I did LP last year. I didn't have a time or speed goal - just a pacing goal. I just tried to stay in zone 2 or 3 all day on the bike, even on the uphills. I never wanted to get into the quad burning zone because I knew that would make me end up walking the marathon. So, the goal was to stay with a nice easy pace all day. Not slow, just easy and steady. I didn't care about how fast my bike split was. The only thing I was concerned about was finishing as quickly as possible while still being able to run the marathon. Now, I did end up knowing kind of what my finishing time was going to be, but I didn't set that as a goal since I didn't know what the race was going to throw at me.

However, my training was not easy and steady. I'm a big believer in Rich Strauss's training plans. He has you going hard on almost every bike ride. There is always a bit of interval or tempo work thrown in. The only time I didn't do that is on the 2 century rides I did. So, I would do a good, long warmup then a long period of tempo or intervals, then a good, long cool-down. Or, I would just find a hilly place to ride and go at it at a steady effort the whole time.

YMMV, but this worked well for me.

This is really hard to answer because only you know how you feel at different paces. How did you feel on the run?

I have done several 1/2s and AZ will be my first full. In hindsight, I wish that I would have pushed the pace more on at least one of my long ride bricks to see how I would feel. I was so worried about blowing up before finishing the bike that I didn't push it. The training time is the best time to test it.

Who knows....I am injury free and ready to go with the pace that I have trained at..that can make up for a lot.


good luck and have fun!

I definitely felt like I had gone too easy on the bike and swim last IM. I was totally bored and cold on the bike, although the cold was the weather.
I felt super for the marathon (after that first mile or two) - but my legs got to the point where they couldn't take the pounding any more. I walked the last 9 mi. of the marathon. I didn't bonk, didn't run out of energy whatsoever, just couldn't run any more - my hips, knees, and ankles were just throbbing too much. I have surmised that was due to lack of run miles in my legs (from reading some other threads), which I'm going to correct this time around.

I tried to use my heart rate monitor on the bike last weekend, but I kept getting horrible interference. Maybe from my cell phone? The number kept jumping up to 236, 225, etc., numbers I knew were absurd. I'm not going to leave my cell phone behind on a ride though. Then it seemed like it was happening too when cars were passing me. It was frustrating. I was thinking I'd monitor my HR for my long rides, and then do roughly the same HR for IM.

My other problem is you cannot tell me to go easy. I will go WAY TOO EASY. I will lolligag.

Otherwise, thanks for the input. I'm also going to talk to my IM guru friends that are here locally.