I'm starting to learn that in the sport of triathlon there really is no offseason. Yes the training volume is slightly reduced compared to what it was in August for example, but in reality when you have to compete in three very different sports on a single day of competition, training is time consuming. Not only from a perspective of the hours spent on day-to-day basis but also in terms of the length of time it takes to build for a race because of all the intricacies that make up the triathlon. Take a half ironman for example, first you need to train to be able to complete a 2km open water swim. Swimming, I find atleast, is an extremely technique-based sport, and one that relies heavily on rhythm. For a person who doesn't come from a swim background, other than going through the swimming lesson levels but no club swimming or anything, it would be difficult for me to take a while off swimming and then just jump back in the water and start ripping off some fast intervals. In fact, I took a complete 4 days off swimming after the race in Miami, and then on Friday swam, and it was probably one of my worst feeling swims of the year. My stroke felt terrible, I felt like I was sinking in the water, and was completely out of rhythm - and that was after only 4 days! So swimming takes a lot of time for anyone since its so technical, and then needing to build the endurance and speed to hold a fast pace for 2km of non-stop swimming, with sighting along the way to even see where you're going. For the bike, you need to train to be able to complete a 90 km bike ride and in this training your needing to train to be able to hold a high power start to finish for a little more than two hours if your going for the top of the podium (for a pretty decent cyclist it will take around 3 hours if not more), in addition to being able to keep your body in the most aerodynamic position possible for that duration of time. For someone who isn't used to being in aerobars on a time trial bike, I would say they may only last a minute before the pain/discomfort in their neck, shoulder, arms, and back become to much to handle. So being able to hold this position is something you need to practice and gradually build up. You also need to train to be able to handle the conditions like getting used to biking in a crosswind with deep section wheels, and the course itself such as training to be able to climb a 10km long hill and not letting up after cresting the top. And then the run. A half-marathon. Most half-marathon builds are anywhere from 12, if your experienced, to 18 weeks. This time however you will be running after 90km on the bike, which means you need to train to be able to handle the heavy, "brick" like feeling in your legs starting the run coming off the bike, and find your rhythm as quickly as possible. Then are the "soft" skills of triathlon such as transitions from swim to bike (getting the wetsuit off and mounting the bike quickly) and then bike to run (dismounted, putting on shoes, race belt, etc), which could make or break your race if your going for the podium - which it did for me this year in Orillia where I finished third despite having a faster bike and run then 2nd place since I was slower in transition. On top of all these skills, your doing all of this in one day from one event to the next, meaning you need to practice your fueling and hydration to be able to even make it to the finish line. Basically what I'm saying is that it takes a lot of time to train to complete a half-ironman and even more if your trying to win it. But like I said at the beginning of the post this time of the year where you are doing marginally less training than mid-season, so it is the time to use the extra moments to reflect on the year, and think about all these factors that make up a race, and what you can improve on.
For me, the first thing I am evaluating (and have been for the last week) is my bike. What can I do to make it better? My bike improved hugely this season, and it turned into one of my bigger weapons in races. My FTP (functional threshold power - the power you can hold for 1 hour) went up hugely at the beginning of the year, and then continued to go up till around half-way through the year, at which point I was pretty content with where my FTP and was now in the thick of racing season, so I stuck to workouts that would allow me essentially to maintain my FTP for the remainder of the year. Because I was racing so regularly I didn't feel I had enough time throughout some weeks between recovering just after a race, then training regularly, and then recovering again before the next race to really push my upper limits deeper into the season. Really I comes down to the fact that I don't think I periodized my racing well enough. In the coming season I would like to organize my race schedule a little better so that I can actually improve from race to race instead of just hitting my fitness level early on in the year and then plateauing. Also, after my FTP test, I never actually spent very much time at my FTP, and seemed to really struggle with workouts with intervals above 120%. Although for half-ironman racing you are obviously not working at your FTP (since that's power you could theoretically only hold for 1 hour), if you improved your threshold power and kept the percentage of that power the same you would improve, or similarly if you were to improve your FTP but keep your target race wattage the same the relative intensity factor (%FTP) would be lower which would mean that you could run off the bike better.
That was pretty wordy so let me put some numbers to that to explain what I mean. Say for example right now my 20 minute FTP test yielded a value of 305W giving me an FTP of 290W (after multiplying 305*0.95). If during Miami I was intending on holding 245W that means my goal power was 0.85 or 85% of my threshold. 0.85 is at about the upper end of where you can run decently well off the bike (given good hydration levels - which I did not have in Miami, hence my run performance). If I were to push harder throughout the year and improved my FTP to say 310W then if I still wanted to hold 245 W since I maybe had good experiences in previous races running off that type of power than 245W would be only 0.79 or 79%, and this would be around the %FTP a beginner triathlete would be able to run very well off the bike. If however, my goal was still to push myself as hard as I could and straddle the line to going overboard and not being able to run as well off the bike (but maybe now have more time in the bank from the bike) I could still push at 85% of my threshold which would now be 264W, and that would mean a significantly faster bike time. According to best bike split with the same IF of 0.85 but FTP of 310 instead of 290W the bike split would be an entire 3 minutes faster on the MiamiMan course. Anyways the point is I will be working hard to bump up my FTP to as high as I can so that I can perform better by either have race pace feel easier since its at a relatively lower intensity and therefore running better off the bike, or the pro choice: pushing a higher power on the bike at the same relative intensity and just getting better at running off the bike by practicing it more.
To accomplish this goal I will be doing more workouts with intervals at or above 120% FTP to improve the FTP. All season I really struggled with VO2 max type intervals around 3 minutes in length and above 120%, which I will work hard to improve since it will lead to improvements in my threshold. I also would like to work hard on trying to improve my 5 minute power. You might say why your five minute power if the bike is over 2 hours in length. Well because there are points in race where you may need to hold a high power for about 5 minutes to surge ahead of a competitor and stay ahead for good. For example, in Miami, I caught the second place guy at around the 13 mile marker, passed him, only to stay ahead for a few minutes before he went ahead of me, and then I had to put in another big effort to get ahead of him again. Point is, I had to two times the work to get ahead of one guy, when if I was able to put a big 5 minute surge in, it would be done with there and then. How I know my 5 minute is lacking is that currently my 20 minute power of 5.71 W/kg puts me into the Domestic Professional Cyclist Category (one category away from International Professional), and my 5 minute power is behind in a Category 1 Cyclist category. Mind you, I've never specifically done a 5 minute test, but there is a huge data pool of my rides to draw a 5 minute max power profile from. Lastly, after all this power talk I would like to improve my positioning on the bike, specifically my head position. I've looked at in the last 2 weeks pictures from world record holders, tour de france winners, and ironman professionals, and I've noticed that for almost all of them their eyes are in line with the belly of the deltoid muscle, and my eyes on the other hand are above the line of my shoulders making my position less aerodynamic. I think I'll just work have to work on general flexibility to achieve this, if needed I'll go for another bike fit to make some adjustments to get me even lower on the bike. However, I do think improved flexibility will be the answer since my bike has already been set up in a very aggressive position.
UPDATE: Just to update this post the last 1.5 weeks I've been riding very hard, and doing many supra threshold (above threshold) type intervals, and as of today improved my 20 minute power from 304W to 320W!!!
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