The Canadian pro walks us through some of the key elements of his preparation for a successful season of racing. Developing endurance is not a quick or simple task. To help get my head around it, I like to break it down into three more manageable chunks. There are three main areas where endurance machines are made:
A long run.
A long ride.
A long day.
The most important window for these three elements is over the five weeks leading into any race. It's here where I do my best to improve in all three areas:
For the long run, I lace up my running shoes (I run in the Skechers GO RUN®) and start off with a steady state run of 30km (18 miles) including a 1-km (1.6 mile) surge to race pace (or faster) every 5 km (3 miles). I then slowly increase this run to 40km (20 miles) over the course of four weeks.
The best way to prepare for an IRONMAN race is to focus on pushing your upper limits for most of the year.
Because cycling isn't as taxing on the body as running, after the long run, I immediately set out on a 5-hour ride. I do two more of these over the next four weeks. I also build up my interval workouts to a point where my final workout last 3 hours.
With regards to the "long day," I think it's safest to piggyback this day onto your long ride. So, on the long ride/long day, I would do a 1 hour swim in the morning of about 4km, then have a quick bite to eat and hop onto my bike for five hours, then run 1 hour off the bike.
Watching endurance grow
I'll admit the beginning of this sequence can be tough. The first 30km (18 mile) run in this block for my training for last year's IRONMAN Arizona was very taxing. I was slower than usual, and it was very challenging at the end. The same was true of my first long ride/long day. I averaged 231 watts for the ride (low for me), and nearly fell off the bike afterward. The run off the bike was also challenging.
Challenges aside, my endurance progressed very quickly from there. In my next long run for Arizona, I got significantly faster, and felt much better. In my next long ride/long day, my watts went up. Admittedly, I still had a major lull around 3 hours, but by 4 hours I settled in, and the 5th hour was significantly easier. My hour run off the bike had improved as well. This pattern continued over my final long run and long brick training days. It was at this point that I started to feel confident that I would be able to put together a much better race in Arizona than I did in Kona just before.
Putting it in practice
On race day, I was able to hold good power numbers for about 3.5 hours. For the final 35 minutes I averaged 280 watts (about 30-40 watts less than my target). On the run I was able to hold pace for about 16 miles. Up until this point I was averaging 3:45/km. Unfortunately, my endurance started to wane and for the final 10 miles and I averaged 4:06/km. Both of these performances were significant improvements on Kona, but both still were not perfect.
This is all to be expected though, as I only had five weeks to work on improving my endurance. I think with one more five-week stint, I could have gotten into the best possible shape my current system would allow.
In the Kona in 2015 I learned that spending lots of time at race pace does not make race pace easier. My conclusion was that spending time significantly above race pace and the remainder of the time significantly below race pace is what makes race pace easier.
I took this conclusion one step further in 2016 and decided that in order to get my intervals as high as possible above race pace, I wasn't going to do any sessions with unnecessary volume. Since I was focusing on IRONMAN 70.3, the necessary volume was 2 hours on the bike and 20 kilometers on the run, as this is the time/distance covered in the race. I still think this is the best way to prepare for an IRONMAN 70.3 and even an IRONMAN race.
The science of volume
Doing long bikes, runs, and "big days" throughout the year puts unnecessary fatigue into the body. That fatigue will show itself in your high-end interval workouts, and allows you to push your upper limits. Once the fitness is there, I don’t think it takes long to build endurance. People who are already reasonable fit can expect it to take about 10 weeks to get to the point where they can race an IRONMAN from start to finish.
The best way to prepare for an IRONMAN race is to focus on pushing your upper limits for most of the year. If I was preparing for Kona for instance, and I started training on January 1st, I would spend the vast majority of January through to the end of June focusing on pushing my Vo2 Max and lactate threshold paces.
Around mid-July (about 10 weeks before Kona), I would continue to push those upper limits, but I would then start systematically increasing the volume of my long run, long ride, and long day. The hope for this phase of training is that I can eventually exercise for the duration the race will take me, without much taxation. Keep in mind though that once this phase starts, it is very unlikely you'll be able to produce the same Vo2 Max and lactate threshold paces because you are introducing a lot more fatigue into the body (due to the increased volume). But, it is still important to work these upper values.
Remember, long sessions are not about pace. They are about stimulating the muscles for the duration you plan to compete for, so that in the race, they will continue to fire properly from start to finish. This will allow you to reach your potential at your next IRONMAN event.
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