Weekend Endurance Sessions:
Training to Meet the Demands of Race Day
As we move through winter and into the key preparation phase for your goal races, it's important to understand the framework we use for our weekend endurance sessions.
The goal isn't simply to complete the distance. The goal is to develop the fitness, skills and habits required to execute on race day.
Bike Sessions
When you are not completing prescribed efforts, you should generally be riding in Zone 2.
This allows you to accumulate quality aerobic work without unnecessarily increasing fatigue. It also ensures that when race-specific efforts arrive, you can execute them properly.
When riding hills, don't become obsessed with keeping your heart rate perfectly controlled. It is normal for heart rate and perceived effort to rise as the gradient increases. Let this happen naturally and then settle back into your endurance intensity once the terrain allows.
If your session includes race-specific efforts, follow the session description and target the prescribed power output.
As a general guide:
Ironman: 68-72% of FTP
70.3: 75-80% of FTP
Sprint and Standard Distance: 85-95% of FTP
Power should always be checked against heart rate and perceived effort. The numbers should make sense together. If they don't, there is usually something worth paying attention to.
During race-specific efforts, stay in your aero position as much as possible. Race day rewards athletes who can produce power while remaining aerodynamic.
The weekend endurance sessions are also the perfect opportunity to practise race nutrition. Don't wait until race day to find out whether your nutrition strategy works. Every long ride is an opportunity to rehearse exactly what you intend to do when it matters most.\
Train in the Conditions
Race day does not wait for perfect weather.
Wind, rain, cold, heat and challenging conditions are all part of endurance sport. As long as conditions are safe, we want you training in them.
Athletes who only train in ideal conditions often struggle when race day presents something different. Athletes who have experienced a variety of conditions remain calm, adapt and continue to execute.
Every challenging weather session adds another layer of resilience and confidence.
Ride the Power Smoothly
One of the key skills we are developing during race-specific efforts is the ability to apply power evenly.
For all race efforts, aim to keep your Variability Index (VI) below 1.05. This means producing smooth, consistent power rather than constantly surging and backing off.
Many athletes focus on average power but forget that how they produce that power matters just as much.
A rider averaging 200 watts with a VI of 1.02 will almost always be more efficient than a rider averaging 200 watts with a VI of 1.08. The second athlete is repeatedly accelerating, climbing too hard, pushing into the wind too aggressively and wasting valuable energy.
Your goal is to produce the highest sustainable average power possible while keeping the effort smooth and controlled.
Push the climbs sensibly.
Stay engaged over the top.
Keep pressure on the pedals.
Avoid unnecessary surges.
Avoid coasting whenever possible.
Think of yourself as applying pressure to the pedals rather than attacking the course.
The athletes who ride fastest are often not the athletes who produce the highest peak powers. They are the athletes who produce the most consistent power from start to finish.
Smooth is fast.
Smooth is efficient.
Smooth leaves you with more energy to run well.
Run Sessions
For Sprint and Standard Distance athletes, race pace work is generally straightforward because race pace sits clearly above normal endurance pace.
For Ironman athletes, it becomes more difficult because race pace can often feel very similar to endurance pace.
This is where discipline becomes important.
Most Ironman run efforts will be performed around the upper end of T2 and occasionally touch into very low T3. The objective is not to run hard. The objective is to develop the ability to run efficiently and economically at your target race intensity after riding for several hours.
Just like the bike, these sessions are an opportunity to practise race nutrition. Every long run should help build confidence in your race-day fuelling plan.
The Final Two Months
As you move into the final eight weeks before your goal event, training becomes increasingly specific.
This is when we begin trialling race equipment and race-day setups.
Race wheels.
Race tyres.
Race shoes.
Race nutrition.
Race clothing.
Race hydration systems.
Nothing new on race day.
The purpose of training is not simply to get fitter. It is to remove uncertainty. By the time you arrive at the start line, you should already know what works.
The Goal
Weekend endurance sessions are not just about building fitness.
They are about building execution.
Execute your pacing.
Execute your nutrition.
Execute your position.
Execute your equipment choices.
Execute your race plan.
The athletes who consistently perform on race day are usually not the athletes who trained the hardest.
They are the athletes who trained most specifically for the demands of their event.