Want to touch base with you for next week. Next week is final OS test week and I am going to NYC Wednesday after dinner and we are staying there until next Monday.
As such, I need to play around with my schedule and here is what I was thinking to do
Monday: the final run test - will go for the bi-weekly half Tuesday: rest or 30' swim, dunno yet Wednesday: final bike FTP test Thursday: 30' run Friday: 30'-45' run Saturday: rest Sunday: 30'-45' run
what you think ? should I reverse Monday to Wednesday ? I have rest day schedule on Sunday
Since its a family out of town, I can't go longer than an hour without burning SUA.. We will walk alot.
@Francis Picard - your plan is perfect. You will need a good warm-up for Wednesday, So plan on at least 20 minutes of easy spinning.
In fact, I would recommend that you skip the video to part of the test, After a few pickups let's have you dive right into the 20 minute interval. That should be enough to accommodate the fact that you have shuffled the entire week!!!
The whole point of this week is to test and then rest, so once the testing is done, just keep the fire burning so the calories don't pile on as the exercise dwindles!!!
Hey Patrick, hope you enjoy the bike at BRC with the cool kids.
Planning on next week, which will be week 13 of the advanced HIM plan.
3 questions:
Saturday ride is 240', is that normal to riding that long during the HIM build ? As you know, my avg time at HIM MT is about 2H40-2h40 with a goal to get to 2H30 as we already discussed. I have no problems riding that long since I am also racing IMMT in mid August.. which will be in 17 weeks!
Based on our discussions regarding the miles intervals, do you want me to do those on the split run or during the Threshold Tuesday run ?
Split long runs are 120', which will give about 26KM total run on that day, is that ok/normal ?
Went on my first outside ride today. There is a 20KM TT segment to which I PR by 2 minutes ! I'll take it
@Francis Picard - I will have Coach Rich get back to you on the bike workout; sounds like a mistake to me (riding longer is okay, but not required). As I mentioned on our call, I'd rather have more Z3 time than "ride long time."
The miles intervals should be on the split run. I'd keep it to now more than 13 miles total...no need to run THAT long right now.
~ Coach P
Ps - that's a GREAT JOB on the ride...really bodes well for the remainder of your season!
Really where I wanna be before entering the last 4 weeks of training before MT70.3.. but what sucks is that I am pretty sure I will not be able to hit those times in the OWS.. I am probably one of the few that cant swim well in the OWS with a Wetsuit when its suppose to help.. anyway, lets stay positive and keep working, maybe if I can drop to 1:25/100M, that could translate to a 1:35/100, which I'll take it.
I went on the 24K bike TT road that we have here in Montreal where only bikes can ride.. so its safe to go fast etc. I am really surprised of my biking at the moment, I really feel stronger and all those PR on the TT section means it, just got keep working hard on the trainer.
I pushed hard on the last 25k where I was trying to stay over 40KM/h.. I wanna to destroy my legs for the run.
Nothing much here to say other that I am happy to be able to hit the pace Patrick wants me to have on race day. -Today I even went 3 seconds/km faster that the targeted..
Will have to think about my strategy, does :
1) I can push harder the last 40k instead of the last 25k on the bike 2) I can go harder on the run ?
1. on the swim, it's worthwhile doing some reading about open water swimming. If the fitness is there, it's just that your technique changes in the open water. It could be that you say too much or that you're not balanced and the water when you're in a wetsuit. Whatever it might be, don't assume that it's necessarily working harder to get faster. Sounds like there's just a disconnect between the two styles.
2 - your bike is fantastic right now. I literally have no changes, it's great to see all the hard work you put together in the winter coming to fruition.
3. the run is nice and steady, just the way you wanted to be. I'm very please with it for this time of year I'm watching to keep rolling with that.
I think your question is a very astute one. Honestly, with a race this early in the season I would prefer that you choose the more conservative bike option. That is, that you push the last 25K of the bike and then run well. The only adjustment I would make to that plan is if you pinky promise that when you pushed the last 40 K of the bike, you would not push the uphills.
Giving you room to 40 K means a larger percentage of the course is within your target range. But I do not want you riding up big steep hills in your giant chain ring crushing yourself trying to get two seconds. I would rather that you continue to ride smart, steady effort and really pushing your power through the top of the hill to have a fast and smart descent, ideally rolling over the next hill.
Your comments on the swim that doesnt need more hard work makes sense. You are maybe right that my skills in the pool are complety different compare to the OWS.. anyway races are not won in the swim !
As going hard on the bike at MT, I think the 117 section might be the place to push harder, the 117 section is 47km.
As for the hills, I gotta stay focus on the PM and stick to the numbers. It's so easy to burn matches on that.
Until race day, I have one big IM training day, (which I think is a 4hrs ride), I might give a try to this strategy and see how the run goes, that would give me confidence for race day.
Food for thoughts.. but I think that for "me" doing more work on the trainer helps since I cant coast or no hills and cant cheap with traineroad compare to being outside where you dont see graphs showing you are under power.. starting to think I am lazy when riding outside hah.. Was thinking to only ride outside for the RR and big training days and stay on the trainer for the other wkouts.
Have a good feeling for this year which is the prelude for the all in 2018 !
@Francis Picard - I agree with you I'm challenging yourself on 117. Consider the climbs to simply be a no passing zone, where your job is just to keep your power and your heart rate is tightly locked as possible. The better you get at that the more bandwidth you have for the run, which is huge.
Think about it this way. Things get kind of hard on the run around mile seven, and really hard at mile 10 or 11. But if you have more bandwidth from a better executed bike, those miles become easier. You're kind of hard doesn't happen until mile eight or 8 1/2, and the really hard doesn't happen until mile 12. That gives you the opportunity to run faster and bring those suffer points back to normal and earlier in the run.
that is where your race will be made. Don't judge yourself on the bike split, see how well you perform on the back half of that run!
There is a big training day during week 11, should I stick to whats in the IM plan or should do another HIM RR - my feelings are I should stick to the IM plan.
Will also post here on how to hack the HIM taper week.
On another hand:
I really start to feel that my actual FTP setting at 265 is starting to be low.. should I do another test or just jump by another 5watts (last FTP test was 259 but you suggested to raise to 265).
The ideas I had are:
1) increase for threshold trainings the FTP to 275 and see how it goes, and have long rides setup at a 270 FTP 2) Only work with a 270 setting 3) Be stupid crazy and try at 275.
Updates 1) on the swim, still at the same pace in the pool, first OWS will be the HIM race week end on June 22, cant do it before, I am not exactly following the plan with the 3x swim/week, at the moment I think that only twice a week (Monday and Wednesday) is enough - let me know if you agree
2) Run, still progressing long run, last week my long run was 5X1M @ z5 that translated to 17.5M in 2h05, felt a big tired on the legs this week, so skipped the long with 8X1M, will increase it this week on the first portion of the split run.. that should be interesting
@Francis Picard - thank you for the update! Here's what I think you should do:
#1. Yes I think you should do the big day for the Iron Man, that's what's most important.
#2. Yes you can bump up your FTP to 275. At the end of the day it's literally a 1.5% difference… I don't think anything terrible happen to you! Let's find out.
#3. Any chance you can get to the pool three times a week for the week of the 6/12 and 6/19? I would be OK with using on one session in there just to get a little more frequency in the pool. Let me know.
#4. You can keep pushing the run for now, but once we get through the half, it's time to do all the pieces back a bit and be a little more "boring" with the run training. Bye then your fatigue will be high and it will be time to focus more on execution then high intensity within long volume runs.
@Coach Patrick Today I went off the training program and did a 70.3 RR with a friend (will take rest of the week easy to rest for Friday big day and long run on Saturday before entering race week for MT 70.3
did an OWS today... and it was bad as I expected !! I am really not a good swimmer in a lake, have no idea why.. maybe because I am mentally convinced that I am a bad OWS swimmer.
The bike ride went well considering the huge wind and the heat that just started (it was 95F at peak today) IF : 0.8 VI 1:03 and really push the section that looks like the 117 in MT (you can see it in strava KM24 to KM48)
This ride has is steeper than MT (about 250M on the 70.3 bike leg), so I am really glad with my avg speed of 30KM/H, including lights, stops and climbs
Starting to be confident on the downhills and in my bike overall, I guess that why EN says that year 2 is all on the bike!!
The run.. we didnt plan accordingly the water/liquid as such we ran without water and it was really hot.. not a brillant idea but we were going for 6M.
Happy in those conditions about my run but didnt wanna push to go 7:00/mile and risk on the recovery for that day.
Tuesday : 2700M swim (the Monday's swim) Wednesday : threshold bike (10', 15' and 3X5') followed by a brick Tuesday : easy run Friday : week 11 big day Saturday : big run, will go for 100' run since can't do the split run before and want to have a final push before entering taper week Sunday : easy run
as for taper week - 6/19 - what do you suggest ? do IM adv week 12 without the big wkouts (Long rides and long run) ?
@Francis Picard - nothing wrong by deviating from the plan and then doing a race rehearsal. If that is your version of breaking the rules, I approve it. :-)
Your Ride and Run lol great. I'm excited to see what you can do on that course given your fitness and precision at executing. The X factor will remain the heat, so be sure to plan ahead with your hydration practice so you are ready for anything on race day.
Your plan for the week looks great. My only edits are the nutrition I mentioned above and taking off Sunday. No need for you to work out that day, please sleep in and recover.
How you handle that final week is really up to you. If you're excited about tearing it up, I see you use the last week of the half plan to get a proper taper. I honestly think you've been doing enough work that you would be fine. If you want to include some of the normal Iron Man workouts, we could be jeopardizing your race performance. 100% up to you, let me know.
I meant to say LOOKED great not LOL. I think I was driving to Placid camp...only so many skills. That CTL is quit high. Feel free to enjoy a step down / the 70.3 taper week!
Goal achieved this week ! finally unlocked the sub 5 (7'PR) - thanks X1000 for all the guidance provided in our call and the changes made to the training.
Ok, party over, there is a big one coming in 8 weeks and I want to have a discussion regarding the next 2 weeks.
This week I was going to go easy until Wednesday and adjusted if still feel fatigue
Today : a 20-30' swim Tomorrow : easy bike on zwift Wednesday back to the regular program if not I will back it off a bit but not feeling soreness as we speak now.
for the week 10/7 and 17/7 I will be in Costa Rica with no bikes, I will only be able to run and swim, I will basically run every morning befoe every one wakes up and try to OWS as much as possible - the house we rented is on the beach, so it will be possible every day.
That being said, I will do camp week next week (3/07) - next week
Monday : swim Tuesday : normal workout - 4000M swim Wed : camp day 1 (full RR) Thursday : camp day 2 (360' bike + 60' run) Friday : camp day 3 (120' run + 4000M swim) Sat: off because of travel day and it will be perfect to have a rest day following the 3 days
I agree its not the best to be off the bike for 2 weeks, but that was the deal with my wife this year so I can do 3 races anyway, I will still be hicking, running and swimming.. so its not like I am going fully inactive for 10 days.
@Francis Picard - Ididn't forget about you, I had 18 athlete called yesterday and was just buried! I'd almost rather try and go sub 5 in a 1/2 Iron Man after a ridiculous Canadian winter. Seriously though, great job on race day. We were following you while riding together on Zwift. Very exciting!
I think your overall plan is perfect. You have done a great deal of work and just put in the fantastic race. Some recovery now followed by camp week and then another opportunity to rest would be great. To the point, keep the first two days of your trip pretty light so you can absorb camp week.
Then I would basically alternate days of study running at TRP and days with a little bit of speed such as 2X 1 mile. And then sold it up! I expect you to be a proper fish by the time you get back.
@Coach Patrick I went for 2h50 as I didnt estimated correctly the distance.
I end with 21.7M.. sorry didnt listen
now resting hard !
2h50 - 21.7M, quite happy with that. Last year I did 20M in 3hrs for my last long run before IMMT
Considering we are normally faster on race day, I think its possible to aime a run time between 3h30-3h35, which would be a 15' PR. with that time I get in the top 10 of the run.
Will work on the plan next week but I actually think I have the speed and fitness to aim between 10h20-10h45.. that would be awesome to crack the top 20.. slowly getting where I wanna be ... Only if I can do the same swim as I do in pool (yesterday did my swim RR in 51.. that's 20' faster than my OWS PR!!!) and dont want imagine what I could do if I knew how to ride a bike, oh well.. better not to think about this!
@Francis Picard - Nice work but that's a monster run! You will need a couple days to recover so please no training today on Friday. I would consider doing your Saturday work out, but I would like the shut Sunday down… Or just swim only.
Remember, speed on race day is a combination of the training you've done and how arrested you are.
If you're training is so hard as to impact your ability to recover, you will suffer on race day.
Comments
Want to touch base with you for next week. Next week is final OS test week and I am going to NYC Wednesday after dinner and we are staying there until next Monday.
As such, I need to play around with my schedule and here is what I was thinking to do
Monday: the final run test - will go for the bi-weekly half
Tuesday: rest or 30' swim, dunno yet
Wednesday: final bike FTP test
Thursday: 30' run
Friday: 30'-45' run
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 30'-45' run
what you think ? should I reverse Monday to Wednesday ? I have rest day schedule on Sunday
Since its a family out of town, I can't go longer than an hour without burning SUA..
In fact, I would recommend that you skip the video to part of the test, After a few pickups let's have you dive right into the 20 minute interval. That should be enough to accommodate the fact that you have shuffled the entire week!!!
The whole point of this week is to test and then rest, so once the testing is done, just keep the fire burning so the calories don't pile on as the exercise dwindles!!!
~ Coach P
Planning on next week, which will be week 13 of the advanced HIM plan.
3 questions:
Went on my first outside ride today. There is a 20KM TT segment to which I PR by 2 minutes ! I'll take it
https://www.strava.com/activities/960465836/segments/23507718608
enjoy rest of the BRC !
The miles intervals should be on the split run. I'd keep it to now more than 13 miles total...no need to run THAT long right now.
~ Coach P
Ps - that's a GREAT JOB on the ride...really bodes well for the remainder of your season!
Did my first split run including the mile intervals, its easier for me to do those on the 2nd run since It's the longest of the 2
Today for me was the first HIM RR.
Swim:
https://www.strava.com/activities/995378016
Really where I wanna be before entering the last 4 weeks of training before MT70.3.. but what sucks is that I am pretty sure I will not be able to hit those times in the OWS.. I am probably one of the few that cant swim well in the OWS with a Wetsuit when its suppose to help.. anyway, lets stay positive and keep working, maybe if I can drop to 1:25/100M, that could translate to a 1:35/100, which I'll take it.
Bike:
https://www.strava.com/activities/995581794
I went on the 24K bike TT road that we have here in Montreal where only bikes can ride.. so its safe to go fast etc. I am really surprised of my biking at the moment, I really feel stronger and all those PR on the TT section means it, just got keep working hard on the trainer.
I pushed hard on the last 25k where I was trying to stay over 40KM/h.. I wanna to destroy my legs for the run.
Run:
https://www.strava.com/activities/995644803
Nothing much here to say other that I am happy to be able to hit the pace Patrick wants me to have on race day. -Today I even went 3 seconds/km faster that the targeted..
Will have to think about my strategy, does :
1) I can push harder the last 40k instead of the last 25k on the bike
2) I can go harder on the run ?
what do you think ?
1. on the swim, it's worthwhile doing some reading about open water swimming. If the fitness is there, it's just that your technique changes in the open water. It could be that you say too much or that you're not balanced and the water when you're in a wetsuit. Whatever it might be, don't assume that it's necessarily working harder to get faster. Sounds like there's just a disconnect between the two styles.
2 - your bike is fantastic right now. I literally have no changes, it's great to see all the hard work you put together in the winter coming to fruition.
3. the run is nice and steady, just the way you wanted to be. I'm very please with it for this time of year I'm watching to keep rolling with that.
Giving you room to 40 K means a larger percentage of the course is within your target range. But I do not want you riding up big steep hills in your giant chain ring crushing yourself trying to get two seconds. I would rather that you continue to ride smart, steady effort and really pushing your power through the top of the hill to have a fast and smart descent, ideally rolling over the next hill.
Let me what you think!
Your comments on the swim that doesnt need more hard work makes sense. You are maybe right that my skills in the pool are complety different compare to the OWS.. anyway races are not won in the swim !
As going hard on the bike at MT, I think the 117 section might be the place to push harder, the 117 section is 47km.
As for the hills, I gotta stay focus on the PM and stick to the numbers. It's so easy to burn matches on that.
Until race day, I have one big IM training day, (which I think is a 4hrs ride), I might give a try to this strategy and see how the run goes, that would give me confidence for race day.
Food for thoughts.. but I think that for "me" doing more work on the trainer helps since I cant coast or no hills and cant cheap with traineroad compare to being outside where you dont see graphs showing you are under power.. starting to think I am lazy when riding outside hah.. Was thinking to only ride outside for the RR and big training days and stay on the trainer for the other wkouts.
Have a good feeling for this year which is the prelude for the all in 2018 !
thanks again!
that is where your race will be made. Don't judge yourself on the bike split, see how well you perform on the back half of that run!
still 2 weeks of the Advanced IM training.
There is a big training day during week 11, should I stick to whats in the IM plan or should do another HIM RR - my feelings are I should stick to the IM plan.
Will also post here on how to hack the HIM taper week.
On another hand:
I really start to feel that my actual FTP setting at 265 is starting to be low.. should I do another test or just jump by another 5watts (last FTP test was 259 but you suggested to raise to 265).
The ideas I had are:
1) increase for threshold trainings the FTP to 275 and see how it goes, and have long rides setup at a 270 FTP
2) Only work with a 270 setting
3) Be stupid crazy and try at 275.
Updates
1) on the swim, still at the same pace in the pool, first OWS will be the HIM race week end on June 22, cant do it before, I am not exactly following the plan with the 3x swim/week, at the moment I think that only twice a week (Monday and Wednesday) is enough - let me know if you agree
2) Run, still progressing long run, last week my long run was 5X1M @ z5 that translated to 17.5M in 2h05, felt a big tired on the legs this week, so skipped the long with 8X1M, will increase it this week on the first portion of the split run.. that should be interesting
#2. Yes you can bump up your FTP to 275. At the end of the day it's literally a 1.5% difference… I don't think anything terrible happen to you! Let's find out.
#3. Any chance you can get to the pool three times a week for the week of the 6/12 and 6/19? I would be OK with using on one session in there just to get a little more frequency in the pool. Let me know.
as for 6/12 and 6/19
I can do 3X at the pool on 6/12.
As for 6/19, I will try to do 2X pool and 2X OWS.
Today I went off the training program and did a 70.3 RR with a friend (will take rest of the week easy to rest for Friday big day and long run on Saturday before entering race week for MT 70.3
did an OWS today... and it was bad as I expected !! I am really not a good swimmer in a lake, have no idea why.. maybe because I am mentally convinced that I am a bad OWS swimmer.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1033149167
The bike ride went well considering the huge wind and the heat that just started (it was 95F at peak today)
IF : 0.8
VI 1:03
and really push the section that looks like the 117 in MT (you can see it in strava KM24 to KM48)
This ride has is steeper than MT (about 250M on the 70.3 bike leg), so I am really glad with my avg speed of 30KM/H, including lights, stops and climbs
https://www.strava.com/activities/1033457699/
Starting to be confident on the downhills and in my bike overall, I guess that why EN says that year 2 is all on the bike!!
The run.. we didnt plan accordingly the water/liquid as such we ran without water and it was really hot.. not a brillant idea but we were going for 6M.
Happy in those conditions about my run but didnt wanna push to go 7:00/mile and risk on the recovery for that day.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1033615177
My plan for the week will be:
Tuesday : 2700M swim (the Monday's swim)
Wednesday : threshold bike (10', 15' and 3X5') followed by a brick
Tuesday : easy run
Friday : week 11 big day
Saturday : big run, will go for 100' run since can't do the split run before and want to have a final push before entering taper week
Sunday : easy run
as for taper week - 6/19 - what do you suggest ? do IM adv week 12 without the big wkouts (Long rides and long run) ?
Sorry for the big post !!
Your plan for the week looks great. My only edits are the nutrition I mentioned above and taking off Sunday. No need for you to work out that day, please sleep in and recover.
How you handle that final week is really up to you. If you're excited about tearing it up, I see you use the last week of the half plan to get a proper taper. I honestly think you've been doing enough work that you would be fine. If you want to include some of the normal Iron Man workouts, we could be jeopardizing your race performance. 100% up to you, let me know.
IMMT big day #1 in the books. I am happy that I could do 2 big days in the last week, CTL is now at 142.8.
Swim is now an official mistery LOL
Will use the HIM adv week 20 next week and will get back to the IM training plan the following week and make adjustments if needed.
~ Coach P
Goal achieved this week ! finally unlocked the sub 5 (7'PR)
here is RR:
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/23363/francis-picards-mont-tremblant-70-3-race-report/p1?new=1
Ok, party over, there is a big one coming in 8 weeks and I want to have a discussion regarding the next 2 weeks.
This week I was going to go easy until Wednesday and adjusted if still feel fatigue
Today : a 20-30' swim
Tomorrow : easy bike on zwift
Wednesday back to the regular program if not I will back it off a bit but not feeling soreness as we speak now.
for the week 10/7 and 17/7 I will be in Costa Rica with no bikes, I will only be able to run and swim, I will basically run every morning befoe every one wakes up and try to OWS as much as possible - the house we rented is on the beach, so it will be possible every day.
That being said, I will do camp week next week (3/07) - next week
Monday : swim
Tuesday : normal workout - 4000M swim
Wed : camp day 1 (full RR)
Thursday : camp day 2 (360' bike + 60' run)
Friday : camp day 3 (120' run + 4000M swim)
Sat: off because of travel day and it will be perfect to have a rest day following the 3 days
I agree its not the best to be off the bike for 2 weeks, but that was the deal with my wife this year so I can do 3 races
What do you think ?
Thanks again!
!! did you forget me ? lol or I felt in the cracks -(
I think your overall plan is perfect. You have done a great deal of work and just put in the fantastic race. Some recovery now followed by camp week and then another opportunity to rest would be great. To the point, keep the first two days of your trip pretty light so you can absorb camp week.
Then I would basically alternate days of study running at TRP and days with a little bit of speed such as 2X 1 mile. And then sold it up! I expect you to be a proper fish by the time you get back.
18 calls... you should hire someone in a call center in India hah.
Hope you had fun in LP and I can see that your training is going well (yes I am stalking you on strava !!)
So my question is......
we have to do the final run RR this week.
Run: Race Sim
MS: 3 hours or 18 miles (whichever comes first) done as 30%-50%-20%.
• 50% (1.5 hours OR 7 to 9 miles) at TRP.
• 20% (30 minutes OR 3 miles) at Zone 2(or as close as possible).
Should I do the full 3hours, knowing I will end around 36-37KM or do 18 miles and finish around 2h15 ?
Last year you had me stop at 32KM which took me 2h30.
If 2h30 I plan:
0.5hr at zone 1
1hr at TRP
1hr at z2-mid z3
let me know ! I dont care going to 180', I have the time available on Thursday.. I just wanna be sure whats the best for me
Consider it:
* 6m @ Z1
* 6m @ TRP
* 3m @ Z2
* 3m @ z2 to z3
deal??
ps I stalk you too!!!
I went for 2h50 as I didnt estimated correctly the distance.
I end with 21.7M.. sorry didnt listen
now resting hard !
2h50 - 21.7M, quite happy with that.
Last year I did 20M in 3hrs for my last long run before IMMT
Considering we are normally faster on race day, I think its possible to aime a run time between 3h30-3h35, which would be a 15' PR. with that time I get in the top 10 of the run.
Will work on the plan next week but I actually think I have the speed and fitness to aim between 10h20-10h45.. that would be awesome to crack the top 20.. slowly getting where I wanna be ... Only if I can do the same swim as I do in pool (yesterday did my swim RR in 51.. that's 20' faster than my OWS PR!!!) and dont want imagine what I could do if I knew how to ride a bike, oh well.. better not to think about this!