My 2015 season, goals and initial thoughts on training approach
After a lot of thinking it looks like my 2015 triathlon season
is starting to take shape. It is somewhat different than how I expected it to
look but there are some powerful
influences at play:
- My family life is getting busier
- My wife's job will require a lot of travel in the first
half of this year, including a bunch of partial weekends for international
trips
- My work life is getting a LOT busier with a Q1 that is
shaping up to be utterly brutal
- I have a ton of things on the calendar from mid-May to
late June that will undermine any hardcore training build (e.g. a week vacation
to Africa followed by a week-long company meeting there, the Paris Airshow
(work event), my wife with a week-long overseas trip beginning the weekend of
the Sweden race, a weekend retreat for something I'm doing, stuff like that)
- My family's support for my endurance sports hobby is seriously
waning, and in particular weekends spent out-of-town at races are a big point
of contention
Interestingly I think the last point is a lot different from
many other folks' home situations. My family has little issue with the
training. As long as I'm home by 10:30am on a weekend morning and am able to be
operating at 110% with the family then we don't have a problem. But being gone
for a weekend to race is a major issue.
So where does that leave me?
Originally my plan was to have an "epic age-up
year" as I move into M4044. Despite qualifying for the Boston Marathon in
my first marathon I was going to skip it in favor of a double-down on triathlon…an
OS+swimming until March, the Long Course Worlds in Sweden in June, a half-iron
PR attempt in July and my first Ironman at IMWI in early September.
However, the above is just too much for me to handle at this
point. I need to retreat to the traditional EN "high-ROI" approach
for my training so swimming will fall by the wayside until the in-season (separate
post on that just made at the end of this thread: http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/16473/Default.aspx).
Training for the LC Worlds at the end of June given my and my wife's spring
calendars is virtually impossible. And the need to prioritize races to minimize
weekends away is mandatory.
Goal-wise, I also need to adjust. Based on my development stage
in triathlon I'm basically thinking like Dave T and Tim C, i.e. "what do I
need to do differently to get to the next level". The answer to that question
almost inevitably involves more volume. Not always explicitly, but there is a
lot of "adding" things to do and not a lot of removing. At this point
I think I'll need to make do with the time I'm currently allocating, plus some
longer Saturday rides. I'm completely comfortable with this approach. The
returns to higher fitness levels are at this point pretty marginal. Indeed those
higher levels are what I would need to make WTC podiums and set more PRs, but
on the other hand I'm still pretty damn competitive at my current level and am
110% positive I won't feel unfulfilled racing without something more than my
current training commitment proving the fuel.
With that preamble, my season and training approach is
"lean and mean"…
Jan 5 to April 12 – "OS"
- A run-heavy OS with serious run workouts and ~45-50mpw
(peak 60mpw). Running is just less time commitment and I can do it anywhere in the world.
- 3x bike workouts weekly following the OS progression but
if my travel schedule only affords me 2 then I'll take it. Goal is FTP of 4
watts/kg which frankly is about where I am now so I should be able to really
solidify this despite skewing my OS to running
April 12-26 – "Transition + race"
- Taper
- Boston Marathon April 20…goal is to do respectably but not
a PR – my next marathon PR attempt will have to target 2:4x and that won't be
happening with a "balanced training approach"
- Yes, the taper + recovery punches a hole in my season, but
as described above, the hole will get punched anyway in May/June so at least I
did a lot of fitness-building up to then
April 27-June 21 – "all about the bike"
- This is the no-man's land of my calendar, with all the
crazy commitments, etc.
- Start swimming
- Probably follow the half-iron or GF plan, to be discussed
with the coaches and where team input will be important when the springtime
comes. Some of it may depend on where my FTP is sitting and how much work I
feel I need to do on the bike. That said, I am very predisposed to a half-iron training
approach with long overdistance back-to-back rides on the weeks I'm able to do
that. I had huge success with this approach at the half-iron distance this year
and my 2:12 bike split at Steelhead is proof positive. I will think about that
ride a lot and all the 4.5+ hour training rides with Bruce Thompson that
facilitated it as I set that part of the plan. Bottom-line, this 2 month
period is "all about the bike"
- Depending on how consistent I was able to get and my
progress, possibly do the Pleasant Prairie Olympic-distance triathlon on June
21. Will require a commitment to be home by 11am but I think I can make that
happen!!
June 22-Sep 13 – "IMWI training build"
- This part of the summer is littered with vacation weeks at
a rental house in SW Michigan with perfect riding conditions
- Plan to really focus and take the 12-week training plan very
seriously
- No races until the main event
- EN camp on the IMWI course Jul 31-Aug 2 is already on my
calendar and family will come to Madison for that weekend
- Probably some other training sessions on the course (drive
up Friday night, ride early then home by early afternoon)
- Learn all about IM execution…something totally new…can't
wait for the challenge
Post-IMWI – "TBD"
- If IMWI is a fail for some reason like a flat or really bad
weather or I really botch the execution then I may pay the outrageous fee to
back-door into another ironman race
- Depending on my homefront situation, I may try to go out
to the LC Nationals on Sep 26 since the Worlds is in the US in 2016 and I still
really do want to do one of the ITU events as part of "Team USA"…based
on the competition at the LC Nationals this year I suspect I could finish top 25
even 2 weeks post-IMWI…
- Possibly the NYC marathon if my wife tries to lottery in
and is successful (I have met the time qualification standard so almost guaranteed
to get in)
So that's the current situation. Of course the best-laid
plans can get laid to waste in an instant as they did this year in week #1 of
the OS when I slipped on some ice and ended up in a boot with no workouts of
any sort for 8 weeks and therefore a DNS at 70.3 Florida. So you never know
what will happen. But this season taught me that I'm still young enough to
bounce back and salvage a season even when the training goes totally off the
expected path and there are setbacks. So I'll roll with the punches and make
the best of what I get.
Any comments from the team on my approach are of course
greatly valued. In particular, thoughts on the design of my "OS" would
be great as I put it together over the holidays.
Cheers,
Matt
Comments
Matt - it might not be what you were previously envisioning, but it is an ambitious plan nonetheless. Simply getting ready for and following thru on your first Ironman is enough to make this a big year. Your training strategy seems well focused on that. Don;t feel as if you have to add anything else on top of it, except for short, local races for fun.
From my perspective, I can not imagine being able to do in my 40's what I did in my 50s and onward regarding endurance sports. When I had loaded myself with peak career hours, and three kids ranging from infant to teenagers during the 90s, it was all I could do to get away every week or two for a day of mountain biking, or take a week's bike tour for vacation. Otherwise, it was all family or work, al the time. More power to you for the discipline required to fit all your priorities in, and recognize which ones top the list.
-the run volume build, and timing, stood out to me as an asset and a competitive advantage. I think there's specific capacity to easily get into the 60+ mpw neighborhood, but if I had absolute control, I would shelve the Boston Marathon plans and train like a half-marathoner. This would be a sustainable approach that would minimize the transition to the more balanced SBR work later on. Of course, we're in completely different zipcodes of run speed and it's laghable that I would give advice to you on exactly HOW to train like a half-marathoner, but I would default to Daniel's 5 to 15k plans, and augment them with a good amount of HMP work in the prescribed long run.
-The money will be on the June 22 -> forward period, and particularly throwing down longer rides, but being able to stay on plan week after week. I'm not just saying this as a throwaway ... I was something like 8 seasons with EN/Rich execution until I really started to deeply understand that "coaching," (and thus being self-coached) is about compliance with the plan. I'm not kidding when I say I have one post-it note above my computer that says "coaching is about compliance - doing everything to ensure (the) athlete will comply with the plan." It means sleep, hydration, fueling, recovery, and all the other stuff gets kicked up to a near-perfection level.
@ Matt...as we discussed over dinner before Christmas, I think this plan makes a lot of sense for you and your family. Clearly defined priorities: family, work, then two meaningful races (Boston & IMWI). Everything else goes by the wayside. I believe this plan will allow you to have a successful year racing, but more importantly, put family and work first.
I look forward to sharing some of the long weekend rides this summer with yoiu. I know they helped me immensely to get ready for IMMT last year. Thank you in advance for letting me hang on your wheel.
The only thing I don't like about your plan is you not being able to make it to Sweden for the LC Worlds. Of course that is totaly selfish on my part as I was really looking forward to hanging out with you at that race.
My increased running has certainly corresponded to a step-change in my triathlon runs. I am thinking along the lines you suggest in terms of training more like a half marathoner. I just bought the newly-released Pfitzinger "Faster Road Racing" book which is focused on distances up to the half marathon and am going to study those workouts a bit and maybe incorporate them. I will be racing a half marathon – the Rock n Roll DC half marathon on March 14 (it doesn't "count" for SAU purposes because I'm running it with a group of 20 colleagues and clients and I'd have to be there anyway even if I didn't run it). The Boston Marathon won't be shelved but as I mentioned I won't try for a PR and thus plan to do it on the back of my overall volume not a marathon-specific training plan with marathon-specific workouts. All that said, I think having a long run in the 2-hour range (~16-18 miles) consistently week-in and week-out will be key for any distance. In fact I'm not sure how you get to 60mpw without a run of ~18 miles unless you're running 10-milers almost every day (and then when do you do biking and how do you manage to hit bike workout targets?? fatigue management is a major question mark here). As for compliance to the plan, that has never been a problem for me as I get totally locked-in once I'm on a plan…motivation and day-to-day blahs and so forth haven't derailed me like they do for some many people…getting off the airplane and home at 9pm and getting on the bike is just a reality of how I operate when on the plan. On the other hand, work this year has the potential to screw me up a bit so I plan to be as consistent as I have historically but there may be a bit more than normal out of my control.
@ Bruce, I'm bummed about the LC Worlds too. I actually think it would have been awesome to get to that level of bike volume and endurance that far in advance of IMWI. Not doing that race puts a lot of pressure from late-June to IMWI to build the bike endurance.