- [Speaker] Morning, trainiacs.
Big ride today, big, big, big ride.
Well, not massively big, but big
based off of what I have been doing.
So, we are now two and a half months out
from Half Ironman Puerto Rico, 2019.
My, hopefully, Half Ironman World Championship
qualifying race.
At least, my crack at it.
That means that I have to start getting my
race simulation bikes, the key workouts,
that prepare me for a Half Ironman, on point.
So today, while I do that bike,
we are going to revive.
- [Booming Voiceover] Thoughts from the bike
- [Speaker] And I'm gonna tell you about
how to structure your race simulation bike,
in the three months leading up to your race.
This is early to get going on a three and a half
hour workout during the week (groans).
(high energy music)
(bike wheels turning)
Alright, so what we're talking about here
are the long endurance bikes that
are typically associated with really getting ready
in the last two to three months before a key race.
These are often done on the weekend
and in the last two to three months before a race,
I recommend that you get in at least four of these sessions.
Ideally five or six.
Also you might wanna get a pencil and a piece of paper,
because, I'm gonna be giving you
a lot of structure about these workouts.
So of course, the first question is,
how long should these race simulation bike days be?
Well, from a sprint through to an Olympic Half Ironman,
we're talking about 35km, somewhere around 20 miles,
60km, somewhere around 38 miles,
120km, roughly 74 miles,
and then for an Ironman about five to five and a half hours.
At the Ironman level, it's not quite necessary
that we go so super long, it's more about time,
and making sure that we can get through
that five to five and a half hour energy hissy fit
that our body goes through.
Get through that, should be okay.
Now, should you be doing this
on the aero bike or a road bike?
Well, as Cameron Wurf, who is teaching at
how to bike with Cameron Wurf,
the guys is the two time defending
Kona course record holder teaching that course
if you go to triathlontaren.com/earlymasterclass
you can get in on the pre-sale for half price,
$45 instead of $90, anyway,
he does only about one ride a week in the aero bars,
on his time trial bike.
He just wants to keep his body aware,
of how to get into that position.
75, 80% of his riding is done on a road bike,
but this key session is that session
that is done in the aero position.
We're trying to mimic what we go through on race days
as close as possible, so that means
that this long endurance ride is done
as much in the aero bars as possible.
How should this workout look?
Well, the majority of it, should be in low intensity,
zone two heart rate, under your race pace.
We're looking at building our cardiovascular system
and the best way to do that is at zone two.
If you haven't gone and done it yet,
go to triathlontaren.com/hrtraining
and get our free heart rate system
for how to train with your heart rate.
This is the best way to build endurance.
So while you're in that low intensity zone,
what I want you to do is focus on nasal breathing,
you can use something super good looking
like this intake breathing, nose bar,
a Breathe Right nasal strip or
just puff your top lip out like...
Helps you breath, and why we do that
is that it opens up your blood vessels,
and it actually keeps more carbon dioxide in your blood,
which allows our muscles to strip
more oxygen out of the red blood cells.
So we actually become more efficient at processing oxygen.
Also, while we're at that low intensity zone,
keep your cadence quite low, in the 50 to 70 range,
so what we're doing is we're building up
our cardiovascular system with that low intensity,
with some nasal breathing and then that
low cadence, it ends up building our muscular endurance,
our ability for our muscles to do a repetitive motion,
over and over and over and over,
under a little bit of stress.
And then the last hour is where we actually
step it up to intervals of over race intensity.
That's where things get tough.
So whether you're going for one hour
or three hours or five hours, the last hour,
earmark for slightly over race intensity.
When you're already tired, very good workout.
Does this ride have to be continuous,
or can you start and stop?
Well, follow those guidelines for the distances,
or the times of this ride.
You wanna hit those guidelines.
The first chunk, that is the low intensity chunk,
the majority of the ride, can be start and stop.
The last hour however, make that continuous.
That is what we're really trying to get the benefit out of,
that higher intensity, continuous ride at the end,
is where you're going to build a ton of fitness.
So try to make that as continuous as possible.
And what about running after the bike,
well remember that what we're trying to do,
is make this a race simulation day.
So certainly in the last two to three months,
before a race, you wanna start getting in
a fair amount of brick workout.
Especially after a long distance bike,
where you are going to be on tired legs,
like you are in a race.
Now this brick run is not where you're building endurance,
so it doesn't have to be long.
For a sprint athlete, it might only need to be
somewhere around 10 minutes, for a Half Ironman athlete,
maybe somewhere around 20 - 30.
For a full Ironman, 30 - 40, that's about it.
We just wanna see how our legs are going to react
off the bike and give it that sensation,
of turning over the legs, after being tired on the bike.
This is hard to talk and warm up.
And then the last thing, this is the ride
where you figure our your triathlon race nutrition.
So what ever your nutrition plan is,
and if you go to triathlontaren.com/triathlonnutritionguide
you can get calculators, the entire system
of how to figure out your race nutrition,
customized to you.
This is the workout that you start figuring out
what does and doesn't work for you,
so whatever you think you're going to do in a race,
or you want to start trying, this is the time,
to work out those kinks.
You do not, do not, hear something two weeks before a race,
and you're like ooh, that's sounds like it would work,
I'm going to try that come race day.
Absolutely not, you do it in these workouts.
It is especially critical if you're following
a train low race high method, where you train
on lower carbs, and race on higher carbs.
You have to have in that case,
one workout a week over the final six weeks of your prep,
where you are actually taking in carbohydrates,
because if you've trained low,
for months and months with the majority of your workouts
you have to then give your body
the ability to fuel itself off of carbs,
so this is the workout that you do it in.
Now, you can go back and re-watch some of this,
take the notes, or you can go to the links
in the description below, we'll put the link to
the how to bike with Cameron Wurf
early sale for the masterclass,
the links for how to get to the heart rate training system
and how to get to the triathlon race nutrition system.
Or, if you want to be on team trainiac,
where all of this is laid out for you,
every single workout, you can go to
triathlontaren.com/teamwaitlist and all of this
is set out for you, every single workout.
5,500 workouts, customized to you, all year round.
It's pretty good.
So there you go trainiacs, that is
your long, key, critical, long endurance bike workout,
how to structure it over the last
two to three months before a big race.
Now I, just have two hours
and 45 minutes left of this stuff.
What's on Netflix these days, what's good on Netflix?
Check out the links in the description below,
make sure you subscribe, go follow me on Zwift
all that jazz, later trainiacs.