Going to be coming off marathon training and have about 8 weeks to train for a half ironman without a lot of biking miles. Are there any good rules of thumb for a good weekly ratio of cycling/running/swimming time? Was running about 45 miles a week with some crossing training.
Your ratio needs to depend on where your strengths and weaknesses lie.
I have always raced well with a 200/40/9000 mix…which I would consider fairly short of swimming…and my swim times reflect this…but I race well, nonetheless.
Given your recent training, I’d focus on bike miles. I’d look for a minimum of 1000 miles over the next 8 weeks. That isn’t a lot of miles in reality, but if you are doing hard threshold sessions and putting in long 1/2 IM-paced sets during long rides, you’ll be fine.
Not sure where to tell you to go on your swimming since you don’t mention your recent swim training.
You could stand to drop the running mileage some as long as you make sure your long run is hard, and you’re doing a good tempo run during the week. You’ll maintain the endurance for a while if you keep that up. But if you drop the pace down to “medium” for all of your running, you’ll suffer on race day. Run hard or run easy…
Thanks…
200 bike miles seems high, but with a long 60mile ride and two more 30mi mid week rides 120mi creeps up quickly. Riding is good for me, my first ride I did 1 1/2 hrs and felt good, but have gotten hurt starting out doing 40miles a pop with out building up. Are you suggesting 200mi/week max or something to build to?
How many and what should I be building to for my long rides?
With only 8 weeks, building up the bike miles is what I feel I may not have time for. Was thinking of trying to maintain the 40mi/week running, swimming twice a week @ 3,000yds each is a normal week, about 8,000yds a good week. But I think i have to get over the feeling I have to always swim for an hour, and start being ok with jumping in the pool more often with shorter workouts. Maybe a 1 or 2 pond swims and two shorter interval sessions in the pool. But swimming is the first thing that gets taken away when time gets tight. I always swim OK and about avg and it has never changed much or concerned me.
You didn’t give enough information about your swimming level, but as far as bike/running ratio I would suggest to keep quality running (intervals, hills, tempos) and replace recovery runs with cycling. It’s very important to let your body adjust to an aero position. If you have a TT/Tri racing bike and road bike then try to spend most of your time on the TT bike. I always keep running hills all year around - it helps biking a lot too.
<<I have always raced well with a 200/40/9000 mix…which I would consider fairly short of swimming…and my swim times reflect this…but I race well, nonetheless.>>
Are those first 2 in kilometers? I can count how many 200m bike weeks I’ve done in my life, and have fingers to spare.
(Volume Is Overrated. I should get this as a tattoo.)
I’ve got ~300m on the bike for Q1 of '09, will probably do that much again these next 3 weeks, maybe, prior to Du Nats. I’m currently blowing off my long ride as I type this, just didn’t feel like getting up early today, so I didn’t.
A weekly long ride of 2-3 hrs, at ~HIM intensity, another ride of maybe 1-1.5 hrs, w/ some threshhold intensity (and above) in there, and another shorter ride (I typically do a 12m TT) at Oly-sprint intensity, will do you right.
If you are motivated, you can throw in another EZ bike or 2, just for frequency and a bit more volume.
I’d suggest keeping your run frequency at 5-6 days a week, but as Brian says, either do 'em ez, or hard.
Keep a weekly long run of say 12-14m (whatever distance works for you), another run w/ some intensity, whether that be intervals or tempo (I like to to a tempo run off the bike; yes, I know this is not optimal for maximizing the run, but it works for me. Very race-specific. YMMV.)
The other runs are mostly just filler, for frequency and volume.
I’ll let others tell you what to do about swimming.
I agree with ML, volume is way overrated - just makes most people too tired to do the quality work.
I don’t swim at all, but unlike ML, I also don’t do tri and stick to du’s!!
I run 5-6 days week, 2 hard runs, and one 10-13 miler. Only 2 quality rides per week for me. Total training volume is about 7-10 hours. I might get up to 13 hours with a long ride every now and again (keep in mind this does not include swimming).
I haven’t gone over 10 hours in one week since last sept.
If you’ve got such a good running base, its time to amp up the other 2.
So I would taper off the running a bit and really focus on your weaknesses, whatever they are. So that may mean temporarily going high mileage on the bike and swim.
As for ratios, training time-wise I spend about 25% on the swim, 30% on the run, and 45% on the bike. For me, this seems very balanced. So basically you are biking 1 1/2 times as much as you run.
Good luck.
ML…the 200/40 is pretty staple for me…I get anywhere from 10-15 weeks of that in every racing season…that’s spread across about April-September. Race weeks are usually lighter. That and life getting in the way too and I’m lucky to hit 2 of those weeks in every 4.
If I’m doing something ultra I’ll try for a couple of 250-300 weeks stacked up about 6 weeks out. I didn’t get that for AmZof last year, though. Maybe this year, though the timing is off a bit with Worlds a few weeks earlier. Not sure I want to fry legs that close to Charlotte.
Anyway…sounds like you’ve been slow to kick up the cycling this year like me. I’m a little ahead of you…but not too much. I got sucked into Dev’s little 100/100 gig and left the bike hanging for most of the winter.
Props to you, whatever works. I’ve never looked at my “peak” weekly bike mileage average per se, but I’d be willing to bet lots of $ its never been in 3 digits for an extended period of time, even in '06 when I did 2 IM’s. (ok, maybe that season it was for a little while, out of necessity)
Riding 100m or more in a week is the exception, not the rule for me. I rarely ride for longer than 3hrs (2 is more like the usual “long” ride in a given week) so it just doesn’t add up.
Here’s what’d happen if I tried 200m/40m/9k a week for a season:
I’d get the 200m biking mostly out of necessity, as my wife would have gotten the cars and house in the divorce. Thankfully, my new job flipping burgers is an easy commute, so I can run or bike there daily.
(Would have to check the records, but I don’t think I’ve ever swum 9k in a week. Why is this not a surprise to anybody?)
Not trying to be confrontational, but I am just purely curious.
What is your PR for a HIM event?
On a “real” HIM course, or a ridiculously fast and flat (and a mile or more short on the bike) course?
I’ve gone 4:3x a coupla times at Tupper Lake and Timberman.
4:09 at Demi Esprit. The laws of physics don’t apply there. In a good way. : )
Trust me loosing the wife is sometimes worth the extra miles on the bike.
I dunno about that. Today was a nice compromise - I was grumping about, since I was a puss and didn’t wake up early enough to get in a long (by my lame standards) ride today.
Wife says, go ride the damn bike, or you will be insufferable all day!! A win-win. : )