Michael Byerts's Macro Questions

Michael Byerts

Coaches,

  I did the January OS plan mostly Advanced, and this was the most recent season plannning suvey that Rich suggested:

 I was doing well and making progress through the weekend of April 6-7.  After that, due to a variety of issues, I took basically the next 4 weeks off.  I got in a longer, very easy ride on April 13, and I did the weekend/Monday workouts on April 20-22.  But aside from that, I have done substantially nothing since April 7 through this Wednesday.  I am supposed to be doing the Get Faster plan, and am, theoretically completing week 4 this weekend.  I did a run on Wednesday, but since I had not run in 2.5 weeks, and only run once since April 7, I just went out and ran for 35 minutes.  I did the Friday swim last night, and I did the Thursday bike this morning.  Swim was completed, but well off my usual times, and my form was breaking down.  Bike this morning went better, but it was a challenge. 

My questions:

1.  Should I continue on the Get Faster Plan or switch to the Pre-Season plan for a couple of weeks until I get my legs back under me?
2. If I continue on the Get Faster Plan, should I drop the level to Intermediate for 2 weeks until I get my legs back under me?
3. The run is my weakest discipline, comes back the slowest after a period of de-training, and is where I develop injuries.  I haven't had any run volume for a month, and couldn't/didn't extend the weekend runs in the OS beyond 60 minutes.  What do you suggest I do to modify the run program to regain fitness. 
4. I am not racing until June 30, which is an Olympic distancish race.  It's a B priority race for me.  Would be a "C" race, but since I only race 2-3 times a year, I don't have "C" races.  Should I modify the plan so that I am kind of prepared for that race, and if so, how?

Coach Rich

I recommend that you load up the SC plan to end on your June 30 Olympic event. Then make the run modifications you think you need to, to that plan, to ensure that you get your running legs back gradually. You may also need to turn down the bike but less so the run. I don't have many issues with people jumping right into a cycling program but you need to be careful with the run.

Michael Byerts

So, it appears that the song remains the same. When I last posted, I was attempting to ramp up my training after a bad month from April - May. Things were progressing, slowly, but progressing until May 20 when I got into a car accident. No injuries to anyone, but my car was totaled. That, in addition to work commitments, pretty much screwed me through about June 20. And then I had a mild calf strain and came down with an awful flu that lasted from June 25 through the middle of last week, forcing me to scratch from a June 30 race. So, that leaves me with very little training under my belt and 6 weeks to go until my second race of the season.
(1) Run volume is tiny. After work/illness/injury, I am only running 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes, give or take, at whatever pace I can manage (which has been 30-60 seconds a mile slower than my "typical" high Z2/low Z3 run pace).
(2) Bike FTP and w/kg are way down. At this point in 2011 and 2012, I was putting up about 295w and 3.6 w/kg. Right now, I would guess those numbers are closer to 250 watts and 2.6 w/kg. Long ride has been 90-120 minutes, with about a .85 intensity.
(3) Swim fitness is kind of minimal. My training plan called for a race rehearsal on Friday. 200 meters in, I realized that wasn't going to happen and did a steady swim of 4x (400 free, 100 back).
(4) I tried loading the HIM/Intermediate plan 2 weeks ago, but have not been able to hit the volume targets and had to dump all the intensity on the run workouts.

My race is a 1 mile swim, 34 mile (hilly) bike and 10 mile run. With all the setbacks of 2013 in mind, I have dropped my goal from racing it to completing it without having to walk the run. My questions:
(1) Should I change plans?
(2) Best way to rebuild, assuming that I can get 6 weeks of okay training in for the race?
(3) Should I only taper 2-3 days since fitness will be a work in progress?
(4) Other than try to build back to 3 bikes, 3-4 runs and 2-3 swims a week, and gradually lengthen volume, what else can I do?

Coach Rich

Posted By Michael Byerts on 15 Jul 2013 03:06 PM


So, it appears that the song remains the same. When I last posted, I was attempting to ramp up my training after a bad month from April - May. Things were progressing, slowly, but progressing until May 20 when I got into a car accident. No injuries to anyone, but my car was totaled. That, in addition to work commitments, pretty much screwed me through about June 20. And then I had a mild calf strain and came down with an awful flu that lasted from June 25 through the middle of last week, forcing me to scratch from a June 30 race. So, that leaves me with very little training under my belt and 6 weeks to go until my second race of the season.

(1) Run volume is tiny. After work/illness/injury, I am only running 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes, give or take, at whatever pace I can manage (which has been 30-60 seconds a mile slower than my "typical" high Z2/low Z3 run pace).

(2) Bike FTP and w/kg are way down. At this point in 2011 and 2012, I was putting up about 295w and 3.6 w/kg. Right now, I would guess those numbers are closer to 250 watts and 2.6 w/kg. Long ride has been 90-120 minutes, with about a .85 intensity.

(3) Swim fitness is kind of minimal. My training plan called for a race rehearsal on Friday. 200 meters in, I realized that wasn't going to happen and did a steady swim of 4x (400 free, 100 back).

(4) I tried loading the HIM/Intermediate plan 2 weeks ago, but have not been able to hit the volume targets and had to dump all the intensity on the run workouts.



My race is a 1 mile swim, 34 mile (hilly) bike and 10 mile run. With all the setbacks of 2013 in mind, I have dropped my goal from racing it to completing it without having to walk the run. My questions:

(1) Should I change plans? Use the Beginner HIM plan but you'll obviously need to dial back the run volume a lot. If it were me, I'd run 4x/wk at whatever run volume and intensity I knew I sustain for 4x/wk. Bonus if one of those becomes a long run but just focus on achieving that frequency.

(2) Best way to rebuild, assuming that I can get 6 weeks of okay training in for the race? Just follow the plan, per above, doing the best you can. 

(3) Should I only taper 2-3 days since fitness will be a work in progress? Yeah, I would train normally through about Tues or Wed of race week, then rest hard for the event. 

(4) Other than try to build back to 3 bikes, 3-4 runs and 2-3 swims a week, and gradually lengthen volume, what else can I do? Not much, really. Just be careful and don't come back too soon on the run, injuring yourself. 

Michael Byerts

Thanks Rich!