Camp Week Planning
I've been training with EN since 2009; and I've been doing my own "Camp Weeks" since 2005. But new this year is the coaches integrating a Camp Week into the standard IM plan. So I'm going to spitball my plans for this week, which will follow the spirit but not the exact trajectory of the plan.
Monday: I'll have raced an Olympic Tri the day before; I'll have had the three days before that on the light side; and I'll be acclimated to my 8400' lodgings. So I'm just going to do the plan as written - Monday swim 3900 yds/80 min in the AM and Monday run 5 miles in the PM. Est TSS: 120
Tuesday: Again, as written - Swim 4000 yds/80 min (no optional work) in the AM, 2 x 1 mi @ TP/45 minutes in the PM Est TSS: 120
Wed: Here's where I start to go off plan. The local Epic Climb, Independence Pass (rising out of town @ 7900' topping @ 12,100') opens for the season (meaning snow and avalanche chutes cleared) on Thursday, so this is the last day to get a ride up and down with NO TRAFFIC - a big deal as the road is narrow, steep, twisting, and often filled with tourists. It ends up being a five hour ride there and back from my house, so I'll take it as the second long ride of the week (meant for Sat). The plan has an optional run on Wed; I'm going to drop that. TSS: 270
Thurs: Now I'm starting to scratch my head. I want to do the RR swim/bike/run on Fri/Sat; which leaves me a long run of 135 min and a bike interval set of up to 55 min of intervals to fit in on Thurs and Sun. So I peeked ahead to the next week, which allows for Mon & Tues as potential off or recovery days if I do "Camp Week". Given that, I think I'll go for the bike intervals, which I'll do as a series of shorter hills climbs in the neighborhood (10-20 minutes long @ 85-105%) - Est TSS: 90
Fri: RR Swim as 800/700/600/500/400/300/200/100/100/50/50; TSS 75
Sat: RR Bike & Run: TSS 310
Sun: Long Run 135 min/16 miles; TSS 170
Totals: Swim 3 hr 45 minutes, 9600 meters; Bike 12:15/190 miles (a lot of hill climbing!); Run: 4:45/32 miles. Totals: 21 hours, TSS 1165>>165/day. Seems doable with a rest day the following Monday.
Comments/advice welcome, along with your own planned adjustments to Camp Week.
Comments
I think the coaches' philosophy these days is that bricks are useful ONLY as a way to save time for someone who has a tight schedule. They prefer us to run on "fresh" legs to get a better training effect. So, yes, unless the plan specifically says "brick", the better option, if you can make it fit your life schedule, is to, say, swim in the AM and run in the PM on Mon & Tues & Fri (if you are running on those days). Some people just can't make that work though, so, they might do both the swim and run early in the AM, work, then have family time. Not a disaster, just realise that sometimes it might be better to forgo the run if it's listed as a "M" or "L" priority (like the Wed run on bike interval days.) On Saturday, the notes for the run say, "Ideally done before your long ride. If after, you might have to drop the Threshold Mile (not ideal) for just z2/MP/Steady running." So, no required bricks, really, except for the Race Rehearsals.
I'm lucky being retired able to ideally time my workouts with weather, fatigue, daylight, etc. Speaking of which, it's warmed up enough now I can go out for my run!
Congratulations again on retiring in the past year. I'm sure you are loving the flexibility it is granting with your training and retirement living. I look forward to the day (unfortunately too many years away) when I'm not juggling this training in an intense work week. I know you did that for so many years and being on call...etc. And now your training at altitude...you are going to tear up CDA.
Tim as usual is right. I was too focused on Wed being the last day the Pass is closed. It IS better to do it on Tuesday, so I will. Weather is progged the same both days.