Peter, again, total awesomeness. Further confirmation that fitness will not be your limiter on race day.
now the hard part -- getting ready to ignore the swim 100%. ignore mike reilly. ignore the clock. It means nothing and paying attention to it will have you doing all sorts of mental gymnastics to change your remaining race to account for it...all of which is bad. BAD!
Just execute your plan to T1 and focus on getting HR down, fluids in, and not crashing in the early miles. By mile 80 on the bike you will be in a pretty darn quiet place...and it will be time for you to show off your TT, smoothing the road skills and keeping the pressure on the pedals through T2 as you stay cool....then everybody enters your world on the run.
Thanks. I will do my best to tune out the swim results.
Quick question about swim tapering. I just capped my biggest swim volume week ever, 14k. Next week you outlined 6000 yards. If I look at the EN plan, each swim is only 1600 yards. I was thinking 3k on Monday, 2k on Wednesday, and then 1k shakeout at the venue? Is that reasonable, or should I taper even more? I really don't want to lose my feel for the water, today I crushed it. I did a RR in 1:09:48.
3/2/1 is fine...just capture (mentally) all the things you are doing right, right now so you have that in your head and can carry it into the race. That's 10x more important!
I did it! Not quite sub 10, but 10:12 is close enough!
Anyway, just wondering where to go from here. This week I am busy undoing 3 months of weight loss in a single week. I think if I submit my season planning survey to Rich he will punch me square in the nuts. I promised my wife I would take a break from triathlon after this race so I am going to become an ultra-runner for 2016. 2017 will be all about triathlon again.
Here is what I am doing in 2016: January: Avalon 50 miler April: Boston Marathon August: AC 100
For the Avalon 50 miler I was thinking about just following the EN ultra plan you made. For the Boston Marathon I am thinking of following the 12 week Pfitzinger 70 mile peak plan. For the AC 100 I am not sure exactly what I am going to do. I might just team up with locals who have done the race and pick their brain. It is a different animal.
Peter, 10:12, on wisconsin is definitely close enough. Especially when we consider your year. Pretty damn impressive. Time to update your forum signature! Nothing like 1 hour faster on a tougher course (CDA to WI).
Yes to the time off right now (you didn't ask) but about 2 weeks of no running is critical. You can do anything else, just please don't run right away.
Second, use this time to outline the 2-3 mobility / strength limiter you have around running, and make a plan to address them that lasts all year. Nothing too sexy, but if you are going to be "just a runner" and then run that long you are increasing your risk for basic injuries, etc. Since you are a former triathlete, you'll be used to training 3x as long, so just use that time well.
Good news for Avalon is that you are more than 1/2 way there for your training and you have ~ 4 months. Keep that in mind.
I wouldn't get too serious about a full run program until say 6 weeks post IM. So if this week is #1, next week is #2 no run. Then you have 4 weeks to build up -- through 10/26. So instead of going from 0 runs to 10 runs a week in one week, and like 10 hours of running, build it up.
Week 1 = 6 runs of 30'. Week 2 = 6 runs of 40'. You get the idea.
Might be best if you layout the plan and work backwards from your race day to "meet" the week of 10/26?
As for Boston, it would be a shorter "speed" block, but we can do that.
As for the 100, you are on your own, but I require you to stay inside EN and help me build up the ultrarunning resources on that one...
I spent those 2 weeks after IM getting fat and doing zero workouts. Returning to running is much harder than I thought. I feel like I lost a significant amount of fitness. I have built back up to 40 miles a week with a long run of 18 miles, but I just feel slow.
Have you ever quit cycling cold turkey to focus on running? I am just now starting to feel ok, but still a ways from where I was. My HR is through the roof. I think as a triathlete I could get by with high intensity low volume running because I had a large aerobic base from cycling which is now gone. I wonder what my weekly mileage needs to be to have the same aerobic fitness from just running.
I am going to 1 bike a week very shortly with lots and lots of running...you don't have any immediate bike needs, so I say just turn it off. That said a 40 mile week with an 18 mile run doesn't exactly suck (despite what you are thinking). I suggest that you plan on six weeks of run only work but no one run longer than 15...I'd rather you did 2 x 15 than 1 x 18...you don't need that just yet! Feel free to flesh out more of your season for me here if you want longer-term feedback!
I am signed up for a 50K on December 12th that I plan to use as a big training run for the Avalon 50 miler on January 9th. I feel like I do need to be running longer than 15 at this point.
Also, I am getting my long run in by running to work, which is 17.3 miles away in order to minimize family impact. I was planning on running a longer route and making it closer to 20 for tomorrow. Following the EN ultra plan would have me running 26 in a couple weeks. What do you think?
my apologies to you. I forgot about your writing goals for next season, and now I see them there in your signature. I'm okay with the runs, the important things to remember that the speed will come as it wants. Given what you did last year and the volume you are putting on your body now, we don't really have the luxury of forcing certain paces onto your body.
That said, you technically aren't following the ultra plan when you're running 17 miles week instead of the scheduled 13. If you are going to put more volume into the weekday workouts I suggest you reduce the weekend runs to compensate.
In other words, looking for the total run training load per week to be similar to what you see in the plan. If you are going to do more on Tuesday and Thursday and we should do less on Saturday and Sunday.
Again, I can't stress enough that you shouldn't worry about the speed – instead focus on great in one attrition and recovery. The running speed and feeling your legs will come around. It just takes time.
Comments
now the hard part -- getting ready to ignore the swim 100%. ignore mike reilly. ignore the clock. It means nothing and paying attention to it will have you doing all sorts of mental gymnastics to change your remaining race to account for it...all of which is bad. BAD!
Just execute your plan to T1 and focus on getting HR down, fluids in, and not crashing in the early miles. By mile 80 on the bike you will be in a pretty darn quiet place...and it will be time for you to show off your TT, smoothing the road skills and keeping the pressure on the pedals through T2 as you stay cool....then everybody enters your world on the run.
Quick question about swim tapering. I just capped my biggest swim volume week ever, 14k. Next week you outlined 6000 yards. If I look at the EN plan, each swim is only 1600 yards. I was thinking 3k on Monday, 2k on Wednesday, and then 1k shakeout at the venue? Is that reasonable, or should I taper even more? I really don't want to lose my feel for the water, today I crushed it. I did a RR in 1:09:48.
I did it! Not quite sub 10, but 10:12 is close enough!
Anyway, just wondering where to go from here. This week I am busy undoing 3 months of weight loss in a single week. I think if I submit my season planning survey to Rich he will punch me square in the nuts. I promised my wife I would take a break from triathlon after this race so I am going to become an ultra-runner for 2016. 2017 will be all about triathlon again.
Here is what I am doing in 2016:
January: Avalon 50 miler
April: Boston Marathon
August: AC 100
For the Avalon 50 miler I was thinking about just following the EN ultra plan you made. For the Boston Marathon I am thinking of following the 12 week Pfitzinger 70 mile peak plan. For the AC 100 I am not sure exactly what I am going to do. I might just team up with locals who have done the race and pick their brain. It is a different animal.
Anyway, thanks again for getting me sorted out!
Yes to the time off right now (you didn't ask) but about 2 weeks of no running is critical. You can do anything else, just please don't run right away.
Second, use this time to outline the 2-3 mobility / strength limiter you have around running, and make a plan to address them that lasts all year. Nothing too sexy, but if you are going to be "just a runner" and then run that long you are increasing your risk for basic injuries, etc. Since you are a former triathlete, you'll be used to training 3x as long, so just use that time well.
Good news for Avalon is that you are more than 1/2 way there for your training and you have ~ 4 months.
I wouldn't get too serious about a full run program until say 6 weeks post IM. So if this week is #1, next week is #2 no run. Then you have 4 weeks to build up -- through 10/26. So instead of going from 0 runs to 10 runs a week in one week, and like 10 hours of running, build it up.
Week 1 = 6 runs of 30'.
Week 2 = 6 runs of 40'.
You get the idea.
Might be best if you layout the plan and work backwards from your race day to "meet" the week of 10/26?
As for Boston, it would be a shorter "speed" block, but we can do that.
As for the 100, you are on your own, but I require you to stay inside EN and help me build up the ultrarunning resources on that one...
I spent those 2 weeks after IM getting fat and doing zero workouts. Returning to running is much harder than I thought. I feel like I lost a significant amount of fitness. I have built back up to 40 miles a week with a long run of 18 miles, but I just feel slow.
Have you ever quit cycling cold turkey to focus on running? I am just now starting to feel ok, but still a ways from where I was. My HR is through the roof. I think as a triathlete I could get by with high intensity low volume running because I had a large aerobic base from cycling which is now gone. I wonder what my weekly mileage needs to be to have the same aerobic fitness from just running.
I am signed up for a 50K on December 12th that I plan to use as a big training run for the Avalon 50 miler on January 9th. I feel like I do need to be running longer than 15 at this point.
Also, I am getting my long run in by running to work, which is 17.3 miles away in order to minimize family impact. I was planning on running a longer route and making it closer to 20 for tomorrow. Following the EN ultra plan would have me running 26 in a couple weeks. What do you think?
my apologies to you. I forgot about your writing goals for next season, and now I see them there in your signature. I'm okay with the runs, the important things to remember that the speed will come as it wants. Given what you did last year and the volume you are putting on your body now, we don't really have the luxury of forcing certain paces onto your body.
That said, you technically aren't following the ultra plan when you're running 17 miles week instead of the scheduled 13.
In other words, looking for the total run training load per week to be similar to what you see in the plan. If you are going to do more on Tuesday and Thursday and we should do less on Saturday and Sunday.
Again, I can't stress enough that you shouldn't worry about the speed – instead focus on great in one attrition and recovery. The running speed and feeling your legs will come around. It just takes time.