55 min on the TM w/3x 1.25 @ TP.... Funny I changed shoes, moved foot pod to new shoes, used same TM , same paces , and recorded 5-10 sec pace slower. Gotta put footpod back to old shoes and try again before a re-calibrate. Up till now I calibrated once and the data has matched the TM almost exact.
41 min in the pool for 2000yds with WU , 24x50 anklebands, CD ..... Done
Wont say it was easy cause it wasnt but not bad after yesterdays bike test!
Way to go everyone!....I got in a nice 5.5mi.@ 7:35's outside at lunch...a little cold and very freekin Windy...kinda fun...think I may bike test tommorrow...according to Coach P it's optional...but I'm feelin up to it.
Does anybody have a Garmin breakdown of the IM Texas bike course. Would love to find out if and how many hills there were and if somebody needed to go above recommended power level during those climbs? Would make for great simulation on trainer
So no overall change in bike Vo2 max or FTP. Ftp 285, Vo2 350. Figured there wasn't going to much of a change. Run test up on Saturday. Hoping for change there as I have been focusing more on run the last 1/2 of GF plan.
If you or anyone else wants the file, just sent me a PM and I'll e-mail it.
For me, being from Northern CA, which has a lot of very rolling terrain, the course was flat. For locals, they seemed to complain about hills. I think the biggest issue is wind. You are flying on the first 40 miles and then the wind dies out a bit until mile 70. From then to the end you can give away tons of time riding into the wind. Way to many people sitting up like giant parachutes. If you are areo for the lat 40 miles, you'll pass tons of people.
I also posted notes from our IM TX training camp in the IMTX forms where Patrick gives a great overview of the course. If you can't find the thread, post back and I'll link it here.
Bike V02 work done today as 165/165's..... Had an FTP bump this week and TR suggested 234 , I thought I had set it at 231 which was the NP and IMO more correct , but it was at 234 LOL , I thought they were a little harder , no wonder I had to back off just a little. I'm finding for every 15 seconds of work added to each interval I have to drop the target watts down 1-2..... For example my 90/90's were done at 273watts(little over 120%at the time) and I'm hoping to do next weeks 180/180's at 260watts(around 112%) still well within the V02 zone... After the 180/180's I plan to keep a little V02 work everyweek all the way to IMTX but back to 30/30's and 60/60's @ 120% and less total time.
Run test today and I'm thrilled. Down almost 1:30 PER MILE from OS test...yes I was that slow. I'm also 14 lbs. lighter so the 3" per pound theory is legit. What's not matching is my average HR went DOWN. I guess that's good?
Another run tomorrow and then Saturday it's the Dwight Invitational Solo Triathlon
Rocked a rest day like it was my job today. Wife is away on business so no availability to wko today. Going to try to get a VO2 ride in tomorrow and possibly a run.
Nice work everyone, looks like work is coming along.
Ugh...had a tough bike test today....upped my 5min. Max from 235 to to 265...part of that was that on the first time through...I hit it at a managed level...(20% above my 200 FTP at the time...)...but still was pleased...
But I went out a little to hard on the 20min. FTP segment...and cramped had to back off...and push..back off and push again...ended up with avg. no change to my 222 avgP/NP and 211 FTP......... ...I was able to finish off the workout with 15 min. of solid-high Z3 ..
c'est la vie- now it is time to focus on Race Prep with the number I got....
Did first long run today. 15 miles on a flat paved path. I used this same course weekly last year to do my long runs. I've got to drive about 5 miles to the start, but my house area is fairly hilly. Shorter runs are done around here or on a treadmill, but I like the consistency of the flat course to benchmark myself weekly. 7:14 pace, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Trying to figure out how fast I can swim this year. I am getting better Last year's swim was a 1:31, so 2:10/100 yds or something close to that. A week or two ago I swam 4200 yards with a metronome beeping every 27 seconds or a 1:48 /100 yds. No problem at all. This week I set it at 26 seconds or 1:44/100 yd for 3000 yards. No problem again. Not exactly great interval workouts, but it's really helping the confidence. I'll keep doing these once in a while to see how fast I can swim the 4200 yards in a pool with consistent pacing.
Starting to feel like the race is getting a little more serious!
@Joe - Ha! a 1:48 is still pretty darn slow. There are so many stroke issues with a 2:10, it's all just low hanging fruit. I'm hoping to swim 1:40's for 4200 yards in the pool before TX.
I have always struggled with swimming. Typical EN style, lots more ROI on the bike and run, so that's where I have spent my time over the last 5 or 6 years. I'm a lot faster overall. Now it's getting harder and harder to make gains on the bike and run. This year I made a decision to make swim a real priority. I've tried a bunch of things over the years without a lot of success; DVDs, books, masters, a few swim lessons - always got such conflicting advice and nothing ever really stuck with me.
Three main things I have done this year (1) I bought a Vasa Erg machine thinking I could get more volume by swimming in the garage. Made a video of myself and had someone look at it. Best few dollars I ever spent on swimming. Immediately identified a few big, big problems that were obvious when I could see them. Dropped elbow, no catch, not fully extending my arms. For the first time ever I could see my faults and got a plan to fix them. Now I use Ubersense once in a while to look at my stroke. I now use the Vasa mainly for technique and not yardage. (2) I now swim consistently. Since August I have swam 3X per week on a very regular basis. Yes I do miss workouts here and there, but in past years I rarely swam 2x per week on a regular basis. I'm thinking of adding another day, but we'll see how it goes. (3) I've had the aquatics director at our pool write a progressive plan for me to get me from August through IM TX, giving me expected time splits and really pushing me for the first time ever. I also record the workouts in Google Docs so I can see real progress over time when doing main sets.
I have a long way to go and still hope to swim a whole lot faster, but for the first time ever I can really see where I have problems and I have method to fix them.
@Tom , That is a smoking bike split. You only rode at IF .67 ? Ridiculously low TSS ? I'm sure that really sets you up for a nice run but if I ride at .67 I wont be putting out any watts..... Really sound like your addressing your swim and its coming along nicely.... I'd still give that snorkel , ankle bands a try while you still have plenty of time.
@Joe , Part of what I have been doing for my swim intervals is similar to what we do on your V02 bike/run workouts where we pretty much go all out and take an even amount of time for recovery..... This allows you to go just a little bit faster than normal and hold that pace thru your repeats , essentially accumulating more time at the faster paces.... I been alternating between 50's one week and 100's next...Since they are very high intensity I dont do that many ... Starting this week I'm bumping up the distances , starting to cut back on the rest periods, and my times will come down some.
Today I did 7.5 miles on the TM in 60min with 4 x .5 @ 6:15p and then 2100yds in the pool with 8x200 , splits went from 2:55 to 3:03 , rest just under 1min....I'm finding it harder to do these workouts back to back and keep the quality up. ..Gonna probably reverse these doing the swim first run second soon or do split workouts... 6 weeks out the plan is to make friday and monday swim only days while I focus on Longride/Run Race specific over the weekend....Intervals will be midweek... For now staying the course.
@Tom. Keep doing what your doing. Biggest things to work on for developing swimmers is body position ( balance ) in water, rotation and catch and pull. Don't really need to worry about toys until become more proficient.
Hmmmm, lots of talk of getting into something called 'water' and using your arms and legs to generate forward propulsion... I should look into that.
Sick son = day off work or at least day not in the office but sitting at the kitchen table doing work. I did manage to escape to the basement for 1:15 on the trainer with a long warmup with a 10 minute block of 80% and then Revolver with intervals on about 1.25. Took a 5 minute break between intervals 10 and 11. Ended up with a total of 0.86 IF for the ride. Weather isn't looking great for my grand plans to get outside this weekend, hopefully it won't be too bad Sunday.
@Roy. Time to break out the suit and goggles and get in the water. I've been in the water 2-3 / week since November. Rest day for me. Suppose to do 5k in the am but the weather is not looking to good.
So tomorrow suppose to do 5 k test but was actually thinking of doing a 20 mile run instead. Figured vdot will improve but not really enough to have a significant impact on paces. What do you guys think
@Joe - One of the benefits of living in Texas. I can ride outside all year long. But ask me about it in August when it's over 100 degrees when I finish my long ride.
@JK I guess Rich answered your question on the Dashboard! My answer woulda been both, just not both today , and long run not quite 20. I plan on capping my longruns at 2hrs maybe just maybe 2.25hrs so I wont even come near 20 miles for longrun. Usually I do 1-2 20 milers and they take me over the 2.5 EN limit but I did em anyway. I'm doing them this way this time because I'm trying to keep the intensity of them a little higher and doing them after long bike day. As far as the 5K test goes its a no brainer. I screwed up my last one, planned on a HM this weekend as a test , it just got cancelled due to Snow , so I gotta test that 5k soon as well.
@ Tom I totally get what JK is saying about really learning how to swim better before introducing the toys. And by the looks of his swim times he is a much better swimmer than I and I dont pretend to be a fish at all.... But , here is my theory since watching those Tower 26 vids. The video and your coach'es comments all focused on the catch and pull. By using a snorkel you remove breathing from your equation, by using a PB and Ankle bands you remove your legs from the equation. There are so many things going on in swimming that when you focus on one you lose the other. If you no longer have to think about breathing and kicking you can concentrate a lot more on catch, reach, pull, etc. I actually swim slower with the snorkel, PB, ankleband, set up , I think from drag more than anything, but I am streamlined, rigid, focussed on catch pull with quicker turn over. I did just order a metronome after reading your comments, I have never tried one before. All of these things are just a small portion of practice and I dont think should be an entire workout.
2.5 hrs @ .75IF this morning on the trainer....the first primarily steady endurance ride (ie. no structured Z4 intervals)...really felt good after the first hour...ironically I think I am just starting to getting a handle on "riding steady with power"....
@Tom...the swim video really made some sense to me...and I know that this is one of my primary issues...if not the primary issue...I think tommorrow I will be getting a swim tutorial and underwater vid if I make it to the pool on time.............
@JK ....I wouldn't 5k test unless you felt there were gains to be made...IMHO
@Tim....tough luck on the HM...btw sent you an e*mail regarding your bike hack...
@JL Nice ride...I got your message... Will send something later... In the mean time you can look at my Trainerroad History to see what I have been doing. You can just click on my username when you pullup the file above or just search on the USER tab in TR... my user name is knorcmit
All right guys. Tomorrow starts 12 week push. Time to start pushing and demanding more from our bodies then we thought possible. No quitting, no complaining. When you think you're tired push some more. Don't look back and say I could have worked harder. You've busted your asses for the past 14-16 weeks. For the next 12 weeks push yourselves, feel the burn and push through it. When you're tired and want to quit, realize that there's other out there pushing harder. Ftps sets 95 percent no longer acceptable 100 percent only. At some point you are going to have to realize "I am what ever I resolve to be". What do you want to be? Get it done
Comments
41 min in the pool for 2000yds with WU , 24x50 anklebands, CD ..... Done
Wont say it was easy cause it wasnt but not bad after yesterdays bike test!
Way to go everyone!....I got in a nice 5.5mi.@ 7:35's outside at lunch...a little cold and very freekin Windy...kinda fun...think I may bike test tommorrow...according to Coach P it's optional...but I'm feelin up to it.
here is my file from last year: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/SPYESFBY2IWNVWESWGPJJKXHSU
If you or anyone else wants the file, just sent me a PM and I'll e-mail it.
For me, being from Northern CA, which has a lot of very rolling terrain, the course was flat. For locals, they seemed to complain about hills. I think the biggest issue is wind. You are flying on the first 40 miles and then the wind dies out a bit until mile 70. From then to the end you can give away tons of time riding into the wind. Way to many people sitting up like giant parachutes. If you are areo for the lat 40 miles, you'll pass tons of people.
I also posted notes from our IM TX training camp in the IMTX forms where Patrick gives a great overview of the course. If you can't find the thread, post back and I'll link it here.
Also check out the IMTX Recon from Coach P in the Wiki....echos Toms sentiments and gives a bit more detail ..
http://http//members.endurancenatio...+Resources
Tom could you send me the file.... joe.lombardi@iff.com Thanks.
Run test today and I'm thrilled. Down almost 1:30 PER MILE from OS test...yes I was that slow. I'm also 14 lbs. lighter so the 3" per pound theory is legit. What's not matching is my average HR went DOWN. I guess that's good?
Another run tomorrow and then Saturday it's the Dwight Invitational Solo Triathlon
Rocked a rest day like it was my job today. Wife is away on business so no availability to wko today. Going to try to get a VO2 ride in tomorrow and possibly a run.
Nice work everyone, looks like work is coming along.
Ugh...had a tough bike test today....upped my 5min. Max from 235 to to 265...part of that was that on the first time through...I hit it at a managed level...(20% above my 200 FTP at the time...)...but still was pleased...
But I went out a little to hard on the 20min. FTP segment...and cramped had to back off...and push..back off and push again...ended up with avg. no change to my 222 avgP/NP and 211 FTP......... ...I was able to finish off the workout with 15 min. of solid-high Z3 ..
c'est la vie- now it is time to focus on Race Prep with the number I got....
Did first long run today. 15 miles on a flat paved path. I used this same course weekly last year to do my long runs. I've got to drive about 5 miles to the start, but my house area is fairly hilly. Shorter runs are done around here or on a treadmill, but I like the consistency of the flat course to benchmark myself weekly. 7:14 pace, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Trying to figure out how fast I can swim this year. I am getting better
Starting to feel like the race is getting a little more serious!
So Tom...what breakthrough got you from 2:10/100 to 1:48 feeling like no problem????
Thats fantastic.
I have always struggled with swimming. Typical EN style, lots more ROI on the bike and run, so that's where I have spent my time over the last 5 or 6 years. I'm a lot faster overall. Now it's getting harder and harder to make gains on the bike and run. This year I made a decision to make swim a real priority. I've tried a bunch of things over the years without a lot of success; DVDs, books, masters, a few swim lessons - always got such conflicting advice and nothing ever really stuck with me.
Three main things I have done this year (1) I bought a Vasa Erg machine thinking I could get more volume by swimming in the garage. Made a video of myself and had someone look at it. Best few dollars I ever spent on swimming. Immediately identified a few big, big problems that were obvious when I could see them. Dropped elbow, no catch, not fully extending my arms. For the first time ever I could see my faults and got a plan to fix them. Now I use Ubersense once in a while to look at my stroke. I now use the Vasa mainly for technique and not yardage. (2) I now swim consistently. Since August I have swam 3X per week on a very regular basis. Yes I do miss workouts here and there, but in past years I rarely swam 2x per week on a regular basis. I'm thinking of adding another day, but we'll see how it goes. (3) I've had the aquatics director at our pool write a progressive plan for me to get me from August through IM TX, giving me expected time splits and really pushing me for the first time ever. I also record the workouts in Google Docs so I can see real progress over time when doing main sets.
I have a long way to go and still hope to swim a whole lot faster, but for the first time ever I can really see where I have problems and I have method to fix them.
I'll keep you posted!
Thanks for the File Tom....
As for swimming...I R Slow....I can swim 100's in 1:44-1:48 (faster for 50's) even 200's at 1:50ish....but my typical swim speed is 1:55-2:00....
I need that video/form review...and am seeking that now...
Today's swim was No warmup/27x100's(20') at steady 1:54-1:57's/no cooldown...
Gonna run at lunch...easy fun.
http://www.mediafire.com/?7t3s249xm6dlu1e
Maybe there is hope for me after all!
@Joe , Part of what I have been doing for my swim intervals is similar to what we do on your V02 bike/run workouts where we pretty much go all out and take an even amount of time for recovery..... This allows you to go just a little bit faster than normal and hold that pace thru your repeats , essentially accumulating more time at the faster paces.... I been alternating between 50's one week and 100's next...Since they are very high intensity I dont do that many ... Starting this week I'm bumping up the distances , starting to cut back on the rest periods, and my times will come down some.
Today I did 7.5 miles on the TM in 60min with 4 x .5 @ 6:15p and then 2100yds in the pool with 8x200 , splits went from 2:55 to 3:03 , rest just under 1min....I'm finding it harder to do these workouts back to back and keep the quality up. ..Gonna probably reverse these doing the swim first run second soon or do split workouts... 6 weeks out the plan is to make friday and monday swim only days while I focus on Longride/Run Race specific over the weekend....Intervals will be midweek... For now staying the course.
Sick son = day off work or at least day not in the office but sitting at the kitchen table doing work. I did manage to escape to the basement for 1:15 on the trainer with a long warmup with a 10 minute block of 80% and then Revolver with intervals on about 1.25. Took a 5 minute break between intervals 10 and 11. Ended up with a total of 0.86 IF for the ride. Weather isn't looking great for my grand plans to get outside this weekend, hopefully it won't be too bad Sunday.
Keep on it everyone!
@Roy. Time to break out the suit and goggles and get in the water. I've been in the water 2-3 / week since November. Rest day for me. Suppose to do 5k in the am but the weather is not looking to good.
@ Tom I totally get what JK is saying about really learning how to swim better before introducing the toys. And by the looks of his swim times he is a much better swimmer than I and I dont pretend to be a fish at all.... But , here is my theory since watching those Tower 26 vids. The video and your coach'es comments all focused on the catch and pull. By using a snorkel you remove breathing from your equation, by using a PB and Ankle bands you remove your legs from the equation. There are so many things going on in swimming that when you focus on one you lose the other. If you no longer have to think about breathing and kicking you can concentrate a lot more on catch, reach, pull, etc. I actually swim slower with the snorkel, PB, ankleband, set up , I think from drag more than anything, but I am streamlined, rigid, focussed on catch pull with quicker turn over. I did just order a metronome after reading your comments, I have never tried one before. All of these things are just a small portion of practice and I dont think should be an entire workout.
2.5 hrs @ .75IF this morning on the trainer....the first primarily steady endurance ride (ie. no structured Z4 intervals)...really felt good after the first hour...ironically I think I am just starting to getting a handle on "riding steady with power"....
@Tom...the swim video really made some sense to me...and I know that this is one of my primary issues...if not the primary issue...I think tommorrow I will be getting a swim tutorial and underwater vid if I make it to the pool on time.............
@JK ....I wouldn't 5k test unless you felt there were gains to be made...IMHO
@Tim....tough luck on the HM...btw sent you an e*mail regarding your bike hack...
Cheers!
Great Work JK!...obviously there were gains to be made!...
@JK very nice vdot bump...huge... congrats
@JL Nice ride...I got your message... Will send something later... In the mean time you can look at my Trainerroad History to see what I have been doing. You can just click on my username when you pullup the file above or just search on the USER tab in TR... my user name is knorcmit
No quitting, no complaining. When you think you're tired push some more. Don't look back and say I could have worked harder. You've busted your asses for the past 14-16 weeks. For the next 12 weeks push yourselves, feel the burn and push through it. When you're tired and want to quit, realize that there's other out there pushing harder. Ftps sets 95 percent no longer acceptable 100 percent only. At some point you are going to have to realize "I am what ever I resolve to be". What do you want to be? Get it done