Last year did my first IM and things went well, paced bike with HRM and feel. Worked out well with a better than expected bike split and decent run afterwards.
I believe in the value of power meters I am just reluctant to throw money into it with all my other hobbies. Having said that, I am doing IM #2 and want to improve on last year and I am considering a PM. I understand the concept of training and racing with a PM. Here are some questions regarding IM race day decisions:
Let’s say you plan to ride @ 70% FTP and believe your latest test is good*, but race day has your HR running high along with PE at that power output; what do you do?
The opposite: biking at 70% FTP and HR is running low (Z1) and feels ridiculously easy what do you do?
Who wins the battle: Power or HR? Do not want to leave something on the table and conversely do not want to blow up on the run. Let’s assume the caveats are covered about run training…
*measurement of FTP has some error and maybe more so when done in the context of a training build (could underestimate) or you extrapolated from a short CP and your aerobic engine was weaker than formula adjustment, weight changes…
When do you measure your last FTP before the big day; and try to account for above and other variables?
Sorry for some overlap in the questions, but you get what I am asking.
I kind of go by feel, HR and Power and tyr to make it feel easy without spiking the watts or the HR. But HR always wins over for me. Watts will always feel easy at first but after a few hours the Watts will start feeling a little harder and the HR will start to drift.
But the best bike split I ever had I didn’t really look at my PT at all, I did check my HR once in a while but I went mostly by feel. I think after you ride long enough you get a sense of where you are as relating to power/pacing/HR.
This year for IM #3 I used a SRM and a coach who totally focused on finish time (optimizing bike/run combo). We don’t use FTP, so I can’t answer the specific technical questions, but here’s what I think I found out over the past year. Undoubtedly there will be lots of FTP technical experts who weigh in and “simplify” things, so take my points below with a grain of salt and a shot of tequilia.
If you train enough with watts, you should have a pretty good idea on race day what level of watts is sustainable, particularly if you do a short (20-40) minute transition run after key, long bike sessions. FTP, STP, IHOP…Ride 4x a week, ride 4-6 hours once per week, look at the data and you will have a reasonable feel.
Train on watts, race on watts. HR can be impacted by a bunch of factors, like temp, sleep, hydration, excitement, etc… my experience is that it shakes out over time. My experience is that with enough training, I find that if I ride my Z2 watts, I look down and, surprise, I am usually at Z2 HR. That said, my personal opinion is that optimized racing is not an exact science. If you set your goals based on FTP, how do you mix up target watts on the flats vs. climbing?
It works. Before this year, my PR for 1/2 IM was 5:25 and for IM was 12:28, both on flat courses. Most previous races I was top10% bike split but only 50% run split. Overall times were slow because I moved back through the field during the run. With good training and proper bike pacing, this year (so far), I’ve gone 4:57 for a 1/2 and 10:52 at IM Switzerland. IMAZ in a few months. I’m 40 and I wish I focused on this earlier, it would have helped sooner.
your questions will be answered in the endurance nation podcasts, training and racing with a power meter. They are on sale today for like 39 bucks. It is three hours of podcasts and will sell you on the value of power. I believe they also will answer your quesion on HR and what to do if it is high.
Power is the truest real time measure and if you are riding @ 70% it should feel easy because…well it is an easy pace.
I think you want a good accurate ftp about 2-3 weeks before the big day. I’d rather undershoot ftp than overshoot it and blow up.
your questions will be answered in the endurance nation podcasts, training and racing with a power meter. They are on sale today for like 39 bucks. It is three hours of podcasts and will sell you on the value of power. I believe they also will answer your quesion on HR and what to do if it is high.
Power is the truest real time measure and if you are riding @ 70% it should feel easy because…well it is an easy pace.
I think you want a good accurate ftp about 2-3 weeks before the big day. I’d rather undershoot ftp than overshoot it and blow up.
Thanks for the props.
This would be a good resource for you to learn everything need to about training and racing with power. If you dig the power thing, you’ll have this in your tool kit. If you don’t, you’ll have spent $39 vs $2k for a PM
Tell you what: if you buy the power webinar and think it sucks, let me know within 14 days and I’ll refund your money, no questions asked. rich@endurancenation.us.
I will definitely invest in the webinar. You are correct about the KTM reference, one of the “other hobbies”. As I am sure you know, there are plenty of gadgets to get for the KATOOM! I just need to hit the Lotto so I can have all my toys and gadgets.
Thinking of downsizing to a 450, the 520 is just plain scary at times. I had a Husky in the late 80’s, but a 2 stroker… WR360? Talk about a hand full; I could not get the clutch to disengage half the time; swore of Huskies from then on.
Don’t get me wrong, IM is plenty tough but I have yet to feel the pain, both during and after, of a National Enduro. It has helped me on the mental side of triathlon and marathons.
The EN stuff is awesome but I’m biased. However, not sure their stuff will answer your specific questions in some cases so I throw in my 2 cents.
I think you have to factor in your willingness to accept risk on this one.
First, as a general (possibly oversimplified) rule, I listen to RPE, power and then HR. If RPE is high I back down – end of story. Having said that, it very rarely ever happens in race where my RPE is high for my target power. It’s almost always the other way around.
I only really focus on HR in specific areas of the course. Coming out of T1 is the probably the most significant area. This is usually where your HR peaks so you want to make sure it comes down in the first 20 min or so. The biggest issue with a high or rising HR is the tendency to have stomach issues later in the run. This is because blood is being shunted away from intestines to your extremities.
I will also peek at my HR a bit during the 2nd half just to make sure it’s not rising. Note: Some will claim they always see a rising HR on the bike. I don’t and I will almost always even or neg split my power too.
The only time I’ve ever made a tactical decision to back it down in the 2nd half of the bike is IMCDA ‘06. Temps and my RPE were rising on the bike and I knew it was going to be smokin’ hot on the run. It turned out to be a good decision and I passed a lot of people on the run that day.
The reason why I say you need to factor in your willingness to accept risk is because a high HR doesn’t necessarily mean things will go south. Keep in mind that many people don’t correctly assess their target HR for racing either. For example, most people will have a higher HR for the same power when racing vs training but they assume their training power:HR is what they need to target for the race. The question is: If your HR is abnormally high, does it really hurt to back it down slightly to see if it comes down just to be safe. The time you lose is probably insignificant compared to what possibly could happen later in the day.
Bottom line, if you’re going to race by HR then you definitely need to have a strong understanding of your HR characteristics. Yours will often be different than someone else’s and your racing HR will most likely be different than your training HR.
Simple. Stick with your power target and ignore HR.
Assuming both power and HR targets have been assessed correctly, power wins hands down, imho.
When it comes to using your FTP to establish a pacing plan for IM, you need to consider multiple data points, imho. It’s not all about a single max power test. There needs to be a strong evaluation of your long ride power data during race prep too. I also like to consider power from Sprints and Olys over some field test in training. The reason why is because there’s no better predictor of (race) performance than performance itself. Motivation is often a factor during a field test but rarely a factor when racing.
Thanks Chris. I do well with RPE in my running; I just don’t have the same “feel” in my bike training as this is only my second year of bike training. Your points make sense and are helpful as I get closer to pulling the trigger.
