Week 7 of 12 IMAZ - C.A.M.P.
Calling All Motivated Peeps! C.A.M.P.
For those following the basic schedule - CAMP week is here. Now, I know many of you are doing your camp on alternative dates closer to race date. As well, we have Al and Bruce, getting ready to drop the hammer in KONA, so I may be the only one choosing to do my CAMP this weekend locally (for logistics and scheduling conflict purposes basically) If that is the case, I can be the guinea pig for this cycle......
@Joe S. - 105 mile bike! Good God! Way to get it done bro!
@Clark - talk about moving forward under adversity - gets pounded by rain, wind, hail and cold, takes a hot shower to warm up and still somehow gets back on the trainer to complete! Damn!
@Betsy - Fasting while hitting the trainer! Seriously! Then following up the next day with the Long Ride! Mental 6 pack all the way!
Everyone keep fighting / leading - as others have mentioned, focused attention on nutrition and recovery - next 4 weeks are the real journey!
90 min Sun ride: http://www.strava.com/activities/203611475
Felt tired on this one and hit no Z3s after Sat run / bike excursion.
Mon Morning Hill strides w/ rain: http://www.strava.com/activities/204023205
Legs still fatigued this morning but hoping for recovery by tomorrow morning. Looking to get that Mon swim in at lunch!
Good luck this week all!!
Comments
@Betsy I agree with @Shaughn, fasting during long IM training shows impressive commitment. Achieving that kind of balance between competing priorities is remarkable - congratulations on getting it done.
Clark
This week I am traveling Mon-Thur, to Buffalo and then Dallas. I got in the Wed. bike today before I left and then will get in as much running as I can the rest of the week. I will try to locate a pool in buffalo to do the Thursday RR swim and I plan on taking Friday off to bike and complete the rest of the camp. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.
I didn't travel all of Sept. but now have to travel all of Oct. Question whether I will be able to get in enough training for AZ, but I have lots of time to make the decision.
Keep up the good work, only a few more weeks.....
@Rian - your runs always amaze me
@Shaughn & @Betsy - you guys always pull the best out any situation
Last week was a "bit" of a downer for me after the week before was so good(coming off my best 3000 swim followed by a great brick (4.5 hr Century & 10 mile run).
Monday I started the week with Dental surgery followed by 2 days of hydrocodone & no training & not being able to eat my normal food for the entire week.
Wednesday there was a weak attempt at some intervals and even my Quarq was not feeling good, and then, since there were forecasted storms for Thursday, I did my "long" run Wednesday afternoon. The long (SLOW) run was cut from 135 to 107 minutes for survival sake, as a ligament in the back of my knee became more and more painful.
Thursday ... licked my wounds from Wednesday "workouts"
Friday's swim was cut to 1500 as my left elbow became very painful.
Saturday I was then looking for something good to happen as I rolled out at 6:15 in the darkness for a 5 hour ride. All my normal training partners were out for a variety of reasons, but hooked up with a great regional triathlete for a few hours. Got in some long moderately paced sustained riding for a total time of 5:02 and called it SUCCESSFUL.
Sunday evening, did a 2 hour MTB with a few intervals ... but passed on my planned OWS.
This week should be better, except my left elbow is still a BIG question mark ...
@ Mary - make every effort to get one 5 hour bike and one 2-2.5 hour run each week in Oct, along with a set of intervals in bike and run. Swim what you can. Do that, and you will have no trouble completing the IM on Nov 16.
@ David Wonn - do you know what's going on with your elbow?
@ Betsy - Sandy Koufax would be proud of you.
@ KMFman - you;re a machine.
I;m starting my extreme taper. I did a 10 K "race" yesterday morning, a 22 minute swim today, maybe a half hour run @ lunch. No more than an hour a day Mon-Thurs, nothing on Friday, then RR#1 on Saturday, with an extra 3.5 hours of running (catered, too!)
You guys who run on Monday must be in the 'advanced' plan-i only have to swim on Mondays in the intermediate!
I am considering a campish weekend, but I can't get friday or monday off from work so will probably have to keep the long run on thursday. We have 72 mile Tour de Scottsdale on Sunday which I signed up for. So if I head out to the beeline saturday and do 4 loops with partial trip back to Tempe ( I never go west of the 101 except on race day) I can get 100 in, then follow up with the tour on sunday.
@Scott-you cheated more than me-I only had liquid calories (somehow if you don't chew it doesn't seem as bad, LOL)
As for the fasting, it wasn't as bad as you think. I will alert you guys when I make my post in the nutrition forum, 'are you fat adapted'. Ive turned rogue like John Whihrow and am not following the core diet routine anymore.
@ Al and Bruce-already jealous you are in Kona! Keep the pics coming! You looked great on FB Bruce!
@Mary-good luck with all the travels. Al's advice is sound
@Shaughn-I was really tired last week on my sunday 90 min ride and also hit NO z3s. it even carried over to wednesday where I barely hit 85% on my first 18'. I am really focusing on getting my 7 hours every night and letting stuff go to make that happen (like weight who tonite)
@David-take care of the elbow-
@ Betsy - Adv plan has an optional run on Monday but, you're really rolling the dice a bit if you go there and risking some recovery. I am trying to maintain current fitness level/speed and build durability on top. So far I am ok for the most part but had to drop the Friday run last week for a bit more recovery after that Thursday long run debacle. By Sat morning, I felt almost normal again (whatever that means for an IM in training on week 6). Running 6 days a week is a delicate balance if you are also going to hit the swims and bikes as written......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rFx6OFooCs
......"the inches we need are everywhere around us"...........
By Sat/Sun, I can assure you I will be scraping for those inches.............
Lunch swim yesterday: http://www.strava.com/activities/204139358
Morning 2X1s felt manageable: http://www.strava.com/activities/204397937
...but definitely tricking given the Monday run.
Long swim this afternoon if I am lucky.....
Happy Tuesday all!
SS
I had 24 guests at my house, 4 dozen bagels, 5 lbs of chopped liver, 1.5 lbs of egg salad, tuna & Whitefish salad, 3 types of cream cheese, swiss, meunster & american cheeses, sliced tomatoes and onions, two pounds of the best lox you can get anywhere and tons of cookies, cakes & apple strudel, shocking is that i really had some good portion control going! and sent all leftovers home with everyone except that i kept the awesome arugula quinoa salad my cousin made... Now back to our regular programming.
took yesterday off for an "emotional health day." woke up and did my long run (which I moved to Tuesdays) today, did a solid 18 averaging 8:24 which is faster than my LRP. Very happy with that, now trying to figure out how to do the back to back 6 hour rides as i have my kids on Friday Morning...
@Shaughn, I could never get the run in 6 days a week, wish I could tho
I overslept this am as I put iPhone alarm on pm-barely got a short run in with one of my two z4 miles. Then I'm dashing like a mad women, pressured not to be late for my 7am start in the OR, down Shea Blvd (wide 45mph) and start hitting every red light. Then I get pissed, start speeding, start changing lanes (ok, some weaving around slow pokes) and then I see lights. I tell the motorcycle cop I was speeding as I was afraid I was going to be late and now I was going to be even later, wasnt I? He said, speeding? I'm thinking of citing you for reckless driving and taking you to jail!! I pleaded no and he lecturered me thoroughly-trauma, accidents, my responsibility as a physician and rep of the hospitals, victim sees scrubs, $$$$, first call to their lawyer, and on and on. Made me wait to run the license check. Then,Let me off (no ticket) and told me to slow down and have a better day. You know you are an ironman when ......
Hoping to get the swim in tonite
Hope you all have a safer Tuesday than mine started out!
@Betsy: whew close call! We've all had those days. Hope yours goes better! I've definitely noticed my temper/patience is short these days == training fatigue I think.
@Scott
Drooling. Stop it.
@Shaughn: Dude HOW do you manage to get all those WKOs done?! You are a machine.
@Al and Bruce: Good Luck guys!!!! I really hope you both enjoy your time in Kona and especially Race Day! Cant wait to track the race.
Weekend report: Got 102mi done on Saturday in 5:18 with ~5000 ft of climbing. I like Joe bonked or cratered or whatever in the last 45-60minutes and was all I could do to keep rolling at 50-60%. Weird. Thats never happened to me before, but I wasn't riding as efficiently as I would have in an RR, so maybe I overdid it in the first 4 hours. I was hungry but not short on energy really, my legs however, had nothing left. Sunday went out for 2hrs and tried to hold 75% ~39mi: neck, shoulders, and glutes were super stiff and sore from Saturday.
Monday: I did my run, which was a red item oddly. ~45' total with 15' of hill work for 5.5 mi. Then tough swim at the pool -- 20x100s at CSS pace I held on to 1:30 pace through 17 and could barely lift my arms, so I called it at 17. Still sore from Saturday ride. ~3000yds total.
Heading out for 2x1mi @z4 run and another swim after work.
What is everyone pegging for their bike course estimate? I've got nothing to go on except for a wipeout at IM Wisconsin two years ago. It took my 7 hours to complete that bike course after they put humpty dumpty back together again.
My last few rides I've been averaging between 18 or 19 mph . I know that course in AZ is pretty easy, but the bike is my weakest sport. If I stay conservative and shoot for 18, that puts me at about a 6:15 bike split. Really?!
I dunno. My FTP is 247. Thinking I just dial things in at .7 IF for this first RR and see what happens.
3watts/kg and I'm about 18mph average. My first year I had 4min stop time to refuel, second year i learned to fill bottles without stopping. I've worked so hard this year in the bike and last FTP was 3.1 w/kg-my goal is 5:59. The ride up to shea is slight uphill which slows you down but you make it up on the return downhill. So you want to ride your .7 uphill so you can work and keep that .7 downhill -I find it's work to keep those watts the first few miles. And of course winds are always an unknown factor-very calm last Sunday on the beeline.
Hope this is helpful
Joe if you have a power meter ignore avg speed. You should be riding for mpg not mph! So worry about staying aero and riding smooth at 70% FTP. Keep your VI down below 1.02.
To give you an idea of times on the course though heres some data for you from my past 2 IMAZ rides
IMAZ 2012 FTP 235 IF.7 W/kg: 3.3 Time: 5:32
IMAZ 2013 FTP 260 IF.7 W/kg : 3.5 Time: 5:07
It will depend on how aero you are setup and can ride. I used a rear disk cover, aero helmet, and race tires on both rides with a bottle between my forearms and one mounted behind my seat.
If you're reasonably aero and hold .7 IF with low VI I'd think you could hit 5:20-5:25 range.
It was a lot more accurate for CDA, bike and overall time were right on the button. But I felt like I dogged CDA, and raced AZ.
My #s for bike AZ 2013 are... w/kg 3.3, @ FTP 218, wt 146 #and bike time about 5:40 @ an IF of 0.64. Important ... VI was about 1.025. This plus good aero position make all the difference.
@Al - Your VI always amazes me.
I appreciate the number the rest of you gave me. My watts per KG is 3.3. Based on that and the rest of your posts, I think I'm going to peg a 5:40 with a .69.
Did my bike intervals tonight and got the confidence boost that I needed. IF of 1.01 and .99 for my sets respectively. Tomorrow is my swim/run day. Morning will come fast!
Here's a great site for estimating and modeling bike times http://www.bestbikesplit.com The free account is enough to model one course with one bike setup. You can adjust all the numbers and re-run estimates as many times as you like.
I ran the numbers from my past 2 IMAZ performances and the model was within 8 minutes on each. Pretty darn good.
Heres a link to the model for this years race: http://www.bestbikesplit.com/public-race?r=9048 Based on the last two years I should be a little bit faster than this if I keep to 75% and low VI.
You can even download the power profile it generates for a course and put it on your garmin to have it tell you what power to ride and when. It'd be an interesting experiment, but Im not going to try it for IMAZ.
@ Joe - I will focus on arriving at a 285 TSS for the IMAZ bike leg which, depending on how long I am on the course will most likely be in the range of .72 - .74 IF with a fairly high (upper 3s w/kg) ratio......for me, going beyond 285 TSS on the bike, using an accurate FTP baseline, means I begin to roll the dice on my ability to stay focused and execute my run plan. More veteran IMs and very strong runners can get away with pushing past the 285 TSS ceiling......whereas less experienced peeps should consider padding that if possible.
As mentioned below, the lower the VI, the more Bang for the Buck you will get for that IF/TSS value.
Evening swim slog: http://www.strava.com/activities/204795203
Wed morning pain cave hell session: http://www.strava.com/activities/204795218
Run sometime later when I get a break hopefully.
Happy Hump Day all!
@Scott, yes they have a set of courses others have uploaded. I used one of the pre-existing IMAZ courses to run my numbers.
Hi peeps!
Evening heat run on noodle sticks: http://www.strava.com/activities/204999324
Today's Long swim: http://www.strava.com/activities/205371991
Swim was one of my best 4,200 yd TT with no wet suit. Slow but improvement for me. I'll take it!
I can tell Halloween is close because the next 3 days look somewhat terrifying
....... ....... day by day.....
SS
Tuesday and Wednesday workouts went well, felt solid.
Swim race rehearsal tonight went very well also. I do truly hate swimming race rehearsals in a 25 meter pool. I counted strokes for 160 lengths and then I wanted to poke my eye out. http://www.strava.com/activities/205426564
It's supposed to rain here tomorrow but at least it's warmer than it was last weekend.
Bring on the work!
So, 2hr 12 mi run last night as originally planned. Started very late (8:30 pm), painful, second hour z1.5 at best. Anticipated 1.5 hr swim this am got shortened to 45' due to late night so no 4k swim but it was my usual time per 100. I will try to put in the rest of the yards after work
Planning 100 mi+ Beeline ride tomorrow and 72mile Tour de Scottsdale race on Sunday
Have a great camp weekend all!
Hope everyones big day to day went well. Remember rest and recovery!!!
Had a my best swim ever last night, I wanted to get to the lake, but weather and daylight did not cooperate so I hit the pool. Wore my Desoto T1 pants and WOW did that make a difference! Cruised through 4200 in 1:04 as 4x1000 +200 sets averaging 1:32 / 100yd with short breaks between just long enough to drink perform and eat a shot block. Thats a 4 min PR over last years IMAZ and 6min PR over my last full distance pool swim. Best part was that I felt relaxed and smooth, and ready to do more, where usually I can barely lift my arms after even 3200. Really shows how important horizontal position is….and how bad mine must be...
I was really pumped for my RR today, after last nights swim, but it ended up as a fail. I had a strong first 3 hours targeting 75% of what I thought was my FTP, but right around 75 miles I hit the wall. Power dropped of considerably and by 84 miles (loop 3) I was done. Did the run fine, but was pretty discouraged about the ride. It may be a combination of factors: Perhaps a little too aggressive to start, perhaps too little to drink --> too little calories combined with perhaps an inaccurate FTP. So I guess I'm going to downgrade my FTP ~10 watts in the near term until I can do a test outside and scale back the IF to 70% and try to get the full ride done tomorrow. #Sigh# If my FTP has dropped that much I'm back to last years levels.
@betsy - I had a similar experience in my last long run. Tis the season. Next week will be better.
@rian - just reset and keep on keepin' on. You haven't had a taper.
Did my RR today and nailed.
.69 IF on the nose. Haven't checked my VI yet but I think I did ok. Run was easy peasey lemon squeezey as my six year old says.
So when I got home, said six year old threw a fit about dinner and proceeded to color on the piano! Then I headed to the store to grab something and backed into my sister- in-law's car! Put a decent ding in it, but thankfully didn't mess up my bike (which was still on the back of my car). Needless to say that Joe was not a fun guy to be around.
Another 112 tomorrow. Supposed to be 34 degrees when we start. Ugh!