Last week I showed how I made a strategy for the bike leg of the Wildflower Olympic-Distance triathlon. My strategy foresaw a lot of short, steep rolling hills that I planned to take at zone 5 power, and then recover on the way down the other side of the hill. Here's how it all worked out.
Pre-Race Recon
We drove the bike course when we arrived at Lake San Antonio on Friday. The first thing we noted was that--other than Lynch Hill (the first/last hill)--most of the hills were not that steep at all. This was especially true of the ones near the middle of the course where I had hoped to coast for three to five minutes for recovery. Eyeballing them told me I'd have to pedal at least at a tempo pace to maintain good speed.
What went wrong here? One, I was rushed when I did the first plan and simply misread the elevation profile in a couple of places. Second, and more importantly, I vastly overestimated the steepness of a 2% grade. Looking at the mapmyride.com elevation profile (which is exaggerated vertically), it's easy to think you can coast down it fast. Not so, and it was obvious once we saw it in person.
The New Plan
Knowing I wouldn't have a long recovery in the middle of the course, I switched my strategy to a much more conventional time-trial strategy of keeping a relatively even wattage. I still wanted to go zone 5 on the first two hills, but otherwise stay mostly in zone 4. Because there were a lot of short recoveries (steep downhills for coasting) at the start and end of the course, I planned on being in high zone 4 rather than a low-mid zone 4 like I would on a flatter Olympic-distance course.
Wheels to the Pavement
Here's what happened on the ground The first hill went great--I held a very steady zone 5, 300 watts (other than a 30-second spike to 325 watts after getting a high-five from a spectating friend near the top). This is a steep, long hill, and a challenge to slower riders. It felt great passing dozens and dozens of people. But more importantly, I kept my watts under control and didn't go out too hard.
After one more short, steep climb I settled into a rhythm of climbing short hills (2-5 minutes each, one 11 minutes) in a mid-high zone 4 (240-260 watts), followed by short (30 second to 2 minute) descents where I was mostly coasting.
At mile 10 came a 2-mile-long shallow (2%) descent. This was one I had originally hoped to coast down, but instead took at a zone 3 tempo effort (200 watts) at about 26 mph. Elite cyclists would hold a zone 4 effort for this--but the huge wind resistance at that speed (especially with me not on a tri bike) doesn't give a big return in speed for the effort. So I chose to conserve some energy for the climb back out.
After the turnaround at mile 12.3 came 14 minutes of shallow 2% climbing (plus one short descent), which I took at a mid-high zone 4 effort. Mile 16.5 brought a 3.5-mile shallow 1% descent. Again, I took the opportunity to recover and only exerted a zone 3, 200 watt effort for those 9-10 minutes.
And then it was back to the 1-5 minute climbs, interspersed with 1-2 minute coasting descents. On the last two climbs I made sure to not go above zone 4 and keep a high cadence to avoid lactic acid buildup before the run.
Overall I only spent 6 minutes in zone 5, but 43 minutes in zone 4. My original plan had been 20 in zone 5 and 24 in zone 4. My average (normalized) power was 235 watts, which is pretty much right on target for this distance of a race (92% of my one-hour threshold power of 255). On a flat course I would have done less, but the 15 minutes of coasting/recovery on the downhills allowed a higher power output.
The Results
My final bike split was 1:19:37, 17th of 194 (top 9%) in my age group (40-44). The top 3 riders in my age group had an average time of 1:09:30; my speed was 89% of theirs, and 85% of the winner's 1:07:30. I'm very happy with that time and placing.
The question that always goes along with a fast bike split is, "Did I save enough for the run?" I'll save that discussion for my next post, but the short answer is, "Maybe not." The bike was by far my strongest leg.
What Would I Do Differently?
I'm really, really happy with how everything came together. Given the limits of my fitness level, I think I had a smart strategy (once I revised it after seeing the course), and I stuck to it. I would have liked to have taken more of the short hills at a zone 5 effort, but I felt like it was taking too much out of me.
The biggest thing I could have done different was on the shallow grade between miles 16.5 and 20, where I could have done a low zone 4 (240 watts) effort instead of the low zone 3 (200 watts). It would have saved me maybe 45 seconds but would have been hard work; it's a tough call to know if I was better off recovering instead.
Training For Next Year
I think the type of bike training I did this year worked well. I had two key bike workouts each week. First was a 40-mile ride with 3200' vertical gain. It was a mixture of short steep hills and longer sustained climbs. We would almost always ride the short hills (5-20 minutes each) at race pace (zones 4-5), and sometimes do longer continuous efforts of 40 minutes at zone 4 race pace. Almost always we'd run for 2-3 miles of hills afterward.
The second key workout was transitioning from early season tempo workouts (210 watts, starting at 20 minutes and building each week until I hit 90 minutes) to zone 4 intervals of 6-12 minutes each (building from 30 minutes to 50 minutes total). Next year I'll extend the total time of the work intervals to an hour or more, which should give me the ability to hold zone 4 in the places I only did zone 3 this year.
A workout that I only did a few times but that I'll increase is the 3-5 minute hill repeats at zone 5. This will definitely help keep a higher output on the short hills, and would have saved a couple of minutes during the race. This is definitely an advanced-level workout, though. The first two are far more important for building a fitness base.
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