Kay Baker EN newbie training questions
Patrick - we spoke this morning and I have accessed my Intermediate Get Faster/Fit schedule. I am brand new to EN (translation: pretty clueless about the EN speak and icons - like what does yellow M, green L, and red ! mean?)
1. I don't have a power meter or a VO2 device (not even sure exactly what that is - ) so those instructions are greek to me. Also, based on what I do know, I'm not inclined to get one at this time - I have a good feel for the zones, and although I appreciate that a device of that kind would be more effective, right now I don't have the cash to plunk down for more equipment. How does that impact this segment of the training?
2. Running 3 of the 5 days during the week (M-F) is really not feasible. Add a run to Saturday? If so, before or after the bike? Also, running that often raises other concerns (see #3).
3. Because of my hamstring/foot/calf issues, I have not been doing any intervals, hills, etc - just running 45 min - 1.5 hrs 2-3 days per week (this over the course of training for the FL 70.3). I am concerned about aggravating those issues by doing sprints - they still exist, on EVERY run. I do hills b/c I live in Chattanooga and in order to get anywhere to/from my house you do hills anyway. Thoughts?
4. Swimming: I already swim M, W, and Saturday with a Masters group (min distance is 3000 yds, and Saturday I can usually get in 4000). W is speed work day (which I hate, but I do it anyway).....given that the swim is not my weakness is it ok for forego the plan training session and continue to swim the workouts my masters coach gives us? every once in a while I swim alone and do a long non-stop swim just to mix it up.
5. Overall: I feel like I'm already doing more mileage in the swim and bike portions b/c swimming is fun/easy for me, and biking is my weakest event so I feel like I need more mileage. The running, once "my event," has become my nemesis with all the boo-boos and injuries, so I'm nervous about doing too much too fast. Even with the problems I ran an 8:27 per mile pace in Florida so ......... ?
Thank you for the call this morning, and thanking you in advance for your time.
Kay
Comments
So glad to have you on the team and accessing your planning the resources. Like I said, the longer you spend online the more comfortable you'll be with everything that we have for you. Those icons are simply a reference to the importance of each workout: a red workout is super important whereas a green one is when you can easily skip.
If you go to the new member page at the top of the website under the resources section, you'll find a guy that includes all of the information you need to know about every single abbreviation and acronym that we have. :-)
I think your current plan of running three times a week is totally fine. We can try and space them out so that you don't have any back-to-back days. The intervals you refer to it every workout are actually strides which is meant to be a run using a quick cadence, not high-intensity.
In your case we can leverage your hilly terrain for a delta in intensity, and we want to keep you consistent, no flashy stuff right now with the intensity. At least not until we're more confident about your health.
Swimming with the Masters group is fine, as you noted we may want to move to a solo session for the longer distance as we get closer to your race. But for now stick with the group that works for you.
You are 100% correct in stating that you are doing more mileage right now than what we have listened in the get faster plan. Remember, you were on week 18 of an Ironman training plan… You will not start an ironman playing with us for six more weeks. This is a time when we focus on quality. The race preparation phase begins at the 12 week mark... If volume truly is a concern, we can certainly had more time on the Saturday and Sunday workouts. Otherwise it's not worth it right now as that cumulative fatigue will add up to the point where your final few weeks, just when we need you to be your strongest, will be the hardest for you to complete.
Remember in our world race day is about execution not fitness. Training a lot right now means you're simply planning on throwing fitness at the race day problem; we need you to be stronger and will teach you how to execute as we add critical fitness in those last 12 weeks. Please trust me when I say that this approach has worked for thousands of athletes before you, I'm happy to help you work through this as we adjust from your training to our training to find the best approach for you!