IMFL WK 18 0f 20 - How BIG is your BOX?
Welcome to Week 18 all you Ironmen!!
My number one goal this week is to stay healthy and, if I'm not healthy, the goal is to get healthy!
Number two goal for me is looking forward to RR2 and setting myself up to have a well planned and executed 112 mile bike and ~6 mile run at LRP + 30"...........
If I accomplish those two goals by the end of Week 18, I have a huge smile on my face!
By now, you've done a lot of long swims, bikes and runs........maybe made some mistakes and learned a few more things......are starting to dial in everything from nutrition to pace to your mental game as you approach race date. During the course of my longer rides and runs I have noted stupid things I have done due to lack of patience, focus, focusing to much on things I cannot control, etc,.... that have cost me dearly in the latter stages of those workouts.....in other words, my BOX, which was large and happy at the start of the week or the beginning of the workout, became increasingly smaller with every bad choice I made, whether it be lack of fluid, calories up front, pacing, preparation, planning, etc.
Think about your BOX this week and leading up to RR2, what you have learned the past 17 weeks and what you can change to make it BIG and keep it BIG as long as you can:
The Box
Summary: All day long you are going to race inside a box defined by what you can control. Ask yourself "What do I need to do right NOW to create the conditions for success at The Line? Is what I'm doing right now counter to this goal? From what we've seen first hand on the IM courses this season, we believe you should ask yourself "Am I participating in some short-term tactical masturbation?" If yes, STOP!!
Advice: On the swim, the Box is the space your body occupies in the water: focus on your form and the rest will come. On the bike, the box is probably about one aid station long. On the run, the box begins as 2-3 aid stations long but often diminishes to "from here to the next lampost/manhole cover/mail box." Regardless:
- Keep The Box as big as you can for as long as you can.
- Keep in The Box only the things you can control. Let go of the rest.
- Exercise this decision-making process inside your Box: Observe the situation, Orient yourself to a possible course of action, Decide on a course of action, Act (OODA Loop).
Have a great, safe, quality week all and Keep Moving Forward!!!
Comments
Swim went well today. I felt fine in the water and paces were ok. getting the little wrench issues that have accumulated on my bike fixed so that everything is ready to roll. also gonna keep after my cat naps as best I can. So close now. 132mi warm up. 8.6mi race.
Here is a quick article from Joe Friel's blog that is very topical to all of us at this stage in our prep.
http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2015/1...ience.html
Train Smart
good bike session for me in terms of power output. also last interval session before my planned RR on friday. I am a bit scared of it to be honest.
Good article Ed. Very timely. I have been right there myself the past week or so. I chose to reduce intensity on an interval run and reduce time on a long bike last week. Then some other sessions went better than ever. Ups and downs.
As it is playing out in my mind in the moment though, "Greed" dosent seem right.
Between my ears it goes more like this:
Man, this is harder than it should be today. I am struggling. Oh yeah? You mean like you will be struggling on race day? Good. Struggle is what changes you. Yes but at some point I am only ruining tomorrow by trashing myself too much today. You always tell yourself this late in builds and late in IM Runs - What I have done is good enough. Lets knock off a little early. Dont ingrain the mental habit of "close enough" in training. If you want to do something exceptional you need exceptional preparation. Now is thetime to see how tough you really are etc etc.
I dont know what the right choice is. I do know that I wont be happy with "a pretty good effort" on race day. Just not sure.
@ ALL IMFL peeps - you guys are really lucky to have SS leading you with his co-captain MR... I've hungout and raced with Shaun, Mike, Jimmy , Rich, Paul , Edwin (sorry if I missed someone just going by memory who is doing IMFL) An amazing group to say the least and a top quality race to boot, that got even better by removing that one rough out and back... Stay focussed your in the home stretch! Wishing you one last week of quality wko's, a well earned taper, and a perfect day on race day!
Edit: added Edwin , but hey in my defense you were late to the party and my memory aint what it used to be.... hence the sorry disclaimer
Thanks for the mention Tim. I was late to this party, but I do not intend to be late on November 7. As far as memory, just look at my swim WKO's I skip and add lengths each time. That's just part of our AG.
Two weeks from today, I'll be printing my boarding pass. Wasn't planning on taking yesterday completely off, but finding my pool completely full of lovely grandmothers bobbing around like a bunch of blue ping pong balls in a popcorn maker ended those plans. Got in a good 4k+ this evening, so back on track. I was still -33 TSB today, so I could use a little more rest - maybe next week. One thing I always tend to do is celebrate a bit when I get to Weeks 18 and 19, subconsciously giving myself license to skip some workouts and cut others short. After all, it's taper, right? Not this time. Other than finish Week 18 and stay healthy, this time around I'm going to hit 100% of the taper workouts in Weeks 19 and 20. Although we shed fatigue far faster than we lose fitness (i.e., TSB goes up way faster than CTL comes down), if I cut back too much (volume and/or intensity), then I will lose too much of the fitness I worked hard to gain. On the flip side, if you're worried about your fitness and think you can cram in some in the last 10 days, it doesn't work like that. All you'll do is add unhelpful fatigue and carry that into race day. RnP get lots of questions about what the right taper is - it's already in the plan. Now all we have to do is . . . follow it. The above sermon, BTW, was directed at me, not any of you.
Nice to hear from you, TC. Hope you're recovering and building well, all at the same time. AZ is a fun race. As for next year, I've now narrowed my options down to Maryland or Louisville, and you're largely to blame for that.
Planning to do rr swim tomorrow then take Friday off for rest of rr. Given the weather outlook it looks like it will be on the trainer. Which is just fine.
I caught a wicked URI the middle of last week so I mainlined some NyQuil for a day or two and took two days off completely. Skipped long run on Thursday hoping to get it done on Sunday. I still did 4 hours on trainer on Saturday but had nothing for the long run on Sunday. Monday came around a little so ran 18.5 on Monday night. Tuesday was a shortened swim and today was a light swim and the 2X15 ftp work on trainer. Still not 100% but feeling better day by day. Guess it's better now then race week.
Rest of week is long run tomorrow then RR swim Friday, RR ride course file on trainer and run outside on Saturday.
Wishing the best for everyone's RRs this week.
Good morning all! In flight as I type this returning from NYC work trip.
@Tim -- thanks for checking in and boosting our IMFL mojo! please continue! We miss u!
@Mike - I believe the grandmothers would have more than welcomed you and your intervals in the pool.......a lost opportunity? :-)
@Attila - amazing how smart and tenacious you have been battling the URI and finding a way to get work done! Hope your coming back fast and strong now!
@Jimmy - alot of Texas looks to be under 90% + rain showers Friday and Sat - so looks like we are going to have to employ the Croucher/Roberts examples, knuckle up put our heads down and get it done......they've left us no excuses.....
Left for NYC Board meetings early Monday a.m. and swam early. Tues/Wed TM runs in Hotel early (Wed 4X1 Z4) and last night swim intervals in the 24hr fitness pool around 9 pm......Hope to either brick or 1:45 run this evening after meetings in the afternoon......trying to fit it all in with this weeks high work/travel load.
As Jimmy mentioned, I will most likely be on the trainer for RR2 this weekend. RR2 swim for me most likely tomorrow......
Let's finish this week up in SOLID EN fashion with all going to bed on Sunday night healthy!!
KMF all!
But after putting these times in I will for sure seed myself in the 1:05-1:10 section with a clear conscience.
@JA, nice swim. I'm skipping my swim RR this time just because I hate them. You're clearly tougher than I am. I am, however, moving to swimming mostly with Lava Pants. By replicating race day (no kicking), I get in such a better upper-body workout without the heavy breathing associated with kicking. I'm in full swim-cram mode, so I need all the breaks I can get.
@SS, welcome back. Not the ideal time for work to get in the way, but you'll overcome that speed bump with no adverse effects. As for the indoor bike RR, embrace it. That's basically what I did last week, and it's a great closed environment to control watts, HR and fueling in 25-minute bites. Trying to hold 170w for the first half hour, steady 175w for 4 hours, then push to low 180s for the last 30 minutes would be nearly impossible to do on the open road with stop lights, fuel stops, bathroom stops, etc. Also allowed me to dial in the fueling per 30 or 60 minutes. Most importantly for me, it allowed me to dial in what my HR should be at the beginning of the bike (115 last week, probably low 120s on race day), the middles hours (125-132) and toward the end (mid- to upper-130s). Now I know that if I still see 130s at Mile 10 in PCB, I've gotta chill. But if I see 130's at Mile 40 or 50 . . . right on target, back to focusing on watts. Finally, I know that I push 8-10 fewer watts per effort on the trainer than I do outside. Most people do too, and you hopefully know your variance. That's why I targeted 175 last weekend instead of race watts of 180-85. So . . . if your race goal is 295w, you do 10x25' @ 295np this weekend and have trouble running afterwards, you probably overcooked the bike by 5-10 watts. If that will hurt your confidence, then go at 285. Just my $.02. I haven't been outside in 5 or 6 weeks, so I'll be hitting the actual roads this weekend, looking to hit a pretty smooth 185.
Just finished my interval ride and it was not smooth. MR commented on his ride this morning that it was like chewing glass. I think he really nailed it. My left knee was aching right out of the gate. The warm-up was effective, but I did not have the drive I normally have. One minute into the first interval and I started hearing noise from my bike. After # 1 I tried to adjust the trainer but I still heard the sound. After # 2 I looked down and saw that one of the foot pegs had come off. After I fixed that the ride was quiet. Tonight i will be doing a recovery walk and no run. I am planning on my RR tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great day and keep focused on the finish.
Getting thru wk 18, Tues. swim had some people in the pool to push me a little, went well. Wed. bike intervals were tough, managed a .95 & .94. Thurs. run was 11 mi. pushed the pace a little, locked in a 140 HR, felt like I could sustain it a long time, should be even better after legs recover.
Planning on doing the RR Sat. as in the plan. Can't get into the pool til 7 am, so it'll be a long day, but that's ok, I need it. As far as nutrition, planning on all liquid Infinit on the bike. Garmin alarms every 15', and I'm even going to draw lines on the bottles as to get it all in on time. For me, the simpler the better. Haven't been using Infinit long, but it seems to agree with me. Going to have a caffinated gel early, then GE and chomps on the run, as I plan to "live off the land" during the run on raceday.
Sorry I have been AWOL... Life has been interesting since CHOO. I had a 6-week plan to FL that was pretty similar to my plan following IMMT 6 weeks prior to CHOO. Essentially rest a week - kill the bike for two weeks - and slowly ramp the run back over 5 weeks. Yes - I didn't mention swimming - if yo have read any of my RRs this year you already know that I have dedicated 2015 to having a crappy attitude about swimming :-)
Apart from a hip/opposing hamstring issue that has plagued my run all season - I really felt awesome after CHOO. Started running the Thursday after and rode a century the Saturday after. That is where the wheels started coming off. I crashed on the century - nothing broken and the skin has grown back, but I felt it. Same ride - (40º out and the rain started right after the crash.... since it was not supposed to rain until afternoon - no rain gear. Wind was 20-50mph. Power meter died. HR monitor died. I have zero feel on the bike so I rode like an idiot for the 60 miles to finish the route.
Believe it or not - that one ride cost me more in terms of recovery than the two races in the previous 7 weeks. Mentally I was fine - but absolutely nothing worked with respect to bike / run (it didn't hurt bad enough to swim). So I took another week off, did some yoga, watched some hockey, then I caught the flu.
Recovered from the flu, but everything was still out of sorts with hip - got an MRI and things are not looking very nice on my right hip labrum... so the Dr took a needle about the size of my... leg... and filled the hip joint up. Told me that I am not making anything worse for the future - it just wasn't very comfortable.
NOW - I am feeling much better. Had a reasonable (but short) VO2 session on the bike Wednesday, A couple reasonable fartlek like runs during the week to try getting my HR and body "reconnected."
I will do the RR Ride tomorrow - will be a game-time decision on the accompanying run. Sunday I will get about 2.5 hours run in just because I still need to get the blood volume built up again. Next week I will continue with multiple runs, but will cut the mileage back - again working on reviving the durability.
I might even swim :-)
Anyway - I feel guilty because I like to participate more thanI have been. I feel kind of like a slacker team mate. I was confident that it would work out - I just wasn't quite sure how that was going to happen and didn't want to whine. Hopefully this isn't one of those... in retrospect, I am really glad this happened on the way to IM #7 and not IM #1... I am getting used to the wheels falling off along the way!
This group has Amazing energy - I can't wait to see you all!
SS - You are CRUSHING the bike power / workouts on Strava - give me some of what you are eating!
I did my RR today since it worked better for the home life. My ride goal was to dial in my 5 hour power number and nail my watt plan. I am looking ot start the ride out very conservatively. My history with IMLP is opposite that. I have over rode the first loop dramatically in two of the three races. I wanted to ride 5 to 10 watts below my five hour power goal for the first 1 to 1.5 hours. I rode the first 1:15:00 11 watts below my goal. After that, i started pushing up the power to my goal watts.Even with the first 15 minutes of hour #2 at that pace, I still rode hour #2 at my goal watts. The 3rd hour was 3 watts below my goal and the 4th hour was 2 watts above. Hour #5 was where there was a lot of self talking. My motivation to stay on the trainer for one more hour was really falling fast. I decided to add some variability to this hour. The first minute of every five minutes I would shift into my biggest gear and stand up. Then I would get back down into my aero position. I would switch back and forth between full standing and standing while still on my aerobars. That way I only had 4 minutes of riding before something would change. This did the trick and I finished the ride with some great watts. At the conclusion, I hopped off my bike, ran upstairs, put on tights, a sweatshirt, a wind braker, my new running shoes, hat and gloves and ran out the door. Well, that was what I thought I was doing, but in reality, I crawled up the stairs, put on all that stuff and staggered outside. I got the brick done. I started too fast and I will have to adjust that during the race. All in all, today's RR went very well. I need to adjust some of my fueling. The workout took 4 bottles of Infinit, 1 banana with peanut butter. 4 chomps, a can of beet performer and a coke. I did not mix any napalm today mostly because I am cheap. The ride cost me 245.2 Tss points and the run was 61.8. My IF on the ride was .698. Even with the 12 sets of standing efforts, my VI was only 1.01. These are numbers I am happy with. I know I can run a marathon after that kind of ride. I am really glad it is over. Going to break from the diet and grab a burger with my wife & son.
@Rich, Sorry to hear about all your misfortune. You seem to have the right mindset to overcome it though.
@Rich, hope tomorrow's RR swings things around in your favor. @Ed & Jimmy, killer RR's today. Still can't believe how fast Ed ran off the bike, after spending 5 hours crushing his trainer.
I just finished my fourth swim in four days, as I try desperately to cram for the final exam in two weeks. By 3,000, the form was starting to falter. By 3,500, the shoulders felt like they were ready to separate from my torso. A bit over 14k yards since Tuesday = a bit beyond my limit. I'll take a breather tomorrow by spending the day on my bike.
Finish strong. Regardless of weather, fatigue, sleep demands, hatred towards your bike (me) or lingering cough, do everything you can to close this week out. Then, and only then, does the party start.
@ Mike I liked what you had to say about your last RR on the trainer and being able to control your environment. I also don't want to overcook the ride so your suggestion on lower the watts 5 - 10 seems like a good idea.
I was also hoping to get some advice on being on the trainer that long - how do you cope with it, any tips, etc. Thanks
Looks like myself, Christina, Jimmy and Attila will all be on that trainer tomorrow! Ed just laid down the law and left no excuses for us! MR gave us great guidance on how he get's it done. Still trying to get my head wrapped around it but, come Sat a.m., I assure you, I'll be ready to take on the task at hand given all the mojo being posted in this haus!
During hours 4 and 5, I'll be "Scraping for those Inches"!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_iKg7nutNY
We are closing in on the finish, its the 4th quarter, let's get it done!
SS
@ Rich - so glad you are here with us. Glad you have recovered from 2 IMs this year, made it through the flu and a crash. My GOD, talk about resilience! We need your veteran mojo, example and vibe bro. Good luck tomorrow!
SS
For long trainer rides, I first make sure I am very clear about my numbers. I know that to be able to run well off the bike, I personally want to stay around the 285 TSS range (using an accurate FTP baseline cross referenced with what I know to be my 5 hour power) Using the EN TSS chart below, I plan to be on the trainer for ~5.5 hours
Plugging that into the EN Racing with Power calculator and using my 295 FTP I get my gears:
Note that my target NP is 212 second gear but, I want to spend the first period around 202 or so and then, like Mike indicated, I want to spend the last hour at something higher than 212 while driving a very low V.I.
Like Ed indicated, its just a damn long time to be on the trainer. Look at his Strava file and note how he stood up for brief periods near the end to change up the muscles used and stimulate his legs. Sometimes, I will even get off the bike for a brief moment and use the bathroom. I use my ITunes a lot, others use the TV. I play mind tricks and divide everything into 30 minute segments trying to complete each segment at a goal NP before even thinking about the next block.
Finally, I leave you all with a younger, healthy, non-injured SS back in the day (I have a permanently shredded pereneol tendon in my right foot/ankle:
race day shouldn't take that long. Pretty much exactly what I should be able to do and it felt pretty crappy after about 4hrs.
Faded a bit. Looking back, I went too hard from 2hrs to 4 and paid for it over the last 90min. Live and learn. What feels good at 180 min will not feel good at 300min. I should know that by now.
I came off the bike really tired. Ran fine given the hot and muggy weather that we ended up with but the HR and effort level required were not sustainable for 26.2. One of those days. But a great workout and I am tapering!
Good luck to the rest of y'all!
I am concerned about the temperature of the race on the bike. The race temps are suppose to be close to my RR and I was cold. What is everyone planning on wearing, and what do you do as the day warms up?
Last big ride in the books. Signed up for a century, so I would have a set route, company and support. It was a good ride overall, but a terrible one for a RR. Coming from Florida where 20-foot bridges are all the elevation we see, this ride had over 5,200 ft of climbing, which may or may not be much for a ride. But it sure seemed like I spent a lot of time grinding or coasting. Which isn't good for a consistent, smooth NP. VI was a pretty ugly 1.03. Also, a fair amount of stop lights and signs, so auto-stop really killed the mph, the NP and artificially allowed my HR to reset at a lower rate each stop. I won't have such stops on race day. Regardless, I rode each 5-mile lap pretty close to 175NP until the last 20 or 25 miles when I realized the ride had been way too easy up to that point. So, I cranked up the last 4-5 laps, even hitting 250+ on some climbs just to try and destroy myself a bit. Felt fresh when I finished, however, and could have easily run (running tomorrow instead). NP for the overall ride was 180, which gives me tons of confidence for my 175NP Race Plan A, and pretty solid confidence for my 180-84 Race Plan B (my IM bike PR of 5:21 was done at 165NP on a slower course than FL). HRavg was way too low at 118, so not really sure what to do with that (I definitely can't run off the bike at 118 because I'd be walking). I did reach 135 a few times and am thinking a steady 5-hour effort without stops, following a 1-hr swim, will easily have me in the 135 HR range by the end of the bike on race day.
Oh, this ride started quite cold (in the 40's) and slowly climbed into the 60s. IMFL may do something similar. Gloves would have been nice the first hour, but I was ok without them. Arm warmers were all I had and I wore them the entire ride. Toes were pretty frozen for the first 60 miles, but I didn't really need my toes.
Hope everyone else is wrapping up Week 18 safely and successfully. Time to take all the lessons learned over the last 8-12 weeks and create a race plan.
https://www.strava.com/activities/419386810
Will clean the bike up,prep it for the race and ship it Wednesday - on the road bike now!!
Will run 2.5 hours tomorrow. Going to have to swim at some point...
Some awesome RR's this weekend from the IMFL squad. Can't wait to watch you all tear it up in FL in a couple weeks!