Being able to cope with an inconsistent effort during your race bike leg is key to preserving your legs for the run. Ben Bright has the session that will get you race-ready\u2026 <\/p>
Elite, draft\u2013legal bike legs can be brutal. Yes, high-aerobic threshold power is critical to be able to deal with the racing demands but there\u2019s more to it than that<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Short laps on the bike generally mean lots of corners<\/strong><\/a>, so lots of decelerating and accelerating, while large packs make the effort more like an on\/off light switch.<\/p>\n Often the hardest bike legs have relatively low average powers, but it\u2019s the spikiness that makes it so tough. And if you\u2019re not prepared to cope with the demands, your run suffers.<\/p>\n Non-drafting racing isn\u2019t quite as stochastic but many courses these days, particularly champs, have more than a few corners and plenty of other athletes to navigate, making the effort less consistent than you might otherwise expect.<\/p>\n Because of this, being able to cope with an inconsistent effort during the bike leg is important to non-drafting performance as well.<\/p>\n Sessions that intentionally modulate your effort and\/or energy systems are a great way to prepare for racing and can also help to move your aerobic threshold upwards. Here\u2019s an example:<\/span><\/p>\n To do this session well you need to have a basis for your effort and a way to gauge how hard you\u2019re pushing. We\u2019ll use two options: Functional Threshold<\/strong><\/a> or RPE<\/strong><\/a>. If using Functional Threshold this can be either Power or Heart Rate.<\/p>\n Unsure what Functional Threshold is? After a hard warm-up, perform a 20min maximal effort and then multiply your average power or HR for the effort by .95 to find your Functional Threshold (or the level of effort you should be able to sustain for 45-75mins continuously).<\/p>\n For RPE we\u2019ll use a 1-10 scale, with 1 being very, very light exercise; 10 being maximal, all-out effort that you could sustain for 30-90secs. For this session, we\u2019ll focus on levels 7 and 8, which should be just below and just above your sustainable threshold.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t continue beyond the point where you\u2019re no longer able to sustain the required intensity. Aim to finish feeling like you could\u2019ve done another rep if needed.<\/p>\n There are two ways to progress this set \u2013 either more reps or reduce recovery. Further out from racing I\u2019d increase reps, closer to racing I\u2019d decrease recovery.<\/p>\n This helps to clear the by-products produced when exercising at high intensity and improves adaptation<\/strong><\/a> and recovery. This is also a good time to start taking on your recovery nutrition<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n This is a tough session but should be manageable, particularly if you\u2019ve had a good winter where you\u2019ve banked plenty \u2028of low-intensity miles.<\/p>\n If so, doing this type of session once per week for 3-5 weeks will certainly see you improve \u2028your race threshold.<\/p>\n Top image credit:<\/strong> Secret Studio<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Being able to cope with an inconsistent effort during your race bike leg is key to preserving your legs for the run. Ben Bright has the session that will get you race-ready\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24008,"template":"","categories":[1,23],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/how-to-switch-intensities-on-the-bike.jpg",1200,801,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/how-to-switch-intensities-on-the-bike-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/how-to-switch-intensities-on-the-bike-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/how-to-switch-intensities-on-the-bike-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/how-to-switch-intensities-on-the-bike-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/how-to-switch-intensities-on-the-bike.jpg",1200,801,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/how-to-switch-intensities-on-the-bike.jpg",1200,801,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Being able to cope with an inconsistent effort during your race bike leg is key to preserving your legs for the run. Ben Bright has the session that will get you race-ready\u2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to train for race day<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Warm-up <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Prep <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Main set <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Cool-down <\/strong><\/h3>\n
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