# Athlete FAQs: Training Tips for Your Best Ironman | Ep 504

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 28 Aug 2024, 22 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/90892144/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-7-26%2F385332724-44100-2-ea11c10ef4b3e.mp3

In this episode, we tackle listener and viewer questions about Ironman training. Topics include: Essential bike sessions for optimal marathon performance... Heart rate zones for hill training... Tips for reducing bike discomfort... TSS targets for a 70.3... and the best clothing choices for race day. Whether you're a beginner or advanced athlete, these insights will help you prepare better for your next Ironman. * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Like what you heard in this show? Join hundreds of other age group triathletes making the most of their limited training time, training with Team OxygenAddict! http://team.oxygenaddict.com - The most comprehensive triathlon coaching program for busy age groupers. Join the Team Oxygenaddict waiting list and be the first to find out when a space becomes available: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/waiting-list * * * * * * * * * * * * 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 this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:02] Hello and welcome to the Oxygen Addict podcast.
[0:05] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors, Precision Fuel
[0:08] and hydration.com. You can personalise your
[0:11] fuelling and hydration strategy so you perform your best with
[0:14] 15% off your first order of electrolytes and carbohydrate
[0:18] fuel. The code Oxygen 24 at Precision
[0:21] Fuel and hydration.com. Welcome to the show, everybody.
[0:24] I'm your host, Coach Rob will be.
[0:26] And every week we've been you an episode of this podcast to help
[0:29] motivate and inspire you for your triathlon goals for this
[0:32] season. Listen, a couple of quick things
[0:35] you could do for us before we jump into today's episode.
[0:38] If you do like this episode, please consider following us on
[0:41] Spotify, our Apple Podcasts, and also if you're watching on
[0:45] YouTube, if you could like and subscribe, that would really
[0:48] help out the growth of the show. It helps the show get shown to
[0:51] more people by the algorithm on on the podcast players and on
[0:55] YouTube. So we'd really, really
[0:56] appreciate that. And secondly, if you're looking
[0:59] for help and advice with your triathlon training, please
[1:02] consider getting in touch with us.
[1:03] You can read all about what we offer at teamoxygenaddict.com
[1:07] and then you can e-mail us at help@oxygenaddict.com or there's
[1:11] a link in the show notes to book a call with me or one of the
[1:14] coaching team. We can discuss how we can best
[1:17] help you out with your triathlon goals for this season.
[1:21] In this episode of the show, we're going to be answering
[1:24] listener questions, viewer questions from YouTube,
[1:27] questions that have been sent in over e-mail.
[1:30] Some of these are questions from athletes that we coach, but most
[1:33] of them are questions from athletes who are not coached by
[1:36] us, who have watched our YouTube channel or listened to the
[1:39] podcast. And I've got tonnes of
[1:41] questions. So first up, I apologise.
[1:43] I can't reply to all of these questions personally.
[1:47] It's just not possible with the volume of them that we get.
[1:49] So what I thought we would do is try and curate some of the most
[1:52] common questions and try and answer some of them to give a
[1:56] real general background to the answers to the questions that
[2:00] people have if they're approaching an Iron Man or 70.3.
[2:04] And I think it'll go a long way to sort of give you a really
[2:07] good base understanding for how to go about coaching yourself
[2:11] through some of these Iron Man related questions.
[2:14] So first up, we've got a really general question, but I think
[2:18] it's really interesting one. The question says, what bike
[2:21] sessions should I be doing for Iron Man?
[2:24] And at first I read this and I thought, wow, how long is a
[2:26] piece of string? But I've realised it's actually
[2:30] a really good question and we can answer this in a really
[2:32] simple way. What we have to look at is the
[2:35] challenge of Iron Man. You've got to be able to run a
[2:38] marathon after you've ridden your bike for 180 kilometres.
[2:42] So it isn't just about riding your bike for 180 kilometres as
[2:46] fast as you can, it's about riding your bike for 180
[2:50] kilometres, conserving enough energy that you can then run a
[2:54] really good marathon at the end of it.
[2:56] And so with that in mind, it might not be the kind of bike
[2:59] sessions that people typically think of.
[3:01] We're not trying to get as fast as possible.
[3:04] We're trying to get as efficient as possible to complete the
[3:06] distance and still have enough energy leftover that you can
[3:10] deliver that great marathon. So I've broken this down into
[3:13] the three key types of bike training session I would have
[3:16] our athletes do in a given week. And the first one is, I think
[3:20] probably the most obvious. It's the long aerobic endurance
[3:24] ride. The purpose of the ride is to
[3:27] get you fit enough that you can cover the duration of the 180
[3:30] kilometres, that you learn to ride in a way that you can serve
[3:34] energy so you can have that good marathon and that you train your
[3:38] body's energy systems so you're not just relying on the food
[3:42] that you're eating as you're going along.
[3:44] So for most people, when they're starting out, the amount of
[3:47] energy they can draw from their body from stored fat is actually
[3:50] really low in everyday life. Most humans, we don't learn to
[3:54] metabolise fat as a fuel. And so lo and behold, when you
[3:58] go out and you exercise, your body doesn't metabolise fat as a
[4:01] fuel. So the first thing this this
[4:03] long endurance ride is aimed at is gradually increasing the
[4:08] amount of energy your body can get from your stored fat as fuel
[4:13] per hour or per mile if you want to think of it that way.
[4:16] The way we go about this is we make sure that the ride never
[4:19] gets too hard. In simple terms, if we end up
[4:23] pushing hard, our body is going to turn off its ability to
[4:26] metabolise fat and it's already pretty limited in beginners.
[4:30] So we want to make sure that this long ride is easy.
[4:34] You want to be able to have a conversation and in a Physiology
[4:38] lab, if we were to look at the the market of the top of zone 2
[4:43] or if you like the the point where fat burning starts to
[4:46] become less efficient and starts to reduce.
[4:48] That's about the point where we go from being able to
[4:52] comfortably nose breathe to having to breathe through our
[4:55] mouths. And a really good way to try
[4:57] that out in in the real world, if you like, is if you're riding
[5:01] with somebody else and you can have a conversation, that's a
[5:04] really good sign that you're in that fat burning zone.
[5:06] If you're starting to gasp for air or you've really got to
[5:09] think about where you're saying those words, you're probably
[5:12] going just a little bit hard. Now, that's not to say there
[5:15] isn't a place for those sessions in your training plan because
[5:18] there is. But you don't want to be doing
[5:20] that in the middle of your long ride, especially if you're a
[5:23] beginner and especially in the early days.
[5:25] So that means if you're riding into a headwind, if you're
[5:28] riding up a hill, you're consciously going to have to
[5:31] back down the amount of power you're putting out to really
[5:34] keep a lid on that. Now, if you're riding with a
[5:37] heart rate monitor, we want this to be within your Zone 2 area.
[5:41] If you're riding with a power metre, we want to that, we want
[5:44] it to be below at the very most, 70% of FTP.
[5:49] It's going to vary from person to person, but that is, I would
[5:51] say the absolute limit for where you want to be for most
[5:54] beginners and intermediates, possibly even lower than that as
[5:58] well. And that's going to ensure that
[5:59] that ride does the job that you want it to do.
[6:02] The second kind of ride that we're going to do is going to be
[6:05] a ride that's going to be aimed at increasing your engine size.
[6:08] It's going to be looking at increasing the amount of power
[6:10] you can put out FTP. Now in the offseason, we'll do
[6:14] specific FTP intervals. We won't have you go that hard
[6:18] in your specific preparation phase for Iron Man.
[6:21] We'll limit you to a sweet spot ride or about 90% of FTP or if
[6:26] you're riding with heart rate, it's going to be below zone four
[6:30] kind of heart rate. The aim of this ride is going to
[6:33] be, as I said, it's going to be to make your engine size bigger.
[6:36] If you spend time riding intervals of power that are at
[6:40] about 90% of your FTP, your body's energy systems are going
[6:44] to expand and it's going to become easier for you to put out
[6:47] more power. But the caveat here is it's not
[6:50] going to be so hard that you're going to be overly tired.
[6:54] So you will be able to complete the other training that you need
[6:56] to do in the week. Like I said, if we're looking at
[6:58] the winter block, there are faster ways to make your FTP
[7:02] increase faster, but they're not as appropriate in the run up to
[7:06] an Iron Man because you just don't want to be that tired.
[7:09] So it's a little bit of a compromise there.
[7:11] And the third session we're going to be doing for Iron Man
[7:14] is going to be either hill training if you're riding
[7:17] outdoors, or it's going to be cadence and position training if
[7:20] you're riding indoors. And as we approach your, your
[7:23] race itself, I'd advise all people to be outdoors as much as
[7:27] they possibly can. So the purpose of the hill
[7:30] session is not to be smashing out huge amounts of power.
[7:33] It's to learn to ride the hills in as efficient a way as you can
[7:38] relative to your goal race. So you won't be thinking about
[7:42] the cadence you're riding at as you go up the hill and the
[7:45] amount of power that you're putting out as you go up the
[7:47] hill. Now, by just by design, your
[7:50] cadence is going to drop as you go up a hill, and the amount of
[7:54] power you put out is going to go up as you go up a hill.
[7:57] But it's under your control how much those things happen.
[8:00] So use the gears on your bike. In a perfect world, the amount
[8:04] of power you'd put outgoing up the hill won't increase by about
[8:07] more than 10%, and the cadence won't really change very much at
[8:12] all. It's when you get onto really
[8:13] steep hills that you find sometimes the terrain dictates
[8:17] you have to do it a little bit differently.
[8:19] So if the terrain gets to the point where you've run out of
[8:21] gears and you have to get out of the saddle, still try and limit
[8:24] yourself to a maximum of 20% above the FTP target you're at.
[8:30] But these sessions in training can be really, really good to
[8:34] teach yourself, to teach your body and to teach your own mind
[8:38] how to ride the hills so you get up them in as efficient a way as
[8:43] possible. Because as I said earlier on,
[8:46] when you get to race day, you're going to inevitably have hills
[8:49] on your race course. You need to be able to ride them
[8:52] in a way that has a minimal impact on your run later on in
[8:57] the race day. And by limiting the amount of
[8:59] power you put out by trying to control your cadence, you can
[9:02] get a really good limit on how much extra power you put out and
[9:06] therefore how much knock on effect that's going to have on
[9:09] your run later on. OK, Next question leads on from
[9:13] this one a little bit. Which heart rate zone should I
[9:16] be riding in when I'm doing hill training?
[9:19] Right. So again, I'm going to go back
[9:21] to the first principle here. The purpose of the hill training
[9:24] is to prepare for what you're going to face on race day.
[9:27] So firstly, it makes sense that you go out and you ride the kind
[9:29] of course that mimics the kind of course you'll have on race
[9:32] day. If you, if you're doing a very,
[9:34] very flat course, then you don't need to focus on doing hills for
[9:38] the purpose of preparing them. If you're doing an Iron Man
[9:41] Whales type course, it's in your best interest to ride the kind
[9:44] of hills that you're going to face come race day.
[9:47] So in terms of the heart rate zone, if you're preparing for an
[9:50] Iron Man, we want you ideally to be staying in that heart rate
[9:53] zone too. It might rise a little bit, it
[9:56] might rise a few beats a minute going up a a long shallow hill,
[10:00] maybe a little bit more than that going up a steeper hill.
[10:03] But the more you can control your heart rate and keep it in
[10:06] the zone you want it to be in, the less power spikes you're
[10:09] going to have, the less that's going to affect your marathon at
[10:12] the end of the day later on. So again, we go back to the
[10:16] principle of if it's a shallow hill, we want you to be putting
[10:19] out no more than 10% more power than the power you're putting
[10:23] out on the flat. If you're on very steep hills,
[10:26] we want you ideally not to be putting out more than 20% more
[10:30] power than you were putting out going along on the flat.
[10:33] And again, this is the sort of numbers you'll see if you use a
[10:36] software package like Best Bike Split.
[10:38] This is the kind of CHEAT SHEET guidance they'll give you so
[10:42] that you're not putting out huge amounts of extra power burning
[10:46] matches and leading to the fact you're not going to be able to
[10:48] run well at the end of the day. Again, my advice here is all
[10:52] aimed around making sure that you can have a good marathon at
[10:56] the end of this. It is absolutely possible to
[10:59] ride hills in a different way, to attack the hills, to go up
[11:02] them hard, and it might be appropriate to do that if you're
[11:05] in a sporty for in a bike race. But in an Iron Man or a 70.3, we
[11:09] won't be thinking about preserving that marathon as much
[11:13] as we possibly can. OK, next question.
[11:17] What TSS should I target for 70.3 on the bike so I can still
[11:22] run well? This is a lead on question.
[11:25] We talked about a TSS target of 280 on the bike for Iron Man
[11:30] riders. And this question is, well,
[11:33] you've mentioned what to do for Iron Man.
[11:34] What should I do in a 70.3? So let's go back to first
[11:37] principles. The TSS score or the Training
[11:40] Stress score is simply a way to work out how much fatigue you've
[11:44] accumulated during a ride. And the harder you go for, the
[11:48] longer, the more training stress you're going to accumulate.
[11:52] And TSS is just a way of putting a numerical score on that
[11:55] fatigue that you've accumulated. And we've seen across our years
[11:59] of coaching athletes, if you have any more than about 280 on
[12:03] the bike in an Iron Man, you're not going to deliver your
[12:06] optimum marathon. Now what we work off at the 70.3
[12:10] is we take half of that 280 number and make it 140, and then
[12:15] we add on about 20% as well. So we're working off a ballpark
[12:18] figure of about 180. The reason we can go
[12:22] proportionally a bit higher is our run is going to be a lot
[12:25] shorter and at a higher intensity than the run is going
[12:29] to be off the bike and an Iron Man.
[12:31] So it's not as important to control your power quite as much
[12:34] in a 70.3 because the run itself is going to be over so much more
[12:39] fat and more quickly than it will be in the marathon.
[12:42] The marathon's a whole other thing.
[12:44] So Atss score of about 180 on the bike at 70.3 distance, it's
[12:51] a good safe target to work off, see if you run well and if you
[12:55] do, you can look to moving that to 190, moving that to 200.
[13:00] We have seen some athletes run really well above 200 TSS, but
[13:04] they've tended to be athletes with a multi year training
[13:07] history. They tend to be athletes who are
[13:09] very experienced and know the body very well.
[13:12] So 180 is a great number for beginners or first timers.
[13:15] And then gradually work your way up when you go after that.
[13:20] Now, the next question came from an athlete who'd watched one of
[13:24] our early videos and said you talked a lot about protecting
[13:27] your run at all costs, but that isn't viable for an athlete like
[13:32] me who's chasing the cut off. Really, really great comment.
[13:36] So again, the caveat here is we want to protect your run as much
[13:40] as we can, but but obviously we want you to make that cut off on
[13:44] the bike. So if you look at your predicted
[13:46] swim time and your predicted bike time and they're very close
[13:51] to you not making the bike cut off, you are in certain
[13:54] circumstances like this going to have to push the bike a bit
[13:57] harder than we'd ideally like. So you will make the bike cut
[14:01] off and that's OK, but you're doing it in the knowledge that
[14:04] that's the reason that you're doing it and it's probably going
[14:07] to cost you a bit of comfort on the run later on.
[14:10] So if we put some ballpark numbers on this, the the swim
[14:15] cut off tends to be two hours 20, the bike cut off tends to be
[14:19] 10 hours 30 after the swim start.
[14:21] So for an athlete who's going to swim two hours, go to
[14:25] transition, get out at 2:20, it's going to leave them about 8
[14:30] hours, 8 1/2 hours on the bike. So we're looking at somewhere
[14:33] around an average speed of 21 kilometres an hour on the bike.
[14:38] So what you have to do here is you'll have to do the maths.
[14:42] Look at the average speed you're currently riding at on your long
[14:44] ride. If you're around that 21
[14:47] kilometres an hour marker, you put yourself in that zone where
[14:51] there's a risk that you're not going to make the cut off on the
[14:54] bike. If that's the case for you, I'd
[14:57] give yourself some leeway. Allow yourself to push a bit
[15:00] harder on the bike, knowing that it's going to make the marathon
[15:03] a little bit less comfortable later on, but knowing that
[15:06] you're going to get there then and definitely make the cut off
[15:09] on the bike. So there's the caveat for
[15:12] athletes who are much faster and and who are going to be well
[15:15] within the cut off, I would advise sticking to that 280 TSS
[15:19] score as a real ceiling on how hard you want to go.
[15:23] But for athletes who are at danger of not making the cut
[15:25] off, give yourself that headroom to go a little bit harder.
[15:29] And if that's the case, then that's what you have to do to
[15:32] make the cut off. But you know, for all, for all
[15:36] intents and purposes you have to make that cut off.
[15:38] The other thing I'd advise you to do is look at what else you
[15:40] can do to go faster for the same effort.
[15:43] So if you're really up against it, if you can look at investing
[15:46] a bit more on your bike. Put race wheels on, Tri bars on,
[15:50] wear a Tri suit instead of wearing cycle clothing.
[15:54] All of these things can contribute to going much faster
[15:57] for the same power and for the same effort.
[15:59] They really do make a big difference, especially the skin
[16:02] suit angle that can make you go one or two kilometres an hour
[16:05] faster than wearing baggy cycling clothing.
[16:08] So well, well worth looking into.
[16:11] Next question was, I'm extremely uncomfortable down there when
[16:17] I'm riding on the bike. What can I do that's going to
[16:19] help? So saddle discomfort or
[16:23] undercarriage discomfort as we sometimes call it, can be
[16:25] really, really common in athletes.
[16:27] So here are a few things you can do that are going to help really
[16:30] improve the comfort. First is getting a bike fit.
[16:33] Making sure the bike fits you correctly, that the saddles the
[16:36] right height and adjusted correctly is the first thing.
[16:39] The next thing is making sure that the saddle that's on the
[16:42] bike suits you. Again, a really good bike fitter
[16:45] can do pressure mapping on a saddle.
[16:47] Can recommend a saddle that's going to be the right width for
[16:49] your sit bones in your particular bottom.
[16:52] That is really essential and can really help if you're really
[16:55] struggling. And the next thing to look at is
[16:58] the right bike shorts and chamois cream.
[17:01] Having comfortable bike shorts that fit you well and with a
[17:03] good pad in can make a really big difference.
[17:06] But the thing that makes the difference with most people is
[17:09] chamois cream. It's 15 lbs or 10 lbs apart from
[17:13] a bike shop and effectively it stops the friction of you
[17:17] rubbing against your bike saddle or you rubbing against your bike
[17:20] shorts. You need a good handful of it
[17:23] down your bike shorts at the start of every ride, but just
[17:26] reducing the amount of friction down there can vastly increase
[17:30] the amount of comfort that you experience.
[17:33] And as you know, if you are getting saddle sores or even
[17:35] chafing as you're riding, it can be so painful and distracting
[17:39] that you just can't put any power out.
[17:41] So taking care of these things and getting those right.
[17:45] Honestly, for the the 10 or 15 lbs spent on chamois cream
[17:49] compared to how much you'll spend on a bike, it's a tiny
[17:51] amount of money, but it will make an enormous amount of
[17:54] difference. And last question we've got for
[17:57] today's session is what clothing shall I wear on the bike for an
[18:01] Iron Man? I'm considering putting my
[18:04] cycling clothing on underneath the wet suit, but then it's
[18:08] going to be wet when I start the ride.
[18:10] So it's a really great question that often comes in, especially
[18:14] for first timers. I would not recommend wearing
[18:17] cycling kit under your wet suit. The cycling chamois will absorb
[18:22] loads of water and it'll take ages to dry out if you get
[18:25] yourself a really good Tri suit. The chamois in the Tri suit
[18:29] tends to be made of a fleece material or certainly a a sort
[18:35] of synthetic chamois that doesn't hold the water for long.
[18:39] And if you've never done a triathlon before and never
[18:41] experienced this, your Tri suit will be dry probably within
[18:44] three or four minutes of setting off on the bike.
[18:46] The pad in the Tri suit will be really comfortable, especially
[18:50] if you use the chamois cream that we've talked about, but you
[18:52] have to practise this ahead of time.
[18:55] The big benefit of wearing a Tri suit over cycle clothing is it
[18:59] fits so tightly and it's so aerodynamic and honestly it can
[19:02] be worth 1-2, even 3 kilometres an hour for the same effort and
[19:06] power. So getting a comfortable, well
[19:09] fitting Tri suit is money really well spent, especially if you're
[19:13] an athlete who's up against the cut off.
[19:15] Now it is possible that you can wear cycling clothing on the
[19:18] ride. If that's going to be the case,
[19:20] I'd advise you to simply get changed in T1 so there'll be an
[19:23] area you can go and get changed. You don't have to worry about
[19:26] nudity. You can even put a towel in your
[19:30] your T1 bag, wrap that around your waist for men and get
[19:33] changed underneath that women. There's always a separate
[19:36] changing area for women so you can go and get completely
[19:39] changed, but if you're going to be out there for a really long
[19:41] time, comfort is going to be the key thing for you.
[19:45] So whatever you're going to do, practise it in training 1st and
[19:49] honestly getting a good try suit I think is the best money that
[19:53] you can invest in yourself at this point.
[19:55] You'll have spent a lot of money on your entry fee and
[19:58] accommodation fees and and all the other money that you've
[20:00] spent along the way. An extra £150 or thereabouts at
[20:04] this point isn't a massive investment.
[20:07] For the amount of comfort that you'll experience and for the
[20:10] amount of extra speed that you'll get for no extra effort.
[20:15] So I hope these answers to these questions have helped you out.
[20:18] Thanks very much to the people who've sent them in.
[20:20] And if you've got any more questions or anything that pops
[20:22] up in the podcast or the YouTube channel, please do keep sending
[20:26] them in. I'll curate them and I'll try
[20:27] and do one of these episodes every couple of months to answer
[20:30] all those questions for you. But I hope this has helped and
[20:33] if you're racing soon, I hope you have a fantastic race day
[20:36] and you get to cross that Iron Man or 70.3 finish line.
[20:40] OK, then that brings us to the end of this week's episode.
[20:44] So here are some discount codes and deals for you.
[20:47] Over at Precision Fuel and hydration.com.
[20:49] Use the code Oxygen 24 for 15% off your first electrolyte
[20:53] order. And over at
[20:55] teamoxygenaddict.com, I think we've got the most comprehensive
[20:58] triathlon coaching programme for busy age groupers.
[21:01] If you've enjoyed what you've heard today and the advice has
[21:04] helped you out, well, great stuff.
[21:05] I hope that's helped put some of your fears at rest.
[21:08] And I know from some of the calls we've had, it's helping
[21:11] raise the right questions in the minds of people as to whether
[21:15] their current coaching relationship is working for
[21:17] them. If you're looking for a change
[21:19] or if you're looking for high quality proven coaching for
[21:22] Ironman or 70.3 triathlon this year, you can just check out the
[21:26] details of our coaching packages on our website at
[21:28] teamoxygenaddict.com. And then if you're interested,
[21:32] there's a link in the show notes below.
[21:34] You can join our waiting list and you'll be notified if a slot
[21:37] becomes available. And at that point you'll have a
[21:39] chance to book a call with us and see if you'd be a good fit
[21:42] for joining the team. So although we don't have slots
[21:45] available at the moment, we'll make those call appointments
[21:48] available to people as and when we do have athletes who end
[21:52] their coaching packages during the season if and when that
[21:55] happens. So remember, there's links in
[21:57] the show notes so you don't have to remember them.
[22:00] Until next week. Have a great safe training and
[22:02] racing week. I'm coach Rob Wilby and you've
[22:04] been listening to the Oxygen Addict podcast.
[22:07] See ya.

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