I am preparing for my first half IM, in South Africa in January, and have a question regarding bike pacing. My functional threshold seems to be around 360W, based on two recent time trials I did with 380W over 20 minutes.
Now I am trying to figure out what average watts I should be aiming for. From what I read, for the half IM, people seem to talk about 75-85% of FTP, or 275-305W on average. Does that sound right to you?
Also, what are recommendations on surging on hills? How far do you drive up the watts on the uphills? The South Africa course is meant to be tough, from what I hear, with plenty of rollers.
Provided you have put in the training miles, this may work for you.
360 seems to be on the higher end of estimating of your FTP but still reasonable.
80 to 85% of FTP works for me so 290 to 305 would be the target I would shoot for. If it’s hilly then look to go not much over 360 for hills lasting 3 to 10 minutes and look at holding near 280 to 290 on the flats. You will have to be diciplined to hold down to 360 watts. Just let everyone else go in the beginning of the race. I don’t have experience with hills over 10 min long.
When you get to ~40 miles then adjust your goals to how you feel. If you are strong, stay on the high side of the range. If you aren’t then stay on the lower side.
If you are going to be on the course for longer than 2:40 then you may want to adjust your goals down ~10 watts and see how you feel at mile 40.
Definitely try this in your training to see how you feel. I like to do a HIM simulation (much like Gordo’s HIM sim) once a month. It’s a 45 min run at long run pace, 2:30 bike at HIM goal watts and then another 45 min run. The second run should be near HIM run pace and/or +10 bpm higher than the first run. If you can’t hold the pace on the second run then you may have to look at pacing and/or nutrition during the bike ride.
You are correct, 75-85% is the recommended wattage range for a HIM. Jarejt is correct, you need to adjust as you go with the wattage, while staying under 85%. With the hills, you’re best to stay under FTP as to avoid burning more matches than you need to on the bike. If you control your wattage, you will set yourself up for a good run. I’ve seen too many people ride to hard (lets say 2:20), having burned too many matches and promptly run a 2:00 1/2 marathon. I’ve seen that same person the next year ride a 2:30 and ran a 1:37 since they still had something left in the tank for the run.
Good luck,
I’ve done allmost exactly as you described. Rode hard on the bike and had a long string of 2:00 half marathons.
This year I spent a considerable time on the bike and worked on the execution of my plan. As a result I ran a 1:44 (my best ever) in an “A” race and a 1:46 in a “B” race just by riding within my limits and letting everyone else go in the beginning of the race.
It felt so good to finish strong and take over 15 min off of my run.
How big are you? If you are a really big guy (90+ kg), then the watts are big but not out of this world. If you are a smaller guy, and those numbers are at or above 5W/kg, then you are quite strong on the bike. The faster you go in the race, the higher intensity you can handle. This is generally true for two reasons. First, you are fitter, and second you are not on the course as long.
How fast does 300 watts get you when you are in your aero setup? If you are around 27 mph, then it doesn’t make a ton of sense to go much faster. The cost to go from 27 to 28 is quite high. With that said, you can save up a little, then go a tad harder into the wind and uphill.
Sorry for the vague and ambiguous answer. At the end of the day, the correct answer is “it depends”.
Have you done a 70.3 before?
Are those wattage numbers from the bike & position you will ride on race day?
How fast can you run a 10K or 13.1 mile running race?
Are you a solid swimmer, or is the swim going to wipe you out?
What is your FTP in terms of w/kg?
Lots of questions, but those are the types of questions which determine how hard to ride.
@Flanagan:
I’m pretty big (2m or 6’7", 88-90kg), so my FTP should be pretty exactly 4W/kg. The numbers were taken with a Powertap on two time trials using my aero position. On my road bike I feel I can push a bit harder. As to your other questions:
Have you done a 70.3 before? ** No, this is the first one**
Are those wattage numbers from the bike & position you will ride on race day? Yes, but will undergo a fitting until then (the position is a first try - just got a P2C recently)
How fast can you run a 10K or 13.1 mile running race? PB 2000m: 7m12sec, Half Marathon 1h31:30 (but hoping for sub 1:30 in race 2 weeks from now)
Are you a solid swimmer, or is the swim going to wipe you out? Not a great swimmer (last test was 30min for 1500m, but that’s a while ago; started swimming training this year, so hoping I am getting better.
What is your FTP in terms of w/kg? ** 4ish**
Cheers
jever
PS: 27mph average? Who on earth rides that? Superman ;-)?
I’ve got a “A” race half ironman coming up and have done several training rides in my race pace ranges and one thing I have found is that around 85% FTP or so my breathing noticeably shallows and begins to be labored (marginally). This also is the effort where my digestive system gets unhappy with anything more than 250 cals/hr of fluid. Backing off 5% gets the ability to eat solid food (rice cakes) and water up to 450cals/hr. So although I can run decently off of 85% I back my effort level down so I can stay fully fueled which (I HOPE!) will lead me to a killer run split on race day.
Also the advice on taking an assessment of how you feel at 40 miles is great advice.
I’ve got a “A” race half ironman coming up and have done several training rides in my race pace ranges and one thing I have found is that around 85% FTP or so my breathing noticeably shallows and begins to be labored (marginally). This also is the effort where my digestive system gets unhappy with anything more than 250 cals/hr of fluid. Backing off 5% gets the ability to eat solid food (rice cakes) and water up to 450cals/hr. So although I can run decently off of 85% I back my effort level down so I can stay fully fueled which (I HOPE!) will lead me to a killer run split on race day.
Also the advice on taking an assessment of how you feel at 40 miles is great advice.
That’s interesting, thanks. I did a long MTB race (just under 10h) this summer and stayed far off my lactic threshold (no wattage, just pulse data). Still had problems with the bars and gels after a while. Felt the need to eat bread, drink broth (which they were offering - Swiss Alps) and eat cheese. Will have to experiment with nutrition in the preparation. Any recommendations though? I think I would appreciate more salty foods, since I get grossed out by the overly sweet bars and gels after a while.
For the past month I’ve been training with rice cakes and have had no digestion/bloating problems (i’m pretty strong stomached anyways) but don’t have experience with them for LONG +4hr events.
I have been considering the SRM power meter but struggle with the same questions as the post’s author. I thought when you had power you just nailed your 3 hour power level, but apparently it’s not that simple.
Does the power meter give one a large advantage in a HIM race or is the wattage question still unclear while in an event?
The power meter is a tool in your toolbox as a triathlete. When you use this tool to train “properly”, learn your race paces, learn how your body responds to different power levels for different times, learn how power levels affect your nutrition, learn how well you run off the bike for certain wattage levels then power is a fantastic tool.
Like any tool it can be used wrong or ineffectively… if you use a hammer to take out sparkplugs then it’s best not to have the hammer in your tool box.
For a HIM, the consensus is that your average power (or Normalized power) should fall within 75-85% of your FTP. Since you don’t have a power meter it may sound like that is a pretty narrow band… its not. 75% of FTP for 2.5 hours is pretty tame, 85% FTP for 2.5 hours is rather stout. But until you go out and do the training rides you have no idea if you are going to be able to run your fastest S/B/R split at 75% or 85% FTP for the bike. The power meter doesn’t make you go faster, it only gives you quantitative feedback to what you are doing on your bicycle. Its up to you as a smart athlete to use that data and optimize your race.
Well said! Suffice to say you can’t buy a powermeter the day before a race and expect it to give any valuable feedback (duh). You’d have to train with the unit and develop a sufficient amount of data.
Well said! Suffice to say you can’t buy a powermeter the day before a race and expect it to give any valuable feedback (duh). You’d have to train with the unit and develop a sufficient amount of data.
I’ll be getting a new Powertap wheel on Thursday, then I’m doing the Longhorn 70.3 on October 25, 10 days later. I’ve been riding on my Computrainer with power readings for about three weeks now. Obviously, time is short to experiment with the Powertap, especially since I’ll be tapering.
On the computrainer, my FTP is in the 210-215 range. I “rode” the Longhorn course on the CT for an endurance workout averaging 160 watts over the 3 hours, though I didn’ t push nearly has hard as I could have as that wasn’t the point of the workout.
Assuming I’m able to confirm that the Computrainer wattage matches up with the PowerTap (or at least with a reliable percentage offset or fixed offset), how should I pay attention to it on race day, given that it may be my first ride over an hour on the wheel? I read above that HIM effort is usually 80-85% of FTP, so should I aim for an average wattage of 170-180? Or should I just ignore it because it’s so new and use it for data collection only to help my training in the future, and go by RPE and HR? This is my first HIM, by the way. I’m a better runner than biker, and in a recent Olympic was worried that I biked too easily. (21 mph followed by 42:00 10K, a PR by 2:30 over an open 10k, let alone a tri).
On such short timing I would suggest you do a 20 min test on the first day you get it set up and figure your FTP from that. Make sure you go through the warm up.
I’ve never been able to get my PT to match up to any CT’s (4) I’ve ever used without playing with the drag number.
