Steve Boer Official Coach Thread
My question is regarding run training zone paces. I feel like I did decent on my 5k test (29:22), perhaps I could have knocked off 30-45 seconds if I had gone out harder from the beginning. I used the pace calculator, and my training paces seem to be very low - lower than I would have expected. For my last long run in the run durability plan, I had 78' at a 10:15 average pace.
long run http://connect.garmin.com/activity/393234024
full training history http://connect.garmin.com/profile/cavemann
Based on the training zones, that would be zone 3-4, but based on RPE was more like 2-3, and there was no resulting soreness the following day. Should I leave the zones where they are, or should the speed be tweaked up a little bit?
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ps you can retest too if you want...
Present schedule Proposed
M Swim swim
T Short run/swim run/long bike
w bike/run run/long bike
Th long run Swim
F swim short run/swim
Sa run/long bike bike
Su run/long bike long run
Here's your updated Season Plan, as promised. This is where you'll return to post all your "coach" questions as responses; I'll see them and reply. This first post is my best outline of how to proceed with your races, but you can ask any / all questions you want. So post away, know that I reply here usually M/W/F each week.
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Your Races
Season Update
These are your recommended training plans, including the date you should start each one (sometimes you won’t complete a full plan but transition to another one). You can change your plans on the Training Plan page by clicking the Move / Change button. Learn more about each plan on the Training Plan Central Page.
Also, please check out the thread on running in the Fall" How to Train This (And Every Fall) Inside Endurance Nation and our GroupMe Chat for RDP for the smartphone crowd@
Coach Notes
Let's get to work!
~ Coach P
~ Coach P
Overall, definitely pleased with results - knocked off 53 minutes from my last NYC marathon. I know that I need to focus on body comp, as the robust 206 pounds i raced at was what kept me from going 4:45 and getting a 10 handle pace.
Sunday when I got home, had an hour long bath and then spent another 45 minutes in my compression pump (poor mans normatec). Monday included nothing other than work and a massage. Tuesday started my body comp focus, still doing nothing, but feeling a little bit better. Mostly the quads more than anything is what was hurting. By Wednesday I already felt human and was ready to do a short run at work, but forgot my gear at home. Thursday was a non-challenging 3.5 mile run at lunch, ended up with a 9:39 pace. Friday night was an easy 10k.
Biggest takeaway is nothing but pure common sense. Training and consistency - in the 3 months leading up to the race I averaged 109 miles per month.
~ Coach P
Running, i'm now on 11 days straight, and are doing my 2 weekend days as back to back long/medium runs.
My typical run schedule is something along the lines of
Monday-Friday 3-5 miles on my lunch hour at work
Saturday long run (15 miles this past week)
Sunday Medium run (7.5 miles --- 1/2 of long run)
I was thinking about continuing to build my long runs by 1 mile every week until i get to 20/10 for long/med. Once I get to 20/10, I start increasing my medium until both of my runs are same distance, ultimately getting to a 20/20 weekend. If I keep that schedule, my last run would be a 20/20 on march 17 (2 weeks before race day).
I guess the questions I have are
1: is trying to put out this kind of volume month in and month out for the next three months doable, or is it a recipe for disaster?
2: is a 20 mile run sufficient for my long run, or i should i work in a 25-30, but stick to the 40 mile weekend volume?
Yes, September was a very light month on account of racing HIM santa cruz, and then following that with a weeks vacation in cancun.
I recommend that you keep the long run in the 15 to 18 mile range. That last week before you go you can do some longer runs so rather than have you max out the long run, I want you to hit a place where you can sit on it, say 15 miles, but start to extend that second medium distance run. I would consider a week with 2 x 15 mile runs a success as that’s pretty challenging.
First, make sure your strava is set to show your training log: http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/91/Default.aspx?topic=Strava+Central -- this will allow me to dig a bit deeper on your stats.
Next Few Weeks should look like this..tell me what you think...note nothing on weekly volume as you do a fair amount of daily run distance. once you open up your log I can say more but I don't see too much more volume coming your way...
+ you can do a mid-week run that is 50% of that long run distance. So a 26 is up to a 13 Miler...
+ rest of days are just adding up the RDP.
I think your biggest games right now are coming from consistency and improved body composition. You don’t need to go to nuts with anything else!
Okay, so now that I'm post wisconsin, time to start lining things up for next year. I promise this is the year that I actually follow a structured plan (said that before). Here's the race schedule I already have lined up
03/10 - barcelona marathon - i plan on racing this one to set a new mary PR (old PR 4:49:13)
03/31 - rattler 66k - just participating here
05/19 - amzof chris gleason duathlon
09/08 - IMWI - withrow and cronk have already thrown down the gauntlet - 12:xx is the goal
I feel like barcelona will just "happen" with run durability (need to jump into that thread tomorrow). I'll throw a stupid number out there and say that I'd like a 25-30 minute PR - so may as well target 4:19:13
Rattler and amzof are no expectations - amzof is an early season bike accountability thing. The one thing I slacked on in my build was long rides (4+ hours). I know that in the outseason there are no really long rides, but I would like to build in at least 1-2 3+ hour rides a month, with a focus on riding at a higher IF for a longer time.
The other focus area for the following year is the swim - I need to straighten out several form and technique issues, plus just swim more. Not certain how I plan on tackling this - i'm thinking about starting with just drills and form. normally i go to pool with a distance expectation, so even if i start off on form, i quickly give that up and slide into old habits and just do the distance. Fortunately for me, the pool is less than 1/2 mile away, so I really have no excuses......
I think your overall plan is good, as you noted the real challenge here is the daily consistency in a structured way that was you towards your goal. The nice part about this time of year is that it’s fairly easy to do with the run durability program. I suggest you plan on doing RDP through October 29 when we start the out season. At that time you will begin building up towards the marathon. The first forward block you want to but the volume will need to start going up once we hit December. So having a plan for long runs in the winter will be the most important part of the program.
We can easily extend the bike rides in the out season, I know a handful of guys on the team who went crazy on Swift last year with volume in the winter, there are plenty of opportunities to do it we just need to find one that works for you. In an ideal world this type of training would also complement the volume you are setting in place for the marathon. In the short term, I think identifying some body composition goals so you can stay in a good place after what you’ve achieved this season will be really important. My super simple pack is to track the belt notch I use in season and keep it through the winter.
for now, please enjoy some brief recovery and don’t sign up for anything stupid in the next two weeks! 😂
So i've been giving more and more thoughts towards the next years goals and plans. My schedule has not changed, objectives have not changed, but now i feel like its time to come up with the plan. My biggest obstacle, is that I'm all over the place, much like one of my local dinner buddies (you can guess who) ;)
I've got too many projects to work and, on as a result, i feel like i'm setting myself up for failure.
1) I still want to PR barcelona, which I feel i will happen regardless of the plan, as long as I keep running. a 30 minute pr? that may be a tall order. I have recently reset my easy run pace to be that 9:53 barcelona target pace
2) rattler I have no expectations, its just "having fun with your fitness".
3) swim - I need to do work here to find 20 EASY minutes at the front of the race, and likely another 10-20 minutes over the rest of the race
4) 5 (6.5) hour power - I had WAY too much fading over the course of the bike at wisconsin
5) 12:59:59 - wisconsin '19 - this is the ultimate goal that will be the result of success on items 3-4.
I've got vacation coming up in a couple of weeks, so NOS start doesnt really make sense. december, sure. Obviously i need to break up my plan into periods/chunks and that stacking is what will get me to #5. I'm 19 weeks out from barcelona right now. If I do the december outseason, that'll finish february 24 - which leaves me 2 weeks until barcelona - sensible. Obviously this will not be a standard OS, but a VERY heavy run focused OS. At that point, am I really even doing an outseason plan? I dont want to load up the OS, just because its the square hole that my round peg most easily fits into.
I guess the next question is, when do I start swimming? Obviously it has a high admin cost, but not that high, as i live 5 minutes from the pool. The biggest challenge is fitting in the swims based upon pool schedule. I could realistically fit in 2 maybe 3 swims a week with RELATIVE ease, but wherever I use that time, its going to come at the cost of something else - biking, running, or sleeping.
Thanks for reaching out. You are in that classic. When it’s very hard to tell what is the next best step. There are so many things that you want to focus on that, if you focus on the mall, you won’t get any one of them moved into significant direction. In other words, it’s important to realize that athletes that swim bike and run well didn’t spend one season improving swim bike and run to be awesome. I hope that makes sense.
I think you are still building some really good habits like this one frequency that has transformed your body. I still believe that we should keep the frequency up even if you are playing the volume game like the other crazy people. Is what I think you can do:
Why don’t you map out what you can do on the bike between now and vacation in terms of cycling volume with some basic right frequency and I can give you and it’s so we can put that in final surge.
@Steve boer - Holy Cow, I really had to dig deep to find this coaches thread! You have been so independent over the past two years, a great reminder of just how far you have come as an athlete.
I was able to go in and delete the workouts leading to the old race. Then I uploaded the new workouts pointing to the August 30 date. As you know, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the race itself. However, I think you are in a great place for my fitness perspective in terms of capitalizing on the work you've done this year to still be successful.
If anything, the new date should give you renewed energy and focus.
I am confident that your run Fitness will rebound quickly given the huge weeks that you have already done in the past the season. It's more the bike thing is that I'm concerned about. That takes chunks of time which is hard to come by. The training plan itself is laid out as it normally is, but I would encourage you to find one or two weekends or you can put in some bigger volume to accelerate your growth there.
This could be 6h on day 1, then early next day on Zwift for 3h for example. Two weekends like that would be great..... Or the alternative would be 1 weekend of back to back 6h if you can get that time.
Please keep me posted!
~ Coach P