Looking for a half about 6 weeks out from IM Arizona and unable to find any that fit my budget or work schedule. Then I came across a full distance aquabike which would work great. If I will already have one half under my belt and plenty of olys this season, would the aquabike be a good tune up race?
I guess I could get off the bike and run a couple miles to see how good or bad I nailed nutrition. This will be my first IM. Any thoughts would be great (just need someone to push me over the edge so I can sign up for another race!)
by six weeks out I’m swimming 3800m and biking around 110-120 every weekend anyway, so for me an aquabike would be a great way to have a catered, life-guarded, blocked or guarded road training day. I would use it to test my swim strategies (hard start vs. easy start) and check my nutrition and pacing on the bike. I’d probably finish the swim and bike at a very hard tempo though for the training benefits. I’d also run a little off the bike.
If you haven’t progressively worked up to these distances by 6 weeks out, you’d get more benefit from a workout that makes sense for you, rather than “testing your fitness” at an aquabike. I also wouldn’t do a half IM, unless you’re going to go very long mid-week, as you need more volume than a half IM race will give you. How about a half IM 2 or 3 weeks out at full IM race pace?
On the other hand, there’s nothing like a good rehearsal. Dinner, sleep, wake up, breakfast, transition tasks, swim warm up, etc. All of this is great practice.
The intent would be test nutrition, race prep, and race strategy like you said, not necessarily the distances. I like the idea of a 1/2 IM closer to IM with a longer training block during the week if I can find one that close that makes sense.
My weekend rides and runs are already north of 75 and 12 miles respectively. Now just working out the race specifics, speed, endurance, nutrition…well I guess everything:)
i did this last year and was very happy with the outcome. i specifically wanted to push on the bike to see how it went, after a swim, in race conditions…but didn’t want to do the run at that time. it turned out to be a great training and learning day for me. the only down side was getting off the bike and being a free woman. it made me think: oooh, i could get used to this very quickly.
peggy
in my opinion, every weekend is an Ironman. It’s very easy to get out there for 6 hours on the bike. treat your training nutrition just like you would on race day. eat the same meal Friday night. wake up at 330am, eat the same breakfast every weekend, go back to bed. Get on the bike by 7am, off the bike by 1pm and your running off the bike in the afternoon heat.
so, hopefully you’ll be up to 100 mile rides by the aquabike. going from 75 to 112 in one jump might affect you.
two months. that had to do with being relatively close to the race (vineman) at that time and it just all worked out well. i’d not mind doing it a bit closer, but two months was fine for my purposes.
peggy
I like how you think sir. I agree with everything you said but for me there seems to be a switch turned on when there is a timing chip involved. Your Saturday workouts are exactly what I am trying to emulate. Thanks for the steering.
I am still 18 weeks out from IM so the plan is to slowly build my long rides to 110-120 followed by a run.