Week 19...getting close

MattAaronson

Man, this race is right around the corner. I'm starting to get psyched. My week 19 will be a bit non-traditional since I'll be traveling on business this week and then to Boston for my sister's wedding on Labor Day weekend. I take comfort in the fact that any workouts now are just "sharpening" and the core fitness is built already. My plan this week is "swim heavy and control calories":

- Monday (today): ride 75' (done), swim 4000

- Tuesday: run 45', swim 4000

- Wednesday: bike 60' if I can, swim 2000

- Thursday: bike 90', run 30'...last "big workout" and possibly my second last bike workout before the race due to travel and schedule issues

- Friday: travel to Boston

- Saturday: Swim 2500-3000 on a guest pass at sister's club

- Sunday, TBD, maybe a short run (wedding is Sunday evening)

- Monday / Labor day: travel back to Chicago with family in the early afternoon then in the evening start a business trip with flight to DC.........

Peter Noyes

Sounds good Matt.

I have entered all my remaining workouts in TrainingPeaks. Tomorrow is actually my peak. Today my CTL is exactly 130, tomorrow it will be 130.9 and then it will fall from there. On race day my TSB will be 28.4, and my CTL will have fallen 12 points down to 118. This week is all about swimming:

Monday: Swim 4000, run 3.6 miles. DONE
Tuesday: Swim 4000, run ~7 miles
Wednesday: Bike 60', run 15'
Thursday: Swim 2000, run 10 miles
Friday: Swim 4000
Saturday: Bike 120', run 15'
Sunday: Bike 60', run 15', and a practice OWS

The next two days are all about getting my bike completely ready, I take it to Tri Bike Transport on Wednesday. I am also doing last minute fine tuning to my race plan which I will post sometime this week. I am psyched for sure!

Scott Giljum

Glad all is going well for you guys. I know it is getting close because I have officially entered the state of "work, what work" as if I don't need a job. I also plan to swim a lot this next week and change with some fine tuning on the run and reduction on the bike volume. I was thinking about 20 or 25 miles, most at an easy pace with a few rides, one FTP the others race steady. My bigger focus is on rest and recovery and calorie management. The hay is in the barn, now it's time to lock it down!

Peter Noyes

I hear you about calorie management. As of today I am at race weight and my tri-suit fits. I want to keep it that way. It is tough going from eating 4000-5000 calories some days, to back down to 2000-2500. My wife bought me a case of gum to get through this. I want to invent a service to put people to sleep for 2 weeks and wake them up race morning.

rlh2000

Well, glad we are in taper because I need to pick up extra shifts at the hospital to afford these damn prescription sunglasses! I was thrilled with the EN Rudy Project discount on the actual frame. Slight jaw drop when the optometry place just gave me the quote for the lenses (Rudy Project can't make them strong enough for me). Bleh. Ok, vent over.

Looks like we are all trying to boost swim volume. Thoughts on how much swim taper you need?

I'm feeling a bit anxious after a run only week last week when out of town. A week off my bike seems like an eternity! I actually got home last night and petted the dog, the cat, and Penelope (my P2).

Peter Noyes

I don't think you really need a swim taper. I am going to swim 15-16k this week, and next week I will do 3 swims, Monday and Wednesday like usual, and then the recon swim at the event.

Coach Rich

This week:

• Swim, a lot
• I need to enter my workouts in TP and figure out plan/workouts to get to where I want to be on race day. I'm looking for 10-12% reduction in run CTL from now through race day, 8-10% on the bike, and I'm swimming hard and long right up until I get on the plan. 
• Last week was a bit less running than I wanted but a huge cycling week, with 785 TSS on the bike. I learned a lot in my 2x RR's this weekend, will share that in my RR thread. 
• I'm actually going to take the run up a tick from last week. Or, rather, I'm going with high frequency, lots of strides, some hill and downhill running, all in the heat, to make sure I retain my durability...but my legs are sore from the cycling weekend today so I'll start that tomorrow. 
• I also have to drop of Dino's bike (borrowing it for the race) tomorrow evening for TBT pickup so I have to do some crappy admin stuff, like setting up the wheelcover, installing tires and tubes, having the LBS install my Magic Unicorn Chain, packing a bag that I paid for them to transport, but have no idea what I'm putting in the bag, gotta take the bike and new tri suit out for a spin...just messy stuff like that. 

Rachael, with regards to swimming, just follow the workouts in the plan. The swim certainly needs much less of a taper than the bike and run, and I've written that into the plan. It's also an opportunity to earn the right to eat and not be hungry. That's what I'm doing, anyway 

MattAaronson

Posted By Coach Rich on 31 Aug 2015 04:43 PM

Rachael, with regards to swimming, just follow the workouts in the plan. The swim certainly needs much less of a taper than the bike and run, and I've written that into the plan. It's also an opportunity to earn the right to eat and not be hungry. That's what I'm doing, anyway 

I think this is great advice an important to keep in mind as we see posts from people swimming 5x/week 20k yards and whatnot. I was on a run today and thinking about my swimming and while it's tempting to follow some of these approaches I personally need to remind myself that ramping up to volume and frequency not previously done before is risky. For example, I've never done more than 4x swims/wk nor have I done more than 15k yards/wk nor have I ever done 4x consecutive swim days nor 3x consecutive days of >4k yds. So I won't do any of those things in my "taper" either. The last thing I want is some random shoulder injury from ramping up to never-before attempted volume. 

Lindsay Blumenshein

It's been a while since I've checked in! Wrapped up week 18 with my final RR up in Madison on Sunday. It was good for me from a confidence perspective to ride the loop a couple times and just know that I can make it up all those hills (albeit, slowly).

I took Monday off and did a short run last night. Now looking forward to getting in a few really solid swims this week .

also, oh man, am I tired! The last two nights I've crawled into bed around 9 and reluctantly crawled out around 6.

ejshimon

Great work everyone! I haven't checked-in in a while either. My training has been going well too. My RR was a little earlier last week, but hit the 112 and 1hr run with just a couple annoying aches and pains. My ART chiro cleaned up the issues, and I did the 2.75 hour/18 mile run without a problem. This week, I had to bump my Saturday long bike and brick run to this morning, due to work sched, and they both felt very good. My 3800M continuous swims have gone ok, with some minor tricep pains in the left arm, but still able to keep my 1:50-55/100M pace throughout. Will do 2 more swims this week, but monitoring the arm pain so not to turn it into a full fledged injury. Another long run and 1-2 hour bike to fill out the week. Only 1 pound over race weight, so really gotta keep calories in check. Thanks for the reminder Matt!  Good luck to all in taper-time!

rlh2000

Good confidence boost on my long swim tonight- felt I could hold form the whole time and didn't drastically slow down! I was on the phone with my mom this evening before I went to the pool. If anyone else has a Jewish mother, they understand that sometimes you just have to lie to quiet their worrying. "Of course I'm not biking to the pool in the dark.... Oh yeah, the pool definitely has life guards... No, no one creepy is there now..."

Getting close! I'm enjoying reading everyone's race plans. Looks like we have a fit and smart group!

MattAaronson

@ Rachel, what pool do you use?

My week 19 is almost over, workout-wise, as I'm now in the airport waiting for a flight to head to my sister's wedding in Boston which won't allow too many weekend workouts. I got in my Saturday ride last night on the trainer while watching some football, I ratcheted it back to 2-hours from the prescribed 2:30 but made it a strong effort with a 14' W/U followed by 60'(3') @IF 0.84 then 2x20'(3') @IF 0.80 and 0.84. The room was mid-70's and a lot of sweat was generated!! This workout followed an early-afternoon swim of 2000yd that also included a run to and from the pool 14' each way. So it was a pretty large workout day and for sure my last big day of the training.

In Boston this weekend I and researched an LCM pool ~1.5mi from my hotel so I hope to get in one swim and one run.

rlh2000

@Matt- LA Fitness either Streeterville if I'm going from work or the Ravenswood one on Lawrence Ave if from home. The Ravenswood one has some "interesting" people there after about 8:30pm... If I have a meeting up in Evanston I take advantage of it and get a swim in at the Northwestern pool.

Everyone- be safe on your last ride this weekend! Highest priority right now is to get to race day in one piece!

MattAaronson

Interesting. I use LA Fitness a lot in cities where I travel and the quality is, well, variable.

Coach Rich

Nice to be on the final weekend. Notes:

• Fri-Sun I'm doing ~30mi race pace ride (on road bike, tri bike is gone) + 4-5mi race pace brick + 3.5-4k swim. Lots of separation between the swim and the other stuff. I like the exercise of getting very comfortable and confident with race watts, HR at those watts, run HR and pace at that HR. 
• The swim has zero impact on my bike/run-specific recovery/taper and I'm getting strong and stronger with each swim. Probably going to bang out 4200y pull, SCY today because I want to do something different than swimming LCM at the Bowl.
• I was going to make a trip down to Long Beach to swim OWS but now don't feel like punching a 3hr admin hole for a 45' swim. I'll just do 1x OWS in Madison, in full race kit. 
• I've got my LoseIt! budget set to 2lb/wk and am knuckling down to continue through next Wed or Thurs. Lots of big, low cal smoothies and fruits, not really a chore because the swimming banks an good, non-impact 700cal per swim. I narrowly dodged a pizza that Joanne was about to order, went out for a salad instead .
• In the Fun Column, dropping the dirtbike in the back of the truck to take it to my guy to have it prep'd for 2 days of riding in the Paiute Mtns the weekend after the race. I haven't ridden this bike since Feb, last time before that was a trip down to Baja over Xmas. Also talking to some guys about a 5-9 day trip in AZ and UT in early October. Just fun to think and plan something other than this friggin' race and connect with about the only civilians / non-athletes in my life, other motorcyclists 

Peter Noyes

I had a great swim this morning. Did my final Race Rehearsal in 1:09:48, finally cracked 1:10! This week was my biggest swim volume of all time, 14.2k yards.

My tri bike is already on the way so I have to do the rest of my rides on road bike. I just got this InRide gadget for my Kurt Kinetic trainer which hopefully will give me some power numbers in line with my PowerTap.

Tomorrow I will do 2 hours on the trainer and a 15' brick run. Sunday will be 1 hour on the trainer with a 15' brick run. I have a family reunion down in Laguna Beach on Sunday so I might bring my wetsuit for an OWS. Otherwise, I might go down to Long Beach on Monday.

Next week will be very light obviously.

Monday swim either in Long Beach or at the pool
Tuesday will be an hour ride with 15' brick.
Wednesday will be a swim and easy run with some strides
Thursday is travel day so probably no workout
Friday will be the practice swim and then thats it!