I’m right in the middle of training for Vineman 70.3 which is ~10 weeks away. I’ve got the run training dialed (Barry P minus 1 recovery workout/week) and my swim training is 2 masters workouts/week (I’ll be adding Tower 26 once Gerry starts things up).
The only thing I don’t have at this point is a solid set of bike workouts. I did a CP20 test a few weeks back and was at 330w => 313 FTP (I’m 172 lbs, 25 years old). At my current FTP I’ll try to race around 250-255 watts, unless I can bring this up in the next 9 weeks. BBS says I’ll come in around 2:36 on the bike split… Unfortunately I race on a road bike with clip ons right now.
Any particular workouts or plans people suggest? I’ve got time for 3 rides/week: 1-2 hours twice and 3-5 hours once.
Ride 1 - intervals close to FTP - 95-99% (Since your young and if you want more intensity, you could ride these 105-109%)
Ride 2 - Longer intervals; SS work
Ride 3 - Rotate it, one week just long ride, lots of aerobic riding with some tempo, no need for more than 3.5-4 hours / this the next week after a good warm up pace, had race pace efforts - like 20 mins at HIM pace/10 min easy, repeat up to 3 hours. Long ride, work on staying in your position.
I am not a coach, but at your your pace, I wouldn’t ride 5 hours for a 70.3, ride shorter and use that hour for a swim or run.
Weekend long ride: outdoors, 3-5 hours, i try to maintain my goal wattage for ironman (220ish)
Tower26 is awesome and brings out an amazing group of athletes. Pretty nice to live a 5 minute bike ride from the tower!
From the two replies so far I’ll definitely get a 2x20 or 3x20 sweet spot session in.
Andy Coggan has a few workouts in TRPM in the triathlon chapter that I’ve been looking at. One says you should be shooting for 100 miles over the 5 hours! Might need to give it a shot in the next few weeks.
For your two shorter rides, I would focus on intervals 8 minutes and longer. Maybe 2x20’ or 3x15’ at SS on one day and 4x10’ or 5x8’ at threshold the other day.
For your longer ride, I would suggest getting in some longer blocks at or above target race power. Maybe 3x30’, 4x20’, or something of that sort. This should give you a pretty good idea of what you will actually race at. Where did you get the goal of 250-255 watts for race day? If it’s not from long ride field testing, then I would strongly suggest you validate that goal with a field test. Maybe a 30’ warm up, 2.5 hours at 250, then a 40 minute run. One of the silliest things you can do, especially if you are new to power, and new to the HIM distance, is to base your bike power goal simply off a percentage of a 20’ test.
For your two shorter rides, I would focus on intervals 8 minutes and longer. Maybe 2x20’ or 3x15’ at SS on one day and 4x10’ or 5x8’ at threshold the other day.
For your longer ride, I would suggest getting in some longer blocks at or above target race power. Maybe 3x30’, 4x20’, or something of that sort. This should give you a pretty good idea of what you will actually race at. Where did you get the goal of 250-255 watts for race day? If it’s not from long ride field testing, then I would strongly suggest you validate that goal with a field test. Maybe a 30’ warm up, 2.5 hours at 250, then a 40 minute run. One of the silliest things you can do, especially if you are new to power, and new to the HIM distance, is to base your bike power goal simply off a percentage of a 20’ test.
Thanks for the suggestions. Definitely going to try one of those longer sessions out this weekend.
I’ve been training with power for a little over a year now. The 250-255 watts is ~82% of my FTP. More importantly I raced Oceanside in March at 240 watts and vineman 70.3 in 2013 at 230. Doing 2.5 hours at goal power with a 40 min run sounds like a great diagnostic though. Might try to push 260 then run 40 min ~4 weeks out from the race and see how it goes.