For background, I'm a M30-34 triathlete focused on Sprint and Olympic distance. I was a collegiate swimmer who picked up Tri after college. Generally I am strongest on the bike, almost as good on the swim, and hanging on for dear life in the run (though admittedly not bad at running, just nowhere near as good as the other two).
In training I generally heavily focus on running because it's my weakness and the easiest to do logistically. My normal week will have 5-6 runs, and 1-2 swims and bike rides. I have done pretty well in the past with this type of training, but recent results have me considering a change-up. I had been averaging 1 ride a week this year and, although I hadn't really tested, I estimated my FTP to be around 10-15 watts lower than during the race season last year (when I was riding twice a week). About 10 days ago I saw that Zwift was having a National Championship and thought it sounded fun, so I decided to put in a big bike block and try to boost my FTP a bit to have a good showing. I rode 7 times over 10 days, including two preparatory Zwift races. The race was this morning, and while I didn't place terribly high due to a lack of fitness for 1:30 long race efforts (I rarely have workouts loger than an hour), my first 1:05ish was fantastic. I set a new FTP number that was almost 10 watts higher than I was at my peak last year, and until the catastrophic bonk after the 2nd of 3 climbs it felt easy.
So the question is this: what are your thoughts on someone in my position flipping the script and doing 5-6 rides a week, and 1-2 swims/runs instead? Would I see a huge dropoff on my running, or would the fact that I've basically plateaued on the run mean that I wouldn't see much dropoff? Who knows, I might feel fresher after the bike and run better. This is kinda backwards for me as I've never tried that much riding, but cycling is by far my favorite sport so I think it would be a fun experiment. However, I don't know that I could even do it logistically; most of my workouts are done at the office and there isn't anywhere to set up my trainer (and I can't ride outside at the speeds I ride in NYC, that would be a nightmare). Regardless, I can try to work out the logistics if I really want to. What does the collective wisdom of slowtwitch think?
(Oh, and I'm self coached so advising me to ask my coach is not a productive response.)
Powertap / Cycleops / Saris
In training I generally heavily focus on running because it's my weakness and the easiest to do logistically. My normal week will have 5-6 runs, and 1-2 swims and bike rides. I have done pretty well in the past with this type of training, but recent results have me considering a change-up. I had been averaging 1 ride a week this year and, although I hadn't really tested, I estimated my FTP to be around 10-15 watts lower than during the race season last year (when I was riding twice a week). About 10 days ago I saw that Zwift was having a National Championship and thought it sounded fun, so I decided to put in a big bike block and try to boost my FTP a bit to have a good showing. I rode 7 times over 10 days, including two preparatory Zwift races. The race was this morning, and while I didn't place terribly high due to a lack of fitness for 1:30 long race efforts (I rarely have workouts loger than an hour), my first 1:05ish was fantastic. I set a new FTP number that was almost 10 watts higher than I was at my peak last year, and until the catastrophic bonk after the 2nd of 3 climbs it felt easy.
So the question is this: what are your thoughts on someone in my position flipping the script and doing 5-6 rides a week, and 1-2 swims/runs instead? Would I see a huge dropoff on my running, or would the fact that I've basically plateaued on the run mean that I wouldn't see much dropoff? Who knows, I might feel fresher after the bike and run better. This is kinda backwards for me as I've never tried that much riding, but cycling is by far my favorite sport so I think it would be a fun experiment. However, I don't know that I could even do it logistically; most of my workouts are done at the office and there isn't anywhere to set up my trainer (and I can't ride outside at the speeds I ride in NYC, that would be a nightmare). Regardless, I can try to work out the logistics if I really want to. What does the collective wisdom of slowtwitch think?
(Oh, and I'm self coached so advising me to ask my coach is not a productive response.)
Powertap / Cycleops / Saris