William's micro, 2015 flavor
Patrick-
Although I haven't figured out my 2015 race schedule yet, I've decided to start with the Nov OS. (I have a general plan that I'd like to do a spring 70.3 if I can work it out.)
This start time does mean, however, that I have some weeks where I could earn significant SAUs and DAUs if I take the Saturday off instead of the Friday. Just the vagaries of Olivia's activities.
On those weeks where I need to take Saturday as my rest day, I'm wondering what you think of the week hack I need to do...I would like to keep it simple, because I may or may not know until mid-week. My current thought is that I would do the basic week as given until Thursday, and then do the Sunday Run on Friday. A 90 min run shouldn't be a big problem to fit in. Then Saturday off, and Sunday do the Saturday workout, which is generally the longest/hardest one of the week if I recall. My logic is (a) it's easier to fit in a single workout on Friday than a brick or double; (2) Thursday is a moderately hard bike/brick, and better to run after a hard bike than hit the bike immediately again with the hardest work out of the week.
Any other brilliant ideas?
Comments
I started with NOS, which means I am currently in Week 8. For about a week that will correspond roughly with Week 10, I will need to travel to see family in California. (My Dad's 80th birthday is coming up.) I'll probably be able to get in a fair number of roughly hour-long runs, but it's hard to say for sure.
I've had two thoughts:
1) embrace the "rest"...take a down week of some runs with some moderate speed, but just go with the flow and come back the next week and finish the OS a week late, having had a break.
2) Hack the OS week by doing about 3.5 quality runs, maintaining the 5 day/week schedule. (Thoughts on what that would mean are welcome)
What are your thoughts?
I personally would go, have a goal of something everyday but keep it simple outside of one longish run and then be recharged when you get back!
Run I've been working on, and we'll see how it goes, but I'm not sure how much progress I've made. Hoping to go sub-20:00 in test tomorrow.
Probably a good opportunity to do some simple but solid run work.
Thanks for being a good sounding board.
i did pretty much hit right on 20 minutes today on my 5K. I kind of wonder if age is finally catching up to me. I am pretty sure I can get some faster, but a few years ago I was more like 19:30.
You may know that I started the OS in November because I needed some structure (family life....) and had been done since mid September. Additionally, I wanted to keep open the options of doing a very early season race (at least very early for those of us in Iowa). The way things have broken, it appears that I'm going to do a season with 2 A-races, both of the HIM flavor. The first will not be as early as I had originally planned. Depending on whether my son, who is attending UNC Chapel Hill, stays there for the summer or comes home, I will either do the Raleigh 70.3 May 31 or a non-WTC HIM in Minnesota on June 13. I should know that within a month.
I am going off the OS after this week, like all the other NOS people. I've been doing some swimming, more or less as per the last few weeks of the OS and to keep me sane. (I just like a bit of swimming in my life, I guess.) Anyway, with the residual fatigue and soreness I've built up, I figure that next week I will do nothing but swim with nothing more than maybe one easy spin and one easy run.
That leaves me 16-18 weeks before the first A-race and 6-8 weeks before riding a bike outside is consistently plausible. Certainly, I have time for a 6-8 week block before I have to worry too much about the HIM, and I want to see what you think about an experiment I want to try.
Whatever you want to say about last year and its ups and downs, my bike strategy at least sort of worked...i "adopted" my FTP early (shortly after Tim's death) and then did all my work to make sure that it was legit all the way out to the distance I was going to race....rather than trying to build it higher. The "filling out of the curve" gave me not the fastest bike split ever at IMWI, but it was in the neighborhood and I was sure in the best condition for the run that I had ever been.
You have to know that I'm That Guy who tests higher indoors than he does outdoors...so my last FTP test of 255 does not portend to necessarily that high when I go outside. I have never done a HIM above 190 W actual, and most of them around 175-180...even though overall I can go under 5 hours on a cool day and medium course or any day on a fast course. For argument's sake, I want to posit that I want to be able to go 200 W (corresponding to a ~250 real FTP) and still run well.
So here's my thought: For the next 6-8 week block, I'm thinking about doing more or less your "get faster" block, but instead of the relatively shorter FTP bike work right at my maximal FTP, I am thinking of working up to consistently ~60 minutes at 250 W or maybe even a little longer. Perhaps 2 rides of the 80-90 min total time range with up to 70 min near 250, and one longer ride with a long 85-90% segment and maybe a bit of 110-120%. My point is that I want to be as sure as I can that this 250 W FTP is absolutely rock solid to the 60-90 minute range rather than worrying more about squeezing 3-5 more watts out of a 20 minute test.
Please let me know your thoughts.
1) if your FTP is 255 now, what makes you think you can ride 60' at it (or 70') ina single ride. That's way different than 2x20...at the very least I would suggest aiming for 60' total but in a broken up way with a few short breaks -- 6 x 10' (2').
2) given you have 6 more weeks until "legitimate" fill in the right time (like last year) I am not sure why you want to start this process now?
As you probably know, I am a fan of the 110% work. So take the 255 and head north to 280 and let's ride some 4' and 5' intervals there. Shake things up.
In my mind the longer you play the tri game, the easier it is to fill in the right over short periods...but it's harder to raise the numbers, and this is the time of year to do it.
That said, it has to be a "challenge" or something engaging for you, otherwise half the fun is lost.
For ships and wiggles, why not swim Mon/Wed/Fri, do the 110% on Tues /Thurs with short 30' runs after (or same day). Sat is your longer FTP session (walk in park after staring at 280) and then Sunday is a quality long run.
William, as always great to hear from you and thanks for all the details. I will try to be brief:
And, as usual I was too long and wordy, and thus unclear in parts.
1) if your FTP is 255 now, what makes you think you can ride 60' at it (or 70') ina single ride. That's way different than 2x20...at the very least I would suggest aiming for 60' total but in a broken up way with a few short breaks -- 6 x 10' (2').
Actually, that's what I meant. I was short-handing a 6 x 10' as "60 min FTP workout" in the same way I would call some of the OS workouts 45-50 minute FTP workouts. Sorry.
In theory, you can improve from a given level of 2 x 20 fitness either by doing the same 2 x 20 at higher watts (the traditional way) or by being able to do the same watts for longer than 2 x 20. I was thinking about playing with the latter.
2) given you have 6 more weeks until "legitimate" fill in the right time (like last year) I am not sure why you want to start this process now?
Fair question. (a) Since I've been in EN, I've not had this kind of gap before my first race before. I've either done Boston (twice) or done the JOS instead of NOS. (b) I am an experimentalist by trade and nature. :-) (c) Given my attempt at hard headed analysis of past years' results (slightly disappointing bike power, compared to FTP testing), I was looking for an alternative approach to just doing more OS. (d) I think there is truth to the idea that changing workouts over time is required to avoid plateaus.
Of course, just because I was playing with an idea doesn't mean I was right. I pay you to tell me I'm full of crap.
Obviously I should pay you more. :-)
As you probably know, I am a fan of the 110% work. So take the 255 and head north to 280 and let's ride some 4' and 5' intervals there. Shake things up.
OK, fair enough.
In my mind the longer you play the tri game, the easier it is to fill in the right over short periods...but it's harder to raise the numbers, and this is the time of year to do it. That said, it has to be a "challenge" or something engaging for you, otherwise half the fun is lost.
I hope the former part is true. I'm sure it probably is.
Without rehashing too much, Tim's death last year changed me physiologically for a time. I am absolutely convinced there were endocrine/homronal effects from stress that limited my high end. That has long ago tailed out, but I still get waves of it when something happens. Hitting 50, I'm also not sure whether some of this is age, too. This made me worry that my high end FTP will be much harder to raise... so having hit roughly the FTP I expected to get to, I was thinking of alternates to raising the high end.
But perhaps, as you imply, I'm simply not being optimistic enough and should anticipate improvements. :-)
For ships and wiggles, why not swim Mon/Wed/Fri, do the 110% on Tues /Thurs with short 30' runs after (or same day). Sat is your longer FTP session (walk in park after staring at 280) and then Sunday is a quality long run.
I can give this a go. I had been thinking 2 FTP and 1 110%, but I'm certainly willing to give this a try;
It is also something I haven't done before....so I still get to experiment. :-)
Thanks as always for your help and for putting up with me.
Even when the FTP falls it falls for your AG, relatively speaking, so being able to hold a number for longer is critical. Not a problem to do that but I think that work is well suited for the final race weeks, not thus early in the season.
First...happy birthday a couple days late. :-)
Second, a brief update: Best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry. I know that's the not the original quote, but it's approximately as accurate as my training has been since this exchange. Right general idea, but execution not perfect. I've been able to keep up generally, but caught a lingering cold that really interfered with things for a while and am now about to travel for a week. So, I've not really been able to give this the perfect trial it deserves. I've got a couple of other issues I'll hit you up on in another forum.
I am still optimistic for a good season upcoming. Just hit a bump in the road. Better now than right before a race. :-)
Glad to hear you've been pretty much on point...have a good trip!