What percent of FTP do you average on your half Ironman ride? What is a goal percent of FTP for this distance?
Before everyone tells you to use the search function, it’s common to use 85% for average 70.3 bike course. A tad more if it’s flat and fast since you’ll be on your bike for shorter time. But for very hilly courses, it’s important to be aware of times in zones and matches burned. The more complicated the course, the more it’s not about just holding a constant power. If you want to get really nerdy, go look up quadrant analysis in training and racing.
85% is a safe goal if you want to run well. If you are well trained for this type of ride…around 2:00-2:15 you can ride at 90% FTP and still run well. Try it in training and see where you are at.
Depends on how long you’re riding and how good of a runner you are
.
In my experience 85% is the ceiling to run well afterwards and that really depends on the day. 80% is what I will normally target.
jaretj
In my experience 85% is the ceiling to run well afterwards and that really depends on the day. 80% is what I will normally target.
I agree that 85% is more of a ceiling than a safe goal. 85% of threshold is pushing it. I usually target 80% as well.
How long do you anticipate being on the bike? 80-85% for 2:15 is a very different ride than 80-85% for 3:00.
at savageman I had an FTP of around 250
my norm power was 232, average power 206.
that course is a very weird case though, its like 40 minutes longer in duration, and forces you to burn some matches, but also forces you to get some extended rest.
85% is probably a reasonable starting point if you use normalized power, if you feel great at halfway you could bump it up.
85% ceiling seems right. Again the best thing you could do is test this out in training, don’t want the race to be the first time you try this. This also really depends on fitness though, and what your time might look like, like someone else said huge difference between 2:15 bike and 3:00 bike.
I go for 80-82%.
I have ridden at 0.82 and 0.84 with the best success lately for setting up a reasonable run.
Both hilly courses, so there was a drop in power with coasting and being aero-take that for what it is.
My goal in the next HIM is going to be 0.85. I feel stronger and suspect my FTP may be slightly higher, so little penalty for choosing a slightly higher IF.
We shall see…
YRMV
Ive ridden 2:18 @ 69%(234AP,235NP) at Gulf Coast Tri. That was due to a run injury and didn’t have the run fitness going into the race so we were safe on the bike. This set me up to run 1:36 and neg split the run. If your strong in your run you don’t have to be as safe but remember the run is where you can easily gain/lose your time more than pushing 5-10 more watts than you should and gain 90 seconds on the bike.
I Guess it always depends as I did 76.5% in Mont-Tremblant 70.3 and still had my worst run ever
222NP with 214 AP so pretty well paced.
YMMV