Doing my first half soon. Am in decent shape but have no idea how to pace the bike leg.
I don’t have a power meter so I am guessing simply by perceived exertion, but I usually do sprints where I ride pretty hard.
What should a bike leg feel like in a half - on the rivet? Easy? Tempo? And without a PM, any other tricks to pace the bike leg.
Also, my bike leg will be my strongest, so don’t really care how the run goes. It will be a long limp home regardless.
As the saying goes, there is not such thing as a great bike and a bad run in triathlon.
The beginning of the bike should feel pretty relaxed and build throughout. Much closer to tempo than easy or all out.
I find this chart pretty useful, but without a power meter, will be pretty worthless for you.
http://triathlon4fun.fr/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/TSS_Half_Ironman.jpg
Have you been using heart rate at all? I’m targeting 210 avg power for my first half and that puts me around 140bpm (about 75% max HR) for most 90-120min training rides.
Doing my first half soon. Am in decent shape but have no idea how to pace the bike leg.
I don’t have a power meter so I am guessing simply by perceived exertion, but I usually do sprints where I ride pretty hard.
What should a bike leg feel like in a half - on the rivet? Easy? Tempo? And without a PM, any other tricks to pace the bike leg.
Also, my bike leg will be my strongest, so don’t really care how the run goes. It will be a long limp home regardless.
Also pay more attention to nutrition on the bike (and run). You’ll want to set up your energy stores properly for that longer day 
My feeling is that i can run OK-ish when I burned my legs during the bike. But if i don’t top up my energy stores, it’s walking or bailing.
Good luck!
Have you been using heart rate at all? I’m targeting 210 avg power for my first half and that puts me around 140bpm (about 75% max HR) for most 90-120min training rides.
Yes. I use trainer road, so was going to try to keep HR at whatever usually gives me about 80% of FTP on the trainer. There will probably be lots of variability, but hoping it is a rough guide that is better than nothing.
Your HR is going to be higher during the race from the atmosphere and excitement. I’d do some training rides at your goal heart rate and pay special attention to how you feel. Set a generous cap on your heart rate during the bike portion meaning don’t stay higher than x for x amount of time.
For sure. I just started half distance specialty this week on TrainerRoad and there’s a brick in the sixth week of 1:45 ride at 85% FTP followed by 1:15 run at RPE6. That’ll be a key workout for how my race might go.
I use trainer road, so was going to try to keep HR at whatever usually gives me about 80% of FTP on the trainer. There will probably be lots of variability, but hoping it is a rough guide that is better than nothing.This is your secret sauce… you should know how your HR relates to ourdoor rides versus indoor rides. I am in my 50s, and I target around 140 BPM on the bike to be at around 80% FTP. My 70.3 run HRs are typically in the mid 150s. So, by HR, I take it a whole lot easier on the bike than I run. (My race swim HR is typically in the high 130s.)
Edit: I have a PM, but I race to HR as much as I use power. I have a power goal on the bike, but I adjust that based on how my heart is reacting to the overall conditions, and I will adjust down to keep my heart rate in check. I learned this a couple years ago when I rode a very hot race to a power target and did not notice the fact that my HR had been steadily climbing over the 2nd half of the bike in the heat. When I got off the bike, I was baked and had an epically bad run. In retrospect, if I had backed off the bike just a little, it might have cost me a few minutes, but I could have run at least 30 minutes faster.
With no power meter, Heart Rate is going to be key.
Doing my first half soon. Am in decent shape but have no idea how to pace the bike leg.
I don’t have a power meter
Make sure you are not prepared for the swim so you come out really tired and then barely finish the bike because nobody has ever won a triathlon or the Tour de France without a power meter.
Doing my first half soon. Am in decent shape but have no idea how to pace the bike leg.
I don’t have a power meter
Make sure you are not prepared for the swim so you come out really tired and then barely finish the bike because nobody has ever won a triathlon or the Tour de France without a power meter.
Oh I will definitely find a way to go too hard and blow up, but it will be due to optimism and overconfidence rather than due to a lack of tech.
Go by feel and heart rate.
You can do a straight forward bike fitness test to get your zones and shoot for Z2 first 10 miles, Z3/low Z4 until 5 miles out and go back to Z2 to let the legs refresh for the run.
If you have some hills to work, try and stay 70+ rpm up them max Z4. Don’t try and murder the hills.
Back in the day, I used to smash the bike course as hard as I could and then figure the run was what it was.
Being more mature these days, I’ll sell some bike speed to smash the run course.
Slower bike by 10 to 5 minutes has equated in faster runs by 15 to 30 minutes, so I come out ahead overall.
Have you been using heart rate at all? I’m targeting 210 avg power for my first half and that puts me around 140bpm (about 75% max HR) for most 90-120min training rides.
Yes. I use trainer road, so was going to try to keep HR at whatever usually gives me about 80% of FTP on the trainer. There will probably be lots of variability, but hoping it is a rough guide that is better than nothing.
If you are planning to ride 80%, make sure to do some longish run bricks off longish rides at that intensity. Based on some conversations with people after 70.3 MT last weekend, 80% seemed to be this weird rule of thumb that led to slow runs.
That, or people almost universally over-estimate their FTP.
A true.80 IF bike should definitely not wreck your run.
Not the purpose of the thread, but favero makes a pedal power meter that’s under 450 USD. It’s gamified bike training somewhat and helped my pacing greatly.
I am definitely in the camp now of racing to a %FTP as I find it far better than heart rate or perceived exertion, but also think I try and be a bit broader in thinking and take into account all of these factors to see how things are feeling, remembering that weather conditions, wind, road surface etc can all throw these off so there is no universal answer.
My advice: do some race simulations-set a heart rate range and attempt to ride within that, accepting that there may be surges at various time points depending on certain factors. Take wind direction, speed and perceived exertion into account during the race. The bike, depending on your estimated finish time, should feel like a strong tempo ride (I race to 85% FTP in half ironman events).
If no HR…tempo.