General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Longest training ride for HIM Rss Feed  
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2014-01-23 3:34 PM

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Subject: Longest training ride for HIM

I'm training for my 2nd HIM.  This plan has me doing several 3.5-5 hour rides as my long ride each weekend all the way through the plan, (Intermediate 20 wk HIM plan from BT).  I'm good with doing them, I'm just wondering if this is a normal time amount.   I am training for St. George, so I know the bike course is a doozy and want to show up fit for the hills. Just curious.



2014-01-23 4:02 PM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
2014-01-23 4:17 PM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Alpharetta, Georgia
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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM

5 hours seems pretty ambitious for a HIM (even if you are at a 15mph average that is 75 miles), but if you're building up to that, it won't hurt.
My longest is usually 55 or 60 miles.

2014-01-23 4:24 PM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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over a barrier
Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
Really depends on your background, time available to train, enjoyment level on the bike, and how competitive you want to be.

My first year of Triathlon (also first 70.3 year). I did a 50 miler. In hindsight, I wish I did much much more.

My last competitive year of training, I was doing 60-80 mile rides every weekend throughout the entire plan w/ basically no build up. It was just what I did on the weekend.
2014-01-23 6:05 PM
in reply to: running2far

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
I did an 80 miler for my last half along with several rides of 40+ and 50+. It made 56 miles no big deal and allowed for good nutrition testing. Not necessary but helpful if you have the time.
2014-01-23 7:06 PM
in reply to: ransick

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
Well I definitely have the time and will to devote to the longer rides, so I guess it can't hurt ! I'll just keep a close eye on signals of fatigue, etc. Thanks for the feedback!


2014-01-23 7:36 PM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
I did 57 & 60 miles last year training for the Boulder 70.3.
2014-01-24 5:27 AM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
My plan calls for 4 hours being the longest...Its all about intensity for that duration. top end Z2 for most of it. as I get closer to my A race I will be doing 4x30min @ HIM Watts...but only a 3-3:30 ride with proper warm and CD...but id say 3-5 is good to do if you want to do well on the bike leg and still run a good half marathon.
2014-01-24 6:38 AM
in reply to: espejo09

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM

My longest ride was 80; but I routinely bricked 60-70 miles with a three mile run. I felt really good about covering 56 miles for my first HIM.  I think you should plan on at lease 70 miles and frequent 50 milers. Honestly, trust the plan you pick. If it is a good plan, it will build you base with several recovery periods and get you ready. 

2014-01-24 7:27 AM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
Originally posted by ingleshteechur

I'm training for my 2nd HIM.  This plan has me doing several 3.5-5 hour rides as my long ride each weekend all the way through the plan, (Intermediate 20 wk HIM plan from BT).  I'm good with doing them, I'm just wondering if this is a normal time amount.   I am training for St. George, so I know the bike course is a doozy and want to show up fit for the hills. Just curious.




For a hilly course, I would say that your plan should work. I did Savageman a few years ago and picked hilly routes of 50- ~70 miles which took me as long as your plan calls for. My longest ride was 69 miles and took me just a bit over 5 hours. A few of these I would also do as bricks with the run being ~7 miles. I just knew that Savageman wasn't going to be kind and I had to prepare for the hilly courses, bike and run. Now I will say for a flatter course like Eagleman, I usually only do 50-60 miles on a flatter route~ around 3 hours and sometimes also do bricks for those covering 6-9 miles on the run.

The whole idea was to prepare for the distance and the type of courses. Like running2far said, though, it does depends sometimes on what he stated. So, I'd say to try and follow your plan as best you can to prepare.

Good luck at St George!



Edited by sbrdave 2014-01-24 7:33 AM
2014-01-24 8:05 AM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
my plan I was on also had long 5hr rides. I would do them. i would set up a pace and train to hold it over distance.

my last 5 hr i rode a 100 miles. i hit the lap at 2.5hr and turned around. i had the same pace to and fro. without watching the clock

i often ride 50-60 every long day. keeping a constant pace and building on it

just my 2cent



2014-01-30 7:24 PM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM

I'm normally in the 4 hour range for my longest ride or around 70 miles given the route I do.  I think one year I peaked at closer to 4.5 hours and 80 miles.  My long ride is usally 45 miles at a minimum year round.  50-65 miles for pretty much the majority of HIM training (20ish weeks), and 80+ as a minimum during bike racing season.

That said, the long rides YOU should be doing should be based on your fitness and goals.  Riding around for 5 hours at extremely low intensity is a waste of time.  Riding around for 5 hours with good intensity, but leaves you so wasted that it impacts your other planned workouts is also unproductive.  It's a balance between workout duration, workout intensity, and recovery.  So many times people see a prescribed workout and only focust on meeting the duration requirement...and completely disregard the intensity or recovery costs.  You have to balance all three to maximize fitness gains.  Don't be affraid to cut down on duration if it allows you to hit the proper intensity and still recover.

 

2014-01-30 9:46 PM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
My last HIM I did several 50's, 60's and a 70, not to mention a heap of 20 and 30 milers,, long runs reached 16 and did a heap of 8's 10's and 13's..
This year (returning to New Orleans April 13th, 2014), I am looking at training a different way. As with last year I did a lot of back to back Swim/Bike/Runs of half the HIM distance and a few 3/4's the HIM distance, this year, i don't think I will do any distances in any of the 3 disciplines over the HIM distances. More focus on intensity and I love to train for what I am racing. Training for a Swim/Bike/Run event means lots of Swim/Bike/run workouts..Recovery is key here,, rotating eveyother week with the longer workouts,, but i have the time..

I currently train in each discipline 3 times a week:
Sunday-rest
Monday-swim/bike
Tuesday-upperbody strength/run
Wednesday-swim/bike
Thursday-upperbody strength/run
Friday-rest
Saturday-swim/bike/run

Right now my swims are from 25 to 35 minutes. Bike rides are from 21 to 35miles. runs are from 6.5 to 8miles.
This will progress over the next 2 months to swims of 45minutes,bike rides of 42 to 56 miles and runs of 10 to 13 miles.

The Saturday swim/bike/runs are currently swims of 25 minutes / bike rides of 28 miles and runs of 6.5 miles. These will progress to 40 minute swims/42 mile bike rides and 10 miles runs.

My body, mind and spirit loves to train this way and seems to work. Once again with good recovery 2 days a week and proper nutrition before, during and after.

2014-01-31 12:11 AM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Canyon, Texas
Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
I rode a long ride of 60 miles weekly for about six weeks before my HIM. I was very pleased with my bike time.
2014-01-31 3:07 AM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
When I trained for my first (and to date, only) HIM, I built up to 100 km rides (about 3:30-3:50 depending on route, wind, etc.) and then basically did those almost every week with a brick run of about 10 km. I did one longer ride (85 miles, 5 hours) with a buddy who was training for a century. Probably not necessary from a physical point of view but as others have said, it's great for mental training--makes a HIM ride seem shorter! I also found it interesting that my pace for the 85 mile ride was exactly the pace I usually rode 62 at, with pretty much the same effort, and close to my pace in the (much hillier) race. I do suck as a biker, relative to my swim and run, but apparently don't slow down much!

Was wondering what plan you were doing as your recent workouts have looked brutal. I looked at that plan when did the HIM and it scared me--decided just to modify the beginner one. Looked at it again and it still scares me, esp. solo during the hottest season here. Going to focus on Oly distance this year and start the int. Oly plan after a few more weeks of base-building, Best of luck at IMSG!

Edited by Hot Runner 2014-01-31 3:11 AM
2014-01-31 10:15 AM
in reply to: Jason N

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
Originally posted by Jason N

I'm normally in the 4 hour range for my longest ride or around 70 miles given the route I do.  I think one year I peaked at closer to 4.5 hours and 80 miles.  My long ride is usally 45 miles at a minimum year round.  50-65 miles for pretty much the majority of HIM training (20ish weeks), and 80+ as a minimum during bike racing season.

That said, the long rides YOU should be doing should be based on your fitness and goals.  Riding around for 5 hours at extremely low intensity is a waste of time.  Riding around for 5 hours with good intensity, but leaves you so wasted that it impacts your other planned workouts is also unproductive.  It's a balance between workout duration, workout intensity, and recovery.  So many times people see a prescribed workout and only focust on meeting the duration requirement...and completely disregard the intensity or recovery costs.  You have to balance all three to maximize fitness gains.  Don't be affraid to cut down on duration if it allows you to hit the proper intensity and still recover.

 

This. It's quality, not quantity. You could easily do well at st George (royal you) with some solid. 3 hour rides with good climbing at goal watts/hr with 1 or 2 4 hour rides. But they need to be focused, not "just riding". YMMV


2014-02-01 1:10 PM
in reply to: ChrisM

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
I'd follow the advice given here on balance. You want a long ride, but you don't want to be coasting, nor do you want to burn yourself out so much the next two days don't have sufficient recovery to workout at intensity.

For my first HIM, I rarely did anything over 60 miles. For many reasons, I did not perform as well as I'd hoped, but the bike wasn't the problem. For my third HIM, I had several 90-100 mile rides, and the run was ** so ** much easier than in #1 or #2. It's what they say - to increase run performance in long course, focus on bike fitness.
2014-02-02 6:32 PM
in reply to: FranzZemen

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
Fear the run at St. George. Snow Canyon is a killer climb on the bike but there a lot of long descents. The run is an absolute monster so I'd do as much as you can to train on the bike and keep plenty in the take for the run.
2014-02-03 12:46 PM
in reply to: ChrisM

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM

Originally posted by ChrisM
Originally posted by Jason N

I'm normally in the 4 hour range for my longest ride or around 70 miles given the route I do.  I think one year I peaked at closer to 4.5 hours and 80 miles.  My long ride is usally 45 miles at a minimum year round.  50-65 miles for pretty much the majority of HIM training (20ish weeks), and 80+ as a minimum during bike racing season.

That said, the long rides YOU should be doing should be based on your fitness and goals.  Riding around for 5 hours at extremely low intensity is a waste of time.  Riding around for 5 hours with good intensity, but leaves you so wasted that it impacts your other planned workouts is also unproductive.  It's a balance between workout duration, workout intensity, and recovery.  So many times people see a prescribed workout and only focust on meeting the duration requirement...and completely disregard the intensity or recovery costs.  You have to balance all three to maximize fitness gains.  Don't be affraid to cut down on duration if it allows you to hit the proper intensity and still recover.

 

This. It's quality, not quantity. You could easily do well at st George (royal you) with some solid. 3 hour rides with good climbing at goal watts/hr with 1 or 2 4 hour rides. But they need to be focused, not "just riding". YMMV

Agree with Jason and Chris.  I think a lot of people look at their rides and base them on time or distance, and neglect the intensity piece.  I was doing big chunks of my rides above my HIM goal wattage, and went out as far as 75miles riding harder than planned for the race.  I also think the longer rides are a good time to try a brick run (not every ride) simply to see how you manage fatigue/nutrition wise.

One other consideration when planning out rides - you have to swim for 30-45min before you get on your bike come raceday.  For some of us, that swim adds more fatigue than an extra 30min on the bike would.  Swim/bike bricks may not be overly common, but they'll give you a good idea after a couple of hours of riding what toll the swim takes on you.

2014-02-03 9:35 PM
in reply to: GoFaster

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
Agree with the above. I did a couple of run/bike/run bricks for that reason. I can't have pool access until 7:30 AM here, and that would put me on the road too late for a long ride or brick given the traffic and heat, so I did a 30-35 minute run at moderate effort instead to simulate the time it would take me to do the HIM swim, mainly to get a better handle on nutrition for the bike. I followed that immediately with (I think) a 90K ride and then a 50-minute run. I can't remember if it was in the plan or my tri club coach suggested it since a swim-long bike or swim-long bike-run brick wasn't doable for me.

In any case, it's more of an issue if you're not a strong swimmer. I didn't feel like the swim took anything out of my bike or run for the HIM. On occasion I have felt it has been a factor for sprints, since I have to swim harder than my natural pace, esp. at the start, and I'm trying to exit transition ahead of some AG rivals who are decent swimmers but much stronger bikers (and, in one case, get out of the way of a rival who has a habit of falling over in front of me as she attempts a flying mount!)
2014-02-04 5:00 PM
in reply to: Hot Runner

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
I know the subject is not about bricks or swims, but following some above posts, I'll just land the thought the a fourth cornerstone workout for an HIM outside of the long run, bike and swim is the mock-Oly focusing on steady pace rather than intensity. It has just the right distances to challenge endurance but not so much of drain on energy systems that it screws with your week. Work it in early in your plan using lower distances, building up to the standard distance. The goal isn't just to do one, but to do one easily and consistently.


2014-02-06 5:35 PM
in reply to: Jason N

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM

Originally posted by Jason N

I'm normally in the 4 hour range for my longest ride or around 70 miles given the route I do.  I think one year I peaked at closer to 4.5 hours and 80 miles.  My long ride is usally 45 miles at a minimum year round.  50-65 miles for pretty much the majority of HIM training (20ish weeks), and 80+ as a minimum during bike racing season.

That said, the long rides YOU should be doing should be based on your fitness and goals.  Riding around for 5 hours at extremely low intensity is a waste of time.  Riding around for 5 hours with good intensity, but leaves you so wasted that it impacts your other planned workouts is also unproductive.  It's a balance between workout duration, workout intensity, and recovery.  So many times people see a prescribed workout and only focust on meeting the duration requirement...and completely disregard the intensity or recovery costs.  You have to balance all three to maximize fitness gains.  Don't be affraid to cut down on duration if it allows you to hit the proper intensity and still recover.

 

This is really good advice. Last weekend I did my 4 hour ride on the trainer. I filled the time with different intervals and worked on cadence and kept my heart rate in zone 2 the majority of the time.  I felt like it was a good training session, but when i finished I was kind of like "huh, I think I could have pushed harder.' I have another 4 hours this weekend, I'm really going to work on keeping the intensity up.

Great advice, thank you.

2014-02-14 12:35 PM
in reply to: ingleshteechur

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Subject: RE: Longest training ride for HIM
Saint George isn't hilly we like to call em speed bumps

Ok the nice thing about STG while there is 4-5 major climbs you also get a lot of good downs too. The course is a little of a roller coaster, the killer is Snow Canyon though that is at like mile 45 its a grade for like 4 miles and will beat you to death. My advice would be to either do more than the 56 so you get your legs used to being tired for that beast of a hill or do 40-45 and then find some hills to climb for several miles at the end doing 45-50 to try and accumulate yourself to what you see at the hill. Oh and there is a little speedbump hill at mile 54 that made me want to cry, I mean its only a 1/4 a mile but I was like are you kidding me are we actively looking for hills to ride at this point.
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