Half Ironman Training Tips

 

The middle distance of triathlon

In track and field we have the sprinters, the middle distance runners and the distance runners. Middle distance runners are a special breed as they have to combine speed with distance. A difficult and sometimes very painful task, the half Ironman triathlon is the middle distance of triathlon. In fact Europeans call half Ironman races middle distance triathlons. Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons can be done without too much worry about running out of energy. Your body stores enough glycogen for about two hours worth of energy. This means that during the race you will only need minimal calories to carry you across the finish line depending on how long it takes you to finish.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, an Ironman race is a total energy management race. If you go too hard and race anaerobically you are very likely to have energy problems as it would be very hard to replenish stores for such a long period of time. Most smart Ironman competitors set their heart rate monitors to an aerobic pace and wait until the last hours of the race to push their pace. The half Ironman however is a very tricky race. If you go aerobic and play it safe you will be fine but most likely leave too much in the tank and not get your best time. This means that to get your best time you will have to go anaerobic but only to a level where you can get your nutrition right and replenish stores to avoid energy problems like bonking. As expected this is a difficult thing to master.

 

Develop your endurance

When planning your half Ironman training it is important that you first develop your endurance with a solid aerobic base. The speed and anaerobic training plays a role to get you ready for race day towards the end of the training program. However, remember that triathlon is an endurance sport. The most important training is your long training session. Speed is like icing on the cake. Get your body and your mind comfortable with the distance. You should definitely include some sessions in training that go as far as you will on race day. Each discipline will be discussed separately later in this article.

 

Brick training

Your ability to run off the bike is important for any triathlon and it cannot be overlooked for the half Ironman. Do a short run after your long bike sessions every other week for the last three months before your race. Start with an easy 15-minute run initially and build this run to 30 minutes over your training period.

 

Tempo and speed work

Tempo runs are very important for half Ironman training as they will allow your body to become efficient at an effort similar to the one on race day. The tempo runs will then lead you to the speed work where you can go anaerobic and develop your capability to flush lactic acid from your system. Remember that to get your best performance during a half Ironman you  may have to race anaerobically. This is the painful part of racing and training. Get your body used to this feeling and see how you feel in training as it will provide a clue as to how hard is too hard.

 

Nutrition

A good nutrition plan for race day will allow you to race at a faster level during a half Ironman. Remember that we only have two hours of energy in our bodies to race at a high level. This means that the rest needs to be provided by you during the race. Take somewhere from 500 to 700 calories per hour. The more anaerobic you race the more you will need. The best tip here is to practice race nutrition in training. We are all different and some types of foods will not agree with you. Find out what will be provided on race day and practice with it. Perhaps you may have to bring your own if the food provided does not agree with your stomach.

 

The swim

You should build your long swim session up to 4000 metres. Practice efficiency with drills, perhaps get your swim coach to analyse your technique with a video analysis that you can review at the same time. If you have the opportunity, do a couple of open water swims with your wetsuit. If not then try it at the pool including a straight swim of the race distance. Do not swim the race distance all the time in training. Ask your swim coach to design training sessions to make you faster.

 

The bike

The bike is the longest leg of a triathlon and if you want to have a good race this is a leg that will break your race if you do not stay relatively close to the competition. As expected this is also the leg that will take the most time in training. Build your long sessions to about 130% of the time you think it will take you to complete the bike on race day. For example if you expect to finish the bike ride in three hours then your longest rides should peak at about four hours. Remember that you need to run after the bike so your endurance needs to be such that after three hours of riding your tank should have a lot left in it.

 

The run

Look at any race results and you will find the best runners usually take the top positions. The bike can break your race but the run will make your race. Build your long run until you can cover the race distance or about 110% of the race distance. Participating in a half marathon is a great idea. Do this about two months before the race. Be careful during your build up as running is also the sport that creates the most injuries. These injuries usually come from too much or too hard too soon. Be patient.

 

The taper

No good training program is complete without a proper taper. When planning your taper start your taper gradually. Your longest run should be five weeks out, your longest bike four weeks out and your longest swim three weeks out. Each sport is different and each sport poses different stresses on the body. If the training does not go well prior to taper time do not make the mistake of cramming training in at this point. It is better to arrive to the race 10% under trained than 1% over trained.

 

Race week

Your taper on race week should include a couple of days off. Definitely rest the entire day two days before the race. Then on race day do a 15-minute session in each sport to stretch your legs and have a final inspection of all your race equipment. One common mistake of race week is to buy new gear that you think will make you faster. Please finalise your race gear and outfit well ahead of race day. Buying new stuff in race week will just create stress and potentially cause trouble on race day if you are not familiar with the new items.

 

Have fun

The journey to your half Ironman is in the end as important and memorable as your race. Do not forget to have fun and enjoy your time in training. Be patient and do not let your expectations cause additional stress if they are not being met. Consult a good coach if training is not going well. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. The majority of training problems have simple answers but sometimes it takes a clear mind

 

 

Half Ironman Triathlon Training Program

Successful performance in a long and challenging event like a half-ironman requires many months of diligent preparation off a substantial fitness base. Following is a general overview of a sensible training program that will lead you to peak performance on race day.

Winter Training Program

Winter should NOT be a time for strenuous training. The goal is to develop an aerobic following the strict guidelines detailed in my book Power Month. Visit bradventures.com for information and additional extensive support for your triathlon training and nutrition.

Winter focus should be on developing good technique and economy of movement in the three events. Perform Key Workouts regularly that will help you develop the endurance to go the distance at goal events later in the season.

The timeline referenced for this article leads to a spring half-ironman competition. Naturally, you can adjust the times for your particular racing goals and season calendar.

For the months of December and January, you can shoot for the following time goals on your Overdistance Key Workouts:

Run: 1:30-1:45

Bike: 2:00-2:45

Swim: Focus completely on stroke improvement, no intensive intervals or strenuous sets

Suggested Monthly Schedule (follow for December and January)

3 Key Runs: 1:30-1:45 HR: 50-75%

2 Key Bikes: 2:00-2:45 HR 50-75%

2 Moderate Run: :50-1:15 HR: 65-80%

2 Moderate Bike: 1:15-1:45 HR: 65-80%

6 Swim Drills: 40 minutes, see below

2 Long Swims: 3,000-4,000 meters. HR below 80%

Other workouts:

Bike rides: under 1:15, under 70% heart rate

Runs: under :45, under 75% heart rate

3 Bike Drill workouts: :40 minutes on stationary bike (10 warmup, set of [2min Right leg only, rest one minute then, 2 min Left leg only]. Repeat 5 times, the cooldown for 10 min

Swim Drills:
Stroke count: 200 metres
Tennis ball in each hand: 200 metres
Catchup drill: 200 metres
Backstroke/Breastroke: 200 metres
Freestyle: 200 metres
= 1,000 metres

Remember that this is aerobic base building period, so all workouts should be performed at 80% of max heart rate or less. Notice from the total number of workouts and low intensity levels that December and January will be pretty easy months. The main goals are to get back into training in a manner that will not fatigue you in any way and refine the swim stroke. Heart rates will stay quite low, but you will get some nice long runs and rides in.

Spring Training Program

Here the difficulty begins to escalate as you leverage the work of your initial base period and start to develop the specific fitness required to race long distance triathlons. Note that the primary emphasis is still on aerobic heart rates, for this is where the most significant gains can be made in race performances.

Many triathletes make the serious mistake of hammering too many high intensity workouts. These workouts are fun and provide instant gratification, but they come at a great cost of energy. If you goals are Olympic distance, half-ironman and full ironman and you are below world-caliber performance level, you can improve by leaps and bounds by improving aerobic function. Conversely, anaerobic workouts will generate minimal improvement unless you have a strong base. Even then, the analogy fits that you can either 'fine tune a Volkswagen' (high intensity training) or 'build a Ferrari' (focus on aerobic development).

With a strong base developed, you can begin to introduce some race-specific training, such as long time trials on the bicycle or half-marathon running races.

Preparing for Peak Performance

When it is time to introduce intense training to prepare for peak performance, careful guidelines must be followed. Intense anaerobic workouts can deliver excellent performance benefits when they are conducted in the right manner. On the flip side of these outstanding benefits comes a high risk of burnout, fatigue and injury. Overdoing the hard workouts can easily result in you leaving your best race out on the training roads.

Following are my Four Rules of Intensity for anaerobic workouts. Observing these guidelines will enable you to properly absorb and benefit from your hard sessions:

Rule #1: Always build an aerobic base before introducing anaerobic workouts. The best way to determine that you have indeed built a strong base is steady improvement in MAF test results and generally feeling strong and energized from your training.

Rule #2: Always be 100% physically energized and mentally refreshed when you conduct an anaerobic workout. Never force your body to do intense exercise when your spirit is not willing

Rule #3: Never conduct anaerobic exercise for more than six weeks without a break. Benefits will dwindle the longer you exercise intensely without a break. This is true even if you are observing rule #4 and limiting frequency of anaerobic workouts in your schedule.

Rule #4: Limit anaerobic exercise to 10% of total weekly exercise time. Even during anaerobic training periods, time spent at high heart rates is only a fraction of total weekly exercise time.

After six weeks of anaerobic exercise, you should introduce a micro-rest period of at least two weeks. During this period, you should cut back on workout time and frequency by at least 50% to ensure that you are totally rested when you resume training.

During your anaerobic phase, total volume of training should drop sharply (at least 33%), and your basic standard fitness maintenance workout should drop too. For example, if your standard swim workout is 3,500 meters, drop down to 2,500-3,000 during the anaerobic phase. If your standard run is 1:00, cut it back to :40.

Types of Anaerobic Workouts

What are the best kinds of anaerobic workouts? I feel that it doesn't really matter whether you do intervals, hill repeats, time trials, group rides, etc. When you establish a strong aerobic base and conduct your anaerobic workouts sensibly when you are energized and motivated, you will benefit by going fast any way you want. In the old days before heart rate monitors, coaches and books about triathlon training books, athletes did pretty well just getting out onto the roads and going fast.

You can collect a file of magazine articles or dog ear book pages to conduct inspiring and effective anaerobic workouts. One sensible idea is to conduct workouts that approximate the challenge you will face in the race. In preparing for the Auburn International half-ironman distance event in May, consider sessions that reflect the competition distances and the hilly terrain. One of my favorite half-ironman workouts is an all-out 56-mile time trial on a course similar to the race course.

With a workout like this, you teach your body to complete the exact competitive distance at a pace superior to your race pace (because you are not saving anything for the 13.1-mile run). With this workout under your belt you will feel comfortable and confident when you settle into your race day pace. A half-marathon road race at full effort is another excellent example, as are brick workouts that stack a bike and run together just like on race day. I favor bricks of a 10:1 bike to run ratio (Bike 80, run 8 miles; Bike 60, run 6 miles). For half-ironman preparation, brick with at least the bike race distance and consider going all the way up to 100 mile bike, 10 mile run.

A long distance brick such as 100/10 can be conducted during the base building period (you ain't going to do too well if you exceed aerobic heart rates on a 100/10 brick anyway). As the race date nears, I suggest shortening the length of your workouts and increasing your intensity.

For example, a good key workout two months out from the race might be a aggressive pace 80-mile bike ride. One month out, the training should progress to the all-out 56-mile time trial.

Coming off of the base period and into fast paced efforts can be a shock to the body. You can prepare your body for speed by throwing in some prelude sessions where you get leg/arm turnover or cadence going quickly without overstressing your system. This is accomplished by interval work of very short duration, followed by short rest. Because the work effort is so short, your heart always has a chance to recover before lactate accumulates seriously in the bloodstream. These sessions should not be overly stressful; they should feel more like getting the kinks out before the serious stuff in the future.

As you transition out of the aerobic base period, here are some good workouts to prepare you for anaerobic sessions:

Swim: a series of 25-yard sprints followed by 25 metres of slow freestyle or alternate stroke. You will become accustomed to race pace and hard interval turnover rate

Bike: a series of accelerations lasting 1:00-1:30 with an equal rest period. It's nice to do these in the hills where you hard efforts can match terrain. Punch it up a short steep hill or rolling section and coast downhill. You can vary the accelerations to sync with the terrain. The drill is to acquaint the legs with a little pain before you go into long sustained hard efforts.

Run: a set of 40/20's lasting 10 minutes. This involves a brisk 40 second effort (at ~5k race pace), followed immediately by a slow jog for 20 seconds. This develops leg turnover without stressing the heart too much due to frequent rest

Remember that during the anaerobic period that all of your other workouts are characterized as "fill in the blanks". The top priority is to be 100% rested and motivated for your intense workouts. Volume should be a minimal consideration; accept that training volume should drop dramatically during the 6-week anaerobic phase. You use your experience and life variables to determine what you can do while ensuring that you are rested and ready for the hard stuff.

Race Day Tips

Peaking strategy before a race
The best way to get ready for a big race is to totally rest early in the week of big race, then steadily build in the final three days before the race. For example for an Olympic dist race - Mon moderate, Tuesday hard workout (like 20k bike time trial), Wed easy, Thursday off, Friday moderate, Sat moderate with 10 minutes of pickups at race pace in each event (like 10 x 50 in pool, 10 min time trial on bike at race pace, 5 x 2 min at race pace running), Sunday race. Just like in the pool with workout sets, the best performances usually come after you proceed thru a few warmup sets and then head into the main set.

Nutrition
The old school approach of ‘carbo loading’ for a big race has rightfully been discarded and updated with advice to always eat a healthy, nutritious diet. Especially in the final weeks before a big event, it is helpful to cut back or eliminate some of your vices like sweets, junk food and caffeine and make efforts to eat clean, healthy, natural nutritious foods.

The day before the race I counsel athletes to eat a huge breakfast, a big lunch and a very, very small dinner. It is critical to get your muscles and your liver completely fueled by race morning, but just as critical to have digestive system light and empty when the gun goes off.

Here are some quick tips to help you improve your diet:

1) Increase awareness of junk food habit

· Eat plenty of fruit for dessert

· Notice when you are satisfied vs. idle snacking

2) Eat more healthy food throughout day

· Stimulates metabolism, regulates appetite

· Large balanced breakfast and lunch, healthy snacks

3) Shop exclusively at an alternative grocery like Whole Foods or Trader Joes. These stores do the homework for you!

· Discover healthy snacks to have around at all times

· Discover replacements for common foods that contain offensive ingredients

4) Eliminate BIG THREE offending foods from diet:

· Refined carbs – replace with whole grain products

· Hydrogenated fat – TOTAL elimination (deep fried, frozen, boxed junk food)

· Caffeine – Build energy naturally and cut back immediately

On race day, the most important thing of all is to have fun and remain in a positive frame of mind at all times. Extreme endurance events like a half-ironman are a physical and mental challenge. If you catch yourself harvesting negative thoughts, look around and enjoy the scenery - an instant cure. Remind yourself how lucky you are to be healthy and able to swim, pedal a bicycle and run. Negative thoughts and verbalizations will make your tired and stressed and compromise your performance. Take the opportunity to re-frame every negative thought or statement into a positive one. This is a great lesson for not only triathlon but all of life!

 

Preparing for your first Half Ironman  (or your first "Born Again" Half Ironman)     ·         1,930meter Swim | 90km Bike | 21k Run ·         Start this program if you can consistently swim 40min, run 60min and bike 90min.   This half Ironman plan covers many weeks of challenging, but attainable training for someone who has some endurance experience, and ideally some Olympic distance races within the past season. This plan is also ideal if you have completed a half Ironman last season on minimal training and wish to improve while keeping a reasonable number of training hours. While it's definitely possible to finish a half Ironman with fewer hours per week or fewer days per week than what you see here, I wanted to show a plan which uses a somewhat sane number amount of training hours while maximizing the total race preparation. While this article lists specific daily workouts, I realize that every athlete has specific strengths, weaknesses, available hours, and other restrictions. Hopefully, you can adjust this plan to fit you well enough. If not, you might want to find a local coach to fit a plan to match your specifics. Some Assumptions Since there's no such thing as an optimal plan which fits everyone's level of fitness and background, I'm going to have to make a few assumptions to create a plan that's not too generalized. As you look through the workouts each week, make any adjustments in length or intensity to fit your needs. Here's what I've based this plan on: 1. Limited endurance experience. You have 1-3 years of recent experience in endurance sports and your ability is relatively equal in swimming, cycling, and running. Limiters are swim efficiency, bike strength/endurance, and run endurance/efficiency. 2. Limited Training Time. You work full time, are a full time student, and/or (gasp!) wish to have a social life in addition to bringing home a paycheck or getting a diploma. 3. Maximized Potential. Even if you have a goal "just to finish" and you have limited hours available per week, you would still rather finish in 5.5 hours instead of 7 and you are willing to make some changes to transform from just training for an event to becoming "The Complete Athlete." The Big Picture 1. This preparation plan covers 20 weeks. It probably won't fit your race calendar exactly, but it's long enough that you should be able to adjust. 2. The concept of periodization is employed to first develop general endurance and "neuro speed" and then to progress into race-specific abilities. Most periods are 4 weeks long-3 weeks of increased training, then 1 week of recovery. 3. The plan includes 5-10 hours each week of training. Physical training comes from mostly short sessions but 5-6 days per week with 1-2 workouts per day. There are no secrets in these workouts, just consistent work and a few changeups to keep the training fresh and interesting. 4. I recommend doing shorter multisport and single sport races in preparation for a half Ironman. Best choices to schedule these at the end of week 2 or 3 in each period, taking full advantage of the coming recovery week. A race will be your hard workout of the week, so remove other long/tough sessions scheduled. 5.  No gym strength sessions are planned. I love the gym, but for the number of hours available per week in this plan, I feel much better race results come from spending time in the water, roads, and trails than in the gym. Workouts will be planned to develop sport specific strength during normal training. If you plan to do gym strength work, it should only come by adding onto the existing schedule-not easy to fit in for most of us. 6.  The Complete Athlete. Your race finish times depend on much more than just training. For each training period, I've included some initiatives in areas in addition to just the workouts: Race Prep: course knowledge, race day strategy, fueling, equipment Training: the workouts Physical Health: nutrition, weight, body composition, fatigue, soreness, injuries Mental Health: confidence, motivation, stress Efficiency: flexibility, equipment setup, proper form The Period Overview The chart below shows each period and concepts for each.  The PDF files show all the detailed workouts for each week.

 

Training Period	Week|Hrs				"Complete Athlete" Preparation
Prep	20-17				Racing Prep: No racing planned for this period, but since you've probably identified your key half IM race, take a look at the course, predicted weather, swim conditions, articles on last year's race. Compare all these race components with your own strengths and weaknesses. Use online bulletin boards to get course tips from previous competitors. Know thy course. Training: This period is "preparing to train"--building base endurance through work and recovery. We'll keep the same number of hours throughout the period and approximately the same schedule. The goal is consistency and getting the body warmed up for the longer periods ahead. Physical Health: Starting a structured program is probably going to leave you needing a bit more sleep than you're used to getting. Water too. Don't skimp on either. Take full advantage of rest days. Mental Health: Try to get in outdoor workouts in the best and worst weather possible. The more cold, wet, windy, and sweltering conditions you experience while training will carry over to much higher confidence come race day. You can't prepare much physically on race morning, so confidence and motivation reign supreme. Efficiency: Form, form, form. If your swim stroke needs work (that's all of us), find ways to improve technique in these early weeks-hire a local coach to video and give feedback, take lessons, read, watch videos. Form, form, and form are the keys to swimming fast.
20		7
19		7
18		7
17		7
Base 1	16-13				Racing Prep: Begin doing your some of your workouts on terrain which simulates race day. Training: Here in Base 1, we'll be increasing hours a bit while keeping consistency. We will add 1 hard workout per week-1 workout, not 1 hard day. We will also begin sport-specific strength work by incorporating hills on the bike and run. Physical Health: Imagine showing up for a 10k race in peak fitness. Then imagine having to put on a 20lb backpack at the start line to carry to the finish. I want you to get the most on race day from all the training hours you put in. Running fast is helped greatly by having a high strength-to-weight ratio. You don't need to be in peak form at this point in the season, but begin to monitor weight and body fat % for later comparison and take a look at your diet for areas to improve-nothing drastic, just little changes at a time with continuous improvement over the entire training period. Include with your training log a 1-10 scale for daily nutrition with 1 being a weekend in Vegas and a 10 being a nutritional angel. Rank yourself and monitor areas to improve. Most of us know what is good and bad eating so self seed yourself on this one. Search out sports nutritional information to read during this period. There's a lot of good stuff out there. Email me if you need some good links. Mental Health: Day after day it's tough to do all the workouts solo so try to find someone to join you for some of the sessions. A masters group once a week is good (this will be your 1 hard session!), but keep the rest easy. Talk to people in your area in person or via the net to find new routes and training partners. Efficiency: Aero positioning and power output on the bike oppose each other. Ride lower and your power output will suffer. Begin working this month on flexibility of your back and legs. Come race day, your goal is to be as thin to the wind as possible, for as long as possible without suffering power output. Flexibility is free speed.
16			7.5
15			8.5
14			9.5
13			5
Base 2	12-9				Racing Prep: Begin visualizing race morning-how does the course appear, how hard will you work during different segments, where will you seed yourself in the swim start? Training: Again more increases in hours per week. Here in Base 2, we'll have theme weeks with increased volume in a single sport with steep reductions in the other two sports. Week 12 is swim focus, Week 11 is run focus, Week 10 is bike focus. Week 9 stays as recovery as usual. We will now have 2 hard workouts per week, this time in the same sport. Physical Health: keep an eye on injuries during this period as hours increase. Experiment nutritionally Mental Health: Do a short run race, tri or duathlon during this period as a confidence builder. Practice calming pre-race nerves. Efficiency: I'm not a big fan of swim drills even though form is paramount in swimming. I've found that with doing drills that I either get good at doing drills but don't improve as a swimmer or that I'm not doing the drills correctly because nobody is watching to tell me otherwise. I prefer to have 'concentration' sets while swimming. For example, if I'm doing 100s, I'll spend 50 thinking about a particular part of the stroke then the next 50 swimming normally-no matter if I'm swimming fast or slow. These 'concentrations' are worked into every single set I swim, effectively drilling through swimming. There are many, many areas to focus on as part of the swim stroke-perhaps I'll do another article in the future for focus ideas...
12				7.5
11				9
10				10
9				5
Base 3	8-5				Racing Prep: If you live in an area with good hiking possibilities, schedule a 6-8 hour continuous hike in lieu of a long run during the month. This is great low impact endurance work which will leave you surprisingly sore if the terrain is hilly and it a great place to practice nutrition and hydrating with increasing exhaustion. Training: We'll now approach a maximum number of training hours per week but now back to a balance in all 3 sports and still 2 hard workouts per week. Physical Health: These training hours will be long, so keep well fueled and get as much sleep as possible. Ice your knees after every long or hard run-whether you're injured or not. Mental Health: With these long hours, don't worry if you have to skip workouts due to fatigue or schedule conflicts-in the greater scheme, you won't lose much at all by missing a workout here and there. Just continue on the next day and don't reschedule missed workouts. Efficiency: How efficient is your run stride? Are you doing 80-90 footstrikes per minute per foot? Is your foot striking the ground mid-foot (just behind the ball) while already in movement back? Look up photos in books or on the web some illustrations/descriptions of good and back footstriking.
8				8.5
7				9.5
6				10.5
5				5
Build	4-3				Racing Prep: We'll do transition practice during this build period. Also think about what you'll be wearing race day, what you'll be using for nutrition/fluids. We'll ractice these during training sessions, well before race day. Training: Training hours level off while we work on specifics for the race including performing sessions back to back and transition practice. Physical Health: Watch for overuse injuries. You've come a long way in terms of new stressors in the past 15 weeks. Stretch properly and often and take time off if necessary. Mental Health: More short races in any sport will keep you feeling competitive and motivated. Also a good chance to try out race day clothing, pre-race meals, and the highly personalized morning toilet ritual. Efficiency: Maximize the advantage you'll get on the bike by making sure everything is well-maintained and critical parts are replaced as necessary. Schedule a tune-up with your local shop at the end of Week 3. Make any last position adjustments here and not in the last 2 weeks. Check the condition of your run shoes and upgrade now if needed to break them in. Don't wait until race to try anything new. If you've been using the same swim goggles the whole training period, upgrade now and get them adjusted. (I had a well-used pair break while treading water just before the start of the Muncie Half)
4				9
3				9
Taper/Race	2-1				Racing Prep: Swim--only concentrate on navigation and keeping a clean stroke. Decent swim times will come directly from fixating on these two things. Forget these and it won't matter how hard you're pulling. Bike--think negative split on the second half of the bike, that is ride the 2nd half faster than the first. This means going easy the first half! Overall pace on the bike should not feel exhausting as the goal is to not have to walk any of the run due to exhaustion. A 5 minute faster bike split is killed if you have to walk 20 minutes during the run. Allow 15 minutes of riding before consuming fluids or fuel. After that, follow the hydration plan you've been doing for long rides, adjusting for temps and higher intensity of the race. Run--constantly monitor calories and fluids and try to even split each half of the run as closely as possible. Training: We're going to drastically reduce the volume, but keep the same number of sessions and intensity. The goal is to be well-rested and 'springy' on race day. Physical Health: Go easy on the calories these last 2 weeks since you'll be working out considerably less. Work hard at sleeping well leading up to the race, but don't worry too much about the night before. Otherwise, do nothing to jeopardize getting injured-no new workout types, no massage if you haven't done it previously, etc. Mental Health: Confidence! You didn't train all these weeks just to be a wallflower competitor come race day. It is a race and you should feel competitive and ready to push yourself-otherwise you could have just covered the distance in a training day. Almost certainly something will not go perfectly, but you've trained through all kinds of conditions and situations so use that strength to your advantage. Race day self image: Strong, Sleek, Fluid, Gliding, Endless reserves, Lean, and willing to Suffer...The Complete Athlete! Efficiency: Your sessions in these last 2 weeks should all be focused on efficient movement without stressing the body. Our training will have more details on this.
2				6.5
1				3.5

 

Appendix: RPE Chart
This chart can help with gauging intensities of daily workouts. Combine with your

heart monitor ranges if desired.

 

RPE	Description	Bike HR	Run HR
0	Complete Rest	Resting HR=	Resting HR=
1	Very Weak: light walking
2	Weak: strong walk, very slow run, easy conversation pace
3	Moderate: easy run, begin to sweat, but can hold conversation throughout
4	Somewhat Strong: still easy, sweating a bit more
5
6
7	Very Strong: breathing very labored, but can still maintain pace for some minutes without slowing.
8
9	Cannot hold effort for more than a minute or two
10	Extremely Strong (almost maximal)
*		Max. Bike HR=	Max. Run HR=