I’m looking to do my first half iron this summer (early summer) and my main goal will be to simply have fun and finish. Obviously at some point the competitive juices will flow and I need some sort of time goal.
4:30 seems like it’s an attainable time, but since I’ve never done one (or any endurance race over 3 hours) it may be a rude awakening. I know I can swim fast enough and run fast enough to give myself a shot at 4:30. I’m not sure how much I’ll run train before the race, but last fall I ran a 1:22 open half on very little training (I couldn’t touch that right now running one day a week).
Sooooo…since it’s all about the bike I’m very curious as to what sort of expectation I should have. If I bike 2:45 and give myself no hope so be it, but I’d like an expectation based on fitness. Maybe I’ll swim too hard and ruin my bike. Hard to say since I’ve never swam a half iron swim. I’m guessing most guys do some sort of % FTP in a half iron, so I’m curious as to what that may be. I don’t have power so will likely have to watch HR. I can only assume HR would have to be kept pretty low. Probably in the 140 range? Based on my kinetic trainer and trainerroad running 140ish HR is probably 210 watts (which at 155# should be close to 2:30).
Any guidance would be appreciated. Or you can tell me this is completely unrealistic! Thanks.
I arrived at my goal power for my last half iron by doing training rides that were similar to the race, and doing a short run afterwards. This turned out to be around 85% of my ftp.
Sadly I can’t give you a datapoint on what sort of watts/kg might get you a 2:30 bike split, since my half iron was a bit odd (savageman). It shouldn’t take much with a great position and equipment though if the course is flat-ish and wind isn’t bad.
It’s gonna depend a lot on the course. I did a hard hilly half IM bike in 2:29 with NP of 227 watts
at about 150lbs. My CdA is not crazy good, but I have the basics down (aero lid, H3s, etc).
For comparison, I did a very flat Half in 2:16. Didn’t have a PM for that race, but I probably
had similar power output (likely a bit higher, I was in better shape).
This is High Cliff in Wisconsin. Honestly about all I know about the course is the first mile or so is a cat 5 climb. I’m led to believe it’s pretty flat after that. But I don’t know how flat. http://midwestsportsevents.com/highclifftri.html
Maybe the 1/2 marathon is going to be more difficult that I thought. I’ve run 1:15, but those days are over. Again time won’t be that big of deal for me. I’d rather somewhat enjoy the run and enjoy the day unless I know I have a shot at a certain time with an hour or so to go That and I’m probably going to go into this run somewhat undertrained (for me) while my bike and swim i’ll be very strong (for me). I just don’t have enough bike experience to really set a good expectation.
At just under 150 lbs., I went 2:29 on 229 NP at Oceanside two years ago, and I went 2:28 at Lake Stevens last year on 232 NP. These aren’t flat courses, but they are not crazy hilly either. So about 3.35 W/kg for me.
I usually ride a half IM in between 3.4 and 3.6 W per kilo depending on fitness. Depending on how much climbing there is, the split ends up being between 2:15 (almost zero climbing, smooth pavement) and 2:45 (3000 ft lots of wind, rough pavement, like St. Croix or Wildflower).
As a point of reference, last year I biked 2:31 and 2:29 at Galveston and Tupper Lake respectively off 217 average watts or 3.45 watts per kilo. Galveston was flat and very very windy (and my aero position for a number of medical reasons is not that great), tupper lake had 2500 ft climbing, no wind. I weigh 63 kilos.
If you are a 1:22 half marathon runner now and your swim is half decent (like around 30 minutes), on a rolling course with less than 2000 feet of bike climbing and descending and not too many turns and Uturns with fairly smooth pavement, 4;30 is in reach assuming you keep combined transitions under 3 minutes.
I’ve only done high cliff once in 2010, and keep in mind watts can really very between people. That said, I rode 2:18 there averaging 3.5 w/kg. The only real climb I remember was right out of transition and it’s pretty short. After that it was pretty flat but the wind was pretty bad, somehow it felt like we had a headwind for 75% of the race.
I know you didn’t ask, but swim was really short and choppy, I was a 34-36 minutes swimming at the time and went 24 in that race. The run was also over .5 mile short, but because it is mostly on trails, i think the run times there are pretty comparable to a flat 13.1 70.3 run.
The race was good though and I will do it again sometime.
Also good to remember the diff between SRM watt and Powertap watts…also some SRM watts can be really off if the user did not zero out for actual ambiant temp.
On a dead flat course last year it was 2.8W/kg for me (229W at 180lb, 2:29:36). Like others said, you can certainly “race” 56 miles beforehand and figure it out your time almost exactly.
Doesn’t it partly depend on how flat the course it? Excuse me if I’m new to training and racing with power, but I’ve been told that FTP is more important that w/kg in a flat race. I ask because my FTP is only 208, but I weigh 136, so my w/kg is 3.35.
Sadly, watts per kg matters even more for the small guys…the big guy and the small guy both have to move the same size wheel through the wind. That’s basically the same brute watts to move 2 wheels if you are 136 lbs or 200 lbs…basically a larger percentage of your brute watts relative to your watts per kilo is used to move the same wheels as the big guy. Generally the small guy will need more watts per kilo for the same bike split as the big guy on a flat course. Proportionally the small guy has a smaller bike and smaller body so all of that can scale, but the wheels don’t. And if you go to 650 wheels, you have more rolling resistance, so its a bit of a wash on how many watts go to moving the wheels around at say 36 kph (2:30 split).
Not a massive surprise that you did not see a single guy shorter than 5’10’ at Abu Dhabi in the top 10 (that I am aware of). Same deal at Kona with the odd outlier like Welch or Bustos. Carfrae will always have this disadvantage at Kona vs Wellington too.
Bottom line, get your watts per kilo higher than get aero.
I’m 6’2" 185 lbs/84Kg at the time of racing Disney 70.3 last year. A little windy but totally flat. avg 255W from FTP of 307. NP was 251W (I don’t really know the importance of NP). I wasn’t aiming for a percentage per se, I thought I would try to maintain around the 260 mark, but I ran out of steam a little toward the end. I was being a bit gay on the last mile as I thought transition was nearer than it was.
2:23 split on 3:03 W/Kg, (2.98 for NP). I would expect my HR would have been about 160-165 (max is 198) - I didn’t measure it.
Ran 1:30 - my most recent open 8 weeks prior was 1:21. P3 with Stinger 60:90 and a pointy lid.
I have only used power for a year, but it is much more reliable than HR. I doubt I would have been able to do that split off HR, particularly on a hilly course.
Sadly, watts per kg matters even more for the small guys…the big guy and the small guy both have to move the same size wheel through the wind. That’s basically the same brute watts to move 2 wheels if you are 136 lbs or 200 lbs…basically a larger percentage of your brute watts relative to your watts per kilo is used to move the same wheels as the big guy. Generally the small guy will need more watts per kilo for the same bike split as the big guy on a flat course. Proportionally the small guy has a smaller bike and smaller body so all of that can scale, but the wheels don’t. And if you go to 650 wheels, you have more rolling resistance, so its a bit of a wash on how many watts go to moving the wheels around at say 36 kph (2:30 split).
Not a massive surprise that you did not see a single guy shorter than 5’10’ at Abu Dhabi in the top 10 (that I am aware of). Same deal at Kona with the odd outlier like Welch or Bustos. Carfrae will always have this disadvantage at Kona vs Wellington too.
Bottom line, get your watts per kilo higher than get aero.
Dev
Working on it. Started training with power about 2 months ago. The good thing is being new and motivated I’m seeing good improvement. My HIM is in September, I think it’s attainable that I’ll be close to an FTP of 250, or 4w/kg. And I’ll be aero.
That and I’m probably going to go into this run somewhat undertrained (for me) while my bike and swim i’ll be very strong (for me). I just don’t have enough bike experience to really set a good expectation.