I am thinking about transitioning from racing primarily IM and HIM to try to get fast and concentrate on Olympic distance over the next couple years and was interested in how others have done so have changed their training focus for the bike and run.
For the bike, one thing I notice in shorter races is that it takes me a bit to get loose and in a rhythm. While in am IM that just amounts to good pacing, in an Olympic distance bike leg I feel like I am leaving time on the table during the first 5-20’ of the bike then always wishing there were another 10 miles at the end. Anyone have any training sessions they do to improve the ability to hit it hard on the bike from the moment you get out of the water? Volume I don’t think is the issue as I am generally doing 150-200 miles a week with a fair amount of intensity (usually a weekly interval session like 4x10, 2x20, 1:00 TT, etc, a second weekday easy ride then a couple 3-4 hour rides with some hills and pace on the weekend)
For the run, I really would be interested to hear about key workouts, volume and frequency for those folks over 40 years old who are running 42-44’ off the bike.
Like you, I’m moving down in distance this year. I was amazed at my very slow leg turnover on my first recent track workout. For sprints and oly’s, one of the workouts I used to do was brick intervals (in fact did my first session in years today). 4x 4mi (bike) x 1 mi (run) at a hard pace. That fourth run hurts
Hello
Some of the best workouts are the most powerful workouts.
warm up 20 minutes or so, get some fast cadence spins in there to get HR up.
then do some all out work
3x30seconds all out. You can start rolling a 15-20mph and then punch it
With full recovery on them all throughout the workout. 3-5minutes rest
3x1minute all out
You can do all these intervals in a variety of fashions, TT, road bike, Road bike up hills. Road bike up hills standing only.
Spin out the gear and shift, shift and shift again.
Leave nothing behind.
3x3minute everything you have. These will be the longest hardest 3 minutes of your life.
Again full recovery between everything.
We don’t care how fast your going, or if you have a powertap just try to roll a big number and beat it every interval. You can go by feel too.
Just dig deep.
Race time (after a few workouts) you can punch the accelerator early and maintain. I mean as soon as you get cycling shoes on and your sitting on your saddle, the TT bike needs to be put to use-fast faster. you roll fast for about 3 minutes then you push it faster.
Get out do some TT work like races, but stick to some shorter intervals for a bit. your IM will take care of the duration. create a new threshold by blowing way past it. Most people are afraid to go beyond in practice when thats the best place to do it, Find out where the Puke o meter is during training.
Then blow everyone away in the race.
Have fun
It could be that the training isn’t your issue, it’s the warmup. The shorter the race the longer the warmup. In a one-month span last year I had a sprint where I didn’t warm up at all (showed up late to the race) and a OLY where I got a good 20 minute warmup on the bike and 8-10 running. I ended up with a slightly higher wattage in the OLY, in the sprint it took me easily half the race before I felt like my legs were ready for that hard effort.
Just a thought. Shorter race = harder effort = greater need for warmup.
you might need a bigger sample size before concluding that the warmup was the cause of your wattage difference
Absolutely, just relaying a personal experience. The larger point still stands that a good warmup is beneficial in shorter races. I think just about everyone gets in a good warmup before a TT, why skip that in a sprint or OLY where you’re hammering it from the second you’re on the bike?
its true everyone warms up before races
but a few people have done small scale studies and found that people doing less or no warmup actually go faster.
so it seems to be an open question
you might need a bigger sample size before concluding that the warmup was the cause of your wattage difference
Absolutely, just relaying a personal experience. The larger point still stands that a good warmup is beneficial in shorter races. I think just about everyone gets in a good warmup before a TT, why skip that in a sprint or OLY where you’re hammering it from the second you’re on the bike?
its true everyone warms up before races
but a few people have done small scale studies and found that people doing less or no warmup actually go faster.
so it seems to be an open question
Fair enough. I find it almost impossible to believe you’re better off with no warmup before a 95-105% of FTP effort for 40+ minutes but I’d never profess to being an expert. I know for me, personally, I feel MUCH better in short races after a good warmup. Do you happen to have a link to any of those studies? I’d be interested in seeing them.
Personally, I’d cut the weekly easy ride. Change one of the hills/pacing rides to another FTP session. My weeky sessions include 3 rides with something like 2x20’, or 2x15’ with 1x10’ at 95-100% FTP all followed up by remainder of session at 80-85% FTP. For Sprint/Oly, I haven’t gone more than 2 hours on the bike in any one session. I’m 52 and have age-group placed in every race I did. Most of my bike splits are in the top 5% overall in races. BTW, in three of those races with fields up to 300, I’ve been 9th, 10th and 15th overall, and would have placed in at least the top 3 of all age-groups.
For running, I’ve been doing 4 sessions a week. Two runs with tempo intervals (usuall something like 2x1/2m then 1-2x1m at tempo pace) rest at easy pace and two easy pace runs, one being about 8 miles.
I think you just need to get used to short course racing. Other than a minute or two to get you legs going, you basically have to hammer on the bike.
Thanks alot to all for the replies. This morning I tried 9 x 1’ as hard as can go / 2’ easy spin and was spent by the seventh interval. Big Fun, too. I am gonna add something hard like this for a few weeks and see what happens.
I have found a warm up generally helps me for shorter races the problem is that at alot of the bigger races now you gotta rack the bike the night before.
What about the run? I know one person said 4x a week with a long run of 8 miles but I’d be interested in hearing from others as well? For example, are bricks more important (ie not losing time while your legs adjust that first mile), and if so what are some good bricks in terms of tempo and time/distance and frequency to train this? Also, what about about the long run - while its always good to go long if you can, is there much incremental benefit from a long run longer that 8-10 miles for short course racing? Finally, on the frequency is it possible to get good results on 3 runs focused runs a week, and if so what’s the best break down? I am usually riding 4x (10+ hours) and swimming 3x (3 hrs) so its hard to fit much more in with work and life.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been enjoying Chris Carmichael’s new book, The Time-Crunched Triathlete. He talks at length about scaling back from going long, to more Olympic Distance racing, and some of the things to think about as you shift your training strategy up. He has some good Olympic distance training programs in the book.
In general, he cranks up the interval training and the bricks, and talks about the studies behind why he takes that approach. I think it’s worth a read, if you are gearing down for the smaller distance.
For the run, I really would be interested to hear about key workouts, volume and frequency for those folks over 40 years old who are running 42-44’ off the bike.
Thats me, 49yo and typically running ~43-44 in oly races. I’ve done this on ~4 runs/wk, most with some intensity, and on 6 runs/wk with very little intensity, so I personally don’t have a single plan. One comment, even though its only a 10k, for me it ends up being closer to 1/2 marathon pace than threshold, so train accordingly.
typical week for running is:
a run w/3 to 4mi at threshold pace
one ~60 min run at steady/mixed pace
one long run around 90 minutes
2 or 3 filler runs of ~45 minutes
I finish filler runs with at least 2 minutes VO2max work and ALWAYS do at least 1 HARD mile about 3/4 way through long runs, usually mile 8 of a 12mi run
“For the run, I really would be interested to hear about key workouts, volume and frequency for those folks over 40 years old who are running 42-44’ off the bike.”
when I used to race, I resembled that remark. ran 20-30 miles per week in 3-4 runs. During race season one was generally a short hard brick run. As short as 10 minutes hard, 10 minutes easy. As long as 20 minutes hard, 10 minutes easy. the 3 “long” runs were something with 20-40 minutes of threshold, something with 20-50 minutes of tempo and then a go jog 6 or 7 miles day. the threshold runs were somewhere around 6:40 per mile pace and the tempo somewhere around 7:20 per mile pace. Off that, I generally ran at or under sub 7 minute pace in olys.
Frequently I didn’t get all that in, hence the 20 mile weeks, but that was the general goal.
For the bike, one thing I notice in shorter races is that it takes me a bit to get loose and in a rhythm.
I call this butt-lock and there is really no way to avoid it other than sandbagging the ride. You go from standing around, to swimming or running and then jump on a bike in a constricted position. Your body likes to warm up and you are not giving it one. I doubt if you are leaving anything on the table. You SHOULD be getting off the bike feeling like you have more in you–otherwise your run is going to suck.
From personal experience, longer-warm ups had no effect on race performance or butt-lock. One duathlon I rode for a good 30 minutes, ran for 15 and then went almost straight into the 5K opening run. The run was fine and I hopped on the bike and started to hammer. Yep, still had butt-lock. When you have a 20-40 minutes swim proceeding your ride, I suspect all warming up does is burn calories you need for later.
Doing a lot of bricks might help you get used to how it feels, but it won’t really make you faster or make that sensation go away.
during a tri, since you swim first anyway, I’d be surprised if it mattered much.
This, very much. If I’m feeling frisky, I’ll run enough to get my pace down to the vicinity of race pace, which would be up to a mile at the most. If not, it doesn’t affect me at all. I’m not much for serious warming up though in general - during swim meet season, I always got annoyed with my coach wanting me to do like 800yds of warmup. Mostly that just used up all my good laps. In multisport, kicking hard down the last stretch towards the beach is all I need to get the legs ready to go on the bike or run.