Rachel's 2015 Micro Thread
Hi Coach P,
Well, I just booked a flight to Orlando and put down a deposit- I'm in for the Clermont Camp! And yes, this means you get to destroy my legs twice this year- first in Florida and then at the Blue Ridge Camp! If my legs and bank account survive, I think I'll be coming out the other end way stronger!
So now what do I need to do during the OS to be ready for the camp in January? I'm excited!
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Just started the OS, after a week off after my half marathon. Feeling good, running is strong. Biking- I'm happy with where my power is at, but endurance is definitely lacking as I never did much of an IM build this year and haven't been biking much lately. I definitely want to be prepared to get the most out of the camp and not hate my bike on day 1, but all this will be happening on a trainer...
Here is my TSR.
I did see it, but it required more bandwidth that I had at the time so I had to wait. I think your season looks very reasonable, and it's nice to know that you're carrying a good amount of run fitness with you. That definitely opens the door to do some work on the bike.
I would like you to modify your week as follows:
#1. The Wednesday and Thursday bikes should always be an hour, at a minimum.
#2. The Saturday bike should always be between 90 minutes into hours. At least as big as we get started.
#3. I would like you to warm-up on the bike for about 45 minutes before your Sunday run. It can be my before the run, or can be in the morning before you eat your breakfast and the run. But it should be pretty close. Between all of those workouts you'll have a good amount of time on your legs.
And when we get to week six we can talk about doing more.
Training has been going really well lately. I'm going to family vacay for a week in Sarasota, FL in a couple weeks. It'll be week 7 of GF plan for me. I'm thinking of bringing my bike because who knows when I will consistently get to ride outside in Chicago. I don't think my family would be super psyched for me to be out on the bike all day every day (well, actually, maybe they would...) but I think I can easily get away for a couple hours most days, maybe a longer ride once or twice. Any tips on how to structure this? Not looking to destroy my legs, just enjoy riding in some sunshine and get some benefit from it. Thanks!
p.s. happy birthday! Get off my micro on your b-day! Go eat cake!
Ps I want pics!
It'll be what it'll be. Hoping this resolves and I can get through the season and then maybe address the actual issue, but if not, I'll just have to roll with it.
Anyways, looking for advice on shuffling my week around. Week 10 of intermediate IM plan. This Saturday won't be feasible for getting in the long ride schedulewise, but I can take Friday morning off work. I'm thinking Monday-Thursday following the plan, making sure to do the long run on Thurs in the morning, then Friday morning do a long bike, Saturday do Friday's run and swim, and Sunday another bike. My question is whether to do Sat or Sun's bike (Z2/2+ vs ABP) on Friday. They are 3.5 hrs and 3 hrs respectively so no real difference time wise. I'm kinda leaning towards doing Sunday's ride on Friday, since I might have more fatigue from Thurs run and I think Sat's ride is more important. Thoughts?
As for your week, I like the edit but i say just ride long / steady on Friday aster that long run (bonus if last hour is strong) then swim only Sat, then ABP on Sun. No run Sat to factor in some rest as we move week to week!!
The super woman who did January Volume Camp and the Blue Ridge Camp is worried about a missed weekend for fitness???!!!??!
It's official, you are Type A (in case there was doubt).
4 Weeks to go means 2 weeks of work, 2 to taper. This week you need a great long run and solid TT time at goal race effort with excellent nutrition. I would plan on two x 5 hour rides Sat and Sun if you can do it (outside). If weather won't cooperate, let me know. Friday is a Long swim; you can run short off of both weekend bikes...that's it...Monday swim only and back to plan.
You have done the work. At this point you will get more out of fine tuning pacing, strategy review, nutrition excellence, and mental focus / visualization!
Anywho, riding in rain is up to you. I don't mind rain if it's warm enough I don't freeze, and I have ridden in lightning as well (East Coast stuff is easy) but for me its the start. If I am out there and get caught, not bad. If I wake up and it's out there, I am on the trainer...
Maybe you end up splitting Out and In?
Anyways, a few schedule things coming up. I'm doing USAT Olympic Nats this coming Saturday (wk 15). Milwaukee is just 1.5 hrs away, so low admin costs- just one overnight. I am planning to just train right through it, but still wondering exactly what to do with my week. I was thinking I could try to get a longer (2.5ish hrs) ABP ride in on Wednesday, and the race would take the place of my FTP ride. Then ride long on Sunday. Thoughts?
Other thing on the horizon is that I will be in Italy for a work conference for all of week 18 (leaving Sunday of Week 17, back Sunday of Week 18). Not great timing, but beyond my control and hard to complain when it is a free trip to Italy. I'm thinking my last RR on that Saturday of Week 17 before I leave and doing good consistent running while I'm there. Option B would be to try to take that Monday off when I get back to do the RR then, but that seems like a bad idea with jet lag and all that. I'm going to do my best to be a training superstar for the next few weeks since that will be a hole in my schedule, especially biking. Thoughts?
Thanks P!
I say yes to midweek ABP, Sunday would just be a recreational long ride to keep that endurance up / practice fueling, etc. Anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on how you feel.
As for your work trip, I say use to RR on Week 17 before you go...maybe even a bigger bike week then? Then you can run more when away and then we go a bigger bike week when you are back.
So Week 17 could have FTP ride on Tues, longer ride on Wed, Long run on Thu, Friday swim, then RR ride...could be a 200 mile week for biking.
Then Week 18 would be in italy, I'd like to see 2 x 90' runs to replace the long run, other runs are 45' steady with some pick ups where appropriate. Maybe take some swim cords with you? What say you?
You suggested a bigger bike week when I get back. What would that look like? I'm worried about overdoing it since that should be the taper, but I also want all the bike fitness I can get. Does it not matter as much since this week is sorta a taper?
Last thing- I'm putting myself in major swimming bootcamp when I get back, since I have taken a very minimalist swimming approach since CDA. Any harm in swimming hard/high volume up til maybe Wednesday of race week? That would give me 10 days to push it.
Yes to swimming up a storm...no issues there with stress.
If at all possible I could see 2 x 2.5 hour rides this week, not hard, just time...to get re-energized without building too much fatigue...but if you do that (one mid week, one sat) then your long run shouldn't be much more than an hour total (think frequency here).
Feel free to lay something out or let me know if you need more!
Monday- bike FTP + swim (done)
Tuesday- Monday's run (Z4) + swim
Wednesday- bike 2 hrs (Z2?) + run 30 min + swim
Thurs- long run cut to 1 hr + swim
Friday- 40 min run + swim
Sat- 2.5 hr bike
Sun- swim
Thanks!
Please keep the nutrition / hydration up too!