Hi,
I’m Bart from Poland and I would like for any other interested to give my race recap of IM Lanzarote where I finished 7th in 35age group with 10:06:03.
Lanzarote is really hard course - on the bike there is 2500+ m of elevation and usually windy + on the run it’s not as flat and usually hot
Since I’ve started with athletica like a year ago I want to share my way and findings.
Race
Swim: 1st lap went really well and I was felling like I made some work there. 1st lap went in 28:30. On the 2nd lap I found a group and I’ve decided to stick with them - it was really easy, easy swim and I knew it’s probably not my tempo but I was pretty fresh after 2nd lap. Time: 59:59 → not bad but could have been a minut better probably.
Bike: I knew that I don’t want to overbike because on 2pm there will be sun on the run. So I’ve decided to keep it on uphils like 260-270, on flats more like 230 and on descents most like do not pedal at all. I was a long bike because there is a lot of elevation so I had to take into consideration it will be like 1h more so I cannot ride my usual power. Anyway it was 5:44:30 with 213AP and 233NP → still pretty strong but I think I can go normal IM bike split like in 250NP on a good day.
Run: I was calculating in my head if I can do it under 10h… When I started running I thought that there is no way so my idea was to run 21km and then see how it’s going. After 21km I though that there is possibility to go under 10h (in reality I would probably still need like 3mins but calculating in heat when running - well it’s not easy ). At 32km I had quite enough so I’ve decided to walk on aid stations and just finish → still I did not collapse or broke like usually we can do, It was like 10-20sek/km slower with walking on aid stations so not that bad. Time: 3:14:51
Overall I think athletica can prepare you for event but there are few caveats I observed during the year:
I’m swimming with masters - not extremely fast and probably the same volume as athletica suggested. After some time athletica started prescribing swim workouts like 6500m… Something is wrong with algorithm there - it was constantly trying to give me like 20km+ swimming weeks.
It proposed for me to do a 1:41h bike workout a day before the race with 3x10min at IM pace. I honestly think this is a bad advice as I could cook myself if it’s too hot and it just to long in my eyes - I’ve decided to just do 30-40mins spin to check if bike is fine with just few acceleration in position.
I was trying to do the easy bike session (which is usually once or maybe twice a week) with CORE sensor for heat acclimatisation. Historically I’m bad at heat and on race day it was hot but I was like OK. So this definitely helps - or maybe it’s placebo
Training usually around 15h a week.
Happy to share this result and I will continue with athletica this year to see how it goes with 70.3 that I still have to do
Incredible @Bart. I coached Andi Boecherer (Athletica ambassador) to a win at that race in 2021. Andi’s winning time of 8:34 really puts your time in perspective as you can take at least 30 min off your time for just about any other course in the world.
Thanks also for the Athletica feedback. A few responses.
I’ve eyeballed your sessions and nothing currently looks out of the ordinary but next time you get a large outlier like that please let me know so I can investigate.
While that may be a bit high, its actually not for someone of your fitness. Dr Dave Martin (AIS) taught me the benefit of the reverse taper effect where you in fact raise your acute training load in the final days. I did that session before my best ever sub-10h IM in Taupo. This method is also used by many TDF riders winning Grand Tour events and you’ll likely be aware that even on rest days TDF riders cycle at least 3 hours on such days to maintain and raise training load. Context specific but for someone like yourself with a very high fitness level this prescription, while not well known, may in fact be optimal from a physiological / scientific standpoint. However if you feel you need rest, then you were right to shorten it.
I start to think that maybe (not sure what type of algorithms are used there) in order to elevate my swimming I need more long swims.
That’s interesting. I was thinking that I would put myself in a hole. I have few other races this year so will try pre-race warmups that is prescribed.
I’ve been playing around with different plans to see what they are as I’m not specifically training for anything at the moment. How far out did you cut over to the Ironman plan in Athletica (8, 12, 16 weeks out, etc)?
In playing with triathlon plans, I also wasn’t sure i understood some of the swimming adjustments. Did you consider using an iron distance duathlon plan and then just putting in swimming as you see fit?
If training 15 hours per week, I assume you were using a high volume plan and then adjusting time availability through user time constraints?
Thanks in advance if you don’t mind answering any/all. Again, great race!
I started training for IM Lanzarote like in November last year but from experience in my case 12weeks is minimum and 16 is better choice. For full IM - 70.3 is different story
The only thing I setup was my race schedule with A, B, C priorities and adjust how much I was to spend time swimming, biking, running and strength training.
Around 15 means sometimes it was 22 So I sticked like 90% to a plan - I have quite flexible hours during a day so that’s how it worked. In your case if you want to limit it to 15h I would adjust time availability with time constraints. In my case it was only 1 session a week usually which I had to shorten - which was bike on Tuesday for like 2-2.5h and usually I did 1.5-2h.
Generally I would say consistency is a key and 90% of plan is huge success.
Past weekend I’ve added 04:18:33 on Challenge Gdańsk
Beat my other friends and finished 3rd in AG.
The swim:
Quite cold water but was not that bad for me. Started really strong the first 750m, then caught a group and it was like walk in the park - really relaxing 00:29:47
The bike:
It suppose to be flat but it was rolling course. I didn’t want to overbike so I biked quite under my usual 70.3 power but kept head down, and tucked position. 02:14:55
The run:
Whole week I was thinking about running under 1:30 and I actually did. I get a little bit of struggle like on 12km (quite normal) but it wasn’t something serious - slowed down like 4-5sek/km for 3-4km. 01:28:03
Overall after just 4 weeks preparation from IM to 70.3 I’m pleased with the result. The bike power and run pace for me is quite different for 70.3 and all I can say that training for IM is easy while for 70.3 for me is challenging in terms of intensity
). At 32km I had quite enough so I’ve decided to walk on aid stations and just finish → still I did not collapse or broke like usually we can do, It was like 10-20sek/km slower with walking on aid stations so not that bad. Time: 3:14:51