They also said the bike course at Racine has some steep climbs...found that by perusing through the website. What a joke.

EN is saying that if you target a steady VI, you can rack up more TSS than burning matches, killing it on every hill.

I've rode Racine several times, Steep Hills ???? WHAAAAATT ... It's about as flat as you get for 56 miles almost anywhere. EN is the biggest joke. I cannot believe anyone with a half a brain listens to them. I guess they'd attract the couch to Ironman athletes that are lazy to begin with and want to put in the minimum effort to finish. Which is fine and all, but for serious triathletes. Come on, they suck bad.

 

Feeling lonely and decided to start another troll?

Okay, I'll bite. Post up your average weekly training schedule for an IM build and your IM splits.

Just my n=1....

I find that I absolutely run better if I don't hammer every single hill. Also, the HIMs and IMs I've done are always full of guys boasting about their wicked fast bike times....but they're all walking.

I agree with you that EN is probably wrong in most cases with just writing about the bike. Your all out time should be faster than a Zone 3 ride. However, you should be able to run better after the Zone 3 ride. I'm thinking about the longer endurance races, not the sprint guys.

Ha, I usually stay out of these things, but your emotional investment in this is quite telling. I always like to open up coherent arguments with all caps and personal attacks.

I had not read the article in question, but after reading it, this is most decidedly not a new thing in the slightest. The article itself is pretty market-y, but it's pretty clear that the one 'test' that you quoted is intended to demonstrate to those that need reassurance that almost any course is actually ridden faster by 'flattening' the course for an individual effort, maintaining a relatively steady power versus surges and breaks.

I could critique this claim some, first in the obvious in that calling 85% FTP easy is a bit of a stretch. I bet most athletes would find a ride 45 mile ride at a steady 85% FTP much harder than they anticipate, by and large because most athletes are very bad at riding at steady power.

The second possible critique is that I'm not sure you will always be faster on the steady individual ride depending on the length of the course. Riding with a high VI (variability index, i.e.. unsteady) is good at inflating your NP (normalized power) which you pay the cost for later in your ride. Short enough ride and it hasn't hit yet you yet.

Honestly, if you are having this much difficulty with the concept of advising an AG athlete to pace their HIM bike splits with a low VI, then well, good luck to you.

They said ride it like a roadie - that doesn't mean all-out for the entire ride. All the roadie groups I've ridden with hammer for relatively short sections and then basically doddle along in between...when they aren't sitting in a parking lot "regrouping" for 15min.

I'm willing to bet Strauss and McCrann both have long course resumes that will send yours to the shredder.
(Not that you can't express your willful ignorance here anyway.)

If you "train properly" you don't kill every hill in a triathlon, if you do, you find out real soon that doesn't work. The only triathletes I see killing the hills "consistantly" in a triathlon race is pretty much NO ONE. Everyone know we all have to run afterwords, they may kill a couple hills in the beginning and find out real soon after that.

Unless, of course, they are speaking of the untrained or poorly trained triathletes. Such as, not swimming in the off season triathletes. I guess then when they come out the water after "flailing" in the water for 45-50 minutes in a Half IM, now they think they have to make up time on the bike so they HAMMER WAY TOO HARD. It's just poor training and EN dishes it out and it's not free either. (Slap to forehead!)

Hold on there cowboy - did you really mean to reply to me?

You are 100% correct on that one!! EN is wrong in most cases. If I ride in Zone 3, I will be faster on the run. If I ride in Zone 1, I'll be even FASTER on the run. What I am saying is that NO ONE burns Zone 5 on the bike in a long triathlon and expects to run or even walk the remaining run portion.

I am a former professional triathlete and NO I will not tell you my name. I am just sick of the crappy coaching out there and it bugs me to no end.

So...about those IM splits of yours...waiting...

I love watching folks fly by me on hills, especially at the beginning of races. (I am terrible on the hills). I just try to stay seated and spin. But most of the time, I will catch up to them, and usually pass, on the flat after the hill. Then they do it again.
But after a while, they usually seem to no longer pass me again, and I sure never see them on the run. I never kill a hill. Just try to be steady and then give it effort on the downhill.

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I think their article is just worded very poorly. For a novice, their points are probably true. But, for a well trained athlete who can hammer out some hills and still maintain a high effort for a 20-45 mile loop, they are dead wrong.

I guess the operative word here is FORMER PROFESSIONAL because your original post certainly doesn't ooze professionalism. I have no problem if you disagree with a particular coaching strategy but why go out of your way to bash something that doesn't impact you. If you are certain your way is better then start coaching and put everyone else out of business with your results. Prove you are more than ignorant ranting.

I hear ya - I take about 4 months off from swimming completely every year. I'n so poorly trained I have no business qualifying for Kona :)

85% FTP is not Easy at all, good point. I think EN has it a little mixed up, first off, rarely does anyone really rides above an average of 85% FTP in a long distance triathlon. Secondly, even if you pushed above 85% on the up hills you end up recovering on the down hills, which then you realized quickly that is not good. Third, I think they are targeting untrained cyclist, that push unsteady for 20 miles or so, thinking they going fast but actually or bonking near the end. So then a steady ride would be faster. But they are making BROAD assumptions that EVERY triathlete does these things and THEY DON'T. Most triathletes know how to bike in a triathlon, if they don't, they find out quickly.

Uhhhh....you realize you just confirmed what EN is trying to say, right? A lot of beginning triathletes (who EN largely caters to) do exactly what you describe above (hammer the hills no matter what) and EN is trying to help correct that with this "exercise."

Well done.....you just confirmed that which you so hotly criticized.

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