There is a site called Zwiftpower. It’s now owned by Zwift. Register on it and connect your Zwift account. There is a great list of all upcoming events, with distance. Also tells you how hilly they are.
Even if you are not at the correct level, you can still enter races which go up the Alpe etc which you cant normally access
Stuck to my weekly plan and it felt comfortable enough. Today’s 20k 10k brick was a bit challenging in the snow as I went of road with the run.
Just found out we booked a holiday over the date of my event in the Lakes end of May 
. Both are likely to be cancelled to be fair bu till get signed up for something else soon.
Hi John,
Sorry I’m a bit late to this party but if I can offer anything it is to look very closely at MAF HR and give it a try. When I was around your age (42 in 1996) I was advised by my then coach (Simon Ward) to run and cycle at what I thought were ridiculously low heart rates. It lasted about 2 miles and after walking up another little climb I just thought ‘sod it’ and went back to my usual pace. 2019 was my fifth IM start in Lanzarote. After 4 successful finishes in the years 1997 to 2004 I thought I didn’t need a coach any more and the result was a finish time of 17;32. I found out later that he slight muscle strain I carried into the day was actually a stress fracture in the right fibula caused by overtraining. (I worried I wasn’t doing enough so I kept doing a little bit more!)
Last summer I went back to Simon and got stuck into the MAF training and after just 3-4 weeks of stop-start ‘running’ I was beginning cut out most of the stops. On the bike some very easy turbo sessions had me complaining that it felt like I was doing nothing - which apparently meant I was doing it right. 80% of my training up to IM Lanz 2021 would be at L1;L2. Eight months in and I am amazed that I can do Alpe du Zwift with an av. HR or 130 and maintain an av. of 190kw. My time was 28 minutes faster than it was a year ago when my HR averaged 68. I just wish I’d done it back in '96.
Anyway, it’s probably all a waste of time now except that it isn’t. I’ll just be fitter/stronger in 2022 but at 67 I can’t keep getting fitter/stronger much longer.
PS I bought a Zen8 swim ‘thing’ with my savings from the gym - it’s weird but effective - I hope.
Hi Ralph,
Thank you for this reply. I have checked out the MAF HR and mine would be 137ish. I’m still a little confused how this relates to “standard zones” though? Zone 1 and 2 for me are 126 and under. So am I aiming for 126 or 137?
Checked out the swim trainer. Think I need too actually learn to swim which is the bigger issue here 
I’m afraid I get muddled with all the HR stuff. I’m OK now with the MAF HR but if I’m working to Max HR it’s a bit of guess work. In the last 12 months I have clocked a 187 and a couple of 184’s but felt I still had something left but I work to a Max HR of 185 now and hope that’s about right. My coach gives me sessions that are either MAF or Max so I don’t really know how they relate to each other if they do at all. For something that seems so fundamental to what we do it could do with being less confusing. I hope that helps a bit or better still, someone might clarify the position for both of us.
I’ve been swimming for 25 years now and I’m still in the slow lane ! Don’t worry about it.
It’s confusing 'cos it’s not real, well it is, but your ability to identify it in real life is essentially impossible and there’s variability over time both in terms of fitness changes and simply day to day variation.
So the confusion comes if you try and think of it as absolute numbers, when the reality is it’s a close enough approximation and nothing much goes wrong if you’re a few beats off in any direction.
Ralph I think I get what you are saying but perhaps there maybe a typo- was your HR last year actually 68? It would hardly be surprising that you were much faster at 130bpm than at 68bpm which is basically a resting heart rate
Not trying to be a smartarse, just interested in the point you are making👍
Also I guess your average was 190W rather than 190kW 
Inspirational that you came back to Lanza a 5th time on your late 60s. I’m hoping to do it- is it as tough as people say?
Edit- penny just dropped- maybe I’m being thick & you meant last year when you were aged 68
Hi guys, Yeah I’ve started to just run for set times the last month or so and extending that each week for my long run. I’ve been keeping it nice and relaxed and have seen some improvements in the last week so must be doing something right. I did my last hour or so run at and avg 8:15min/mile and at avg 138bpm which is really low for that pace for me to be honest!! Maybe my Garmin had literally frozen 
I’ll get the strap on on for the next one. Sorry chest strap 
We have a nice thread on this “Aerobic 10k Challenge”, although it is run focused, it is relevent to the bike as well. It seems that a number of us are pushing to see how fast we can go, while keeping HR low.
By doing this, I have been able to ramp up my weekly running distance significantly, without putting too much stress in my body (age 48)
A guy I ride with is 68, he has an FTP of 270w, and has no problem riding much faster than most people half his age… he can’t run due to a hip replacement, which he had after a nasty bike crash
Well spotted Fruit Thief. HR definitely 168 !! You’re right about the watts v kilowatts thing as well.
Lanzarote is the only IM I’ve done and I always find it tough. But Paula Newby Fraser said it was the hardest and she did quite a few. The conditions in 2019 were by far the worst I had experienced. to start with the sea was quite rough and I think they reported av. winds that day around 26mph. I spent a lot of time on the bike leaning into the wind - it just became the norm as the day wore on. But Lanz is just a great experience - I’ll never get to Hawaii but it’s a great 2nd best - just go for it.