My riding has been pretty inconsistent, one week I’ll do 3 rides and another week do 1 ride. Usually 20 - 30 miles at an easy-medium pace with a few hills here and there. Last weekend I did a race with a 22 mile bike and averaged 21.6 mph on my road bike with standard wheels, no aerobars but riding in the drops. A guy who I completely smoked in a group ride this week did the same course on his tri bike at 22.5 mph. So there’s a little background.
The goal is to be able to ride an olympic distance bike course in 1 hour, while riding a tri bike with race wheels. Hopefully at AG nationals, which gives me 7 weeks.
During that time, I plan to be also focusing on running. I’ve been running daily (currently at 45 min but will be ramping up to 60 min daily), and plan to continue to do so. Once per week will be a hard track workout, and I have 3 oly races before nationals. That is the main constraint that will affect by bike training plan. So I can’t just go crazy with super hard FTP workouts or I would probably get injured. For running, the key for me has been to run every single day and go at a pace that leaves me feeling fresh every day. Not sure if this will work on the bike though.
If I just increase my riding to do 20 – 30 miles daily at an easy-medium pace, would that be likely to give me the boost I need? Or would riding less frequently but more structured workouts be better?
Any advice? Is this even in the realm of realistic given my current speed? (And I don’t have a powermeter)
I think going from 21 (fair AGer) to 24 mph (Pro’ish) in an Oly is going to take some serious “long term” work unless you are leaving a LOT of time on the course currently (you aren’t riding a Mountain bike currently…right?)
Trying to do it while focusing on running is probably just short of impossible…something has to give.
A year or two, who knows… 7 weeks… I don’t think it’s realistic. But hey, you can always try to prove me wrong! It’d be sweet!
It’s hard to say based on the terrain of your last race.
For example 250 watts for me gets me about 22mph on the hoods of my road bike or about 24++ on the TT bike. That’s flattish riding.
So simply by going full aero you should gain 2 mph. So assuming you can swim 1500 meters and maintain the same effort you are now at 23.6 mph with no additional bike fitness…but dare I say this will be tough due to 1500 swim.
So in addition to all that you need at least another 30 watts or so of fitness to get to OLY distance in one hour. That’s a very very tall order. It takes a pretty good talent to go an hour in an OLY.
I’m guessing this will only be harder with running an hour a day…lol. For me that’s close to 60mpw and no way I’d gain bike fitness when running that much. You may rather consider biking more and running less and while doing so knowing you’ll be stronger on the bike and therefore run faster off the bike.
In terms of raw bike fitness, probably not, but I’ll echo what other people here are saying, the switch to a tri-bike will gain you a decent chunk of time.
More critically: how much speed are you losing because of your bike handling skills? Are you pedaling through every single twist and turn? Are you losing momentum because of bad lines or having to come up off the drops to brake? There’s a lot of gain there to be had.
If you’re serious about nationals (7 weeks), drop all but the Oly farthest away from the main event and get serious. Racing isn’t training, and racing that often is going to leave you fatigued, off form, and injury prone. Unless you’re half assing the races, in which case you’d be better off putting in more focused training sessions anyway.
Stick some clip on bars onto your bike, see how you go.
For training I’m currently doing:
Day #1: 1x30min race pace (2hrs riding total)
Day #2: 2x20min 1hr FTP pace (2hrs riding total)
Day #3: 5x4min VO2max Intervals (2hrs riding total)
Day #4: 1x20min race pace (2hrs riding total)
Day #5: 2x20min 1hr FTP pace (2hrs riding total)
Day #6: Easy day z1/2 (2hrs riding total)
Day #7: off
For reference I have been on this program for around 7 weeks, perhaps added 8-9watts for my race pace efforts.
Go with as many structured bikes as you can. If you can’t work more, work harder. That means your 20-30 mile rides at easy-medium pace should be what we call a spirited pace, meaning medium-fast. Every ride you do from here on out should take a reasonable amount of concentration. I don’t know how injury prone you are or your history but it’s very hard to get injured on the bike (other than getting hit by a car, truck, other cyclists, pedestrians, slippery roads, flat tires, sharp turns, etc).
If we say you can’t go 24-25 mph what will you do? Not try? Nobody can tell you what you’re capable of. You have to go out and see for yourself. Either way, in a few months you’ll be in better shape than you are today. That’s all you can ask for.
On the bright side, if you go from a road bike to a well fitting tri bike decked out in aero gear you’ll probably gain 2mph just from that switch.
I’d focus on doing that and getting used to riding your tri bike in the time you have.
x2
Assuming the equipment upgrades result in a 2 mph increase (not totally out of the question…especially if you upgrade the tires/tubes) then that puts the OP at 23.6 mph. Of course I’m asusming his 22 mi race was part of a tri that had a swim close to 1500m. It also assumes he ran around 10k well after that ride.
So given all those assumptions, the OP’s only has to gain 0.4 mph of speed to hit 24 mph as the lower end of his subject line indicates. That’s maybe 10ish watts. Tough to do in 7 weeks but not impossible. Going sub 1 hour is 24.85 mph and 1.25 mph faster than the assumed new speed of 23.6 mph with upgrades. I don’t see that happening in 7 weeks.
eh, pro-ish is in the 27-28mph range, right? the Kemah tri here near Houston has some pros come out every year with heavy hitters like lieto, terrenzo bezzone, and andrew yoder in the 27 to 28mph range one year. matt russell was 27.x another year…
anyway, i just say that to say: mr schmidt, 24.8mph isn’t super human speed, and maybe you could get there next year… or the year after so it’s definitely within your reach.
but i agree with leegoocrap on the main point: finding that kind of power in 7 weeks isn’t likely unless you’re really not aero right now
If I just increase my riding to do 20 – 30 miles daily at an easy-medium pace, would that be likely to give me the boost I need? Or would riding less frequently but more structured workouts be better?
Going from a road bike to a tri bike with wheels may get you another mph or maybe a little more, which puts you in the 22.5 - 23 mph range. This puts you in the competitive range with many triathletes. To increase your speed to 25 mph would put you in a completely different peer group with some of the best cyclists.
While I think volume is very important, given your goal, I would recommend more structured workouts mixing in the occasional long easy-medium pace ride.
Any advice? Is this even in the realm of realistic given my current speed? (And I don’t have a powermeter)
Unless you have a lot of untapped natural talent, no it’s not likely. Breaking an hour in an OD race is only accomplished by a small % of triathletes. Most of these individuals are extremely gifted and put in a ton of work year after year. A more realistic goal would be trying to average over 23 mph.
Racing provides great training stimulus. However, because we generally race at as close to maximum intensity as possible the amount of recovery needed (particularly on Olympic distance, which is a lactate bath and a half) means that the training benefit is reduced substantially because of the downtime.
If he’s focusing on Nationals, there are far better ways to train than racing 3 out of the next 6 weeks before his taper.
That being said, I really hope we get to race each other sometime mid / late season =)
it’s probably on the lower end depending on the course, (I guess I usually look at courses close to East TN…which is probably misleading) but it’s certainly on the higher end for AG’ers (who don’t blow the run)
I think OP is definitely not racing at potential speed (especially gear wise) but 3-4mph is probably a little optimistic.
it’s probably on the lower end depending on the course, (I guess I usually look at courses close to East TN…which is probably misleading) but it’s certainly on the higher end for AG’ers (who don’t blow the run
What you want is FREE SPEED! The ONLY way to get FREE SPEED (that I know of) is the “Gravity Cycling” method I have explained numerous times on ST so will not say again. Search “gravity cycling” on ST and many threads come up.
What you want is FREE SPEED! The ONLY way to get FREE SPEED (that I know of) is the “Gravity Cycling” method I have explained numerous times on ST so will not say again. Search “gravity cycling” on ST and many threads come up.
Now you’re overdoing it. Lay off the ham for a bit and people will appreciate it more when it comes up.