Mark Maurer's Micro tread

Mark Maurer

I saw the note in the NOS to start looking for a 10 k or a HM for a test at the end of the NOS. I found a HM near here on 1/25/14. Is that close enough to the end to serve as a run test?

Cheers,

Mark

Coach Patrick

Mark that's the end of Week 13 (not 14) but we can adjust for sure!! I am thinking you will go from Week 11 to Week 13, skipping Week 12 so you get the right exit plan...but we can talk more later. Bonus points to you for planning ahead!!!

Mark Maurer

Hi Paul, I'm looking forward to the test week coming up this week to see how much I've progressed in 7 weeks, however, I'm also feeling the fatigue building up in my legs. I saw in one of your posts about taking a recovery week sometime during the OS and I'm thinking about doing that during the Christmas week since our daughters will be home and we're going to the beach for a couple of days. I haven't looked at the recovery week workouts. Can you tell me where to find them? Or, would it be better just to hack the regular workouts for that week. We'll be out of town Thursday to Saturday and I also have to re-purpose the pain cave back into a spare bedroom.
Cheers,
Mark

Mark Maurer

Sorry Patrick, the coffee hadn't kicked in yet.

Coach Patrick

@Mark, no worries...been called WAY WORSE! I say you really rest up before those tests...take an extra day if needed, no worries there. The official recovery week protocol is in the wiki under Self Coaching / OutSeason Page / Recovery Week. Here is a direct link: https://app.box.com/files/0/f/106380274/1/f_877662084

Enjoy that week off with your family!!!

Mark Maurer

Tests are done and I raised my Vo2 from 263 to 297 and my FTP from 211 to 228. The run test was exactly the same time that I did in the first week but I'm 2 pounds heavier. I do have a question. Starting next week the Thursday bikes call for 110% of FTP or low zone 5. Since my Vo2 is 130% of my ftp should I stick to the 110% or go to 115%?

Coach Patrick

@Mark, nice work! It's not uncommon to see both bike and run gains happen asynchronously...that said, the 110% intervals are intended to raise that FTP roof by having you ride at 258, etc, which should be really, really hard by the end of the set.

Let's do this: do the first workout at 110% and see how you feel. If it was hard but you hit all the numbers and were able to be stronger in the last one, then maybe we dial it up to 115% in the next one, then 120%.

My thought process is this....I don't want to forsake what we are trying to build for the season by chasing results in one particular workout...thanks!!

Mark Maurer

Hi Patrick,

It's week 10 of the OS and I'm signed up for the run in the rain HM on 1/25. Since that's week 13 instead of week 14 I'm just checking in on how I should adjust my schedule to accommodate that. Please note that it's on a Saturday instead of Sunday. Also, Rich had me go from the OS to the swim camp. Should I just plan on doing that or what since I'm exiting the OS a week early?

Cheers,

Mark

Coach Patrick

Mark, yes, that's totally fine...I would make sure that your Sunday runs are in the 75-90 minute range...so keep those up through 1/12!

Mark Maurer

Coach Patrick, I'm starting a bike focus in a couple of weeks after the swim camp. My wife and I have a big bike week planned towards the end of my bike focus. I was reading the BBW bike plan and it says to check out the wiki at http://bit.ly/tIljsR. I did, but the link doesn't work. Is it still available? In one of the videos describing the BBW it says that it should be something like 100. 50. 100. 50, 100 but the plan isn't like that. So, which should I do? I'm in the intermediate IM class, but I think that 2/3 of 80 would be rather short for a BBW for me.

Coach Patrick

Mark, it is available....the proper link is here: http://bit.ly/10sF3N5

Can you confirm that link is in the actual big bike week plan? If so I need to make a note to fix it...thanks!

Mark Maurer

Hi Patrick, this link works. Thanks.

Mark Maurer

Dear Patrick,

I've just started the intermediate bike focus plan ending on 3-30. Then I'm going to go into the get fast plan ending on May 4th. After that I'm going into the IM plan ending with the Vineman at the end of July. The wrinkle is that I'm going to run the Avenue of the Giants marathon on May 5th. After my "marathon" conversation with Rich he suggested that I reach out to you to hack these plans to work in the marathon training.

OK, about the marathon. I agree with the EN philosophy that doing a marathon is not the most effective way to train for an IM. However, my daughter wants to run her first marathon this year and she lives near the redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants has always been on my bucket list so the stars are aligning.I plan on running with my daughter and wife at my daughter's pace which is probably about 10 minute miles with walk breaks. I'm looking at the marathon as a long, slow training run.

The last stand alone marathon I did was last fall and I ran a personal best. My longest run leading up to that one was 20 miles but most weeks I did a 15-16 mile run with 4-6 1 mile repeats at marathon pace with the rest in Z1-2. I haven't looked at the get fast plan yet to see what the weekend runs are like, but I did look at the bike focus and see that it's 2X1 mile at threshold. I was thinking about sticking with these but making them 90 minutes every other week and on the opposite weeks start at 12 miles and add 2 miles every week until I hit 20 miles. That way I would have the 20 mile run 2-3 weeks before the marathon.

Can you let me know what you think of this plan or if there is a better way to hack it I'm all ears. My main goal with this race is to have fun and support my daughter.

Best regards,

Mark

Mark Maurer

Posted By Mark Maurer on 11 Feb 2014 11:00 PM

Hi Patrick, I posted this a while back and haven't heard back from you so perhaps it got lost in the shuffle. Can you take a look and let me know what you think.

 

 Cheers, Mark

Dear Patrick,

I've just started the intermediate bike focus plan ending on 3-30. Then I'm going to go into the get fast plan ending on May 4th. After that I'm going into the IM plan ending with the Vineman at the end of July. The wrinkle is that I'm going to run the Avenue of the Giants marathon on May 5th. After my "marathon" conversation with Rich he suggested that I reach out to you to hack these plans to work in the marathon training.

OK, about the marathon. I agree with the EN philosophy that doing a marathon is not the most effective way to train for an IM. However, my daughter wants to run her first marathon this year and she lives near the redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants has always been on my bucket list so the stars are aligning.I plan on running with my daughter and wife at my daughter's pace which is probably about 10 minute miles with walk breaks. I'm looking at the marathon as a long, slow training run.

The last stand alone marathon I did was last fall and I ran a personal best. My longest run leading up to that one was 20 miles but most weeks I did a 15-16 mile run with 4-6 1 mile repeats at marathon pace with the rest in Z1-2. I haven't looked at the get fast plan yet to see what the weekend runs are like, but I did look at the bike focus and see that it's 2X1 mile at threshold. I was thinking about sticking with these but making them 90 minutes every other week and on the opposite weeks start at 12 miles and add 2 miles every week until I hit 20 miles. That way I would have the 20 mile run 2-3 weeks before the marathon.

Can you let me know what you think of this plan or if there is a better way to hack it I'm all ears. My main goal with this race is to have fun and support my daughter.

Best regards,

Mark

Mark Maurer

Posted By Mark Maurer on 11 Feb 2014 11:00 PM

Dear Patrick,

I've just started the intermediate bike focus plan ending on 3-30. Then I'm going to go into the get fast plan ending on May 4th. After that I'm going into the IM plan ending with the Vineman at the end of July. The wrinkle is that I'm going to run the Avenue of the Giants marathon on May 5th. After my "marathon" conversation with Rich he suggested that I reach out to you to hack these plans to work in the marathon training.

OK, about the marathon. I agree with the EN philosophy that doing a marathon is not the most effective way to train for an IM. However, my daughter wants to run her first marathon this year and she lives near the redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants has always been on my bucket list so the stars are aligning.I plan on running with my daughter and wife at my daughter's pace which is probably about 10 minute miles with walk breaks. I'm looking at the marathon as a long, slow training run.

The last stand alone marathon I did was last fall and I ran a personal best. My longest run leading up to that one was 20 miles but most weeks I did a 15-16 mile run with 4-6 1 mile repeats at marathon pace with the rest in Z1-2. I haven't looked at the get fast plan yet to see what the weekend runs are like, but I did look at the bike focus and see that it's 2X1 mile at threshold. I was thinking about sticking with these but making them 90 minutes every other week and on the opposite weeks start at 12 miles and add 2 miles every week until I hit 20 miles. That way I would have the 20 mile run 2-3 weeks before the marathon.

Can you let me know what you think of this plan or if there is a better way to hack it I'm all ears. My main goal with this race is to have fun and support my daughter.

Best regards,

Mark

Coach Patrick

Mark, sorry I missed this. Given your running history (recent) and your stated goals for this race (reasonable) I think that your plan is totally fine. Just remember that our overall fitness goal is being ready to make the push to Vineman, so if you need to dial back a run or two to recover (which undermines the marathon), you should be okay with that. My official stamp of approval is pending your promise to send a finishline pic with your daughter!!! So coo!

Mark Maurer

Will do, Thanks Patrick.

 PS, are you tired of winter yet? You guys have been getting hammered.

Coach Patrick

YES!!!!!

Mark Maurer

Hi Coach P, I'm in the last week of get faster and I have a run test scheduled for next Sunday. However there have been some complications and I want to get your advice. I put myself into run jail this week because of a nagging left calf/Achilles tendon issue and because I was had a really busy week at work that included several long days on the road. I have gotten in a few deep water run sessions and most of my biking and swimming workouts. In addition, I'm running a marathon with my daughter (her first) next Sunday at her speed (about 2 minutes slower than my marathon pace and 1 minute slower than my EZ pace). The calf and tendon are feeling fine so I'm going to start back running this week (obviously). After the marathon I'll drop into the intermediate IM plan to start preparing for the full Vineman at the end of July. (I'll probably hack the first week of that plan more towards swimming and biking than running.)

So, should I try to do a 5k test late this week before the marathon or wait until a couple of weeks after the marathon and throw it in one day during IM plan? The thing that I'm concerned about doing the test this week in going from water running to some easy stuff and then some really fast stuff right before the marathon.

Mark Maurer

Hi Coach Patrick, I'm in week 12 of the intermediate IM plan and it's test week. I've been nursing a sore calf/Achilles tendon for some time. The last couple of weeks I haven't been doing any speed work and its responding well to that (as opposed to taking time off entirely from running which I tried several times as well). So I don't think I'm going to do the run test this week and I don't know what I should do in its place. Should I do a longish run in its place or just an hour run?

Cheers,
Mark

Coach Patrick

Yeah definitely no need to push the intensity, I like where you're at. I would just look to do a nice steady run perhaps some rolling terrain. Remember that you can use terrain as a replacement for speed work as long as it keeps you healthy.