# Why Strong Cyclists Over-Bike & Fall Apart on the Marathon: Ironman Q&A | Ep 581

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 11 Mar 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO4797127024.mp3

Coach Rob answers listener questions on three important topics related to IRONMAN training: The maximum bike TSS budget that's key to a strong Ironman marathon (even for experienced cyclists)... Whether switching to clipless pedals before your A race is worth it... And why separating your long run and long ride into different days of the week can save your training * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Thinking about your first Ironman or 70.3 in 2026? At Team Oxygenaddict, we specialise in helping busy professionals fit high-quality training around demanding jobs and family life. We’ve just reopened for new athletes with only a handful of slots available. Book an application call today to find out if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming season here: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply use code OXYGEN26 at checkout to claim your 15% discount * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:04] Hello and welcome to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.
[0:07] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors Precision Fuel
[0:10] and hydration.com. You can get 15% off your first
[0:13] order with the code Oxygen 26. Welcome to the show everyone.
[0:17] I'm your host coach, Rob Wilby from Team Oxygen Addict
[0:20] Triathlon Coaching. Every week I bring you an
[0:22] episode of this podcast to help educate you, motivate you, and
[0:26] inspire you via Iron Man and 70.3 Adventures.
[0:29] And on this week's episode, we've got a bunch more questions
[0:32] that have been sent through from listeners and viewers of the
[0:34] YouTube channel. So thank you very much.
[0:36] If you're one of those people who have sent that through,
[0:39] remember the e-mail address you can send that over to is
[0:41] help@oxygenaddict.com. And I'm really happy to, to
[0:46] answer those questions. I, I'm not able to respond to
[0:50] all of those emails via e-mail, but I'm hopeful that the fact
[0:53] that we get to answer these on the podcast is actually
[0:55] answering them in more detail than I'll be able to do over
[0:58] e-mail anyway. So I'm really happy to do that.
[1:01] But before we jump in, there's two quick things you can do to
[1:04] help us. If you like this episode, please
[1:06] follow us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
[1:09] Leave us a positive review. That stuff really, really helps
[1:11] with the algorithm basically showing our show to new
[1:14] listeners and viewers who who might never have heard of the
[1:17] show before. And I was looking at our stats
[1:21] the other day, there's something like 70% of our athletes who
[1:26] listen to the podcast and not actually subscribe to.
[1:28] So it would really make a big difference.
[1:30] I think the way this algorithm works as, I mean, as far as we
[1:33] can work out, there's a lot of black box stuff goes on in both
[1:37] Spotify and Apple Podcasts. But the more people like a show
[1:41] that they listen to, the more people that subscribe to it and
[1:44] the more people that share that episode with other people, the
[1:47] more it kind of the more it promotes it to people who might
[1:51] be a similar kind of person to you as a listener.
[1:54] So these people might have an interest in Ironman Triathlon as
[1:57] well. So it really helps other people
[1:59] discover the show. I'm really happy to keep on
[2:02] doing the show for free every week because obviously the show
[2:04] helps promote our coaching. People who are looking for
[2:07] coaching find out about me and our company this way, which is
[2:10] great. There's not a big hard sell
[2:12] about the coaching. Like I said, I'm happy to answer
[2:15] all these questions for free and help a bunch of people out for
[2:17] free. And if people then decide that
[2:19] the coaching is right for them, then that's awesome as well.
[2:21] So on that note, if you're looking for help training for
[2:23] your first time, man, you can go over and check out the coaching
[2:26] memberships at teamoxygenaddict.com.
[2:29] I honestly believe we've got the most comprehensive triathlon
[2:31] coaching programme that's specifically designed for busy
[2:35] age group is that's people who've got busy family lives,
[2:37] busy work lives, they've got crazy amounts of stuff going on
[2:40] and they also want to do an Ironman at the same time.
[2:43] Now, even when you even when you're training right, it's
[2:47] going to be time consuming to train for an Ironman because
[2:49] it's such a big day. So what we want to make sure is
[2:51] you haven't got any wasted training hours and any wasted
[2:54] training efforts. So I've done my very best over
[2:58] the last 15 years or so to, to really hone in on the idea of
[3:02] what can we do to help busy people out train for an Iron
[3:06] Man. What, what stuff can we, what
[3:08] filler can we cut out of this? So we've just got the real
[3:11] quality stuff in that is genuinely going to help move the
[3:14] needle for people, either improving their performance or
[3:18] getting them to the point they can complete the first Iron Man
[3:20] or even 70.3. So if you're interested after
[3:23] listening to the show today, if there's a link in the show
[3:25] notes, you can book a membership call with me, we'll have a chat,
[3:28] We'll see if you'd be a good fit for joining the team.
[3:30] And if you are, we'll offer you a place where one becomes
[3:33] available and hopefully we get to work with you and help you
[3:36] complete your first Iron Man. Right.
[3:38] Let's jump into these questions then.
[3:40] The first one's been sent through by Kieran.
[3:43] Kieran has watched one of our recent YouTube videos.
[3:48] And on that video, I was addressing the, the issue of
[3:54] training stress score, TSS, if you don't know what that is, and
[3:59] the number that we can work off to essentially ensure that you
[4:03] can have a strong run of the bike.
[4:05] TSS is really clever. It's like a, it's like a catch
[4:08] your number that rolls up both how fit you are in terms of how
[4:13] big your FTP is and also how long you'll be out there on the
[4:17] bike course. And it recognises that everyone
[4:20] essentially has the same energy budget.
[4:23] So if you take two contrasting athletes, this is the, this is
[4:27] the set up to this answering this question.
[4:29] If you take 2 contrasting athletes, if we've got a pro
[4:33] athlete at the very front of an at the very front of an Ironman
[4:37] race field who might be completing the, let's say they
[4:40] complete the 180K in four hours. And then we take an athlete at
[4:46] the back of the pack who might take 8 hours or more to complete
[4:49] their Ironman bike leg. Those two athletes have
[4:52] essentially got the same energy budget to complete the bike leg
[4:56] and still be able to run well. It's just that one of them is
[5:00] using the energy budget over 4 hours and one of them is using
[5:04] the energy budget over 8 hours. So typically what we'll find
[5:08] there is the pro athlete has a much, much bigger functional
[5:13] threshold power. They've got much bigger engine,
[5:16] so they can go faster because they're going to be out there
[5:19] for a shorter period of time. Still accumulate 200 and 22180
[5:25] training stress score points. Our athlete who's going to take
[5:28] 8 hours has to go obviously slower, but they're going to be
[5:34] at a relatively lower percentage of their FTP, which is obviously
[5:39] going to be lower. So we can't look and retrofit
[5:43] from a pro athletes numbers what we can do.
[5:46] That pro athlete I mentioned is probably exercising 82, maybe
[5:50] even 84% of their FTP. An athlete who is not as fit,
[5:56] who has got a smaller FTP, If we take the example of, I don't
[5:59] know, a Christian Bloomerfeld, it's very likely that his FTP is
[6:04] north of 350 watts, maybe even 380 watts.
[6:09] Like this enormous engine for an, an athlete who's finishing
[6:14] at the back of the pack and is taking 8 hours to do their Iron
[6:17] Man, the FTP might be 220 watts, maybe 200 watts, maybe even
[6:21] lower. And so they can't exercise at
[6:24] the same percentage of their FTP for the same amount of time, has
[6:29] to be a relatively lower percentage.
[6:31] So the athlete who, as I said, is doing 8 hours and maybe their
[6:34] FTP is 220, they're probably going to be exercising close to
[6:37] 60% of their FTP. But crucially, they're doing it
[6:41] for 8 hours. So they're still going to
[6:43] accumulate the 280 training stress score.
[6:46] So the training stress score is kind of the thing that's equal
[6:49] across all athletes. No matter how fast you go or how
[6:53] slow you go, that's your budget. Now if you if you push beyond
[6:58] that 280 training stress score number, the chances are very
[7:03] strong in fact that you are not going to run a marathon to your
[7:08] potential. And honestly, I think that's why
[7:10] we see so many of our pro athletes not running to their
[7:14] potential a lot of the time. A lot of them do blow up in the
[7:16] run because Iron Man has has changed so much over the last
[7:20] five years in particular. And the front of the race is now
[7:23] much, much more like a bike race.
[7:25] There are some really big numbers being put out there.
[7:28] And if you look at any of our, you know, our current Uber
[7:32] bikers, I think you'll often see that they will, they will
[7:36] sometimes win and they will sometimes blow up.
[7:39] And it's, it's kind of hard to predict what's going to happen.
[7:42] And sometimes even at the halfway point of the marathon,
[7:45] you might be watching thinking, well, this athlete's got this in
[7:47] the bag. They've got a 10 minute lead and
[7:48] they can detonate and maybe not even finish.
[7:51] So if they've pushed beyond that 280 TSS budget, the more above
[7:55] that you go, the higher the chance of not running to
[7:58] potential and the higher the chance of a detonation
[8:01] happening. That's the way to think of it.
[8:02] So that's the set up for this question.
[8:05] The question from Karen says this. 280 TSS seems low to me.
[8:11] Now I'm a first timer Iron Man triathlete, but I have a lot of
[8:16] cat 32 road racing experience. You have me worried with 280
[8:21] TSS. I'm predicting 340 to 360 TSS
[8:26] for my bike. I'd be expecting to hit 2
[8:29] hundreds, 220, maybe even 230 watts in a few months and I'm
[8:34] looking at a 5 to 5 1/2 hour bike leg at Barcelona.
[8:39] I think that that will have me well above 280 TSS though, but I
[8:44] still expect to be comfortable to run a 4 hour to 415 marathon.
[8:48] Can you please help clarify? OK, so there's a lot of unknown
[8:54] unknowns in this thing that Karen sent through.
[8:56] The first thing I would say is if you are a first time, I'm on
[9:01] triathlete, all of my advice here is going to be for your
[9:05] first one air on the side of caution.
[9:08] You don't want to be trying to push a performance to happen on
[9:11] the bike leg of your Iron Man. Even if you're from a cycling
[9:14] background, you want to have that cycling fitness and and
[9:17] almost not use it. Save it.
[9:19] Ride within yourself to allow yourself the best chance for
[9:22] strong marathon. And I think it's athletes who
[9:25] are from a strong cycling background who I'm going to say
[9:29] who are at risk of over biking because it's why they're most
[9:34] comfortable, It's what they're most used to doing.
[9:36] And the danger is you're going to go and push really, really
[9:38] hard on the bike and essentially detonate and not have anything
[9:42] left for the, for the run leg. And I'll, I'll give you a
[9:46] personal story here from, from back in the day when I first
[9:49] started doing Iron Man, I was training with a group of lads up
[9:51] in Whitby. And there was one particularly
[9:55] strong cyclist in our group who was going out to Iron Man,
[9:58] Lanzarotti. And we'd get destroyed by this
[10:01] guy. He was a really lovely guy.
[10:02] He'd RIP our legs off in every bike session that we did with
[10:05] him. And he went out to Lanzarote and
[10:09] he let me remember the number. Was he trying to ride 530?
[10:15] I think he was trying to ride 5:30 at Lanzarote.
[10:18] And we're going back here to, you know, the early to mid 2000s
[10:22] when a 530 bike like at Lanzarote was in fact a 530 bike
[10:26] like anywhere was really, really shifting.
[10:30] I think, you know, the game has moved on by 30 to 40 minutes.
[10:34] Even an age group racing, I think these days.
[10:36] But a 530 bike cloak was was smoking fast back then for an
[10:40] age grouper. And he was he was a good enough,
[10:43] he was a good enough athlete to look to qualify for Kona and his
[10:46] age group. He was that kind of athlete.
[10:48] And he said, I really, really want to ride 5:30.
[10:52] I'm on Lanzarote days before anyone had a power metre.
[10:54] There's nothing to measure on other than, you know, what's the
[10:57] time on the clock when you get back.
[11:00] And when he came back from Lanzarote, I don't think we even
[11:04] had Internet splits then. So we had to wait to see him
[11:06] before he came back to give us the feedback.
[11:07] We went out for a ride and he said, well, I managed to ride my
[11:11] 5:30 in Lanzarote and then I had to have a lie down for an hour
[11:15] in in T2 and then my marathon took me 6 hours, but I did that
[11:19] 5:30 and and like we loved the guy.
[11:22] He that was his personality. He'd gone out there.
[11:24] He wanted to really have a go in the bike leg, but he he said
[11:27] I'll never do anything like that again because I completely
[11:30] detonated myself. I had to have a lie down.
[11:33] I was so hot when I got back from the bike leg couldn't cool
[11:36] down in the T110I was lying down feeling really sick and
[11:39] eventually staggered round the the run leg in in six hours.
[11:43] So not really a successful day out in the office for the lad.
[11:48] And that's what I want you to avoid.
[11:50] You definitely want to avoid this situation where your your
[11:53] run split is longer than your bike split.
[11:54] We only, we only get people to avoid this.
[11:57] So other unknowns here go back to Kieran's story.
[12:00] He says he expects to be hitting 200 to 230 watts in his zone 2
[12:05] area. He doesn't give us what his FTP
[12:08] is here. So I, I can't, I can't give any
[12:10] kind of guidance on that. But what I will say Karen, if
[12:14] you're listening, the best thing for you to do here is go to Best
[12:17] Bikes Split, set yourself up a free account and find a copy of
[12:22] the Iron Man Barcelona bike course and model yourself on the
[12:27] Iron Man Barcelona bike course riding to a 280 TSS energy
[12:32] budget if you like, and work it backwards to see what numbers
[12:36] it's giving you. Rather than saying I expect to
[12:39] ride 220 watts, what time will it give me?
[12:42] And rather than saying I want to do a five to five hour 30 bike
[12:46] leg, what power do I need to ride, work it the other way
[12:49] round. I guarantee that if you get off
[12:51] the bike having only used 280 TSS points as your energy
[12:55] budget, you will be in a fantastic place to run strongly
[12:59] off the bike. And we'll say that again, I
[13:01] guarantee it that if you only ride to a 280 TSS budget, you
[13:06] will be in a fantastic place to run to your potential of the
[13:10] bike. And that's the way I'd encourage
[13:12] you to think of it. I'm not saying you can't ride a
[13:14] 5 hour bike split. I'm not saying you don't know
[13:16] whether you can do that and have a really high statistical chance
[13:20] of running a really decent marathon off the back of it.
[13:23] Now again, I don't know whether 4 hour to 4:15 that you're
[13:26] looking forward and how that relates to your to your actual
[13:29] run fitness. But what I will say is here at
[13:32] the moment, you have plenty of time.
[13:35] There's a lot of mistakes we can save you from making by just
[13:39] that subtle shift in in the thinking away from like hitting
[13:43] a what number or away from hitting a time target to riding
[13:47] within myself at this TSS budget and then being in a great
[13:50] position to run really well. Because I guarantee you are
[13:53] going to see at Barcelona literally thousands of athletes
[13:57] walking the last couple of hours.
[13:59] It will be a death March. It always is in every Iron Man.
[14:03] Not so much with athletes we coach, but in general.
[14:06] Most people over bike overrun on the first half end up walking
[14:10] the last half. There are an awful lot of people
[14:12] walking and in in pain, not walking because they're having a
[14:16] nice day out in pain walking and going very slowly.
[14:20] And then I'm a marathon. So I encourage you to not be one
[14:22] of those and instead plan all of your training around the idea of
[14:27] the back half of the marathon being a strong for you run so
[14:31] that you can pass hundreds of athletes who are walking who've
[14:34] paced it incorrectly. That's where to go with that.
[14:37] So I hope that helps Kieran, it's probably not what you want
[14:39] to hear, but as I'm often saying to people who book membership
[14:43] calls with me, my job as a coach isn't to tell people what they
[14:47] want to hear. My my job often is saying no to
[14:50] people in an empathic away as possible and in a kind of as
[14:55] kind a way as possible. But to say, look, no, don't do
[14:59] that. Let's do things this way and
[15:01] give you the best chance of getting ultimately the the thing
[15:05] that you want. OK, I'm going to have a quick
[15:08] segue over at this point to talk about our sponsors, Precision
[15:12] Fuel and hydration.com. You can use the free fuel and
[15:15] hydration planning tool to receive a personalised strategy
[15:18] for your next race. The plan is fantastic, right?
[15:20] It helps you understand your own carbohydrate, electrolyte and
[15:23] fluid needs and you can even book a free one to one video
[15:26] consultation with PF and HS athletes support team.
[15:29] Now having said that, having read the ad, here's why it's
[15:32] important. In my own words, getting your
[15:34] carbohydrate intake correct is as important for Iron Man
[15:38] success as getting the training right.
[15:40] Getting your electrolyte and fluid balance right on race day
[15:44] is as important on Iron Man race day as getting your training
[15:48] right. Was it is that important?
[15:51] PF and H are not sponsors of this show because I've gone out
[15:54] there with a begging bowl and I've asked people to sponsor the
[15:56] show. We're working with them because
[15:58] I think they have got the best products and the best strategy
[16:02] to help the most people complete.
[16:04] Iron Man's worked with these guys for over a decade before
[16:08] they were the official electrolyte sponsors on Iron Man
[16:10] courses. And Iron Man are working with
[16:12] them because they are the best guys.
[16:13] They've got the most knowledge and as well as selling products.
[16:16] There are literally hundreds of case studies on their website of
[16:20] people just like you who've done events that you're doing.
[16:23] And I know this because they've got all manner of athletes, more
[16:26] walks of life doing all manner of events from Iron Man 70.3's
[16:29] all the way through to you name it, ultra marathons, gravel
[16:32] races, you know, adventure races, any kind of stuff.
[16:36] You can get a really, really good idea from using their
[16:39] online planning tool, whether you're a heavy or salty sweater,
[16:43] a lead to how much carbohydrate you need to be taking in per
[16:46] hour and then a strategy to start to increase the amount of
[16:49] carbohydrate you take in per hour.
[16:50] You can't do it without that. You can't do it successfully.
[16:54] So please head over there, check it out.
[16:55] There are an awesome bunch of people on top of having
[16:57] fantastic products. And I'm a massive, massive
[17:00] believer in working with good people.
[17:03] And what I ask of you, the audience, is to support show, to
[17:06] support people who support the show.
[17:08] So if you decide to make your first purchase, you can use the
[17:10] code Oxygen 26 and that will get you 15% off your first order.
[17:16] OK, next question. This one is from Jeremy.
[17:21] Hey Rob, love the podcast due to I'm due to do my first full in
[17:26] July at Outlaw Nottingham this year.
[17:28] I've done 1/2 before with my current road bike.
[17:31] It's got foot cages rather than clipping shoes.
[17:34] I've got time to change to clippings, but I wonder if it
[17:37] will make that much of a difference.
[17:40] I've heard the specific podcast you've done on things to improve
[17:42] on the bike, but I didn't hear about feet.
[17:45] I guess I'm assuming that clipping shoes are assumed.
[17:48] And you know what, Jeremy, this is a fantastic question because
[17:51] you're right. I've, I've assumed that most
[17:53] people are going to be wearing clipping bike shoes.
[17:56] So I'm going to say yes, if you've got the money and can
[17:58] afford it, changing to clipping shoes will have a number of
[18:01] benefits for you. The first one is and, and this
[18:05] is the the biggest thing I can remember starting cycling back
[18:09] in what we going back in the day now back in 1989, right?
[18:12] Saving up my paper rounds money, buying a bike from Ribble
[18:15] cycles, my dad taking me down there, buying me a frame and and
[18:19] I went in week by week and bought the components bit by bit
[18:23] add them on. I had this fantastic.
[18:25] If any of you know, there's 531 steel Ribble frame and I built
[18:29] it up with Shimano 105 back then and got myself a pair of their
[18:34] toe clip pedals because clipping pedals weren't really a thing
[18:39] that were available. There was I think there's one
[18:41] pair of luck pedals coming through at the time in 89 and I
[18:44] looked at them and they were super expensive and no one had
[18:47] them and I really liked the look of them but like I didn't have
[18:50] the money for them. And the the Shimana 105 ones
[18:53] were we're looking for. I was riding a bit of trainers
[18:55] at the time. I didn't even have bike shoes
[18:57] and I can remember going out with the bike club going up a
[19:00] really steep climb up in Lancashire.
[19:02] It was too steep for my gearing. And as a 16 year old, literally
[19:06] just falling over sideways on the road on one of those one in
[19:09] four climbs out on the Moors out near out near the through of
[19:13] Boland. If you guys know that area,
[19:15] falling off sideways into the Heather and not being able to
[19:19] pull my foot out of the clip fast enough.
[19:21] So the first thing is safety, right?
[19:23] If you change to clipless pedals, it's much easier to get
[19:26] your feet into and out of the pedals when you come to
[19:28] junctions and you have to stop. And if you have to get out
[19:30] quickly, it's much, much safer for you.
[19:33] So that's the first thing. The second thing is you're going
[19:36] to get a much firmer connection between your foot and the pedal.
[19:41] And that means you get a better power transfer between your foot
[19:43] and the pedal. And I laugh when I look back at
[19:45] riding in a pair of running shoes because obviously every
[19:47] time you push down, some of the effort you use in to push down
[19:50] is getting absorbed by the running shoe.
[19:52] So I'm, I'm assuming that at this point you're in bike shoes
[19:56] with a firm sole, Jeremy. But if you're not, that's
[19:58] definitely a thing to get yourself as well.
[20:00] That really firm sole is going to be something that gives you
[20:03] that power transfer directly through into the pedal.
[20:05] So that's the next part of it. But I think the most important
[20:09] part of this is, and again, I'll go back to my experience with
[20:12] those with those toe clip pedals.
[20:16] Back in the day when I eventually saved up my paper and
[20:18] money and managed to get a pair of cycling shoes, they came with
[20:21] a cleat that fixed you into the pedal.
[20:24] And if you, if you can imagine this, the cleat just had a
[20:27] straight line across it. And that straight line clipped
[20:31] onto the back of the pedal and it held your foot firm.
[20:33] There was no room for your foot to wiggle from side to side.
[20:36] Lo and behold, within six months I had saw knees.
[20:39] I'd saw Achilles. And it's because, and now no,
[20:42] my, my foot wiggles from side to side as I'm writing and it gave
[20:45] me absolutely no ability to do that.
[20:48] New modern clipping pedals, luck pedals, Shimano pedals,
[20:51] whichever ones you want to use these days, they come with a
[20:55] range of different cleats. And the cleats have got what
[20:57] it's called play in them of the various degrees, which means
[21:01] that your foot can slide from side to side laterally rotate
[21:04] from side to side. And if you don't have perfect
[21:06] bio mechanics, and honestly who does have perfect bio mechanics?
[21:11] And maybe a heel moves in or out as you push down, maybe a knee
[21:16] moves in or out as you push down.
[21:18] That play in the pedal allows your foot to rotate slightly
[21:22] from side to side and takes the stress away from that being
[21:26] absorbed by your Achilles tendon or the ligaments and tendons in
[21:30] your knee. So I think it's really super
[21:31] important to bear that in mind, as well as the safety aspect.
[21:35] It might well be saving you an injury, so I think it would be
[21:39] well worth moving over to to my perfect personal favourites, the
[21:43] look look Keo pedals. They make a great set called the
[21:47] look Keo easy. They're the cheapest ones they
[21:49] do and they're really lightweight.
[21:51] They're relatively inexpensive. I think you'll pick your pair up
[21:54] for 30 lbs probably if you shop around and if you get the
[21:57] coloured cleats, the red ones with most play in, you'll find
[22:01] that you've got that side to side lateral movement.
[22:03] That means that as well as you've fixed firmly to the
[22:06] pedal, but that that foot can just move from side to side as
[22:09] you're riding. And I think that will go a long
[22:12] way to making you feel as though you're getting more power
[22:15] transfer into the pedal. But also, I expect it will
[22:18] massively reduce the amount of niggles, injuries, soreness that
[22:22] athletes experienced using toe clip cages.
[22:27] So I hope that work. I hope that helps.
[22:30] OK, next question from Patty. Hi Rob.
[22:35] I just wanted to say thanks so much for the podcast.
[22:37] I'm totally sold on the idea of the 9 minute run, one minute
[22:41] walk routine that you're talking about and also not doing long
[22:47] runs the day after your long bike ride if you don't have to.
[22:51] Unluckily, it looks like any of the plans that I've looked at
[22:54] always seem to schedule the long run the day after the long ride.
[22:59] Would you recommend getting a plan like this and simply
[23:02] changing up the days of the week to ensure the runs in midweek
[23:05] while the bike stays at the weekend until I get 8 weeks out?
[23:08] Right, so there's a lot to unpack here.
[23:10] So the first thing is, if you've not heard this before, I'm a big
[23:13] proponent of having a one minute walk break every 10 minutes in
[23:16] your long runs. And by long I mean anything of
[23:18] an hour or longer. What this does is it massively
[23:21] reduces the amount of recovery time it's going to take.
[23:24] I can't explain fully in physiological terms how this
[23:27] works, It just works. You'll be a lot less tired, a
[23:30] lot less fatigued, a lot less sore the day after, especially
[23:33] after your really long, long runs with that one minute walk
[23:36] break in there. And it's something you can
[23:39] utilise on race day as well because you can just use those
[23:41] walk breaks through the aid stations.
[23:43] You get the benefit of the walk break, deload the leg muscles a
[23:47] little bit and you get to make sure you drink or eat without
[23:50] spilling things. Love your hands and feet, right?
[23:52] So the 91 run walk method, if you've not tried it, I really
[23:55] encourage you to do it. Second thing Patty's talking
[23:58] about here is, and again, if we go back to the the early days of
[24:02] triathlon, it was assumed you should do your long ride on a
[24:06] Saturday and a long run on a Sunday because in a triathlon
[24:10] the run comes after the ride, right?
[24:12] So it makes sense to do the run after the ride.
[24:14] What we found over time was the kind of the kind of fatigue
[24:19] muscle damage you get after a long ride takes a while to
[24:22] recover from and repair from. And it's a different kind of
[24:25] fatigue than you'll face immediately after the bike on
[24:28] race day. So there isn't really it's a
[24:31] game of diminishing returns, making your body do that every
[24:34] week, putting your body through having the long run on tired and
[24:38] or muscle damaged legs every week when you don't have to.
[24:41] So we moved, we, I moved this run into the middle of the week
[24:45] and I work on like a two section week basis where we do the long
[24:49] run Wednesday or Thursday, have an easier day Friday, do the
[24:52] long ride Saturday or Sunday. And then you're fresh for your
[24:56] long run and also you're a bit more fresh for your long ride as
[24:59] well. Separate the two of them out.
[25:01] There are a couple of specific points in someone's training
[25:04] plan where I will have them do the long run the day after the
[25:07] long ride, but I'll only probably do that twice in an
[25:10] Iron Man training plan. And it'll be specific race
[25:12] rehearsal weekends where we do a big brick on Saturday and we do
[25:16] a long run on Sunday morning very first thing.
[25:18] But we do that in the last few weeks before your Iron Man, when
[25:23] you are at the peak of your fitness.
[25:25] The rest of the time, I think the way you've got to think
[25:26] about this is make life as easy on yourself as you can and be as
[25:30] sensible as you can. The biggest risk to you training
[25:33] for Iron Man is if you pick up an injury.
[25:35] And the most likely place to pick up an injury is on the run.
[25:39] And the most likely way to get a run injury is either running too
[25:43] hard or running on tired or damaged muscles.
[25:48] So let's try and avoid that. Let's make life easy for
[25:50] ourselves. Let's move the run into the
[25:52] middle of the week if we can. If you can't and you're really
[25:55] time limited at the weekends, what I'd advise you're doing is
[25:58] putting your long run on Saturday and your long run on
[26:00] Sunday and then that way you run on fresh legs and then if you
[26:04] you're tired and sore for the long ride the next day.
[26:07] Actually that's really good practise at.
[26:10] And again, this isn't physiological advice from the
[26:14] person with a degree, this is just real world advice from
[26:16] someone who's done a lot of Iron Man's.
[26:19] You are going to have to get used to riding the bike when you
[26:22] don't want to. You get to hour 4 of an hour
[26:24] bike leg, everyone is ready to be finished whether they are 15
[26:28] K from the finish line or 6080 K from finish line.
[26:32] At that point you have to get used to the the mental challenge
[26:37] of needing to keep on going when you don't want to.
[26:39] So doing those rides on tired legs when you're already a bit
[26:42] tired. And so I'm fed up.
[26:44] It's really, really good mental practise.
[26:47] So Patty, I hope that helps. OK, And that brings us to the
[26:49] end of this week's episode. I hope you've enjoyed this.
[26:52] If you've got any questions or anything that's come up and you
[26:54] want to send them through, please send them over to
[26:55] help@oxygenaddict.com. If you're looking to get
[26:59] yourself some electrolytes, carbohydrate or hydration
[27:02] advice, head on over to precisionfuelandhydration.com
[27:05] and use the code Oxygen 26 for 15% off your first electrolyte
[27:09] order. And if you're looking for
[27:11] coaching, please head over to teamoxygenatic.com.
[27:14] We've got the most comprehensive triathlon programme that's
[27:17] specifically designed for busy age groupers with busy lives,
[27:20] busy family lives, trying to juggle it all and still have an
[27:23] awesome race day experience. There's a link in the show notes
[27:26] to book a membership call with me and see if you'd be a good
[27:28] fit for joining the team. OK everyone, until next week,
[27:31] have a great safe training and racing week.
[27:34] I'm coach Rob Willby, and you've been listening to the Oxygen
[27:37] Addict Triathlon Podcast.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.