Now that it has been 2 weeks since my first and last triathlon race of the season, it’s time to get back intro training in preparation for 2021.
My goal this year was to race at the Ironman Austria again where I had my best result so far (10:40:55). Covid and some other stuff had me reschedule for 2021 where I hope to improve on my past performance.
The race then went as planned until the second half of the marathon where I paid the price for surging to often while overtaking other competitors.
I was overtaking groups of (drafting) competitors in an attempt to prevent getting a penalty but in doing so I burned my legs a lot more than I anticipated and ended slower on the run than I wanted to.
Today, a little more experienced than I was 2 years ago, I am getting ready to tackle another wall in my triathlon career - completing an Ironman under 10 hours.
It’s 35 weeks until the race which is plenty of time to get in the best shape I can.
“A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step”
My first step will be to get some benchmark data for my swim, bike and run. This is done by performing some tests in all three disciplines individually. Each of these tests is designed around finding my threshold speeds for a given discipline which in turn is used to set up individual training sessions and find out how hard (or easy) I have to go the greatest benefit of each workout.
The swim
The swim looks like the simplest of them but if done correctly will have you cry in the pool (lucky for you no one will see your tears)
The main goal is to swim 400 and 200 meters all out and record your time. You will have a 5 minute break in between those time trials to get the best possible result.
The time recorder are then used as your 100% effort for your workouts. If you want to learn more about CSS testing you can check out this article.
The bike
On the bike we perform a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) Test. We try to determine the maximum power in watts we can sustain for 1 hour. It’s key part is a 20 minute interval where you try to sustain the highest possible power output from start to finish. Once done, you take 95% of your average power output for those 20 minutes and use this as your 100% effort for the bike.
Most bike computers and smart trainers have some kind of protocol which guides you through an FTP test so you have to look only at the screen and wait for the 20 minutes to pass by.
More about FTP - here.
The run
The run offers the greatest variety of test. The most popular one, and the one I, use is the 30 minute time trial. You warm up and then try to keep the best possible pace for 30 minutes. Once done you take the last 20 minutes of the run as your 100% effort for the run.
There are also 2 mile time trials, a combined 3 minute and 9 minute time trial and a lot more.
You can read more about them here.
The most important thing in all three tests is to stick with them. Different test might give you different results so as long as you are consistent you should be good to go.
Rest of the week
The rest of the week is comprised of longer weekend runs and rides all done with low effort to just keep the heart pumping and get ready for what’s to come.
I’ll try writing about this every week just to keep myself motivated and eventually run out of stupid excuses for why I didn’t train :D
Until next week,
Stay healthy