Triathlon - Beginner Question on Pace

I'm pretty new to cycling. Past experience is all running. Just bought my first real road bike, past cycling has been about a 3 month period of mountain biking while training for an Xterra.

Got about three real rides in, two were about 10 miles the other was 15. Pace has been right around 3.5 min/mi. Just trying to build up for an Olympic distance triathlon the end of June. Road cycling seems to be more about pace than the mountain biking, which was more technical. What should be the plan for pacing? I plan to ride about three times a week with a long ride on the weekend just based on my running knowledge. Should I be more concerned with cadence, speed, heart rate???

Bill

Bike pacing is hard because you can put out say 175 watts in no wind and go 19 mph, but with a 15 mph headwind the same output will put you around 17 mph (these numbers were made up for an example). So be careful about pacing only on speed. Heart Rate may be a good starting ground before you feel comfortable just going by feel

I train based on speed and cadence. Cadence is big in triathlon because you should be spinning fairly high cadence to keeps your legs mostly lactate free for the run. You are doing what I quickly calculated to be about 27 km/h. Not a bad pace for someone just getting in. I would say if you can hold this pace for a Olympic distance, and still be able to run good, then you are sittin nice.

Definatly get some brick training in(if you dont know what it is, do a search, I, and maby others have in detail explained how to train for a tri), get lots of swimming in if you are not a great swimmer. Swimming is the shortest leg of the race, but the most technical. Running and cycling, get miles in, there is technique, but for now, just finish.

unless your goal is to win your first tri(try) at the distance, focus on brick workouts like batman said and make your training rides a pace you can maintain for the entire distance. If you are just cycling that day I would shoot for double the bike leg(i.e. 40k bike leg=80k training ride) a couple times a week. You have some good time ahead of you so don't be in a rush to pack on the miles, you'll just end up with an injury or burnout.

unless your goal is to win your first tri(try)


Oh no, not me! I will do the brick workouts, that worked very good for me during my training last time. I will add a swim to bike brick though as well. I didn't do any of those last time and man did I feel it during the mountain bike portion of my race. I had rubber arms and within about three miles into the bike it went through the most technical part.

Thanks to everyone for the tips. I did my first hilly workout today, 13 miles and I ended up right around the same pace again. I tried to keep my legs spinning fast uphill or down. Heart rate went a little higher though on the climbs. I wasn't thinking of training all the way to 80K but it sounds like a good idea.

Bill

Oops, I forgot about that too. The swim to bike workouts. This is big too. Well for me atleast, because I dont kick when I swim. My wetsuit allows me to not have to. So doing the transition training helps your body get used to the transition.

The stronger you are on the bike, the harder you should ride during your race. Sounds like you have more of a running background. You should be holding back a bit on the bike or your legs will be toast and you will suffer greatly on the run. You will see many people making that mistake. If you hold back a little and start the run with relatively fresh legs, you will pass tons of people on the run. If you hammer the bike, you will suffer greatly on the run and will not have any fun at all. Psychologically, it is more advantageous to pass people late in the race rather than be reduced to walking.

Mprevost-
While that is the best option to "survive" the race and maybe have more fun, I am a much stronger runner than cyclist and I like to push just as hard, if not harder on the bike legs as the run. If I accept the mindset that I am weaker on the bike and allow people to pass without chase, then the race is over. If I burn out by the time the run comes(or my preference, du, the run comes again) then I can use that as fuel to push harder in my training.

pain to get pleasure, I guess I really am a masochist :D