Chris Davis 2015 Micro
Hey Coach.
After IMTX, I've had trouble getting back on the horse, but am finally going to race on Labor Day, which is about 12 days away. I'm signed up for an Oly. Quite honestly, I dont think I'm ready to really RACE an Oly at this point, so I'm considering changing to the sprint distance instead. Add on top of that, I'm coming off of a cold, so the sprint just seems more appealing. What are your thoughts on my final 12 days of prep? And do you think it would be better for me to stick with the OLY and trudge it out, or change to the sprint and enjoy it a little bit?
Thanks Coach!
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Load up the sprint plan to end on the race and light it up. Hope you've enjoyed the rest of your summer!!!
I'm really wanting to do a Marathon this spring. This is a bucket list item, and I dont plan to do a full IM in 2016, so I thought it
might be a good time.
I also dont want to miss out on the outseason. I haven't loaded up the outseason plan yet, but I'm planning on jumping in soon.
I pinged coach R in my macro, and he said I should ask you about hacking the outseason plan to gear up for a marathon in February or March.
What are your thoughts?
You can do the marathon, but not sure why you need to do the OS as well...unless you plan on sneaking in a HIM somewhere after I approve the marathon. I am on to you man. I say you pick the marathon plan and we hack in some biking...but you are more run focused (good for the long term). If you mean to run a marathon in March but then do an April HIM, then I need to rethink it. Can you give me more of a sense of your long-term timeline?
Thanks!
~ Coach P
So the long story is that Christina made me promise that 2016 was a "non long course" year, prior to her race in Florida. And then she went and threw a 14:01 time, in Florida and that :01 is KILLING her. The whole way back to TX she was re-negotiating. I think she's now aiming for IM Maryland, meaning I need to race early in the season, so that we're not both pulling too much time away from the family. I'm still not up for a full, but a 70.3 some time in late spring or early summer is definitely a possibility. I don't like to travel too far to race, so I'm looking at Galveston 70.3, but I may stretch and go for Chattanooga 70.3.
As for the Marathon, I'm looking at the Austin marathon, which is Feb 14.
I'm wanting to get into the OS because of the accountability. It definitely helps me to have others around me pounding the pavement and keeping me in check. Specifically, the biking portion of the OS would be great.
The long term is to aim for IMTX 2017, and dropping 4 hours off of my 2015 IMTX time. (OK, fine, I'll settle for 2 hour's off of 2015).
1 - Plan on an 11/30 OS start...call it Dec OS land of misfit toys or something...you won't be alone and can piggyback off NOVOS if needed.
2 - Between now and then just run daily, easy, for 45' to an hour. Just get run time in.
3 - When the OS starts, we commit you to a plan that looks like this:
Mon - OFF
Tues - FTP bike + run
Wed - Interval Run Day
Thu - VO2 bike + run
Fri - OFF
Sat - Long Run 1
Sun - Bike Warm Up + Long Run 2
That gets you two quality rides during the week and two good "stacked" weekend runs (surrounded by rest) that will get that long run up to speed. What say you?
Just to clarify, my weekdays are set up like the Outseason, and then my weekends are the Marathon plan? Or is there more to it than that?
Also, would there be any harm in me doing the bike warm up on Saturday, rather than Sunday? Sundays tend to be a bit tight with church and family stuff.
If I can convince Christina to let me do it, how much of a change would it be to change my focus to IMTX, along with a Feb 14 Marathon? This is 100% pure hypothetical. But the timing of IMTX is just about exactly when I'd really like to race (right before school's out, but enough time to train after Feb 14) and I hate traveling too far to race, so IMTX is a great race for me on a personal basis.
It’s not so much about changing your overall training as it would be a change in your training focus. We would have to consider your marathon as an early investment in your run training, and use the recovery window to build a swim and get some bike workouts in. You will have to trust your run fitness for the marathon experience as you will do significantly less run training over the final weeks into Texas.
With an eye towards Texas and now, I would recommend you consider keeping at least one bike workout week even if it's not hard. Simply doing the time will be helpful; call it one ride between 60 and 120 minutes, done steady for now. Will that work for you?
~ Coach P
Thank you for all your help on this. Sorry for being such a pain, especially since it's on a possibility, and nothing concrete yet.
I had the inklings of plantar fasciitis when we started this whole "marathon" conversation, but I thought I could fight it off, or maybe run through it. I'll say it again. I was wrong. So here I am, 6 weeks from my marathon, with the fitness to do it (I hit a half marathon PR in training a couple weeks ago), but a bum left foot. I'm not as dumb as I look, so I'm hanging up my hopes on the marathon (for now).
So I need some guidance here Coach P. I need to stay in run jail for a few weeks, but I gotta do something. Maybe a bike focus with some swimming? I got a cool swimming tempo trainer thing for Christmas, so I was thinking of pulling up Mike R's swim notes and start working on my form. If I do the bike focus plan, but swap in swimming instead of running, does that seem like a good plan?
As always, thank you Coach.
HNY!
My bike workouts have been spotty at best, but I've managed to get in a couple swim workouts each week over the past few, and am seeing some progress in the pool. I'm actually kinda pleased with swimming lately. I've dropped 5 seconds/100 yards off of my swim time, and am feeling much more comfortable with bilateral breathing. Last night's swim was 1:53/100 yards. If I get that down to 1:30/100 yards by this summer, I've promised myself a new 920. Any 20,000' elevation tips on dropping 23 seconds/100 on the swim?
On another front, I'm up about 10 lbs since the starting line at IMTX last year. So I've gotten in touch with Kim Eagle, and I start a diet on Monday (I gotta make it through the super bowl, I grew up with season tickets to the Broncos). I've always felt my IMTX weight was about 10 lbs higher than where it should have been, so my race weight will be about 10 lbs lower than my goal at the end of the diet. Does that sound reasonable?
Anyways, take care, and heal up.
+ Night splint...it helps.
+ Flex / activate foot when you wake up before getting out of bed.
+ Get ART or someone to beat up your calves. 90% of the time it starts in the calves (and even hammies).
+ Do eccentric heel raises...stand up on the edge of a step, going up both feet on it..then pick up good foot and slowly lower the bad one down into a full calf stretch. Good foot back on to go up....and repeat the bad foot lowering. Do this several times a day first with shoes then barefoot.
+ No zero drop shoes at all...you need a normal running shoe that has "regular" heel drop.
YES to swimming. It's hard for me to think up here at altitude, but my guess is body position is your number one enemy. Get the flippers on and do the kick on your side drill stuff to get used to having your hand/hip out of the water while you are relaxed and gliding on your side...let's get you hydro-dynamic!!
Food focus is goood...that's just making better choices. Harder to do when you aren't running by 2x more important. Try to fix the root cause....who's buying the bad stuff and how can you end that?
Will I see you / Christina when I come to TX?
On the shoes, I've been in Altra's for about 5 years, so calf soreness DUE TO ZERO DROP isn't an issue for me any more. I'm actually more concerned about my heel strike when I fatigue, and it seems that getting away from a zero drop shoe will worsen that, dont you think?
I like the calf raises, and the flexing before getting out of bed. Those are two that I haven't tried, and (especially the flexing) really helped this morning.
On the swimming front, about half of my time in the pool is spent on form, and you're right, that side swim with fins really helps me out.
On the food front, I'm the culprit. Nobody to blame but myself. Christina is a good cook, and willing to cook just about anything I ask (as long as it doesnt have mushrooms or olives), so it's just a matter of me putting focus on it.
And HECK YEAH you're gonna see us when you're here. I didn't even realize you guys were doing the camp this year until a few days ago. I'd hate to crash the party for the campers, but let us know what we're invited to, and we'd be happy to tag along. If nothing else, my office is across the street from transition now, so we can grab some coffee if you get into town early. Also, if you guys need ANY sort of support (sag, spare tire, tools bike pumps) just let me know, and I'll make it happen.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/11563797
The big change is starting at mile 86. There's a cutoff that'll take you back into town the same way you went out. You miss that portion of 1488 that is a lot of fun, where you can really gain some good speed/mojo coming back into town, but you'll miss the construction.