Should I ride further than race distance?

[avroncotton]

I posted this in the Tri section but have had no luck so I'm hoping that someone will be able to help me here.


I'm training for my first half ironman (so the bike leg is 92kms). I have the opportunity for a long ride of 150kms this w/e however with ten weeks of training left, should I be concentrating on riding the race distance at a faster pace?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Tony

[ni78ck]

im not a triathlete, but if the opportunity presents itself. take it!!
you need endurance.

[zero]

Do the ride if you want to. It won't set you back much, and you'll get clear insight into whether a particular pace was too hard or too soft.

I wouldn't structure a training regime around weekly rides of that far because its hard to gain speed or power when your body has to do that much recovering after a ride (at least from my current fitness).

[toolonglegs]

Do you want to do the ride?... it isn't going to hurt.
10 weeks out...it would want to be a reasonably well paced ride, not a socializing ride as that is just tiring you out for not much gain.
One ride isn't going to do much either way... depends what the rest of you week looks like.

[Eleri]

10 weeks out, if you want to do the ride, do it.

2 weeks before my first Alpine Classic Extreme (250km 4,800m climbing or something) I did my first 300km ride. But considerably less climbing. It ended up taking me the same amount of time as the ACE and it told me that I could be on a ride that took 13 hours including stops. So I knew I had the endurance to do it.

Hard ride, didn't want to get back on the bike the next day but the confidence it gave me was really worthwhile.

[toolonglegs]

Getting slightly technical here... But you can only hold your FTP for one hour... For longer than an hour it is only a percentage of your FTP you can hold. So raising the average power you can hold for an hour ( FTP ) by doing shorter but much harder efforts will see you being able to hold a much higher pace for your cycle leg than doing long endurance rides double your race distance.

[Scarfy96]

Pretty much what the others have said. Wont do you any harm but probably wont give you any huge advantage either. For a 70.3 you will most likely be looking at 5->6 hours for the total event so a long ride certainly wont hurt. This ride isn't about speed, it is about endurance. So if you want to do it, then do it but for speed work on other stuff as well in coming weeks.

[skull]

Getting slightly technical here... But you can only hold your FTP for one hour... For longer than an hour it is only a percentage of your FTP you can hold. So raising the average power you can hold for an hour ( FTP ) by doing shorter but much harder efforts will see you being able to hold a much higher pace for your cycle leg than doing long endurance rides double your race distance.

Now that I have a power meter and a coach to deliver a plan and track my progress this is how my training has gone.

I would go out an ride 5 or so hours each Sat and Sun then doddle around on weekdays doing longish rides. Now my sessions are shorter and focused on harder efforts. I am getting fitter and faster and also have a hell of a lot more spare time now.

Sent from my not iDevice using Tapatalk 2

[avroncotton]

Thanks everyone, very useful advice. I've decided (as the weather is going to be heavy rain Sat) to go out with the race guys in the morning but do a sustained effort for the 1.5hr and not to do any chasing if anyone goes and they usually do. And then go for a run in the afternoon, I don't mind running in the rain. Thanks again guys.

[bychosis]

I would say it depends wether you are a racer or an entrant.

I have entered several MTB enduros as an entrant, I'm only out to beat myself, or possibly a couple of mates. I don't expect anywhere a competitive result. In that case I would take on the opportunity of a longer ride and not be bothered about it affecting my training 10weeks out and actually being beneficial. As an entrant my training plan is usually just ride as much as I can, pushing most times and cruising some for recovery.

If you are a racer, and trying to be the most competitive you can then consider the advice from the fit people above.