I'm all out for the first 10 seconds and the last 10 seconds. And around 90-95% in between.

I go all out for every race, as in by the end I'm completely spent. But, that means proper pacing whether it is a sprint or a 70.3. That pacing is defined by the distance.

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speedySTATES

This. Every race is paced. No ones truly goes "all out" for any race that lasts for more than 10 seconds or so.

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"Honestly, triathlon is a pussified version of duathlon on that final run."- Desert Dude

All out and I could be spent before I even got to the bike. So I'm going to go with pace yourself. I consider my Olympic pacing whatever RPE I can hold for a little over 2 hours. That isn't all out.

I'm sorry, my description was not appropriate I suppose. I go by HR Zone and will hold high Z5 for the duration of a Sprint, not sure if I should shoot to stay in mid Z4 for the bike and then go Z5 on the run or try to hold Z5 the whole way through.

edit: I'm an FNG to this distance so I'm sure my ignorance is showing

I don't do HR but if I had to guess I'd be low Z4 on the bike. Higher Z4 at the beginning of the run and then just suffering the last two miles.

I find once I calm down after the swim the first 1/2 of the bike isn't that difficult even though I'm pushing pretty hard

My bike power ends up being in the 90-95% range depending on the course

90-95% is typically what can be sustained for those duration. For faster guys it's higher (since it's a shorter race) for MOP and BOP it's a little lower as the race get up to 2-1/2 hour or approaches 3 hours.

This assumes you have enough specific fitness to sustain that intensity for 2 hours.

I'll tell you this. If you go out too hard on the bike you WILL pay for it on the run. The ITU guys can push a little harder, but keep in mind that they train with the volume of a IM athlete, but practice pushing above threshold and recovering quickly, similar to a pro cyclist.

Find a good steady rhythm on the bike after getting out of T1. All the adrenaline on fresh legs can easily have you pushing into Z6 without realizing it. If you do that, you'll find that your spent by mile 20.


Keep in mind that 90-95% is a RPE or Wattage based on threshold, not max HR. Personally, I wouldn't use HR. It gets too wonky for sprint races with adrenaline, heat, etc. throwing it off. It also responds way too slow for harder efforts. Unless you're experienced at this distance and/or really want the data, ditch the electronics and just pay attention to breathing rate and how your legs feel. Compare that to similar efforts in training.

I just find that if you very fit, HR responds way too slowly and has too much variability. Plus keep in mind that bike HR is often a LOT lower than run HR zones. For me it's nearly 10 bpm lower. I'm around 165-170 for my run threshold. If I try and hold that for more than maybe 10 minutes cycling, my legs are absolutely crushed. Hell, I'd have to go to well into the pain cave for a little while to go past 5 minutes. I'd be riding at almost 120%.

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TrainingBible Coaching
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Good question. I think there needs to be an element of "maybe I'll blow up during the run" when doing an Olympic. Without knowing you, your fitness, etc. most people can't just double their time from sprint to olympic, there's typically a bit of a drop-off. If you go at the same intensity, you may not be able to hold it throughout. Regardless of your strategy/outcome you'll probably learn quite a bit for your 2nd Olympic.

you figure out how long the race will take, approximately, and sustain a steady effort that you can sustain for that amount of time.

people who say they go all out are just using bad semantics to describe going as hard as they can for around 2 hours.

Actually going "all out" would be disaster. Even having that attitude is probably sub optimal as it is better to hold 10 watts back on the bike and apply that energy on the run.

Only you can know how hard to go on the bike such that you can run fast still, and you learn this through experiment.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

If this isn't your A race of the season, then I like your approach coz you'll find out how your body reacts to keeping the same effort over twice the distance.

If I'm fit, I go hard from the start in olympic - do everything I can to stay on toes - usually late in the bike I'm starting to hurt and make conscious effort not to think about the run, just keep pushing - for me the first km or two off the bike feels so sllloooowww, but my body comes around and I'm usually picking guys off and more often then not, I negative split.

Juat curious, do you consider yourself a 'speed' or 'strength' runner? Strength runners may fare better off a hard bike me thinks.

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"Suck it up, Buttercup"
(me, to myself, every day)

Thank you for the replies.. I'm a stronger runner than cyclist, did an open 10K last month at 42:43 (I know, not lightning quick but a PR for me) and am shooting for sub 45min in this race. I do not have a power meter as I just started cycling a year ago when I bought a new Specialized Allez (can't see paying more for parts than the bike itself). This is the reason I go mostly by feel, HR and the speed I see associated with the two along with the conditions (Florida heat, coastal winds, etc). I wanted to come in under 2:45 overall and depending on my swim, would need to hold 20mph, not confident I could do that and have it for the run. I suppose mainly my question is do I back that expectation off and shoot for say 18-19mph (unless a tailwind, downhill, etc) in order to have something left for the part I know I'm good at? Then again, I know how to suffer on a run, I'm still learning to deal with the pain on a bike.

speed targets are no good. they are completely useless. Wind could add or subtract 10mph from your ideal pace.

use perceived exertion. A couple training rides where you do 25 miles and a short run after can help you dial in the proper pain levels.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

This is my first year with a power meter, and haven't done a race with it yet, so that part will be new for me. What I did previously was DO NOT LOOK AT SPEED. I learned that the hard way. Use PE, HR, and cadence on the bike. You should have an idea of what your HR is at a certain effort and how long you can hold it at your comfortable cadence.

Without a power meter it's basically a run while sitting: you're pacing by previous experienced efforts and how you measured those (HR and/or PE).

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if your stand alone PB for 10km is 42:43, dont be shocked if you run over your goal time of 45mins. There isnt much buffer there allowing for the fatigue from swim/bike. In any event, better to undershoot the bike by 1mph and be able to run, than drill it to save a minute or two on the bike but walk half your run leg. Dont underestimate Oly's, you can find yourself doing the death march on the run very quickly.

Its' a huge drop off. I'm running a little better than 5:30 pace for a sprint. If I could hold my sprint pace for an Olympic, I'd probably be almost racing for a new car at Hyvee.

FWIM, I think in many ways Olympic is the "least painful" distance. The pace is much more controlled than a sprint, and doesn't have the battle against fatigue from those last 6-7 miles running a 70.3.

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You appear to be about the same runner that I am. My best 10K is a 42:30 and my best Oly 10K is a 44:00.

That was after riding an hour near Functional Threshold. If you are significantly more than an hour you will need to back off a little bit. If I was to do that by HR I would at about 95% of my HR at threshold.

jaretj

Ha... yeah, a new car would be nice. As for the drop-off in time, it obviously depends on the person and what your definition of huge is. 15% slower for a 5:30 5K to 10K puts you at around 6:20 per mile if my math is right. That's still pretty fast, but yeah, you're not winning any cars. Javier Gomez dropped off about 8% from his time at Plymouth (Sprint) to Auckland (Olympic). Obviously there's a lot of other variables involved, but the more successful athletes across multiple distances I would imagine have less of a drop-off.

I do this little workout Thursday on race week to help dial in my race pace.

- Sprint: 10 min warmup, 2 x 10 min @ goal watts (95% FTP) with 1 min rest, 3 min cool down + 10 min run at goal race pace
- Olympic: 15 min warmup, 2 x 15 min @ goal watts (92% FTP) with 1 min rest, 3 min cool down + 15 min run at goal race pace

I do the bike on the trainer and go for the run immediately after. It's not too demanding and I can fully recover by race day. If I can have a strong run I know I'm ready.

Here's what works for me:

1. Easy relaxed swim, focus on keeping form.
2. Ease into bike for first 5-10 minutes. Then keep at or near threshold.
3. Ease into run for first mile. Push it hard rest of run and try to hold on.

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This is pretty much what I was thinking.... It's not my "A" race but I just don't want to fall apart on the run, that's where I have the most fun.

I do a lot of 25 mile rides in training to dial in my race pace using a combination of RPE and my target cadence. I used HR in the past, but as others have alluded to, it can give you some wacky, misleading data, especially in shorter races.

My bike is stronger than my run, and it works better for me personally to go a bit harder on the bike and then hang on for the run. I found that if I paced the bike too much, it really didn't result in much, if any, improvement on the run and it actually hurt my overall results.

Mark

Don't second guess your strategy, racing a Sprint is similiar to racing a Olympic. (Without getting to granular)

Olypmic to 70.3 a different story.

This. If you've put in the hours, the pacing strategy is very close to a sprint. If you're at the pointy end, there's hardly a difference at all. The swim can be quite a bit longer depending on what sprint you're comparing it to so there may be a little drop off there but it's still a crisp swim effort. In a sprint you bike somewhere around 100 - 105% of one hour effort and in an olympic, if you'll average roughly 20 mph (again, this is a bad metric) then you'll probably want to put out something like 90% of one hour effort. The run will see a little drop off but it shouldn't be a cliff.

One difference is, make sure you get some calories and fluid on the bike. In a sprint, I basically do a little sip of water here or there but nutrition does not make or break the race. The longer you're out there, the more nutrition plays a role. I personally like one bottle of perform and a gel on the bike. then I just grab a couple cups of water on the run.

Of course you have to pace; you can't go all out much longer than 10 seconds or so.