Brian Boyl's Macro Thread
Coach,
First off, thanks for the trial period so that I can see if this works for me. Things are looking good so far!
I have a few questions about how to associate EN's training schedule with my training opportunities and restrictions:
1. I don't train on weekends because of family time (no saturday or sunday workouts).
2. Tuesdays and Thursdays are fantastic days for outdoor bricks: I could do up to three hour training sessions those days.
3. Currently Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are gym (indoor) days where I have access to treadmills, spin bikes, weights, and a pool. I can only do about a max of an hour and 45 minutes those days. These must be in the gym because of child care issues.
4. From December 15th to January 11th I will be on winter break (vacation). I might be able to get some running in, but consistent scheduled training sessions are not possible.
Given these, what would be the best way to map your Monday through Sunday training to my Monday through Friday schedule?
Secondly, what would be the best strategy for dealing with my winter break in terms of your OS training?
Thanks so much in advance for your help!
Brian.
Comments
Here's my big picture thinking in terms of my effort:
Monday: Medium
Tuesday: Hard
Wednesday: Light
Thursday: Hard
Friday: Medium
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
An approach to how to arrange the training for a particular week would be something like this:
Monday: Easy bike done on a spin bike (45') + a tempo or TT run on the TM (45')
Tuesday: Intense bike (60' to 90') + outdoor run (60')
Wednesday: Either easy run (on a TM, 60') OR easy bike (on a spin bike, 60') + Core work
Thursday: Intense bike (60') or a TT bike + a long outdoor run (60' to 90')
Friday: Interval work on the TM (45' to 60')
Saturday: Core work
Sunday: Off
How does this sound?
All looks good with the following notes:
-> Run first, and then bike? Wow, interesting! What's the theory behind that? (I've just been practicing my run strength off the bike - which was my achilles heel this season)
-> Can't do weekend sessions. Would love to, but tried it before and it causes too much family stress, no matter what time. I know it's not ideal, but gotta squeeze things in on weekdays.
I'm thinking wednesdays are very light making it kind of a recovery day. Does that make any sense?
Some reading for you:
Bricks are more valuable for short course athletes (you) but should be viewed as a race prep phase activity -- something you do much closer to your races so you can get better at running quickly off a hard bike. But until then, you don't need to do bricks. Every 4 mile brick run you do is a faster paced, 6 mile, on fresher legs with better form, non-brick run that you didn't do.
I have three days where I double up bike and run. Because my training window is only two or three hours in the morning (at least for now) these will almost invariably result in bricks, normal or reversed. Would it be better that I turn one of these days into a more focused run, another into a more focused bike, and possibly leave the third double as it is? Something more like:
Mon - Spin Bike
Tues - Long Run (outdoors)
Wed - Spin Bike (light)
Thurs - Run/Bike or Bike/Run
Fri - TM Run
Giving 3 runs and 3 bikes a week with only one double day.
Your proposed bikes have changed from intervals, etc to "spin bike." What does that mean, what are you doing on those?
I have to do indoor (gym) workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays because they watch my kid while I'm training. The spin (stationary) bikes are top of the line with power meters so I can do any kind of power workout on them. However, I have access to them only when there is a class. Their last class is at 9:30 for an hour, and that's the earliest I can get out of the house (with kid).
So bottom line is I can do any kind of bike workout on them, as long as it's first, and is around 60 minutes. Intervals, TT, pseudo-hills, etc.
Hold off on commenting on the above: I spent quality time going over next week's plan and how it could fit with my schedule. By moving things around it seems to fit very nicely into a
Monday: Medium Effort with bike and run
Tuesday: Hard Effort with bike and run
Wednesday: Very Light run
Thursday: Hard Effort bike and run
Friday: Medium to light effort run
Saturday & Sunday: Off
type of schedule. The runs and bikes can be switched around like you've been suggesting. I don't have to go into all the gruesome details unless you want me to but there are two things I'm considering:
1. I might go with the Advanced Plan, even though I selected the intermediate when I signed up: At that time I was asked about my Ironman fitness but since I've never done one I thought it presumptuous that I rank myself as advanced with that metric. However I am an All American in the sprint and olympic distances, so maybe intermediate wasn't correct.
2. I might play around with my Wednesdays either having a light run, or no leg work at all to see which is better.
Thx!
Brian.
Your schedule above is good and I think you're fine to use the ADV vs INT training plan. Good luck!
NOS is coming to a close and I'm starting to focus on race training season. Previously I thought I would fall off the NOS plan towards the end of December when my vacation hit, but I was able to maintain a pretty good approximation of the NOS throughout, with some adjustments due to travel, work, and some sick days. Def in better shape now with my run and bike than I've ever been at this point in the year! Thanks!
I'm focusing on short distances this year (mainly sprints). My "A" Race for spring was going to be the first race in the LA Tri Series (500M swim/23K bike/5k run), but they upped the schedule a month so that it's on March 8th. I think a better "A" race in terms of timing will be the second race in the LA Tri Series, on April 19th (1k swim/27k bike/8k run) which will give me more training time. I can train fairly consistently from now until 4/19, but right after that I'm on vacation again earning SAU points (i.e. bad training time).
I'm thinking of doing both races, but have the second be my "A". My later season "A" race will be the Sprint National Championships in August.
Question 1: You mentioned I should roll off of NOS into GF to prep for my upcoming (sprint) race. Does that still make sense or do you have another suggestion?
Question 2: NOS ends with a run and bike TT, GF starts with a run and bike TT. Seems to make sense that I just do one TT week instead of two. If so, which would be better for me to do? NOS wk14 or GF wk1?
Question 3: I may have two or three weeks of unscheduled training at the end of GF (week 8) and my 4/19 race. What should I do during those weeks, or should I push back entry into GF for a couple of weeks, or ?
Thx!
Don't know if you saw it, but I posted a new TSR last week for you to provide a formal plan. I time trialed the GF last week (1st week) and am starting the second week in GF this week. Dunno if GF still works, but that's what I've been doing based on what you've said previously.