I finished my first IM last year in 10:45. I can swim 2.4 miles and run 26.2 miles easily but riding 112 miles is difficult. I feel like I trained for the event properly but could have invested more time on the bike. My plan is to increase my bike mileage significantly in order to be able to bike 112 miles easily. I think back-to-back long bike days coupled with frequent days over 100 hundred miles will get me to where I want to be. Is this theory flawed or does it sound like it will help get my bike time down?
riding a lot will work but there are much more time efficient ways to improve your speed. spend some time searching the forum.
If you cant get a long rides(5hrs) in is there a major gain to rideing a few slight shorter days back to back (3-4hrs)
Andy
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Any and all increased bike mileage will help you.
I really don’t think you need a large number of bike days over 100 miles. When you do those very long rides you set your body’s High Water Mark which is important to do on a regular basis (how regular??? I can’t say). Other than doing that occassionally to set that HWM, it’s total miles that count for the most part.
I’m not sure what the person above meant when they said there are more ‘time efficient’ ways to do a better bike split in an IM.
50+% of your race time in an IM is spent on the bike. So a good default starting point in your training is to spend 50% of your training time on the bike.
You will certainly improve your bike split with more bike time, but ‘frequent’ days over 100 might be a bad idea. You need suitable amount of recovery. I am not sure it’s advisable to do back to back long bike days either. Perhaps if they are easy it’s good (or one of them is easy). But don’t forget you still have to do some running in there too, or you’ll find yourself biking better and suffering on the run.
Can you outline the training time/% split you used prior to your last IM? I think you might be planning too dramatic a shift to the cycling.
This is what I did last year -
S: 120 hours
B: 330 hours
R: 150 hours
I’m a little better than 50%.
This year I’m adding one more bike day and I’m increasing my cycling distance to around 200 miles per week. I’d like to get 30 minutes off my bike split. Seem reasonable?
Short version.
It’s not about time in the saddle. It’s about watts generated.
I feel like I trained for the event properly but could have invested more time on the bike.
Maybe it’s me, but that seems to contradict itself. Either you were or you weren’t.
As mentioned, it’s about the watts that you can put out over 112. Just riding long days back to back may or may not help that.
I feel like I trained for the event properly but could have invested more time on the bike.
Maybe it’s me, but that seems to contradict itself. Either you were or you weren’t.
As mentioned, it’s about the watts that you can put out over 112. Just riding long days back to back may or may not help that.
What I mean is I had more time available to train. I did however train like I wanted to.
I don’t have a power meter. Wattage maybe the answer but I don’t have the device at my disposal.
I don’t think those comments were helpful. Saying you need more watts over the distance is tantamount to saying “if you want to go faster, you have to go faster”. What you are asking about his how to increase your average speed (power) over a 112 mile bike split.
It sounds like you invested enough time on the bike, but perhaps not having a heavy bike background or a particular talent for it, you can benefit from a period of time of intense bike focus? 200 miles per week is good, with 1 100 mile ride every month for the 3 months leading up to your race.
One thing that will help us is to know what your bike split was and to know what your average training pace is and also do you have a breakdown of your bike pacing (at least the first half time versus the second half). It would be good to evaluate if your were just slow or if you were improperly paced or not properly fueled.
You don’t seem to feel as though you had a bad race, just that you didn’t have the cycling ability.
Oh, and cutting off 30 minutes on the bike doesn’t seem far fetched if you aren’t already someone that is particularly strong at cycling yet.
I didn’t make those statements, someone else did. Or were you speaking to them?
Bike split was 5:40. I don’t have the first half-second half info but I remember I was slightly slower on the second half because the wind picked up. I didn’t want to push any harder to fight the wind and just pedalled at what felt was the same effort. I think my pacing and nutrition were on. To add, I ran a strong marathon and negative split the second half.
My training paces vary depending upon terrain but the average on rolling hills would be 17-19mph.
My training paces vary depending upon terrain but the average on rolling hills would be 17-19mph.
Based on your bike split your training pace seems too slow. I don’t bike half as many hours(139 vs. 330), but I have averaged mid-19s over the life of the bike and have a similar bike. Based on the amount of time you have in the saddle I would recommend pushing the ride pace in training.
If you can’t push it yourself find some speed demons who are willing to push you out of your comfort zone or if you are always riding with some who is slow drop them and ride alone.
Neither of us are maximizing our potential yourself because of lack of speed/effort and myself because of lack of hours in the saddle.
I think you might have done the right thing to let your 2nd half slow down and keep the effort steady. That decision was vindicated by your run. A 5:30, gently paced is a good performance IMO.
You can gain some time with go-fast goodies too, how decked out are you on the bike?
You might find (but I can’t know) that you could push the bike harder and still maintain some of the run (or lose less than you gain on the bike). You might benefit from a different pacing strategy that has you pushing harder on the bike between miles 50-100, then wind down for the last 12 to prepare for the run. Before trying this in the race, try it in your 100 mile rides.
Perhaps to build your confidence/comfort with running after a harder bke performance you can plan a weekly brick that has you really push a 50miler (average 20+) then run 5 miles at marathon pace.
I don’t think you are far from a 30 minute improvement with better strategy alone.
Consider the swim too, perhaps you can gain 10 minutes there if there is any technique improvements that can be made. That would be free time.
Also, how much time did you spend in transitions? Some people spend large amounts of time and could save 5+ minutes by transitioning faster.