Real Performance

Coming out of the water, Corey’s HR was high, but came down as he settled into his power.  We followed what I call a “Double Cap” during the ride.  For no longer than 10mins was his power to be above 260~ or his HR above 145~.  If either was too high, he had to back off.  This is a great way of taking into account the differing conditions of the day, and as it turned out, Placid was unusually hot this year.  The best way to combat the heat is to be realistic and back off a little, had Corey become dehydrated his HR would’ve gone up, and this would’ve be a cue to back off the power and slow down, knowing that others would have to do the same or pay a price later.  Racing with power is great, but it’s only part of the total picture.

About 45mins in, Corey slowly rode up to a group of athletes.  Rather than burning matches to pass them, he settled into a slightly lower power and rode behind.  As we predicted, once the group hit the climb, they motored away.  Corey produced exactly 260watts for 10mins (our predetermined cap) and then backed off as the group continued to disappear up the road.  The athletes he had slowly caught on the flat were now out of sight ahead of him.  Undaunted, Corey kept his effort steady, and didn’t see them again for several hours.  During the 2nd and final loop, on the same climb that those athletes had ridden away from him on earlier, Corey caught and passed the lot of them. 

Going in, we had determined that Corey should ride about a 240 watt average on the parts of the course where he it mattered.  I can’t stress enough that a course like Placid needs to be approached differently than a course like Florida.  Corey and I discussed the benefits and drawbacks of “flattening out a course” (holding a perfectly steady power despite terrain changes).  We went into the race with a set plan of coasting once his speed increased above the low 30s mph.  The zeroes racked up while coasting would greatly decrease his average power.  To combat the mental stress of seeing an average power lower than what he would like, and to ensure steadier pacing on the flats/uphills, Corey lapped his Garmin after every decent.  I’ve seen a lot of files where AGs average their target wattage on hilly courses, but have blown their legs because they ride too hard in places to try and make up for the coasting or spin a cadence of 105 going 36mph down hills to hold power when they really should’ve just coasted

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When Corey was pedaling, he was averaging 240 watts, but because of the downhill coasting, his overall NP was 239 and his average power only 229.  However, this enabled him to ride his fastest ride with the least amount of energy expenditure.

The way I came up with Corey’s target watts was developed around TSS.  TSS stands for training stress score, and although I find it highly useless for most workouts, in a 5hr time trial, it’s pretty important.   It’s a calculation of Normalized power multiplied by time, the higher the score, the harder the ride was. 

Most IM athletes should have a TSS below 300 for the bike portion, but Corey had run 3:15 off the bike before, and his workouts in the buildup suggested to me that he could run well off of a higher score.  Since TSS is calculated from time and normalized power, the longer the course takes to ride, the lower the normalized power needs to be. 

Before we started our final build with a lot of IM paced intervals, I started calculating what average watts would equal what average speed at IMLP for Corey.  This would give me his predicted bike finish time and allow me get a TSS score for the ride.  Using strava, past results, and normal weather conditions, I tried to find the right average power to create a TSS of 300.  Following the laid out plan of 240~ watts on the flats and uphills, I thought it would take Corey between 5:00 and 5:10 to complete the bike course, which would give him a TSS of very close to 300.  As it turned out, it took Corey 5:14:xx to ride the course, resulting in a TSS of 301 (pretty damn close to our goal).   This is important because if Corey had been racing IM AZ or Florida, his target power would have been higher.  An NP of 240 at IM AZ might get Corey off the bike in 4:50~, thus his TSS would’ve been much lower than 300.  Given that, Corey’s plan for a race like IM AZ might be to target a power closer to 250, getting him off course in 4:40 but raising the TSS to a target of 300.