OK. So. I’m ftp 180watts
6 weeks out from (half) Ironman.
Anything I can do to improve?
I am riding 5 to 6 hours a week for over 16 weeks now
More info required:
What are you doing during your 5-6 hours of riding? shouldn’t that be just your long ride for an IM?
How much of that is spent at or just under 180 watts?
How much of that is spent over 180 watts?
Plenty of threads on here about how to increase FTP…
I’d make sure you have proper expectations for an IM race. Your only riding 5-6 hours a week for IM training when your IM bike leg is going to take you that long in one go. How many rides are you doing a week and thus how long is the longest ride you are doing? All I’d suggest is to continue following whatever plan you are following. You could make some improvements but imo you’re undertrained for an IM bike leg if your only riding 5-6 hrs a week, I’d be curious what limitations are keeping you from that low of a riding priority.
Don’t worry about you FTP; focus on your endurance (i.e. upping what % of your FTP you can ride the 180km at). At that training volume, you need to be really realistic about what kind of watts you can push on the bike (probably 110ish) and still be able to run.
A couple of questions:
-What is your longest ride? (one issue is if it is long enough that you can validate your nutrition strategy).
-How much do you weigh? (I have a friend who’s gone to WC twice on 200W FTP…but she weighs nothing).
-Do you have the schedule ability to add longer rides in over the next four weeks?
-What are your volumes in the other sports? (If you’re an experienced ultra runner logging 130mpw then you might be fine with that bike volume).
Sorry.
Roughly I have 3 to 4 hours of 130-140 heart rate.
Then I do 20mins high interval training
I try to do one hour above what I think I can achieve
I’ve only just got the power metre. So I am not sure
Apologies. Half Ironman… Not Ironman 😂
OK. So. I’m ftp 180watts
6 weeks out from Ironman.
Anything I can do to improve?
I am riding 5 to 6 hours a week for over 16 weeks now
can you hold 110 for 8 hours?
This is something I really!! Struggle with. Longest ride atm is 2 hours, I’ll be doing 3 on Sunday, going up to 4 hours in 4 weeks time
110w OK 😢 it is what it is. I underestimated how long it would take to learn to ride
78kg weight. Nothing I do atm will help me lose weight. Quite chubby at 178cm
Fuellling is a problem.
Running up to 4 hours a week. Miles about 40k ish a week. No where near 110 haha
I’m scaling up to 14 hours a week as speak. My 8 week programme takes me from 8 hours training to 14
I work 50, sleep 50, mba 10, travel 12. Leaving me not much time haha.
Wife getting pregnant through a spanner Inn training more 8 weeks ago… Excuses I know. I am trying
Lol 8 hours… Longest ride ever is 4 hours 😂😂😂
Fuelling… I don’t understand.
Just been told a doing an ftp test at 4pm while only having 2 coffees and a pie at 12 is not good.
So what am I meant to eat?
I barely eat during the day. I never eat during exercise. I do have post meal work outs and this week started having up and go’s for pre workout
70.3 is a whole different story. A four hour ride should get you ready; make sure to practice your race fueling/hydration.
Since it’s a 70.3, you can go a bit higher on the wattage (125ish). Resist the temptation to do 140-150 in the first hour (it will feel easy) and then end up paying for it on the run.
For the run, make sure you can run 10-13mi (16-21km) without feeling totally wiped out after.
Yeah, run I’m sweet. I did a 60km in 2 hour session and ran 10k in 60mins after. So I’m getting more and more confident on that.
I’m not a fast runner by any means. I reckon I’ll do 2:05 for the run
I was kinda hoping for 3:10 on bike.
Happy to pivot again. From a 5 hour to a 6 hour to a 7 hour half time hahahaha
70.3 is a whole different story. A four hour ride should get you ready; make sure to practice your race fueling/hydration.
Since it’s a 70.3, you can go a bit higher on the wattage (125ish). Resist the temptation to do 140-150 in the first hour (it will feel easy) and then end up paying for it on the run.
For the run, make sure you can run 10-13mi (16-21km) without feeling totally wiped out after.
That’s good pacing advice.
I really think you owe it to everyone to provide links to some of your previous threads requesting advice for cycling and preparing for this race so they can make an informed decision about how to spend their time.
The short version, from what I can remember, is that you did a Taupo 70.3 2018 in about 7.5hrs and started a thread saying you were going to do it in under 5hrs this year or die trying. Pretty much everyone on that thread urged you to be more realistic, and many questioned whether you were trolling or delusional.
You continued to insist there was a “trick” to easy gains that would be your ticket to astonishing improvement. You said a 6hr 70.3 wasn’t worth doing and insisted you’d do sub 5hrs or die trying. Most of us told you this was silly macho nonsense that showed no respect for athletes much better than yourself and that it would not help you improve - you continued with the silliness.
You seem to be constantly looking for a shortcut to improved performance, like sitting in a sauna INSTEAD of training, and finding the “trick” to cycling. We told you the main trick is to do plenty of cycling but you weren’t convinced and insisted there was another special trick out there which you would discover.
You also claimed lots of inconsistent paces and abilities which just made no sense. For example you said the maximum speed you were physically capable of reaching on the bike was 35km/h but that you could ride at 33km/h for hours, or something to that effect.
Most of this was back around April/May this year.
Now you’re back saying that your FTP is 180 and you want to improve it before the race in 6 weeks. Your longest rides are currently 2hrs and you are going to double that in the next 4 weeks. That’s leaving it rather late to add volume!
You don’t seem to have taken any of the previous advice you’ve received on this forum. That’s allowed, but do really think you’re going to get a different answer this time?
I do hope you’ve abandoned the idea that you’re willing to die trying. Just keep training, and add volume. Don’t worry too much about your FTP at this point. It won’t matter much if you add a few watts to that before the race if you haven’t the endurance to use it. Get some longer rides in as a priority. And aim to do that now, not in 4 weeks.
Looks like you still enjoy wasting time rather than answering questions. Glad you get value in your life
And dude. For the last fooking time.
I spent 3 to 4 hours in the gym. I spend 20 mins in the sauna… After
My question was if this was adding to my fitness.
Looks like it does… I just didn’t see the point of bragging that I was right
Looks like you still enjoy wasting time rather than answering questions. Glad you get value in your life
Your questions have been answered repeatedly.
And I didn’t say responding was a waste of time. I said people should have some background before deciding how to spend their time. I’m not aware of any answers that still require answering, and repeating previous answers seems like the greater waste of time. If you’ve mislaid previous answers, the links in my previous post will bring you back there. So really I’m answering your questions in the most time efficient way possible, for myself, and everyone else here. No?
Also, since I’m currently in work and being rather well paid for another half hour before heading home for a bank holiday long weekend, and this is keeping me amused, I don’t consider this a waste of time or a loss of value. 
I really think you owe it to everyone to provide links to some of your previous threads requesting advice for cycling and preparing for this race so they can make an informed decision about how to spend their time.
The short version, from what I can remember, is that you did a Taupo 70.3 2018 in about 7.5hrs and started a thread saying you were going to do it in under 5hrs this year or die trying. Pretty much everyone on that thread urged you to be more realistic, and many questioned whether you were trolling or delusional.
You continued to insist there was a “trick” to easy gains that would be your ticket to astonishing improvement. You said a 6hr 70.3 wasn’t worth doing and insisted you’d do sub 5hrs or die trying. Most of us told you this was silly macho nonsense that showed no respect for athletes much better than yourself and that it would not help you improve - you continued with the silliness.
You seem to be constantly looking for a shortcut to improved performance, like sitting in a sauna INSTEAD of training, and finding the “trick” to cycling. We told you the main trick is to do plenty of cycling but you weren’t convinced and insisted there was another special trick out there which you would discover.
You also claimed lots of inconsistent paces and abilities which just made no sense. For example you said the maximum speed you were physically capable of reaching on the bike was 35km/h but that you could ride at 33km/h for hours, or something to that effect.
Most of this was back around April/May this year.
Now you’re back saying that your FTP is 180 and you want to improve it before the race in 6 weeks. Your longest rides are currently 2hrs and you are going to double that in the next 4 weeks. That’s leaving it rather late to add volume!
You don’t seem to have taken any of the previous advice you’ve received on this forum. That’s allowed, but do really think you’re going to get a different answer this time?
I do hope you’ve abandoned the idea that you’re willing to die trying. Just keep training, and add volume. Don’t worry too much about your FTP at this point. It won’t matter much if you add a few watts to that before the race if you haven’t the endurance to use it. Get some longer rides in as a priority. And aim to do that now, not in 4 weeks.
You know what annoys the shit out of me the most with these sort of comments.
When I asked for help. No one said… Oh BTW ensure your doing 4hour plus cycles x number of weeks out from the event.
I cross referred three Ironman 70.3 plans. The long rides were not over 2 hours before the final 8 weeks on 2 and 12 weeks on the other.
I did exactly what everyone said. I rode as much as I could and it did fucking nothing… Absolutely bullshit that just getting on ur cycle works.
Specific sessions and diet have worked a lot more. I moved from 28 to 30kph just from eating before I rode… See… Simple shit u probably knew but I did not.
It’s not about fucking shortcuts. Its about trying to figure out what you seasoned pros do!!!
Like. Is 6 hours still not enough? Why? Is it just base building or should I be HIIT training… Primal endurance book says only HIIT train every other week or similar
Do u eat before? After? How do u recover? At the moment, I can’t walk the next day.
I do not understand what muscles and what type of muscles are required for cycling. I do not still understand how to get better and I am NOT better after 1k of riding.
I mean if its just how it is… Sorry Mikey. The muscle density required for cycling taking years of base building. Then sweet as. But all u say is… Cycle more. Be realistic. Fluffy.
Yes I wanted 4:59:59. Then I wanted 5:59:59. Now I’m just going to have fun, since it doesn’t matter how fast I can run and swim and yes… I have no interest in a plus 6hr 70.3…This fucking bike shit is bollox and I can’t find anyone to tell me why.
And no. I’m still willing to die. I’ve passed out twice while training. Thrown up a few times. Not getting enough sleep and train too much. Constantly in fucking pain and find recovering annoying as fuck. I would sleep less if it would help but it won’t. I literally can’t train more as I can’t recover and sessions can’t be much longer as it’s all finely balanced with everything else
Monday 2.75 hours
Tuesday 1 hour
Wednesday 2.5 hours
Thursday 1.5 hours
Friday 0
Sat 1-2 hours
Sun 2-4 hours
I can not do more than this
Also I took EVERY PEICE OF ADVICE ON. TRAINING. I even followed and evaluated Duncans training on strava and duplicated a heap of zone 2 training the last 4 months
And dude. For the last fooking time.
I spent 3 to 4 hours in the gym. I spend 20 mins in the sauna… After
My question was if this was adding to my fitness.
Looks like it does… I just didn’t see the point of bragging that I was right
You may have to explain where that bragging would come into play?
I’ve provided a link above to that Sauna thread. I’ll let others decide for themselves.
Truely, I hope your race goes well, and I hope that you enjoy it. But I hope even more sincerely that you can come to terms with reality and appreciate that too. I suspect your approach is frustrating you and robbing you of a lot of enjoyment in this sport.
I only get enjoyment with getting close but not obtaining a goal.
A goal of 4:59:59 and getting 5:20 would have left me is a state of joy for months and made the last 5 months worth while