Bob Hiller's 2014 IMMT macro
Rich, My race plans are unchanged after Raleigh 70.3. I know you have coached 1000's of triathletes of varying experience, ages and special issues. I have a special issue and I hope you can help me. I love triathlon and I now love EN's total package. During the Raleigh run, I thought about scratching IMMT and never racing more than an Olympic distance. I do not want that.
A lingering problem I have reared its ugly head during the run at Raleigh. I mentioned it in my Race Report. I have stenosis in my low back. You may be very familiar with this, but I will mention what it is for me. Essentially, my stenosis is at 2 levels in the lower lumbar spine. The hole where the nerve root exits at those levels has gotten smaller as I have gotten older. When that nerve which sends signals down the leg gets irritated, it tends to stay irritated and cause pain. For me, the pain is on the side and/or front of the left thigh. Somewhat counter-intuitively, standing and walking irritate the nerves more than running at a reasonable rate with good form. As fit as I am, ironically, if I walk a block or even a couple of isles through a grocery store, my leg starts to hurt fairly bad. It continues and gets worse. Sitting will help, but the best short term remedy is a stretch I do sitting on the floor/ground for about 20". I tried this in Raleigh, but started to get a cramp in the inside of my thigh.
I know the recommendation in an HIM and IM is to walk 30 steps or so through most or all of the aid stations. In Raleigh, that made the pain, which became excruciating, worse. Merely stopping also did not help, but made it worse. In my long runs, I walked 30 steps every 2 miles without any significant extra pain. I actually stopped warming up in running because running at 10'/mi or more gave me thigh pain. Now I start my long runs at about 9'/mi and within a mile drop into the pace you want, e.g., 8:35/Z2.
My RR bricks went extremely well. On a pain scale of 1-10, my 6 mile runs got up to maybe 4, then settled down to 2. That is very tolerable for me. My brick run splits were good for me. I recall finishing one with an 8:08. In my Raleigh run, after about 5 miles my pain level was up to 9. I have been in the 7-9 pain level in my thigh before, but I have always been able to stop, stretch, sit or do whatever to calm down the irritation. When you've got 8 miles to go and trying to stretch causes a cramp, you're between a classic rock and hard place. I recall now the couple of times my brick run ended about .2 to .5 from where I parked my van and I walked the rest of the way, my thigh was killing me then. (This is where I hit myself in the forehead and say "I could have had a V8!")
Looking at my Power, IF and VI numbers, I may have gone a bit hard on the bike, but frankly, I don't think easing up is the total solution. You guys got me in great shape and I don't think my thigh pain was significantly caused by fatigue, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance or other nutritional issues. I didn't think at the time I was pushing the bike too hard because I was just trying to hit .80-.81 of my FTP. I had to RR's of 2:54 and 2:52 on a flat course. Don't get me wrong, I plan to back off on my watts as you suggest, but I would be doing that to some degree anyway since my next race is an IM.
I definitely want your thoughts and recommendations, (and I apologize for this being so long and appreciate the time you are giving to help me), but I am thinking of preparing myself for IMMT to run so I never go slower than about 9:45/mi and do not walk or stop. My Z2 is 8:35/mi. My FTP is 248w. If I can hold, say, 170w on the bike, and start the run at 9:15, maybe I can drop down to 8:50 or 9:00 after 6 miles, hold that to mile 18 and do what I can do to continue avoiding the excruciating thigh pain. I actually may end up with a good IM.
BTW, I am signed up for the MT training camp. I look forward to our conversation and thanks in advance for your help.
Bob Hiller, 513-910-2132