Ironman Cycling Pace
736
Member
802 days
Red5 posted 1 year ago.
When you do your aerobic training on the bike, especially your long rides, what HR range do you use? And what sort of pace do you hold during an IM bike?
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Bryan
Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
363
Member
801 days
kkocan posted 1 year ago.
FWIW in training for my first IM (IMoo) I have done much pacing work. Most of the times my workouts my coach prescirbes will involve a long (1 hr) warmup then some pacing work. My bike lactate threshold is 180bpm. My zone 1 is up to 149, zone 2 is 150-160, zone 3 is 161-169. My goal has been to average upper zone 1, lower zone 2. My first race rehearsal ride 6-8 weeks ago I went too hard on the hills and avg'd 156bpm for 112 miles but I was shot and couldn't run afterwards.
My best long rides/runs have been where I avgd about 150bpm. On those I seemed to have plenty of gas left in the tank. Also, where I live is very hilly, lots of rollers and not a lot of flat stretches. I may have a goal of 150 avg but on some hills I can't help but hit mid 160's. The secret for me has been to spin up the hills and make sure my HR gets back down to mid 150's and then start pushing again at the top and gradually get HR down to 150 or so for me.
After doing this 3-4 times this year I have been able to get HR avg down to as low as 145-146 for a long ride but still avg about 19 mph with 6-7,000 feet of climbing. I could probably avg 20 but then HR would be upper 150's avg and there is that pesky marathon to deal with after the ride!
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2008 Main Races:
VA Beach Shamrock Marathon
Desoto TTT
WV Mountaineer HIM
IM Wisconsin
2
Member
374 days
SKMDT posted 1 year ago.
I've found I usually still feel good if I can keep the pace around 85% of LTHR. That leaves plenty in the legs for running off the bike.
12
Member
367 days
kelle1ds posted 1 year ago.
Everyone's advice really provides me with some good information. I set me HR zones based off Friel's tables in his book on Long Distance Triathlons. For my long rides I try to keep my Heartbeat below 120, with a ceiling of 136 for hills. On my road bike I can hold 19-20 mph at 130 bpm. On my tri bike I can do above 20 MPH at that pace. I'm thinking 130 might be a good Heart rate to try to average.
I usually can't control my pace on the bike leg of an ironman. I'm a very weak swimmer, but a fast cyclist. I get carried away with trying to regain time on the bike. What is a good pace to set for the bike. My LT is around 150bpm. I'm thinking that I need to keep my effort no higher thatn 136bpm. Any suggestions please.