You’ve heard me talk about the swim.
(Two hours and 20 minutes to swim 2.4 miles.)
You’ve hear me talk about the run.
(A full 26.2 mile marathon before midnight.)
But if I’ve learned anything…
(Probably not.)
…in the 20 months since I left Ironman Triathlon, it is that the bike matters most.
(Is that even proper English?)
Bike training is also run training.
The more structured your bike workouts are, the better you will run.
(Dave, you run like an old person.)
I am an old person.
(No, a very old person.)
Neanderthal?
(Pretty much.)
A proper wintertime bike workout lasts between one and two hours. It is…
(Did you just say two hours?)
Yes.
(As in 120 minutes?)
Yes!
(Almost three episodes of a Netflix binge?)
What do you think I watching for two hours?
(Paint drying?)
As I was saying, up to two hours, done indoors. It involves biking at specific intervals.
(Inter-whats?)
Intervals are 10-15 minute sections of the workout where the goal is to hold a specific speed.
(How do you know how fast to go?)
You do an FTP test.
(A File Transfer Protocol?)
Functional Threshold Performance test.
(Is this in pen or pencil?)
10 minutes of easy pedaling to warm up.
20 minutes of all-out effort.
10 minutes of cool down.
(This I gotta see.)
It’s a mess.
(Puddle of sweat on the floor?)
I swear I’m cranking out 1.21 gigawatts.
Pedaling is measured in cadence or rotations.
(Like MPH for a car?)
Yes, and the output is measured in watts.
(Like a lightbulb?)
Once you know how many watts you were averaging, you can figure out your zones.
(Huh, you lost me.)
If you ride your bike three times a week for three months, you will gain a little strength.
If you push yourself hard on the bike, you will gain more strength.
(But how do you measure “riding hard”?)
We all learned…
(You hope.)
…I hope, in high school about the scientific method.
(Pea plants?)
Repeatable data.
A zone workout gives you that.
My ftp is 152. When I plug in the data, my “tempo” or average race pace is 130 watts.
By using this scientific approach we can measure my progress.
(So are you planning to power the house lights with all the watts you generate?)
Yes…at 1.21 gigawatts.
By David Roher
David Roher is a USAT Certified Marathon & Triathlon coach. He is a multi Ironman finisher & a veteran special education teacher. He can be reached at: [email protected]
