard. But unless you practice and correct the mechanical problems, there will be no much you can improve.
swimming is 90% technique and 10% fitness.
Ive seen people at the pool, that I am pretty sure my pace for an easy 20 mile run would be their 2 miler max effort, and yet on the pool they lap more than once!
