Race specific specificity?
2195
Member
2227 days
Tribro posted 13 weeks ago.
I think training for the specifics of a course is smart and important if you want to have your best possible race on that day. Training on the short rollers will help out. I did a lot of climbing in my training the year of Canada, and more flat open space rides for Florida. I believe it helped, but I would be careful of "blasting up those hills". Remember this is a half ironman, not a cycling training day or a bike race. Pushing yourself too much on the bike will lead to a frustrating/poor half marathon. I personally can't push myself into threshold and recovery enough to run 13 miles let alone a brick :)
So, do train on similar terrain, don't worry about your MPH, 7 weeks is still a long way off, and make sure you have a race strategy for the day. i.e. power range, heart rate range, nutrition, etc. I speak from experience when I say don't get too caught up in the numbers and fellow athletes on race day, stay within yourself and you'll have a better overall experience.
434
Member
684 days
tsilcyc posted 13 weeks ago.
Tribro wrote:
... when I say don't get too caught up in the numbers and fellow athletes on race day, stay within yourself and you'll have a better overall experience.
This is very sound advice. I've been on both sides of this fence and I prefer to be on the side that passes everyone on the run because they went too hard on the bike.
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555
Member
366 days
Iron Dan posted 13 weeks ago.
I would be careful about blasting up the hills on race day. This extra effort to go up the hills at the beginning of the race to achieve a 2 mph speed advantage (I just pulled a number out of my head) can kill your day. You still have a long way to bike and run. Keep reminding yourself of that. Pushing to hard in the beginning will end up costing you more time in the end.
Also, it is a good idea to train for the type of course you are going to race on race day. If nothing else, it gives you a mental edge because you have trained for it and know you can do it. Good luck with your training and stick with the speed workouts they will pay off.
Yesterday I did a ride that I hoped would approximate the difficulty and length of my A-Race, the California 70.3. My GPS track is here and the track from the actual event (not mine - in fact it's Kylie's Boyfriend, Mike) is here in case anyone is curious.
My question is, how much should I care about training for the specific course? And how close would it really have to be?
Further, as I'm looking at the two elevation profiles, it looks like the real course has shorter, steeper climbs on the way out to the big hill. My intuition is that if I prepare for short, very intense bursts of power every few minutes in the first leg, I'll be able to blast up those hills on race day and keep my momentum from dropping. In my head this strategy sounds reasonable, but do you all think there's any validity to it? Is it reasonable race strategy in general?
Finally, I have to say I'm still very discouraged with my results from the approximation ride. I didn't go full-blown race pace, but a 17.5mph average is pretty disappointing. I really want to be able to crack 20.0 for the actual race, but it's now only 7 weeks away. I've been incorporating speedwork lately, but apparently it's not really paying off. Any thoughts?