Al Truscott Fall 2014
Rich - seeing the "minimalist" IM plan announcement got me to taking a re-look at my plan for this fall. First, I looked at what I *actually* did before previous IM AZ races (which were all good performances for me), and I found in the 12 weeks before each, I averaged 3-3.5 bikes/week with 140-150 miles cycling/week. The scale was tipped usually by 1-2 Big Bike weeks with 5-7 rides in a week, so routinely I was really only doing 3 rides a week. And I'm thinking with my 15 year triathlon history and older athlete status, that the shorter, harder mid-week rides and one long, race pace + ride on the weekend is actually best for me. So, given my trips to Colorado, and my trip to Kona, I've got this tentative plan for the next 3+ months:
Aug 11: Get Faster wk 5 (this is coming off an easier week as I tapered for the USAT Nationals last Saturday)
Aug 18: Big Tri Week (In Colorado) Basically, I follow the EN plan.
Aug 25: Get Faster wk 6 (CO), Race Oly Tri back home in WA on Sat
Sept 1: Get Faster wk 7, Race Oly Tri on Sun (I'll be modifying this week d/t the two races)
Sept 8: Minimalist IM, adv, wk 11, with Big Bike Weekend (CO)
Sept 15: MIM wk 12, in CO
Sept 22: MIM wk 13, CO/WA
Sept 29: MIM wk 14, WA/Kona
Oct 6: IM wk 20 (taper), Kona race on Sat.
Oct 13: Recuperate until Thurs, then Swim/Bike/run on Fri/Sat/Sun
Oct 20: MIM wk 17
Oct 27: MIM wk 18
Nov 3: MIM wk 19
Nov 10: MIM wk 20, race Sun
The Get Faster did the trick so far … I had my fastest Oly time in the past two years @ USAT Nat'l race last weekend.
Thoughts, advice?
Comments
* The elimination of the Sunday bike and the sorta duplication of the Tues bike on Thursday is a pretty big change for us. In my experience, experienced cyclists respond well and quickly to doses of very, very hard, short cycling vs volume. It's certainly more time efficient.
* See Jimmy's Macro Thread about his plans for keeping the Thurs run where it is and moving the MIM scheduled Thurs bike to Sunday. Again, EN athletes doing Sunday runs after Saturday bikes is another big departure for us.
* I think you're plan looks good, but I think you'll need to make the week(s) after Kona on call. See how you do, feel, etc. It looks to me that you're expecting to be able to jump back into IM training relatively quickly. As you know, that may or may not be the case.