I get this question quite a bit

“How do I go about improving my bike in the offseason?”

Answer

Between now and your next IM you have a few choices

1. Raise FTP

2. Develop your strength

3. Develop your sustainable power

4. Develop your endurance.

That’s four areas you can focus on and the area you need to focus will depend on your actual fitness in relation to your IM goals.

Picture: On my way to a 1:00:44 bike split for a 40km TT in Tokyo.

The first step would be to do a 60km TT at IM effort over a similar course to the Ironman bike leg. Does the result match your goal? It should, it’s only 60km, if not you need a combination of 2-3. If it does match your goal but your feel your RPE was rising then you’ll need to focus on 4. If your result is that your RPE feels right but you’re not meeting your goal time then you’ll need to focus on 1.

It’s how I coach my guys. I give them a test every 6-8 weeks and block of training to follow that focuses on moving you towards your goal but is heavily dependent on identifying your weaknesses first and then address those limiters in the next training block.

If you’re a long way off your goal then your best bet is to do a single sport focus and really devote all your BT sessions to achieving that goal. If you are close to your goal you can probably stick to a two discipline focus, if your are exceeding your goal then you could continue with a balanced S/B/R training plan.

In summary, go out a do a few short tests and see where you sit in relation to your race day goals, identify your limiters and address those in training.

My goal at IMChina was to ride a 5:10-5:20 and average about 34kph. At the start of my 12 week IM prep I did a 100km at IMeffort with an average speed of 35.5kph. It was a great place to be in to start my IM specific preps which then allowed me to focus on meeting the demands of the event across all three disciplines. I ended up riding a 5:17  (6th in my age group) which felt very easy (apart from some burning feet issues . That was because I addressed that goal in training, by identifying my limiters first and I training in 6-8 week blocks hammering away at those limiters with 3-4 key sessions each week.

Hope it helps

fluro