Matt Aaronson OS 2014 approach

MattAaronson

Hey Coach Rich,

 

I decided to start the OS in January because of some much-needed rest and recovery after my 2013 season. However, I have also decided my first race will be on April 13…Florida 70.3. The rest of my season is TBD and will require negotiation with my wife, but likely the Long Course Nationals (half-iron distance) in early June.

 

I'm looking for some advice as to how to train for Florida 70.3.

 

Florida is a "B-race" for me and my goal is to use is as a "get back into triathlon" race after being focused on run-only since early June of 2013. It should be a good test as to how much of my bike fitness I was able to rebuild after 18 weeks of zero biking June-October of 2013.

 

In terms of my current fitness:

- I am running very well these days. My fitness is below my marathon peak in October but better than I've ever been running coming into the OS. I'm currently running ~30 mpw with a 12-14 mile long run.

- Since my run-only season I have been biking 2x per week and starting this week will be 3x per week for the next couple of weeks before taking an easy week and a half over the holidays. My workouts have all be 60' with shorter FTP intervals sets like 3x8'(2'). I've done a couple APB rides and one 10x1'(1') VO2 ride as well. I haven't tested and am on my road bike at the moment, but surprisingly I'm hitting the same sorts if numbers I was hitting going into the OS last year. That is a lot lower than peak fitness but not nearly as bad I would have expected.

- I haven't been in the water since Kansas 70.3 in June 2013. This year I started swimming in the first week of April ~6 weeks before my first race which was the TTT in mid-May and I was swimming as well as I usually swim by that race. So I will need to start swimming but don't plan to do that until mid-Feb or early March.

 

I'm open to any and all of your suggestions. I've looked at the 2014 OS and half iron plans and prior to any of your advice was thinking roughly:

1. Week 1-7 of the OS with the Sunday run extended to be a proper "long run" of 90-105 min

2. Week 8 of the OS (which would be HIM plan week #14/20) do the OS with a heavy dose of swimming

3. Drop into week 15 of the HIM plan

 

A few modifications I was mulling over:

a. In weeks 6-8 add a second Sunday bike to the OS (i.e. long run in morning and 60' ABP ride in the evening). If I did this I'd either postpone the week 8 test to week 17 of the HIM plan or do it earlier.

b. Move the 110% bike block currently in OS weeks 9-13 to OS weeks 3-7 (replacing the Thursday VO2 workouts)

c. A potentially crazytown idea…don't drop into the HIM plan at all and rather do the OS weeks 9-14 as-written with the Saturday bike extended to 3 hours and with 3x swims per week added. Plus a 60' Sunday evening ABP bike if I can fit it in. If I did this I'd also probably omit the VO2 run block and change all those Wednesday run workouts to LT workouts.

 

In the case of modification (c) above, I actually think this would be a great option HOWEVER it totally omits the endurance-building associated with the trademark EN back-to-back long bike weekend days. I confess I'm very tempted to try it and if it backfires then I'll have almost 2 months of back-to-back bikes and "HIM plan following" in later-April through the early June race.

 

Your thoughts and advice appreciated!

Coach Rich

Posted By Matt Aaronson on 10 Dec 2013 02:33 PM

Hey Coach Rich,

 

I decided to start the OS in January because of some much-needed rest and recovery after my 2013 season. However, I have also decided my first race will be on April 13…Florida 70.3. The rest of my season is TBD and will require negotiation with my wife, but likely the Long Course Nationals (half-iron distance) in early June.

 

I'm looking for some advice as to how to train for Florida 70.3.

 

Florida is a "B-race" for me and my goal is to use is as a "get back into triathlon" race after being focused on run-only since early June of 2013. It should be a good test as to how much of my bike fitness I was able to rebuild after 18 weeks of zero biking June-October of 2013.

 

In terms of my current fitness:

- I am running very well these days. My fitness is below my marathon peak in October but better than I've ever been running coming into the OS. I'm currently running ~30 mpw with a 12-14 mile long run.

- Since my run-only season I have been biking 2x per week and starting this week will be 3x per week for the next couple of weeks before taking an easy week and a half over the holidays. My workouts have all be 60' with shorter FTP intervals sets like 3x8'(2'). I've done a couple APB rides and one 10x1'(1') VO2 ride as well. I haven't tested and am on my road bike at the moment, but surprisingly I'm hitting the same sorts if numbers I was hitting going into the OS last year. That is a lot lower than peak fitness but not nearly as bad I would have expected. Bike fitness, at least FTP, comes back very quickly, especially if you're already running fit, which you are. 

- I haven't been in the water since Kansas 70.3 in June 2013. This year I started swimming in the first week of April ~6 weeks before my first race which was the TTT in mid-May and I was swimming as well as I usually swim by that race. So I will need to start swimming but don't plan to do that until mid-Feb or early March.

 

I'm open to any and all of your suggestions. I've looked at the 2014 OS and half iron plans and prior to any of your advice was thinking roughly:

1. Week 1-7 of the OS with the Sunday run extended to be a proper "long run" of 90-105 min

2. Week 8 of the OS (which would be HIM plan week #14/20) do the OS with a heavy dose of swimming

3. Drop into week 15 of the HIM plan -- I think you could skip Wk8 of the OS and just move to HIM Wk14 instead. You may not "need" to do formal testing and if you do, not a big deal to substitute an interval workout for a test. We'll also have our Swim Camp training plan ready by then. You could take the swim workouts from this and to them current with Wk6-7 of your OS plan. 

 

A few modifications I was mulling over:

a. In weeks 6-8 add a second Sunday bike to the OS (i.e. long run in morning and 60' ABP ride in the evening). If I did this I'd either postpone the week 8 test to week 17 of the HIM plan or do it earlier. See above re testing and adding a 60' bike on Sunday isn't a big deal, though expect that motivating for that second session after a long run in the AM, on a Sunday, might be tough?

b. Move the 110% bike block currently in OS weeks 9-13 to OS weeks 3-7 (replacing the Thursday VO2 workouts). Yes, however, in the '14 OS plans I'm pretty sure that we mixed the Vo2 stuff into a lot of workouts vs a formal Vo2 block as in past training plans. 

c. A potentially crazytown idea…don't drop into the HIM plan at all and rather do the OS weeks 9-14 as-written with the Saturday bike extended to 3 hours and with 3x swims per week added. Plus a 60' Sunday evening ABP bike if I can fit it in. If I did this I'd also probably omit the VO2 run block and change all those Wednesday run workouts to LT workouts. What you describe is sorta the HIM plan. Would be easier, I think, to just load up the HIM plan and make adjustments to it vs staying in the OS and making adjustments to that. 

 

In the case of modification (c) above, I actually think this would be a great option HOWEVER it totally omits the endurance-building associated with the trademark EN back-to-back long bike weekend days. I confess I'm very tempted to try it and if it backfires then I'll have almost 2 months of back-to-back bikes and "HIM plan following" in later-April through the early June race.

 

Your thoughts and advice appreciated!

MattAaronson

Thanks for the input Rich. I agree that motivating for an extra Sunday bike will be tough. Esp once football season is over. I think the fundamental difference with "option c" vs. the HIM plan -- in addition to the lack of back-to-back biking -- is that Monday/Friday would both be swim-only and the long run would be on Sunday not the trademark Thursday. Also based on my look at the new OS, the running volume and frequency would actually be HIGHER in the modified OS compared to the HIM plan.

I guess the other issues are:
- the amount of indoor riding this will require. I can't go 3 hours on the trainer with any consistency. So if the March weather is bad then I think I'd be inclined to try to do the modified OS approach then do the proper HIM plan for my A race later. On the other hand, if I can get outdoors in March, I'd do the HIM plan with all the weekend riding.
- weather my work schedule will play ball with all the weekday riding that the OS requires (always a problem IU have solved with moving workout around within the week, but a LOT tougher to move workouts when you don't have Monday as a recovery that can be taken on Tuesday. Also now there is bike+run on Tuesday AND Thursday (a great add to the plan I think, but tough schedule-wise for me to put into practice..)

In any case, thanks again for the input and I may want to bounce some mort things off of you as the season shapes up.