First Key Bike Session

As preparation for my Ironman races, I like to do the following key session:

• Easy warm up for about 30 minutes, then
• 3*50k at increasing effort:
  - first one slightly easier than IM effort
  - second one at IM effort
  - third one slightly faster than IM effort
• then another easy 30 minutes back home
• and a little transition run

Between the hard parts there is just a short break to pee and load up on nutrition. I usually bring a little backpack so I don’t have to carry everything with me – everything should be as close to racing as possible, so taking all the stuff that’s needed for such a long session would be quite bulky.

The idea of this session (inspired by some of Gordo’s suggestions) is to dial in your IM effort. If you manage to do the third one faster than IM effort and still be able to have a decent T-Run, you should be fine. But if you go out too hard or not eat/drink enough, you’ll notice it pretty soon.

I usually try to get two of these sessions in when preparing for an IM, but often something comes up (bad weather, scheduling conflicts, etc.) and I usually manage to make just one in preparing for an IM. Even with our new puppy, I cleared two days on my calendar for solely doing these sessions. When I get the sessions done, it builds a lot of confidence, and even if you notice that your pacing was too quick, at least you’ll learn a lot.

First Loop

I was shooting for 140/150/160w of average power, trying to ride pretty even (goal VI well under 1.1). HR should be 110/115/120 or so. I hoped that would result in average speeds of 28/29/30 km/h. Once I got going after my big breakfast (1000cal as I would on race morning!), I felt really good. I was going pretty relaxed, eating and drinking a lot, but still going pretty quick.

Here are the numbers:

• average power 140w
• normalized power 152w
• VI 1.08
• HR 113
• average speed 29.1 km/h

Apart from HR, this was going really well, and I hoped to build on that – but I started to get a bit anxious at going over 30 km/h for the last loop. But whatever, a quick reloading, then it was on to

Second Loop

I was continuing to eat, but it wasn’t that hot, so I wasn’t really thirsty, but I still had to stop for a quick pee in the middle of the loop. Managed to lift the effort, but got more anxious about the third loop – it was going to be hard!!

The numbers look really great, right where I wanted them to be:

• average power 151w
• normalized power 161w
• VI 1.07
• HR 120
• average speed 30.1 km/h

Everything was going well, and I had the “proper nervousness” for the third loop.

But when I got back to where I left my backpack, some “friendly neighbor” had decided that a lone backpack in the forest was suspicious and tried to “save” it. Bummer – nothing more to eat and drink (plus some spare clothes were gone). All I had left was one clif bar and nothing to drink .. what to do?

Third Loop

So I rode five minutes back to a village where I had seen some kids playing near a house. I asked them for some water, so at least I had one full bottle and one bar for the third loop. Ready to give it a shot!

I tried to go even harder than on the second loop, and managed to pick up the effort a bit. But it felt pretty strained, and after half the loop was done, I felt that my strength was gone. I tried to keep up the effort, but it was obvious that my power numbers were dropping rapidly.

Here are the numbers (full loop and numbers for the two halves):

• average power 140w  (155/125)
• normalized power 156w (169/141)
• VI 1.12 (1.09/1.13)
• HR 120 (123/118)
• average speed 29.5 km/h (28.8/30.3 – second half is a lot more down)

It’s pretty obvious from the numbers that I was coming a bit apart on the second half. I was debating weather to do the t-run. I decided to cut the loop a bit short and stopped at a gas station 3k before the “official” end of the loop for an emergency refueling with a Coke and some chocolate.

T-Run

After that I cycled home pretty mellow, but was feeling good enough to go on my t-run. A quick change of clothes in our garage, grab my fuel-belt and then go for a run. I was feeling okay considering how bad in shape I was just 15 minutes ago. The 20 minute run was uneventful which was all I could hope for at this point. I even felt good enough to pick up the pace a bit after the initial 2k of easy, and didn’t have any problems.

Assessment

I really learned a lot during this session:

• I was coming apart on the third loop. It had something to do with my lack of proper nutrition, and think I now have a pretty good understanding of what I need for the race. It comes down to about 300 cal per hour in bars, drink and some “real” food.
• While some part of slowing down can be explained by nutrition (or lack thereof), the pace/effort was still a bit too quick for my current fitness level. I might be able to get in shape for that by the time my IM comes around, so it would be good to complete a second session of this type and see if I have improved a bit by then.
• When I take the time and scale down the effort, I can bounce back from a calorie deficit and get back to feeling decent. This was an important confidence builder, as I will have some low points during my race. If I want to reach my goal of “running the run”, I will have to get through these bad patches better than I managed in previous years. I just need some confidence and a bit of patience.

I hope to do another one of these key sessions in addition to my “normal” training. It is on my calendar for May 24th. I’ll keep you posted how I progress until then!