Coaches, Others ... Input on my HI -> AZ Plan
Take a look at the plan I've sketched out below to get me from Kona to Arizona. I'd be interested in any input.
The Basics - where this athlete is at
-I'm intending to put out an aggressive execution at Arizona.
-I'm coming out of Kona with an honest-to-goodness, completely objective, very light level of fatigue. I'm not letting my ambition get the better of me when I say "I'm ready to work hard."
-my training markers for SBR are each higher than the last time I did AZ in '09. And I weigh roughly the same.
The Strategy
-I've done long ... The weeks ahead are about fast (edit: "... about hard").
-I want to hit rest as hard as possible ... which means 8h/night sleep and Zeo score of at least 90 every night, and one day off, with yoga only, per week. I'll do whatever it takes to make this happen.
-I will lose 1pound per week to return to 148 pounds or less by race week. This means clean, green fuel, and no rice, pasta or bread.
-I will do the work necessary to keep a low, head-tucked, tight aero position for the entire ride. This means 3 core sessions per week for muscle activation, daily back, hip and butt stretching, and all riding 'in position.'
-I will continue high frequency 6-session-per-week running, with an emphasis on 100% perfect form and significant HMP accumulation
-I will continue to develop mental skills required for a 'near red-line' higher than JRA race, as well as focused work on in-race resilience and problem-solving.
Week 1
Post HI
-Swim and run as you feel during the week.
-weekend long ride: 5h, all aero, as easy pace for 2.5, ABP for 2.5. Brick run as z1 building to z2. Monitor hr for drift.
Week 2
M - swim as in plan. Run 40' z1 / z2 with additional Bobby McGee low-cost form drills.
T - 90' bike as 40' total FTP, remainder ABP, all in aero position. Brick run z2building to z3.
W - 45' to 60' run, accumulating 24' total z4 time. Swim as in plan.
T - AM: take 2h from work. 90' accumulating 40 to 60 HMP (edit: "hard pace" based on RPE or HR) on track. PM: swim as 40' tt. Think 'mental toughness,' prep for first 400m of swim.
F - off
S - 3 - 3.5 h bike with majority as abp. 30 brick run. 90' nap in afternoon.
S - 2.5 ABP ride in AM. Nap 90'. 90' run in PM with 40' to 60' HMP on track.
Week 3
As above, except
-Thursday run as 90' HMP
-Sat bike as RR in full aero position at race watts, RR run.
-Sun as 90' run (or 2h ABP bike) (optional)
Week 4 and 5
Taper as normal.
Thoughts?
Sent from my iPad
Comments
You have the plan and from what I see AZ will be about the grey matter between your ears !
Make sure your gear is in top shape as I know you will be ...
Good luck... D
So, a couple of questions:
-how much faster do you think you can get yourself in a 4 week period?
-how are you measuring faster (20' mean max, 60' mean max, 2,3,4 hour mean max, an FTP test, other)? And how does it relate to your race goals?
-do you have a plan to keep your carb intake really high despite dropping bread, rice, etc? Going to need a ton of recovery for glycogen supplies with all of that Z4 work. Last thing you want to do is to show up chronically glycogen depleted in an effort to sharpen up body comp.
Note: Most people report a return of endurance first over speed after and IM. My experience this year was my speed came back several weeks before the endurance did!
On to my third iron this season. Personally i have had to take more rest than i thought. Make sure to get some good recovery.
Thanks, Mike. I've come to your questions a few times, but keep tripping over my answer. Notionally, though, I don't know if I'm looking for 'faster.' What I am targeting with this is 'harder.' Start from a process of elimination: the endurance I have coming out of HI ain't going to get any greater ... at least not in the few weeks ahead, or without a considerable cost. So lsd is out. And the higher-end speed of FTP and LT had plateaued a few weeks (or longer) during the in-season, and if anything, I'm just trying to bring it back to the levels it might have been at. So there's some, but not a lot, of LT work. What I'm really getting at with this schedule is deepending the ability to take the same body with the same fitness, but push it just a few ticks on the dial harder than I would normally. The fitness is there to do that - within a narrow and judicious range - but I am interested in work that might support a slightly more aggressive bike pacing on the same body, and a much more aggressive and all-day run pace, culminating with a strong final 8mi, again, on the same body. The work I proposed is sustainable and repeatable for a few weeks, and also puts me in a place of rehearsing that 'kinda dark' mental place that requires some real mental skills to maintain on race day. This is now bordering on the freaky-deaky, but I describe the latter like this: a really hard FTP or v02 set is putting me in the kind of suffering or pain that's like holding one's hand a few inches over a candle flame. It hurts, and you can only do it for so long before there's that acute cracking from the pain, and pulling your hand away. For the 'dark place' / aggressive-raced ironman, it's the same candle and the same hand, but it's held about a foot over the flame. It's not hot, but it's uncomfortably warm for a long long long time. The game is not pulling away. That's what I'm trying to mimic.
Al, to the RR point, I agree and I'm still struggling with the ROI or cost/benefit decision. What i want to accomplish with this is continued preparation to stay down in the aerobars all day long, head very low and very turtled, aerohelmet in the perfect position with no sitting up for five and change. I genuinely saw an improvement in my ability to do this across RRs 1, 2 and Race Day across September and October, and I feel like this is something that can be further trained or adapted.
I've been hitting the fruits and vegetables very hard, and been very attentive to approiate fueling in workouts and refueling post-workouts. But I hear the advice from the group.
Great stuff, everyone. Thanks for the input.
Dave, I think you are still doing a bit too much in the final weeks. I suggest you cut bike to 2x hard interval seesions (60-75'), and one longer aerobic session with 30' intervals as 25' @ RP+10 to 20W, with 5' of rest...so week 1 would be 2.5h easy, 1.5h of the above, then .5h easy.
The run should be only 2 quality sessions. 1 VO2 such as 4-6 x 3' @ z5 (2'); the other is a 75-90' run mostly at HMP.
[EDIT] -- You can run more, but only 2 sessions of quality, AKA beware too much HMP.
Swim as you want, with one longer session there and most of it shorter and harder. Good luck!