In Reply To:
(1) How do you determine what your target pace is for an Ironman race. You mention that your targets are based on training, but can you be more specific. What is the testing protocol you use to determine the pace, both for the bike and the run.
(2) What is average cadence typically around?
(3) You mentioned that you train ~25 hours a week. If I remember correctly, you mentioned that were training ~30 hours before your first Ironman, even though you weren't specifically training for Ironman. Putting aside coach, if that is not the reason, why the change.
(4) You mentioned that you rode the IM course 3 times. I'm assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that you bike that long more than just 3 times leading up to an Ironman. How many times and are those long rides all at Ironman pace.
(5) With respect to the 25 hours training week, and while you mentioned you didn't want to give too much away re your training because you felt it was your coach's intellectual property, can you give us a general breakdown of how many hours are swim, bike, run, respectively.
(6) You mention that you regularly do pushups. Do you do any other strength exercises? If so, what? Any weights? Any leg exercises.
(7) Can/will you have a faster bike split than Lance at next year's (or the year after) Kona?
Thanks. Well done and congratulations.
1. For running, my coach has the most say, which is good because I'm quite inexperienced in the overall scheme of things. So there, it was just a matter of following his plan. On the bike, it's still his call, but I generally have more experience there, so I usually have a better sense of it. Roughly, I'd say both cases I'd go by ~75% of FTP, as defined in one the traditional cycling methods (though I don't usually do an hour TT, rather I do one of the derivative workouts. Plus after enough time riding you get a feel for where that marker is). For running, I'd say the same thing, using probably somewhere between 5km-10km pace, which are easy to convert between since for most athletes it's usually 5km x 2 + 30sec = 10km. 80% has been defined as the upper limit. I go with 75% just because I think it's more reasonable and also gives you a better margin for error. I.e., my 75% might actually be 78 or 79% if I'm off by a bit on my numbers. But I know that is ok, whereas if I targeted 80%, I don't really give myself much room for error. But a huge amount of that is still feel. When you train a lot, you (hopefully) get to know your body.
2. My rule of thumb is that if my cadence drops below 80, I shift up. And it if goes above 90, I shift down. My race cadence is about 82-88 comfortably, though I think it tends to average a bit on the lower side of 85. It's mostly that I don't want to ride slower than 80 or faster than 90, so what feels right within that on the day and with the cassette I have on the back is what I use. I.e., with an 11-25 you have different gearing choices than with 11-23 vs. 11-21, etc. And 11-21 is the best for keeping your cadence right on, but it's also not practical for a course like IMC.
3. It was closer to 25 vs. 28. New coach is the reason.
4 & 5. Yes, I did more long rides than just the three. For breakdown, it really depends on the week. It actually changes a lot in terms of percentage. At any given time, I would say that any of the three sports could take up 50% of my training time for the week.
6. I do some other strength exercises. I have a short functional movement workout from a very good trainer that I usually do once or twice per week. The exercises are specific to problems/weaknesses that I have/had - like weak scapular stabilizers. I listed the three that I think are most useful in my reply to Barry P's "10minute weight workout" -- overhead squat, pushup, cable crossover. I do some stuff on the swiss ball sometimes too.
7. It will depend on how Lance chooses to race (and train) for Kona. It might also depend on what bike I was riding at the time... ;)
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