Long ride priorities and zone two guidance

In this episode Coach Rob continues the Six Months to Ironman series by breaking down exactly how to structure your bike training for Ironman and 70.3 racing over the next 6 months.

If you’re a busy age-group athlete with limited training time, this episode will help you stop wasting hours on the bike and start building bike fitness that translates to raceday speed on the bike - and on the run.

The bike leg dominates Ironman racing. Get it right, and you set yourself up for a great run. Get it wrong, and the race unravels fast. In this episode, Rob explains how to train the bike intelligently, not just harder.

• Why the bike leg should dominate your Ironman training — not the run

• The fitness halo effect from bike fitness to run performance (and why it doesn’t work the other way round)

• Why cycling lets you build aerobic fitness without the injury and soreness risk of hard running

• How to structure the perfect Ironman bike week with just three rides

• The two key phases of bike training:

  • Building engine size (FTP)

  • Converting that fitness into Ironman-specific endurance

• How hard your long rides should actually be (and why “a bit too hard” quietly ruins endurance gains)

• Simple, practical markers for Zone 2 riding using feel, heart rate, and power

• Strength endurance (big gear) sessions: who they’re for and how to do them safely

• Aerobic conditioning / sweet spot intervals for Ironman athletes

• When indoor training beats outdoor riding — and when it doesn’t

• why bike discipline on race day (power control, fuelling, hydration, and ego management) is often the difference between running well off the bike and detonating halfway through the marathon.

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