General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Speed Training Rss Feed  
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2009-07-23 4:24 PM

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Subject: Speed Training
I don't know if this needs to go in the IM forum or here but since it is more of a training question I will stick it in here.

My wife and I are going to be training for the IMSG this winter. Now my wife is the strongest mental athlete that I know, she could do a 100 mile training riding in 20 degree weather with a 20mph headwind and end with a smile. Her problem is that she is not fast at all. A speedy training ride for her is 15mph. My concern is that she may not make the bike cut off time for the IM and this would be devastating. I know that if she takes 1.5 hours for the swim she has to average 13.5mph to finish the bike on time. This wouldn't be a prblem is this was a flat course but the IMSG course is really hilly.

I guess my question is whether any of you have tested and proven speed training methods that could help. Once she gets off the bike I'm not worried about her run time there is plenty of time left in the race for her to finish the run.


2009-07-23 5:08 PM
in reply to: #2304582

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Subject: RE: Speed Training
how much is she riding, how hard are the rides? aerobars?

frankly if she is riding 15mph for this its not speed that is the issue, but rather overall bike fitness.

its like running in a way, ify ou are running 12min miles, speekwork is not what you need, but rather al ot more riding.

time spent at threshold (hour TT pace), tempo work, and more riding (with lots of hills) sounds like what she needs.

make sure the bike fits right, if she can get her using aerobars, and if you can post a bit on the training side of what she is doing now/in the past that would help get some specific answers to this.

heading out for a run now, will check back this evening.
2009-07-24 4:19 PM
in reply to: #2304582

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Subject: RE: Speed Training
She is training quite a bit with a 1.5 hour ride with intervals once a week, an easy ride and a long 60-75 mile ride on Saturday. We are training for a weekend of races that has a 13 mile mtn. bike race on Friday, a century ride on Saturday and a half marathon trail run on Sunday so we are not focusing solely on the bike right now. In a week she is running 25-30 miles and riding 100-115 miles. So she's putting the mileage in but not getting results other than endurance.
2009-07-24 4:22 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training
Also, we had the bike fitted to her when we bought it and she does spend a majority of her time in aero position.
2009-07-24 7:52 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training
I don't know much about training for an ironman, so take this with a grain of salt...

Is she overtraining?  I know for me with running it's hard to run fast if you never feel rested or fresh.  When I was training for a marathon I actually got slower.  Like your wife, I had great endurance, but I had to slow down to do all the runs and put in all the miles.  Now that I focus on shorter races (up to half marathons) I am quite a bit faster.  I know this goes against a lot of the advice on this forum that you have to run more, more, more to be faster (though I do think there is some truth in that but everyone has a different limit). 
2009-07-24 8:11 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training
23scadoo - 2009-07-24 3:19 PM

She is training quite a bit with a 1.5 hour ride with intervals once a week, an easy ride and a long 60-75 mile ride on Saturday. We are training for a weekend of races that has a 13 mile mtn. bike race on Friday, a century ride on Saturday and a half marathon trail run on Sunday so we are not focusing solely on the bike right now. In a week she is running 25-30 miles and riding 100-115 miles. So she's putting the mileage in but not getting results other than endurance.


two things

one, that amount of riding is going to make for a VERY LONG ironman day.
you need to be riding a lot more than that. scrap the easy ride and make it more tempo work, and get at least another ride in there over 2 hours, and start working the longer ride up.

2nd, and this is related to the first, she is riding IN A WEEK, WHAT THE BIKE IS ON RACE DAY
see the problem?

what type of intervals is she doing? do you have any tests/races to indicate she can only hold 14mph? or just that is her ave for training rides?

i did a 3 hour ride yesterday, ave speed for the ride was 16.3, i ave 23ish for HIM distances. stops, turns, hills, wind, etc all make ave training ride speed pretty useless unless you put it into context of the conditions and terrian.


2009-07-25 5:38 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training
I hear what you're saying about riding the total mileage in a week but she is building up her miles each week in preparation for our race.

We haven't officially start ironman training yet, that won't really start until early December and we are getting a coach that trained us through our first HIM.

The intervals that she is doing are 20 minutes of warm up then 7 mins. at zone 4 pace followed by 3 mins of recovery, she will do this 4 times and then have a cool down. She has also done tempo rides where she will incrementally increased that 7 mins to 10, then 12, then 15 which is still followed by a 3 min recovery.

I appreciate your help here.
2009-07-25 5:41 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training
if you are building up now, and dont even start to dec, i would keep with the program then.

i would also encourage two thigns in the riding.

one, start lengthening out the tempo rides.

20-to 40 min of tempo at a time.

on the longer rides, maybe not every one, but start including some tempo work in there, getting used to pushing hard for long periods of time will do wonders for her speed.
2009-07-25 6:42 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training
great advice...am in a similar situation as 23scadoo's wife, so it's definitely very helpful to see some advice on how to correct things. I'm a total mule....you push me in the direction of the finish line and tell me how long to go, and i'll do it for as long as it takes. Have been getting worried about never picking up speed. Naturally, i'd prefer that the solution is to sit on my butt eating cheeseburgers, but am glad to get some ideas on how to start getting better.

Good luck to you guys on IMSG!!!

Edited by gabe.pitta 2009-07-25 6:43 PM
2009-07-25 7:51 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training
I am just like your wife. I am slow and also training for IMSG. I did the Grand Columbian Ironman a couple of years ago and just barely made the bike cut off. Yikes!

I would recommend cutting out some of the longer stuff for now. We still have tons of time to get that in before IMSG. Just work on speed and hill strength for now. I am currently on a plan that does one hour long hill workout and one hour long speed workout in each discipline each week. One of my bikes is usually on the bike trainer unless I just can't stand it and have to get outside. I am thrilled to see my times dropping. As things get closer, I will add the distance in and hopefully keep some of my speed as well.

2009-07-25 8:00 PM
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Subject: RE: Speed Training

That sounds like me!  I too am training for IMSG and while I can pretty much go forever, I crash early when speed is thrown into the mix.  Right now my only plan is start adding more miles, then in early December I'll start following an IM training plan.



2009-07-26 9:40 AM
in reply to: #2306616

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Subject: RE: Speed Training
We are training for a weekend of races that has a 13 mile mtn. bike race on Friday, a century ride on Saturday and a half marathon trail run on Sunday


This is what we are training for currently, that's why it might appear that we are over training at the moment. We are not building up miles for the IM yet but for other races.

Thanks for the tips from everyone.
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