Stephan Brunelle's Macro Thread
Hello Coach, thought I would start using this. I will have many more questions this summer about using organized bike rides with my training. For example, I wouldn't mind joining others for madison loop rides this summer, or other 50-100 mile rides around the state. I am fine riding a lone on long rides, but enjoy sponsored events sometimes as a way of making it different.
More immediately, I am thinking about the outseason here in Wisconsin. My OS ends Feb 22, you have me going into a swim camp, and then getting faster. You have mentioned the need for some kind of half marathon race at the end of OS. There are none here in this area at the end of February. End of March they start popping up and more in April.
I am signed up to do my third 5 mile winter run February 14th, Valentines day and will be able to compare my race to the same race from December, and January. IT is much harder racing outside here than on the treadmill where I have been doing most of my running this month. I have done some runs outside and will run today outside after my 90 minute bike. So the question: Should I still sign up for a half marathon in the midst of my get faster season. There is one March 28th nearby that would be fun to try, close and cheap. The first week in May is when there are lots of them, and then there is the Madison half at the end of may. In the past, I have ridden two loops of the Madison course on saturday and then raced the half on Sunday.
I also am fine with not running any half marathon races.
One other thought is to surprise my Mom and visit her on the weekend of March 7th in Davis California, and run the Lucky 7 run which has a 7 mile and a half marathon option. I've always wanted to run a race in my home town. Haven't done that yet. that would be at the end of the Swim Camp. Perhaps, that would give me a baseline for the get faster stuff or would that be too much to start that off?
Comments
Running half marathons, or any race distance for that matter, are great training and motivation tools. If you can work them in / you'll have fun doing it, great. If not, don't worry about it. Good luck!
So Toughman is your A race in route to your AAA race, which is Wisconsin. Not ideal to race 6d before an A-race HIM, but I can see how Toughman fits within the context of your season. If it were me and local trash talking was at stake, I'd probably race it but only the sprint, not the Oly.
I don't have any half ironman races scheduled after June 20th,
Is it ideal to have a half ironman race during the IM training, or would I be best served to stick to the training plan without any races in the summer and use my wonderful western wisconsin hills to train instead. I don't need to sign up for another race unless I bonk the toughman wisconsin on June 20th. It seems like your training plans will have longer bike rides at that point than 56 miles at high intensity found in the 70.3.
I was also wondering about Racine 70.3. I think that is in July some time.
Two more questions: Do you think I should sign up for some half marathons? There is one local race that I haven't done, but it starts with a 1 mile steep down hill and then is flat for the rest. It is in May. I'm a little worried about injuring myself running downhill for that long.
Swimming: Is it possible to join you for part of the IM WIsconsin training weekend as part of my training for Kentucky. I would love to get some eyes on me swimming at some point to give me some feedback on my form.
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Questions about changing from Get Faster to Half IM. I noticed that the way it is set up will put me on two weeks of testing.
How about i move over to HIM this week, and hit the training the next week as is in the HIM plan or some combination thereof? I wouldn't mind doing some longer distance riding next weekend.
That's fine and you certainly don't need to do two weeks of testing back to back. In general, if the plan has you scheduled for a test but you don't feel you need to / know what your training zone are, etc, it's fine to skip it and do an interval session instead.
So, I'm beginning to have second thoughts about Toughman Wisconsin, June 20th. for a couple reasons. If I were to drop out of that race, would it change my training plan for my A race in October?
1) The main thing that is bugging me right now is that it comes the weekend before my wife and I leave for Europe and it just feels stressful planning for the camping and race along with finishing up work related stuff on Friday and Monday around that weekend of June 20th.
2) I find myself more excited about the Trinona Oly race two weeks before on June 7th, and wouldn't mind doing back to back Oly's with the Got Energy Race on the 14th in my neighborhood.
3)I could then just focus on long bike riding Saturday and Sunday of June 20,21, before my trip around home and get some good mileage in and not worry about racing and fitting everything in.
I also am looking into the possibility of transferring to Toughman Minnesota July 26th if you think that date would work.
Another thought is to consider it a C race and just plan on having fun and using it as a training day. I don't know, I feel lost. Mostly just need to know how to train right now while I sort through this.
This is the way I'm leaning but haven't made up my mind. Do you have any thoughts about Half Ironman as part of training, Maybe I could do better by not doing one this year?
Your TSR:
Short answer is that if training and racing the June HIM sounds like fun, do it. If it's not / will create take place in the midst of a lot of admin stuff before your trip and would generally be a PITA, don't do it
. If this were to be a last minute call, you can stay in the HIM plan and you'll be more than ready for those two short course races.
Doing an HIM in July works with IMLou, no worries.
So next steps are for you to decide what you want to do and then communicate these changes to me via the Triathlon Season RoadMap tool, under the Training tab above, so I can plan this out for you. But there's no rush, from a coachy-coachy perspective.
Wanted to let you know that the TSR screencast for my new training plan doesn't seem to work. Thanks for putting the training plan for me together. Do you have a problem with me adding some bike volume to the weekends other than prescribed?
TSR working now, (On my MAC at least). Thanks.
No problem adding volume, but no need to go crazy. In my experience, the sweet spot is 3-3.hrs: a good distance within which you can accommodate a good amount of intensity, and you're off the bike and home by 10a. Much more repeatable distance that's easy to get done week after week.
Good luck!