Hi my name is Linda. I am 32 years old and living in Auckland. I do reasonable well in swim/run events. I am not good at triathlon as I am not a cyclist so I find it really frustrating going backwards on the bike after a good swim.
My main question is how I can improve my speed. I am doing 2 wind training sessions a week and 2 road sessions. But although I can power it on the wind trainer I don't seem to be able to go faster on the flat when on the road. I have improved my hill climbing over the last few months but there is still a lot of room for improvement… I get very sore shoulders and neck on the bike too.
The people I bike with in my tri squad are much faster than me and all take biking for granted. I would love to know what if any tools are the best for improvements, ie a cadence monitor or power monitor? Or could you suggest any other methods for improvement, should I be riding more each week and who with?
Linda - Bike Novice
Hi Linda
I think the biggest thing you need to make sure you get sorted before your Half Ironman is being physically able to ride at a pace that you can sustain for the whole ride…and more importantly be in reasonable shape off the bike to run 21km (unless you enjoy frontwards moon-walking?!)
It sounds simple and obvious, but even top age groupers will ride the bike in half and full Ironman distances and will have disastrous final quarter bike splits...which doesn’t set them up for a solid final run.
This is commonly due to:
- They didn’t pace themselves and went too hard in the first half of the ride
- Bad nutritional strategy (not enough fuel in the tank)
- Or, they haven’t trained at that intensity for long enough and the body shuts down due to fatigue.
If you think about it…you will be out on the bike for somewhere between 2.5-3 hours…and mostly on your aerobars. So it’s an endurance event which requires endurance training.
- So the first thing I think you need to look at is how long are your long training rides? Because your race time is up to 3 hours…your longest rides should be at least that or slightly more.
- Wind-training sessions are great, especially in winter for maintaining aerobic fitness and power if doing intervals. But closer to the event I think you need to be out on the road getting specific to the demands of the event requirements and also adapting to the environment (sun/heat etc…)
- This would involve longer tempo periods on your aero-bars…(I would define tempo periods being your perceived race pace/HR or wattage or slightly higher) with the ‘real on road feeling’ of big chip roads and head/tail winds etc that you will face on the day. Try and build on these tempo’s e.g. early season - 3 x 10mins w 10mins rest…mid season – 3 x 20mins w 10mins rest…race season 3 x 30mins w 10mins rest. Try and do one endurance ride with individual tempos and one endurance (bunch ride) day with no efforts.
- At the pointy end of the season…do these longer tempo intervals at the end of an endurance ride to simulate the feeling of not being fresh…remember you would’ve swam before the bike on race day…so you may never experience the feeling of being fresh on race day!
- Use your aero-bars often on your long tempo endurance rides...get your body use to the stresses of being in this postion for a long period of time...again a simply rule, but often over looked.
- Individual Pacing…this is vital on race day. Whether you use a bike computer for speed, a heart rate monitor or a power meter…they should all be used to smooth out your 90km split and give you a guide to your pacing. The most important thing to do is use this tool as a guide from your previous long tempo endurance training efforts, and not get carried away chasing down your boss or friend who just passed you!
- Cadence…When doing your tempo intervals in training…hone in to what you perceive to be your optimal cadence (pedal count per minute). This rate may improve as you get fitter. But a good drill is to ride at 10-15 rpm (revs per minute) higher and lower than your optimum cadence to widen your range (great for adapting to head/tail winds on race day) and also this works on your strength (lower RPM) and Speed (higher RPM). Try it for 5 minutes in each range. Also on race day pay attention and monitor your optimal cadence to deliver that smooth pacing.
So to summarise, I think for events such as long Time Trails or Bike legs in endurance triathlons, I really think you need to show you body the race (in broken down parts) before you start the race. This way you won’t be in a foreign environment.
I hope this helps?....Enjoy your training!