Your Best Season Ever Part 3: Getting race specific
Let’s fast forward a few months into your training.
You have built a stellar block of easy training, you nailed your strength training and you spent some time working on top speed.
The next block you want to add is your interval work - which gets us more race-specific.
One of the big problems is that race-pace is vastly different for every athlete.
Usually though it ends up being at the top of zone 2, bottom of zone 3 for many long course atheltes. Could be zones 3 and 4 for sprint and olympic races.
So where does that leave us?
If you have already spent time working on Zone 1 and 2 then we need to spend time working on 3 and 4.
This will guide decisions on how fast you can handle going on race day.
Zeroing in on race pace
The overall approach that I take is slowly zeroing in on your ideal race pace.
That way we can:
- Test that it's sustainable
- Prepare the body for it
- Adjust nutrition to support it.
If we know that your ideal race pact falls somewhere in the middle of the zones then the approach we can take is to work the extremes until we are in the middle.
By starting with some threshold sessions we can see where the max you can sustain for 10-15 minutes.
Then we can add in some tempo sessions to see what you tolerate for 20-60 minutes.
Both of these can then be used as data points to identify what you can handle in a big day of training.
(It can be really key to focus on what pace you can ride on the bike and then run strong.)
Defining these terms
Zone definitions are constantly being argued based on our understanding of physiology. I am going to write an update to this letter soon.
So we can be on the same page here’s a rough guide:
- Threshold (Z5): Above LT2 generally. Can only hold for shorter durations with rest.
- Tempo (Z4): just about LT1 but well below threshold. Can sustain for 30-60 mins.
What does that look like in a training session?
3 key workouts for this block
As we discussed the next block in your training is going to layer in threshold and tempo-based work.
When it comes to adding tempo and threshold work, I usually only add 1 type of session for a period of training.
We might do 4-6 weeks of threshold and then 6-8 weeks of tempo as an example. Breaking this larger block into 2 smaller training blocks.
Threshold Sessions (Zone 4)
Training at your so-called threshold is hard training.
Most models define this as above LT2. This is where your physiology changes quite a bit and things become “unstable”. This means you will need a little more rest between intervals to sustain the work.
An example workout I use (for the bike):
5 x 5 min at threshold + 5 min endurance
This could fall in the middle of a longer endurance set or be broken up into its own shorter workout.
Tempo Sessions (Zone 3)
Tempo sessions are mod-hard sessions.
They are often tough but you can sustain them for longer periods of time. Generally, I feel these are just a bit faster than your race pace.
Most models define it as above LT1 but below threshold
An example workout I use (for the bike):
4 x 20 mins at tempo + 10 min endurance
This usually falls in the middle of a longer bike session, so that we can include some specific work, while still training to go long.
Long Day Training
Outside of specific zone workouts, there is 1 more key session you should be looking to add to this race prep block.
This is the long day.
This will be key for Ironman and 70.3 training.
Long Days are useful for:
- Training the metabolic system
- Learning to go long
- Practicing fuelling plans
In this block you should have 1-2 per month at a minimum where you are double your average training volume.
An example long-day I use a lot:
3 hour ride + 90 min run
This ends up being a 4.5 hour day which is great prep for 70.3 racing.
The goal for this session is usually to test what you can do on the bike and still run strong.
It’s also a great time to practice fuelling strategies (making sure you can tolerate it and it’s enough).
Your Ideal week targets for this block
Your ideal week now will have a variety of easy sessions, long sessions and speed/interval work.
The focus will be to add quality efforts across the week.
Goals for the block:
- Maintain your ideal week
- Add a threshold or tempo session
- Build up your long day
I will often decrease your strength training in this block to allow time and recovery for the race specific training you’re about to do.
Usually will try to maintain 1-2 small circuits.
That’s all for today.
Chandler
Ps. I'm almost ready to launch my base-season strength program. Reply to this and let me know if you want it.