Check out Chris Lieto's old training day videos with Triathlon.Competitor and Bob Babbitt. He has a bike workout video with a couple of his staple workouts for 70.3 and 140.6. He didn't use % of FTP so much as % HIM or IM pace but I'm sure you can translate.

I've found that being able to do 45 min at around 95% in a longer ride is a good indication that 85% is doable on race day. Lots of 3 hr rides with say 3-4 30' intervals at race pace (80-85%) are also good.

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There is no perfect bike workout session for a HIM.

You work on raising your FTP by riding threshold intervals twice a week (or your own flavor of raising threshold) and ride long once a week. Adding more easy time helps too.

5 to 6 weeks out you start adding 85% work to the last half of the long bike ride. Your HIM bike effort is then a product of your FTP, weekly mileage and execution of your race day plan.

jaretj

Last year around 4weeks from Steelhead I was doing 10mins warmup, 4x20mins @80% 5mins between, 10mins cool down aero the whole time. I think I got three or four of those sessions in. Prior to that it was a mix of 2x20s during the week and increasingly long z2 rides on the weekend.

Disclaimer: I pretty much just wing it/tinker and am by no means an expert.

Best bike session 4-6 weeks before a 70.3 would be two 70.3's 6 weeks out and 3 weeks out! Or several olympic or sprint tris in the lead up. I need Fleck here to help me. People under estimate the value of B racing in the lead up to an A event. Both the phyiological adaptations that ensue as well as the mental training during the race, is very hard to replicate in a training session.

Other than that, I'd do lots of short intervals at 100-115% FTP. Unfortunately age group racing you need to surge and slow down if you plan to race a clean race and not get stuck in a drafting scenario.

Unfortunately for me and many like myself, Dev is correct.

Having a "B" race (ideally a half ironman) 2 or 3 weeks before your main event really raises your game and forces to to learn lessons (and remember them) moreso than ... just a simulation.

Not the cheapest way to train but for many, very, very effective. Provided of course ~ you don't injure yourself in the B race AND you give yourself adequate recovery time.

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