IMLP Training Week 9 ( stay focused it only gets easier :) )

Simon Shurey

Well I am a little behind posting as I come out of jazz Fest infused weekend. So as I struggle with taking a little time off training but at the same time had an amazing time. How do you guys deal with that balance of giving up training for getaways, families.

bergesan

@Simon: balance? No balance
Well, I try to do most trainings early morning, so even for the long weekend rides, I have most of the afternoon for my family.
But I reckon that there won't be too much free time for the next three months.

So, done my first outdoor (not open water) swim on Monday without wetsuit and it was freezing even though it was a sunny day. Had to capitulate after 2300m and run for a hot shower.

Tuesday run done as well (early morning intervals are tough...) and now heading southwards to warmer and drier weather

jenandersen

Simon, I'm not familiar with this balance word you talk about.. :-) Guess I'm lucky in the sense that I only have my husband and a not so stressful job to balance training with and my husband joins me for some of my training. I have told my non tri friends that they'll probably not see me again until after July unless they want to join me for a bike ride or a run.

Swimming outdoors?? Brr.. sounds cold:-) What's the temperature where you are Sandro?

I've got an appointment to get my shoulder checked out today (finally) and hopefully banging out some intervals in the park afterwards. It'll be nice with a change of scenery as I'm normally running near my house but since I'll be over on the other side of town anyways, might as well change it up.

cdkayak

Since this is my first IM it has taken the priority, only getaway that we'll be getting in between now and LP will be for another race in about a month and the LP training camp the following week. (not really relaxing getaways) Generally in the past I've been able to shuffle workouts or swap rest days around to fit in other activities. I also lucked out on a trip a couple of years ago before an oly, great pool at the hotel and some nice places to run near by.

No open water swims yet, local pond is about 46F. Someone just measured the temp at the lake where my June race will be, 39F! Hoping that warms up significantly in the next 4 weeks.

@Jen, hope the appt. for the shoulder yields some good news.

[Deleted User]

I do the balancing act really, really well...until 12 weeks until race day, then I just can't do it all anymore. It is easy to switch things around, when the volume is lighter. Now-a-days, I try to get the training done early, so that 1) it is not hanging over my head at work; and 2) I am available for the family. This is my third year of IM, so I feel like we have developed a system that works for us. My hubby and son know what to expect, and they are super cool dudes, so it is like second nature now. I did have to promise to take 2015 off, so they know there is light at the end of the tunnel...until 2016 ;-)

David Howard

MONDAY: Got Full Swim in WoW I was cooked with all the sprinting! (also longest total yards yet this year)
400WU, 3X 25,50,75,100/100yrds (15") + 300,300,400steady (20")
Form started to break down on last few of last sprint set -no gas left..... maybe have some breakfast pre swim?
PM = LOTS of foam rolling Really felt lethargic by midday.....effects of the huge week last week.

TUES: MOVED swim to WED felt I needed to get some sleep and recover before hitting those sprints again!
Run= did the 0.5ml X2 @ ~7:00 and 1 ml @ ~7:00 the remainder kinda Z2-3 ish felt like my natural HM pace (VDOT 42 M pace) so probably "More Work" than I should have done.....I feel fine now....but we'll see after the next few days ad up.
Pretty serious hills on some parts...
Summary 1:13:26.0 8:54 AVE
1 9:32 WU
2 8:46 (part of Fast 1/2 Miles)
3 8:21 (Part of Fast 1/2 Miles)
4 7:03 (Fast mile)
5 9:33
6 8:54
7 8:48
8 9:48 (part CD)
8.25 10:39 CD

L IT still givin me fits..... More suffer time on the roller tonight.

Big day tomorrow......Swim AM then Brick PM what's this Cr@p about things getting easier?!

David Howard

When comes to balance.....when I get back home and back to my "regular" work schedule .... anyone know how to be successful on 3 days a week training? LOL

drjohnson08

I'm single and don't have kids so really no balancing act for me. During the IM build training is a priority. I only travel or get away if I know I'm going to be able to train.

Recovery run yesterday went well. I spent a lot of time in the car yesterday so it felt good to stretch out the legs. I wasn’t able to get the swim in though. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/494037097

3600 yards in the pool today. Was aiming for 4000 but I got to the pool late and if I pushed the workout any longer I would’ve been late for work. I wasn’t fast today but I still had gas at the end of the swim. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/494533595

Good workout on the track this evening including 2 X 1 @ Z4 plus another 2.5 at MP. Was well under goal pace for the entire run and I felt really strong. I’ll enjoy that feeling while it lasts. In a few weeks this workout will be a struggle I’m sure. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/494598088

Brad Marcus

Balancing also beginning to be a real problem for me too. My wife and I are both training for our first full at LP, so it exasperates the situation. It's been mostly manageable, but now that the volume has picked up, we are beginning to struggle some. - add a 9 and 10 year old into the mix and some days are plain crazy! But, we signed up for this knowing what we were getting into and are excited for that day to come.

I've been really struggling over the last week. I got hit with a mega-cold (virus?) and even after giving myself a couple days off, I can't seem to shake this and the fatigue is my biggest concern. I'm a day ahead this week on the schedule and did my FTP /vo2 bike yesterday and couldn't hit my numbers or finish the vo2 sets, which has never really happened to me. Today I'll attempt the long run, but everything has been a struggle and now I'm feeling like I'm moving backwards with fitness. Not sure what to do

[Deleted User]

Go easy on yourself. Your body is still recovering. Your numbers will come back, it just takes time. When I bronchitis in February it took me about three weeks to get back to the numbers I was hitting when I first got sick. It was frustrating and I just kept pushing through. You will get there.

drjohnson08

@Brad, focus on getting better first. I'm sure you've done a ton of work already so missing some time won't be as bad as you think. At this point in the IM build a little time off won't hurt. Once you get better make sure you're getting in the key workouts and trust the plan.

Brick workout tonight. 1:15 on the bike including 1 X 15’ & 1 X 10’ @ 1.01 & 1.01 followed by 25’ @ .85. The Z4 stuff was definitely work. For the Z3 stuff my goal was to ride as steady as possible. MY VI for this segment was 1 exactly, so mission accomplished. Really not that big of a deal as the ride is pancake flat. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/495222527

Entire workout (253 watts):
Duration: 1:16:36 (1:18:06)
Work: 1160 kJ
TSS: 98.9 (intensity factor 0.883)
Norm Power: 269
VI: 1.07
Distance: 26.773 mi
Elevation Gain: 484 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 407 253 watts
Heart Rate: 85 163 144 bpm
Cadence: 16 106 77 rpm
Speed: 0 37.8 21.0 mph
Pace 1:35 0:00 2:52 min/mi
Altitude: 216 319 263 ft

4.6 miles on the brick run. MP out, HMP back. Goal paces hit but it was challenging. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/495197364

David Howard

Big day with massively busy work day as well.....now its 2 hr past bedtime ...but gota post
SWIM: Did TUES set:
500 WU drills 25,50,75,100/100 (Sprint/EZ) +50EZ after 100s X3 then Only time for 350, 450 Steady on (15') These are tough!

Bike: 20' WU w/ 3x 1' PIs (350-480w) Then Z4 10',12' ~220w then Z5 3x4' ~255 ave + some Z2-ish to finish out the time These rely Kicked my bootee!
Avg Power: 155 W
Max Power: 485 W
Max Avg Power (20 min): 194 W
Normalized Power (NP): 196 W
Intensity Factor (IF): 0.98
Training Stress Score (TSS): 122.5
Work: 715 kJ
Avg HR: 132 bpm
Max HR: 167 bpm
Elapsed Time: 1:23:23
23,3miles
Avg Speed: 17.9 mph
Max Speed: 29.8 mph

Brick Run:
30min 3.4miles climbing pyramid pace up to 7:30 at mile 2 then back down to Z1 run felt good!

David Howard

Todays run....My Quads are killing from the hills run the other day....but I chose to run the same -ish road for 6.5 miles out (first mile as WU a little fast and with surges) Z1-ish then was to do Z2 15' +Z2-3 15 min..... Kinda did Z2-3 pace with progressively faster pace to 9th mile then back to Z1 (real Z1) to CD. Fast felt better actually. Feeling the cumulative fatigue now during the day.... run felt OK w/o energy issues though.
TIME: 1:41:26.2 AVE 9:43
1 9:26
2 9:46
3 9:59
4 10:22
5 10:11
6 10:14
7 9:25 (1/2 @ 10:00)
8 9:00
9 8:13
10 10:07
10.43 10:54

Z1 9:50-10:30 10K VS HM VDOT
Z2 8:25 - 9:00

drjohnson08

3600 yards in the pool before work today. Nothing special to report. Just getting yardage in. For some reason when the workout uploaded to Garmin it is dated as Tuesday, maybe because I haven’t connected the watch to GPS in a few months. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/495717075

14.6 miles on the run today and felt pretty good. 1st hour at EZ pace and the next 45 minutes at marathon pace. I didn’t even attempt hmp, it wasn’t going to happen. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/495787019

Hope everyone’s training is going well.

jenandersen

How do you guys manage to get in these long runs on Thursdays? I've been really struggling with that - both time wise and motivation wise. It's so hard to get the motivation to run 1:30-2 hours by myself after a long day at work.

drjohnson08

@Jen, the coaches actually suggest that people do the long run as early as possible on Thursday. The reason being it gives you an extra half day of recovery time before the big rides on the weekend. So a bunch of people do it before work! See this thread in the IM CDA forums to see what a bunch of other teammates do: http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/15244/Default.aspx

I myself do it after work on Thursdays because it takes me a couple days to recover from getting up at 3 am - 4 am. The only problem is I have trouble getting to sleep sometimes on Thursday night. I'm a little bit different than most people...I actually like to train alone and do 99% of my workouts alone so I can't answer that part of your question. The alternative to running long on Thursday is running long on Saturday or Sunday either before or after those long rides. That's what motivates me. I'd rather run on "fresh" legs.

If you really can't make the long run on Thursday happen I would suggest contacting Coach P in the Micro thread to see if there is a way to rearrange your workouts so that the long run is on a day that works better for you or a time when you can run with others.

cdkayak

Wed's bike was tough, I couldn't quite hit the numbers as well as I would have liked. Last night's long run went well though, 1st half in Z1 and then ramped it up to MP & above. Didn't quite get to HMP though. All the bump-ups in my zones from last week's testing is killing me. I've really enjoyed being able to run outside again now that the ice has melted. Did today's strides this morning before work since we've got a pretty crazy day starting in a few minutes.

@Jen - I find the long runs on Thursday to be relaxing(mostly) and I enjoy the quiet time while I'm out there. It lets me shutdown after the work day or sometimes work through a problem while I run. Like Doug, I do most of my workouts alone with an occasional coworker joining me for a run or club member joining me on a ride. My biggest problem is fitting in the swim workouts on weekdays, lap swims during the week are at 8PM and that just doesn't work many days. Next week will be especially tough since my usual Sun morning swim will be missed so I can help at a local marathon.

drjohnson08

@Chris, sometimes it takes a little while to settle into the new numbers. You'll get there. Way to nail that long run!

5 mile trail run today with an RPE of EZ. All single track, very technical and lots of elevation gain on this one! My favorite place to run. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/496309748

3000 yards in the pool afterwards. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/496304283

Looks like we're going to get some nice weather here in Western NY over the next couple days. I'm ready for some riding this weekend!

Brad Marcus

Visit to the doc today proved somewhat uneventful - he believes my everlasting cold is a virus and the fatigue is just part of it. Blood work came in ok. I told the doc I planned on riding for 3 hours today and he thought I was nuts...aren't we all!? So...I hit the trainer today for a 3 hour ABP ride. The first half seemed harder than the second and I rode a solid 150min at z3. Trying to shuffle things around to free up my Sunday (for Mother's Day), but my 4 hour outdoor ride for tomorrow is not looking good with the continued rain we have here in the Northeast...not sure how I'm going to get this in...but I'll find a way. I just hope that my missed workouts trying to get better didn't hit my fitness too hard.

Simon Shurey

Have fun with that 4 hour ride today all.

Peter Beauregard

Hit a goal this morning that I set at the beginning of the outseason....my resting HR is officially in the mid-40's! Low 60's at the beginning of November. Since joining team en I have paid more attention to nutrition, fatigue, and using feedback from heart rate, heart rate variability, power, pace, etc.....so that I have a reason/goal for every workout I do. Yes, sometimes I leave the electronic devices at home for a workout or two, but knowing when to hold back, or hit a workout hard, or even knowing when a cold is on its way has been a huge help this season so far.

I am doing my 3 hr ride today and swim w/o I missed yesterday and then my 4 hr ride tomorrow. Good luck to all this weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all those moms!

Mary Russo

You too Simon.

Bottles are all mixed, cue sheet printed and am ready to hit the road.

Let's hope the rain holds off.

It's going to be mild temps and cannot wait for that!!!

Enjoy!

Simon Shurey

Well I got in just over three hours on the bike. 91 kms. Legs were super heavy today but kept on riding through it. It was nice not to worry about what type of wardrobe one had to wear on the bike. Starting the Tour of California on Trainer road tomorrow. Doing the first leg follow by a 6-10 mile run.

jenandersen

I don't know if fun was quite the right word... ;-) I did however find that the way to avoid slippage on my aero bars was to use GU chomps as nutrition. Those little buggers are sticky!

Brad Marcus

4 hour ride done today. I started off in the rain and ended up with the sun. A hilly 64 miles. I took my road bike due to the weather so first ride w/o powermeter in awhile. Used RPE and heart rate as a guide, but was tough to keep from spiking with all the climbing. My wife and mom will be happy that I'm now free for Mother's Day

Doug Herr

First 30 minute run/4 hour ride - done.  I've been trying to hit as many hills as I can, hoping that pays off in LP.  Finished in a semi-vegetative state but spaghetti helped a lot!  Hope everyone's having a great weekend of training.

[Deleted User]

2 flats. The chain came off 5 times. Sweating due to the rain jacket, and it never rained. 4100 feet of vertical. 64 miles. 4 Hours. Done. Today I have a sprint tri (Season Opener) which I will be riding home from (40 miles). What a weekend.

wills029

Still fighting a pesky cold, so focused on bike and run for week 9 and tried not to push it too much. Hope to be in the pool this week.

So nice to be riding outside on the weekends. 

Ride safe everyone.

drjohnson08

@Larry, wow tough Saturday ride!

@Doug, that first one is tough!



Late posting because I was in travel mode again this weekend. got all 3 weekend workouts in and hit all the paces. toughest workout was Saturday's ride. extremely windy for the first 3 hours and the last hour I was out of gas from battling the wind, but still hit the numbers.



sat run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/496577450

sat ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/497915922 

  

sun ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/497915863

 

Simon Shurey

Nice effort by all. Looks like everyone is getting there miles in for sure.

@ Larry character building ride. I want to say somebody last year had 5 punctures whilst racing IMLP last year. Don't want to wish that on anybody.

wills029

@ Simon - curious to know whether the 5 flats were pinch flats? I suspect the winter wasn't kind to the roads in LP, so could be hard on our wheels.