Desutherland Micro

Douglas Sutherland

Finished my 90 min long run yesterday, 10.45 miles total, a good pace for me (goal is 8min/mi) and there was one really steep descent/ascent during mile 8. Woke up with a gimpy left knee, either a IT insertion problem or something else lateral. Not terrible, I do not believe there is structural damage, I can walk and climbs stairs, but quite uncomfortable. 

HIM plan has 300 minutes of biking and 30 of running this weekend. First "injury" with EN: looking for advice on how to adjust my plan if the knee does not bounce back tomorrow. 

Thanks, DS

Coach Patrick

Bike only, no running. Bike as you can; IOW if you need to cut things back with the intensity so that you can get the work done and do it. I'd rather take two or three hours easy ride versus no ride at all.

Lets pinky promise not to run on steep hills for a while!

Douglas Sutherland

Saturday my knee woke up happy, no residual pain/swelling. Finished both bike work-outs this weekend, did not run, knee held up with no pain on bike or after. 

I am on vacation this week, planning to compress week 10 HIM plan to enjoy the latter part of the week more:

Monday: Swim and Tuesday's run.

Tuesday: Swim (am) and Wednesday's brick (pm)

Wednesday: Big run

Thursday: Off 

Friday: Swim and saturday run

Saturday: Long ride

Sunday: Run x 30 minutes, probably unable to bike this day.

Coach Patrick

Yay for the knee!! That's great news you've really been focused on being smart...let's keep that going so we can keep you healthy!

Douglas Sutherland

Current pertinent stats: vDOT 40, FTP 285, T-1000 time 17 minutes, 5'10", dry weight 194, doing Austin 70.3, goal is <6hr finish</p>

I read the EN swim book, it suggests an ave AG should quit trying to improve swim speed at T-1000 17min, and focus on run. If that is true, how to/should I modify the weekly schedule to do so?

I am being led to believe being lighter is faster, so goal weight is 190 by race day, a 4-5lbs weight drop in 9 weeks. Is there is reason to think going low will be faster? I am down 10lbs, and last few weeks feeling more sluggish on long distance run/bike.

Thanks, DS

Coach Patrick

Lower weight is good for your knee and overall health/wellness...the speed is additional bonus..divide your weight by height in inches. Target is 2.5 or lower.

Key is to make site that you still eat / drink like rock star in your workouts (bonking sucks) and let your daily diet so the hard work for you. We have great resources on this under the Wiki / Nutrition section.

Re the swim book you don't add more running rather you can move to a normal EN program with regular swimming and running (no more dropping regular swim workouts in favor of technique).

Douglas Sutherland

HR was consistently 160-162 during long run, ave pace 8:42 (almost perfect z4). No bonks. Is that HR reasonable?

Douglas Sutherland

Sorry, I meant almost perfect z2

Coach Patrick

HR is personal, can't compare to others. Your history will tell us more ( or you'll learn as you go ). I am pumped that the HR and Pace is STEADY -- that's the win and really important.

Douglas Sutherland

RR today: 1.2 mile swim 35 minutes, 56mile bike: 3:04. Thursday long run was 14.2 mile in 2 hours on treadmill. Appears I am on track for a 6 hr or less finish.

This was first bike ride with power meter, using a garmin watch to track it. Seems odd, I ave 18.2mph but the ave watt was only 160. Definitely felt like I was pushing more watts than that. My FTP is 285 currently.

Coach Patrick

You will want to look at Normalized Power, as average is an insufficient representation of how hard you rode. Also check the VI....could be some excessive coasting / soft-pedaling that is hurting your numbers. FTP of 285 (tested on the new PM?) would mean a target of 225 on Race Day. That's way off...will be curious to see what your PM says when downloaded vs just on the watch....sounds like there is a synchronization issue...

Douglas Sutherland

I have a tri-freak brother in law coming into town this weekend, he is training for western Australian IM in december. He needs/wants to do a century ride this Sunday and I plan to do it with him. Any tweaks needed for this week?

Swimming is hitting road blocks the last 2 weeks, but I am getting in all prescribed run/bike work-outs. I expect to be able to get back to the pool with regularity in 7 days.

Coach Patrick

I'd check with him as I am guessing tri-freaks don't wait for you if you are dropped off the back. So I say yes only if you are prepared to ride solo or have a handshake on a group ride / play nice format!

Douglas Sutherland

Crappy week. Te flu hit me Wednesday. I was able to get the wednesday bike trial in (FTP 275, down 10), but missed my run and swim RR (this is week 17 on the 70.3 intermediate plan).

Im back to about 90% I think, will try a shortened ABP ride and run this morning, and if fully recovered, attempt a century ride tomorrow.

Question: should I modify next week at all to include run and swim RR's?

Coach Patrick

Sounds like fatigue is pretty high, having you be a little more vulnerable than I'd like right now. I'm glad you were able to cut back the workouts to recover.

before you jump back into it, I want to be 100% sure that you're back. Recovering from an illness like that while still training is difficult because mentally do you want to be training in recovery is a side thought.

I suggest you keep Monday and Tuesday pretty light this week so that Wednesday will be good and we can use that as a benchmark for how to proceed.

there's no need to work in those of the rehearsals, will keep it rolling, you haven't lost any fitness you're just avoiding a bigger problem by resting and being smart.

Douglas Sutherland

Thats very helpful. Thank you for the advice. I am nearly recovered, some reactive airway yet to resolve.

I pulled off the century ride today - it was looong at 8.5 hr, mainly cause we stopped 15 times to buy gatorade, take pictures, and try to get google maps to work. But is is logged!
Post-work out surprisingly not real sore, had no cramps, but had difficulty in aero during the second half, then as a result of sitting up, fatigued the left wrist. One comment was made amongst my group "you need another fitting" but I doubt that, 8.5 hours in any position is going to suck, particularly as this was my first attempt at the distance. Thoughts?

I will have no choice but to bail on swimming monday, but will go 85% on Tuesday.

Thanks again,
DS

Coach Patrick

DS - generally folks only say that when they mean it. Not that every person knows what a good fit is...if possible maybe you have a few pictures taken when you are on the trainer next. That would be an easier way for the community to give you some feedback. But you could also tell your friends to not stop so many times.

Douglas Sutherland

Nice job in Kona coach. Congrats.

This week was a wash - really the last 2 weeks have been pretty crappy - I was hospitalized for pneumonia and asthma attack Tuesday - so much for a "little virus". Broke out of hospital Wednesday, and rested until today. I felt ready and itchy to get some work in today for the first time. I didn't have a 56mi RR in me, so did I did a 55min bike+5k run brick today instead. I am back, confidently so, but have most definitely dropped a few steps. 

Changing Austin from 'A' race to 'finish without another stumble' race on my way to CDA next summer. Plan to dial everything down to 60-70% this week and next.

DS

Coach Patrick

DS - Holy cow that's crazy! While I'm sorry to hear about what you went through, I'm glad that you're able to address it effectively and quickly. I want you to change your expectations for performance on race day, but I don't want you to change how you execute. He might very well be surprised at what you're able to do on race day if you just shut up and let your body do the work.

Let's be really cautious with the intensity for this first week, although if you feel good you can certainly extend the time. Most important thing is that you're still able to recover as we don't want any workout to setback the larger recovery process.

After seven days of "back" let's try and pick things up for the plan and find out how you feel.

Douglas Sutherland

I hit every work-out this week, every duration/distance. Run feels strongest, feel comfortable at 8min/mile (Z4 based on last test). Swimming - tougher, slower. Fri RR was 42 minutes (previously had done 1.2 in 35). On bike, HR is up in aero compared to before illness - Z3 today (~230w) had me at 160bpm, previously was ~150. I think swim/bike efficiency hampered by ineffectual breathing.

DS

Coach Patrick

So improvement but still some more time needed. You are on the right track but need to be very smart about how much hard you want to do right now. I'd give it another few days of workouts with low expectations before you are fully "back!"