JK's new MICRO thread
I am now rehabbed and back with more mobility than ever before. The best part of it is that mentally I am ready and EXCITED to get back at it. So excited in fact that I have signed up for a half ironman in November which gives me a solid 17 weeks of training to get back at it and be happy and strong at the finish.
4 weeks ago I did the first of three Wednesday night sprint triathlons in the local "Dino" series (TRex, Ptrodactyl, Triceretops) and was just seconds off from a course PR. Crazy as I have not trained in months and I was not even racing that day, just putting in some time on the legs as a test to see how I was in my recovery.
This week is week 4 of the INT HIM plan, which is a test week. Tonight is scheduled my bike test with a run brick and then tomorrow my run test. I have the 2nd in the Dino series tomorrow which I was thinking of using for my bike test (with a brick run) in the real world just so that I have some real world numbers to play since I am outside for my events and long sessions.
The next time I have to test falls on exactly the next race in this series on this exact course, so to me it makes some sense so that I have comparable numbers under comparable conditions. Also, the course this race uses is a non-stop 12+ mile route inside a gated state park where I train every week - so I can replicate the bike test outside safely without much issue in the future.
Can I run test tonight and then bike test tomorrow?
4 weeks ago I did the first of three Wednesday night sprint triathlons in the local "Dino" series (TRex, Ptrodactyl, Triceretops) and was just seconds off from a course PR. Crazy as I have not trained in months and I was not even racing that day, just putting in some time on the legs as a test to see how I was in my recovery.
This week is week 4 of the INT HIM plan, which is a test week. Tonight is scheduled my bike test with a run brick and then tomorrow my run test. I have the 2nd in the Dino series tomorrow which I was thinking of using for my bike test (with a brick run) in the real world just so that I have some real world numbers to play since I am outside for my events and long sessions.
The next time I have to test falls on exactly the next race in this series on this exact course, so to me it makes some sense so that I have comparable numbers under comparable conditions. Also, the course this race uses is a non-stop 12+ mile route inside a gated state park where I train every week - so I can replicate the bike test outside safely without much issue in the future.
Can I run test tonight and then bike test tomorrow?
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So run Vdot is not fabulous but ended up doing a 10k for my test in heat and humidity which brought my 34 Vdot pre-injury down just slightly to a 33 VDOT post injury. Still up 3 points from when I joined EN in November. :-)
I figured testing in real world would yield the best training paces for me since during the OS I recall reaching for Treadmill numbers outside often lead me to feeling defeated because I could not hold them.
Tonight is the "bike test". Very hot outside today already 89* outside with 60+% humidity, water temps are 83* already this morning and are expected to rise as the day progresses.
I am being smart though - tons of fluids WITH SODIUM and electrolytes all day, especially during race.
My testin gplan today is to use the swim as my warm up, especially in the final 100-200 meters when I start kicking up a bit to loosen the legs. I have very high heat tolerance on the bike thank goodness, but I will note the temperature for the test just so we have record of it, and then will take my brick run at prescribed Z1 intensity - which will be key in today's heat. No racing zone on the run for me!
My only goal is to execute a smart bike test and then not walk the hell run.
I will check back in with the result. Battery on Quarq is reading low, so I hope that it stays awake for the race! If not I will grab HR and pace data at the very least.
My Power Meter went in and out on me (battery!) so the avg. posted was 173... however it read 0 a lot so I know that it was missing a lot of good data.
Since this course has some climbs (nothing like Wisconsin lol) I chose to practice flattening out the hills and active shifting. I rode this course 1/2 mile per hour faster than I did 4 weeks ago just by flattening the hills per the EN race execution files. I love the secret sauce of EN. Made my day happy!
My watts the first part of the bike course were in the low 200's and then when it go to 0 then pop back on I was consistently in the very upper 190- low 200 range regardless of where I was on a roller (on one climb it did spike to 240w, but not as bad as I used to spike and coast). Those numbers are in line with where I thought that I would be.
I am calling it good and will use my power numbers from the OS from the trainer as my outside power numbers until the next test (last inside Power Test was 209)
I stayed very hydrated and consumed ~ 1200 mg of sodium on the course (total time was 1:41:14, which is slow, but it was upwards of 100 degrees!)
Onward and upward. Just signed up for anothe rsprint in early August, then back to this course in mid-August for my next power test and to really lay down the hammer execution wise. I am going for a PR on this course.
OK, so I used my race as my testing numbers swim and bike, and then the run in Wisconsin as run test and came up with the following:
NON-wetsuit OWS pace: 2:28/100m (based on a 20 minute half mile open water swim at 100* with no wet suit) This gives me something to go on at least.
outside Bike FTP: 209watts
Running vDot: 33
This upcoming week is my first real week back in training, and is week 5 of the INT HIM plan. I will be in Guadalajara, Mexico for work and as such will have no access to the bike, however should be able to run a bit.
My plan is to run focus week 5 of training (swimming if the outside pool is open, which will be hit or miss as it is the hot and rainy season in Guad right now - so after working hours tends to be very rainy) then get right back on track week 6.
Is this the correct adjustment?
!
Reach out to me just before–or just after–you return and we can figure out on how to plan your reentry.
I leave tomorrow for home, so I will be back into training Saturday (tomorrow) the 27th. How should I approach my re-entry into training given I have been off for 3 monhts or more?
Ha ha I wish that I would have seen this before my epic bike trainer workout on Tuesday lol. Oh man that was horrible - I cut the time at zones in half (triage) since I was so out of it. OK from here on out I will focus on time first, then next week get back into intensity.
To top it all off, I ended up getting sick after Mexico (shock) and am just now feeling better. The trainer workout was probably a mistake given how dehydrated I probably was. I rested last night and have been focusing on the 4th sport of triathlon... sleep.
Tonight I am getting in the long run. Friday I drive up to my parents as there is a race local to them I am going to do Saturday in order to bank up some PAU's (Parent approval units) since they watch my dogs for me while I travel for races, work and seeing my hubby in Florida. I will then do my 150 minute ride on Sunday, and get right back into plan come Monday.
No more travel until the end of August! Woo hoo! :-)
I wonder how I would have done if I had been training? ;-) Time to find out. I am going to be busting my butt for a PR at Miami Man!
Danke!
Ok - so I am a planner to a fault. I am looking over my training plan from now until November and see 3 weeks that I need some "validation" on.
1.) HIM Intermediate Plan week 11
I will be in WI the Saturday and Sunday of week 11 for volunteering/spectating, etc. but have a Big Training day scheduled for that Saturday. I can do the swim and run no problem and some biking, but not the full 3 hours. In all reality I am not sure that I want to trek my tri bike out to Madison at all, I was thinking of taking my Trek FX bike (commuter sneaky speed demon fitness bike) and use it to get around the weekend while I cheer eveyone on. My thought was to switch and do the BTD the following weekend when I can get the most benefit from it.
2.) HIM Intermediate Plan week 13
I will be in Mexico for work flying out on Monday and returning Friday on plan week 13 so those are rest days per your advice. I was planning on running every day ( as hotel will not have pool and no biking because I will not have access to one). Then I was planning on resuming training as prescribed Saturday.
3.) HIM Intermediate Plan weeks 19/20
I am driving to FL for the MiamiMan race but this will take me the entire weekend of plan week 19 where my last 3 hour ride is (3 hour ride on Saturday, rest on Sunday). Since it is in taper I was going to move the ride back a few days and do it in the middle of plan week 18. Is this OK? Or, should I just drop it?
Also - race week we are not allowed to swim in the lake any days leading up to the event else they will disqualify us. I am assuming that the feel good swim on Friday of plan week 20 is OK to do a short pool swim (even if that) to work kinks out and call it good?
#1 - So you will be in tri town mania with a place to swim/bike and run your heart out and you want to bring a commuter bike and do a shortened workout? Hmmmm...counter that with me bringing my full tri rig and scheming how I can spend as much time as humanly possible exercising.
#2 - Your Week 13 plan is fine, just be safe as always.
#3 - Yes, I would last long ride on Wed, last long run on Thursday...friday swim...then travel time.
#4 - That's fine to swim in a pool as you can. Dem's the rules. Maybe bring swim cords if you have them to stay loose with 10 to 15 mins a day of work?
I am on sherpa duty for my friend who is tackling IMMoo for round 2, after being pulled from the course and handed a DNF in 2010. I want to make sure that she has everything she needs and figured I can do that better if I am around and able to handle last minute situations for her so she can mentally take some down time. :-) That race has scarred her a little and she is in a good place, but starting to have a lot of things creep up on her which are starting to shake her confidence a little.
I will bring both bikes and see what I can do on the ride front. My Plan A is to do the BTD the following weeked, but I may just suck it up and do it when prescribed!
Celebrated by getting into the pool with TrishM and Cathleen White on Friday and getting in a bonus swim. Felt good!
Saturday was my BTD, so I got out there and rode 3 hours, ran 45 minutes and then drove to a gym to swim my TT. I decided that I would treat the swim like a reward after the sweaty workout. Was that OK? I had an ouchie calf going into the workouts, and by the end of the swim the calf pain was gone.
End results were great for just getting back into it.
2:53 minute bike = 53 miles. My Half Ironman race PR was 2:57 for 56 miles... so this is not far off from my best race season pace. So weird.
I found going Z1 power really hard, and was finding myself creeping into Z4 power on the Z2/Z3 portion of the ride. My body is coming back!
45 minute run = 3.5 miles. My marathon pace + 30 seconds is SUPAH SLOW. I was able to get in the warm up before I had to do the cool down! lol Run is my weakness.
Swim
100M TT = 2:07/100 Meters. My guess going in was that I was at about 2:07/100. Nailed that. Swim is my other weakness.
No questions for you this week - I just wanted to give a little progress report on how my first big weekend in nearly a year went for me. I could have kept biking for days at that pace. :-D
So my goal of top 3 in my division at Miami Man is becoming more of a possibilty I think. I am sold on the kool aide of EN.
This week is nothing remarkable - typical typical training, no BTDs or testing.
I flew Friday morning to FL on 2.5 hours of sleep - so no WKO was possible or advised.
Saturday I did my 3 hour ride - netted me only 48 miles as to two factors:
1 - It is much cooler in MI comparably, so the heat plus humidity here really knocked me down a peg and my HR averaged 169 due to no evaporation of sweat and general fatigue and probably dehydration from flying, etc. . 169 HR for 3 hours was crazy so I triaged the WKO from as written to being easy pace to try to lower my HR and to assure that I drank enough fluids/eletrolytes.
2 - My back was killing me due to the road bike that I have down here - not used to riding it but 2-4 times every few months. 3 hours was a huge jump on that thing! After 17 miles the back cramped up severely and had to stretch a lot on the ride.
On Sunday I did a truncated ride - was supposed to be 2 hours ABP, I did ~ 1.5 due to the back hurting again. This time it started to hurt at mile 5 and really no benefit in hurting myself just for some time in the saddle. My HR was in the low 150's and I wore my arm coolers to keep my body temp in check. Worked out wonderfully.
Sunday night the hubby surprised me with a 2-day, 2-night stay at a nice Inn for our 1st wedding anniversary. Wow!!!! He is amazing!!! I was unplugged from training Monday - Tuesday. I really wanted to just spend time with him not doing anything but relaxing on the beach and hanging out talking and reconnecting - and 2 days of missed swims is not going to hurt me in the long run. :-)
So on the topic of the road bike from hell - My sister-in-law who lives down here has a spare triathlon bike that is the exact bike I race up in Michigan, so she is lettng me use it from now on to train on so that I am getting the most benefit with least issue ha ha ha. This back issue on my road bike has happened ever since I bought the bike in 2008 and no matter how fit i get it to me, the pain is always there at some distance - typically on long rides.
As for the road bike, get some pics on it....could be worth looking at it. Odd that tri is okay but road not. Could be a reach issue...
Hey Coach P! I hope that you are healing up OK these days. Two quick(ish) questions:
1 - quickish - This is a Rx'd test week for me and honestly I don't think I would have any new numbers given my fitness and how I feel in training. I personally feel no advantage to testing, and given that I am travelling to Mexico for work next week really want a solid week of training.
I am thinking that I should make this week a bike focus week and then next week make it run focused, resuming in on Rx'd plan when I return. Acceptable?
2 - This one is a little longer.
I took a look over the nutrition on course at MiamiMan. Impressed with the amount of aid stations, but expect no less given that this is in South Florida! My concern is that I want to switch to on-course nutrition to make my life easier and see that they offer the most randomist of things. Cytomax sports drink, Hammer Gels, and PowerBars in addition to water (no thank you) and bananas /oranges
I am starting to train with Cytomax now to get used to it. I am good with power bars and hammer gels. Never used them all together though, so now I am trying to make them fit the quidlines in the wiki.
At my current elephant-like weight (hey on the bright side elephants are strong), I would need 500+ calories / hour on the bike and 400 calories per hour on the run. That is well over double what I typically consume, but I always felt a bit light on calories (dizzy, etc. by the end). But like you mention I need to train my body for it and consume until my body pushes back. So... I am going for it.
So my plan is to do a sweat test this upcoming weekend, probably in the last hour of my 2 hour ride on Sunday since I plan on doing that inside on my trainer, and then fine-tuning my nutrition from here on out.
Here is what I have sort of calculated out without sweat test adjustments, but wondering if that seems right... This is based on my current weight and values are per hour (4 scooops = 2 x 24 ounce bottles of cytomax and tabs = non-caffinated salt tabs)
1 - you need to find out what the concentration of cytomax will be on the course...how is it usually served? How big is the bottle? That is the concentration you need to train with...so perhaps it will mean carrying a LOT of bottles in training to meet your calorie requirement.
2 - I suggest you carry your own powergels instead of hammer gels...you will only need a few, and the lack of sodium in the Hammer Stuff makes me worry. So carry the powerbar gels.
I think your sodium is fine in salt tabs..we'll save that for when you need to supplement so make sure it's easy to access / use.
I would try to have the powergels on the run as well, and you might want them to be caffeinated (if you use that or drink coffee) as you will need a boost then.
Will there be coke on the run???
Keep up the good work!
I will contact the RD and find out how they are serving the cytomax on the bike and on the run. I am new to Cytomax, so not even sure how it comes outside of tubs. Thank you for this, I would have never thought of asking them!
No cola on the run course so I will go with the caffenated gels in the last half.
After my sweat test this weekend I will have a better idea of what I will need on the bike as fluids are concerned, but here is what I figured out for a base-line per hour, bike and run considering on the course nutrition.
The 3 scoops is assuming my 2-scoop bottle (24 ounces) and their 18 hounce squeeze bottle which I figure is just about 1 serving (1 scoop). On the run I figured 4 ounce servings, at a slow pace would net me at least another 1 and 1/3 serving of Cytomax (preparing for worst case, will be more if better paced).
Cytomax PowerBar PowerGel Salt tabs
scoop 3 90 kcal 270 240 kcal 0 110 kcal 220
Bar 0 12 Sugar 36 26 Sugar 0 12 Sugar 24
gel 2 22 carb 66 44 carb 0 27 carb 54
tabs 2 120 sodium 360 220 sodium 0 200 sodium 400 215 sodium 430
Calories Sodium Carbs
500 1000 125 GOAL
490 1190 120 Reality
Cytomax Powerbar PowerGel Salt tabs
scoop 1.333333333 90 kcal 120 240 kcal 0 110 kcal 330
Bar 0 12 Sugar 16 26 Sugar 0 12 Sugar 24
gel 3 22 carb 29.33333333 44 carb 0 27 carb 54
tabs 2 120 sodium 160 220 sodium 0 200 sodium 400 215 sodium 430
Calories Sodium Carbs
400 1000 125 GOAL
450 990 70 Reality
While my calories are slightly under the target on the bike, those are about 200+ more calories an hour than I have ever consumed on the bike, and about 300 more calories ever consumed on the run. I am interested to see how my body reacts to all of this feeding.
I feel like these are a lot of calories for a half iron!
Sorry for the horrible formatting above! Here it is easier to read.
Thanks for reformatting!!!
Remember you have some time to practice the food and dial it in. The one variable we are missing without the test right now is volume of fluids. You might need two bottles per hour of fluid...calories are the "other" part of the equation. Let me know how that works out...onwards, upwards!
We never really talked about race execution or how I should approach the weekend, but since I was NOT tapering for the half marathon I treated this weekend more like a BTWeekend rather than a race weekend. My plan was to kick off the "big training weekend" on Friday with my RR swim as per plan, then build bike volumes with some steady state riding (z3/z1 on Saturday and z1 on Sunday) and a RR half marathon on Sunday focusing on 3 things: running form/turn over, nutrition, and pacing.
I hope that I did the right thing because it turned out FABULOUS for me!
ADAPTATIONS FROM THE PLAN
Saturday I rode my 3 hour bike ride as 2 hours ABP and then 1 hour easy recovery spinning focusing on cadence and position instead of long Z4 intervals per plan. The ONLY reason I dieviated from the RX'd workout was because I wanted to keep the ride at full length/Time in the saddle but not hinder myself for the half marathon Sunday given how much climbing there is on the running course. I honestly forgot how NOT flat Detroit is.
Sunday I ran a negative split half marathon (both my first negative split race ever and my fastest Detroit half ever) then opted for 2 hours easy spinning rather than ABP as my quads were feeling it big time and I have 2 weeks of trainingt o go before I taper up, and did not want to be recovering for too many days post race.
QUESTION: I was planning on a shake out swim / stretch / hot tub action tonight and then back at it tomorrow with my prescribed bike ride at night to allow for ~ 48 hours of actual recovery time from the end of my big training weekend. Is this the right thing to do?
So here is how the race went:
NUTRITION: 1 Powergel plus 4-ounces of sports drink every aid station (~ every 2 miles on this course) Walked the aid stations for about :30 to allow for consumption of nutrition. Due to regulations runners were prohibited from bringing liquids along with them over the country borders, so I opted to survive solely on the course. MiamiMan has aid station every mile (and no international borders *whew*) so more opportunity for fluids! I proved to myself that I am capable of living off of the course in the right conditions.
Race breakdown:
Miles 1-3 I stuck with the 5:30 marathon pace group (2:45 half) so that I would be in my MP+ 30 second warm up pace. Being that it was so cold (barely 40*) I decided to really take my time and run at a slower pace into Canada.
1 - 12:43
2 - 12:24
3 - 12:34 (we are on the bridge at this point - so UP a steep HILL for a mile!)
Then at the top of the bridge, which was also just over the 5k mark, I decided to get into a groove and push a little more each mile conservatively. I really expected to be hanging around 12:08 MP, however I never came close to it after my 5k warm up. It felt just too slow for the day's weather and course. So I stayed at what I preceived as MP for the conditions - the same RPE if you will - and that ended up really good for me.
4 - 11:47
5 - 11:40
6 - 11:22
7 - 10:58
8 - unknown as I was underwater (the tunnel!) and they did not do timing mats this year, also my watch is GPS based and lost the satellite under the water of course
9 - 11:46 (coming out of the tunnel is basically full of climbs for the next few miles hence higher paces for the next few miles)
10 - 11:45
11 - 11:32
12 - 10:53
13 - 10:31
0.1 - 9:42
Total time: 2:35:11, 11:50 pace.
I kept my cadence high and my arms low. Felt AMAZING this race and I owe it to the nutrition + smart execution of pacing. I have never taken all of my gels or followed my nutrition plan in a race and on ths course in the 40* and windy weather it really made a difference. I also have never felt this strong in a race before. The miles FLEW right by and I felt stronger at the start than I did the finish.
My plan for MiamiMan is to do the same 3 mile MP+:30 and then go from there. I am going to stick to MP as long as the course and temps allow for it, and if I feel good, then at mile 10 I will amp it up a bit. If I feel not so great, I will go by RPE again and just give it my all.
So... did I do good from a training intent/execution stand point this weekend?