I just wanted to know whether someone could point me to a trustworthy and up to date source of data where I may be able to check the different benchmarks one should meet as to consider attempting a KQ. More specifically the question relates to the bike portion, and specially the range of w/Kg of KQ.
I am currently at 4.2 w/kg (20 min max effort) with an open marathon of under 2:50 and just wondered whether should keep on pushing on the bike or focus on the swim.
Your W/kg at 20min mean little. Check your 5hr power. 20min bike power is not equal to FTP at 4.2W/kg in case you thought that. 2:50 open can be sufficient if your bike fitness/ bike fueling and bike execution would allow you to run 3:15-3:20 off the bike. Swim time in a window of 1:10 or less puts you close enough. All is hinging on the bike. And you notice absence of any bike time numbers, yep, nothing here tells me about what you do on the bike.
I don’t know how much you really just look at w/kg over a 20 min effort to judge your bike splits vs run. If your super aero too w/kg won’t matter as much. I have a 4-4.1 w/kg on a 20 min test and I am front of pack biker but i am also very aero
Look at where you are staking up in 70.3 to others in your AG. At min i would say your want to be a top 20 swimmer, top 5 biker and top 5 runner in WTC 70.3 to have a chance. Or like a top 5-10 biker and running a 1:20-1:23 to make up for lack of biking.
Diffrent coaches will have different philosophies as well. But you have to get off that bike feeling pretty good or i think your fucked.
A open marathon of 2:50 should put you in the mix of things as long as you have a decent bike. Very pointy end of the stick these days harder and harder. If you can run a 3:00 off the bike then your in great shape but not a lot of guys can do that off a 112 bike.
From reading some of the stories on the top agers at Kona, some of them are only doing 15 hours per week on average in their build for Kona.
Regarding that table, 100 hours a month is a shitload for someone who is working full time. 20 hours a week becomes pretty hard when you’re working full time, but to do 5 hours more per week and sustain that over a month? You probably need to be on ‘holiday’!
Like others said, the specs on paper are far different than in the real world. A 20 minute FTP test can be “faked” for much higher numbers than what you’ll actually get for a 5 hour ride. And comparing yourself vs. others in a 70.3 is the best test aside from actually doing an Ironman. You can be a 9.5 hour Ironman on paper but take 12 hours because you don’t know how to fuel and pace yourself.
So try to follow the guidelines, but also don’t be surprised when your finish time is way off. What “potential” can’t calculate is how well you execute.
From reading some of the stories on the top agers at Kona, some of them are only doing 15 hours per week on average in their build for Kona.
Regarding that table, 100 hours a month is a shitload for someone who is working full time. 20 hours a week becomes pretty hard when you’re working full time, but to do 5 hours more per week and sustain that over a month? You probably need to be on ‘holiday’!
Getting to know a good number to people that have KQ i don’t know any that put in 100 hours a month. Is it possible I guess but if your working a 40-50 hour a week job and need some recovery in there i don’t see it.
From reading some of the stories on the top agers at Kona, some of them are only doing 15 hours per week on average in their build for Kona.
Average hours per week for a year can be pretty misleading. In the year I KQ’d, I only averaged 11 hours/week for the year, but the peak weeks during my build were 25-26 hours.
That being said, I think 850 hrs/year is pretty high.
I just wanted to know whether someone could point me to a trustworthy and up to date source of data where I may be able to check the different benchmarks one should meet as to consider attempting a KQ. More specifically the question relates to the bike portion, and specially the range of w/Kg of KQ.
I am currently at 4.2 w/kg (20 min max effort) with an open marathon of under 2:50 and just wondered whether should keep on pushing on the bike or focus on the swim.
Thanks in advance everybody,
Luis
How old are you?
How long have you been an athlete?
How long have you been training for triathlon?
How bad is your swim?
There are a number of threads that give benchmarks out there. The most common are:
1000 meter swim in 15 minutes or faster
Bike FTP of 4watts/kg
vDOT of 56
This has to be taken with a hug chunk of salt, because you need to have the endurance to go for 9-10 hours. You need to have the experience to pace yourself appropriately. You need to be dialed in on the nutrition to not over or under fuel. Plus if you are weak in any one area you need to be much stronger to make up for it.
I have qualified 3 times and each has been by the skin of my teeth in the 40-44 AG. I never got my bike numbers quite up to that level but my swim was far better. Admittedly endurance is not my strong suit.
Average hours when I qualified: 11:52/week; 12:02/week; 10:47/week
I wonder where he got these numbers. Most KQ’ers I know do not train nearly that much. In the 3 months leading up to the race I bet most of them are averaging 13-14 hours per week (with maybe a peak week of 16 or so). The rest of the season maybe 10-12 per week. Most probably take at least 2-3 weeks almost completely off per year and the balance of the year 9-10 hours per week. Everyone I know that regularly does >15 hours per week is either a pro or, ironically, AG’ers who are not that fast but addicted to training.
I have no connection with AC but I do follow him and his athletes since I looked up one of them after ultraman Hawaii win (Inaki) and saw some tweets between him and Stephen sieler
Definitely on the high volume / aerobic threshold (I know I know, buzz term) / polarized approach. Though with those hours I’d have no choice but to do it primarily easy!
The large numbers do not surprise me for his athletes - but I’m not posting it for all kq’s by any means
I am being told that you do not need to put in 20 hours a week to qualify. My first Ironman was in 2015, I came in at 11:17 or thereabouts. After that, I decided to dedicate five years to trying to qualify after speaking with my coach. He said anyone could qualify and that it would take a few years to race Ironman strategically and build the base necessary. He recommended IMTX because it has the most slots and the age group I am in, 40-45, usually receives the most slots. Unfortunately, when I competed in this previous IMTX, I cramped on the bike so bad I was not sure I was going to start the run. Since then, I have been using CarboRockets product and have had no cramping issues. Also did not help that the nutritionist I was seeing advised that only Pro’s do liquid calories. Well after IMTX, I started researching products mentioned here on ST, so shout out to this awesome community.
So I too wonder if I am putting in the right amount of hours, averaging 10 hours a week with a high of 16 during the build up to IMTX. I work 40 hours a week, am single, with no kids and manage a small team of IT geeks. And I don’t know where I am going with this either so I will just stop while I am ahead…
I’m sure a 20 hour average can only help if you can handle that type of stress and recover properly. To me, that just sounds like too much. I’ve finished in the 10:20-10:50 range for 7 IM’s with around the 9-11 hour average (max 15 hours in build). I can’t see doing 20 hours, unless the workouts were super low intensity.
I also don’t understand Alan’s Basic Qualifiers Week. The AeT seems so low for those workouts. For example:
Bike AeT HR: 106 or Run AeT HR: 113-128. Maybe these are people with generally low HR’s or older athletes, but I would almost have to walk to achieve those HR’s. Like a 1.5 hour run with a 124 HR is like 8:30-9 min per mile pace for me (I’ve done a 2:57 standalone marathon).
Am I training correctly or is my HR just a lot higher!?
