In August of 2007 I competed in Ironman Canada and finished the race in 9:00:xx. Ten weeks later I finished Ironman Florida in 8:40:xx. The primary catalyst to this time improvement (aside from a flatter course) came from improved bike fitness achieved over the course of the ten weeks between the two races. In June, during my Ironman Canada build, I contracted Giardia (parasite) from open water swimming and I was sick for several weeks. While I did manage to bounce back with my swimming and running for the most part, my cycling fitness appeared to take a big hit. For whatever reason, my power numbers would not come back to where I felt they should be by race day.
I mention all of this because it helps to give a better idea of why my coach and I structured my bike training as we did leading into Ironman Florida. I felt that my running and swimming were at acceptable levels (for the season), but that my cycling needed a solid boost in ten weeks time. In order to get the most out of my training I allowed two weeks of recovery following IMC before starting the push for IMFL. My coach, Joe Friel (www.trainingbible.com), and I structured my cycling training in Boulder (elevation 5500 ft) in a challenging and effective manner.
Below you will see a table that includes 3 key cycling workouts for every week leading into Ironman Florida 2007 (no key workouts in first two weeks; still recovering). Joe and I estimated my 5500 ft Functional Threshold Power, or FTP, (approximately what I could maintain for one hour) to be around 300 watts and all the workouts were based off of this number. These workouts were done at moderate altitude (5500-7000 ft) and I arrived in Florida 72 hours before the race. There was no sea level adjustment period and this was my first time to race an Ironman arriving directly from altitude. The three key weekly sessions in the table were (usually) done on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays (long). I had some supplemental recovery riding which is not included in the table below (usually 2-4 hours total).
The most important workout of each week was the long ride and I only placed one hour of training on Saturdays (swim only) in order to ensure the highest level of freshness on Sunday. The intervals on my long ride almost always averaged around 270 watts (260-280 range) which equates to maintaining roughly 90% of FTP for up to 2:45 within a five hour ride. After building up my time in this range I began to add more steady state intensity while reducing the amount of tempo riding.
The Team Time Trials and repeats up Flagstaff were ways to force high levels of power output without having to think too much about it. I found it interesting that I had better results on the days I “just rode” as opposed to the days that I tried to “ride hard.” When I allowed my body to intuitively respond the demands of the ride I performed better (as far as power output was concerned). Eventually I moved to flatter FTP intervals as the race approached to meet the demands of the IMFL bike course. I felt that the early rides on a variety of terrain helped to boost my overall fitness profile before moving to more specific terrain.
The hard 120K ride two weeks out from the race came from an experiment I did two years prior when I raced a Half Ironman relay (S+B) two weeks before an Ironman. I really liked the session and decided to incorporate something similar within this build.
This training block was a bit of an experiment as I did not know how I would respond to the harder sessions or how I would ride once I dropped down to sea level. This was my first opportunity to do an Ironman after only being at seal level for three days. I kept higher intensity sessions rolling closer to race day because I wanted to make sure that my muscles could handle the higher sea level load. Previously, I used an adjustment period of 2-4 weeks to address this issue.
Ultimately, this block of training provided me with the fitness I needed to meet my goals in Florida (break 8:45 and run 2:59:59 or faster). I received many emails following the race asking about my training given the discrepancy between Canada and Florida. I felt my cycling fitness was the missing link and this should give you all some insight into the training that I did to achieve it.
While it might be tempting to plug these workouts into your next training cycle, be careful about pushing yourself too hard early in the season. These ten weeks I wrote about were the last ten of a long season and it was promptly followed by an offseason lasting ten weeks as well. Working such an aggressive build into your schedule too early might cause you to burn all your matches before season’s end.
Best of luck in 2008,
Justin
Justin Daerr is an elite triathlete and coach. You can read more at www.justindaerr.com or send an email to Justin at endurancecorner dot com
Photos courtesy of Justin Daerr.
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