Injury update: Ran 20 min yesterday on the TM @ 12'/mi. No pain at all; a little tightness at 19' so I stopped and stretched really well. Today I visited my PT. He took me through several movements and looked over both ankles. He could not find any problems. So I went on one of two of his underwater treadmills (my PT has the WR for fastest WUTM marathon!). I ran for 30 min. Not sure of the pace, but it was about a Z1 effort and took some time to get used to. I have 3 more sessions, one on thursday and then tues and thurs of next week. Swimming is going really well. Biking I still feel a little fatigued. The hills on Wildflower were a challenge. I'll continue with the swim and bike workouts and substitute the runs with a 30' UWTM session until the end of next week.
Hi CP, I am happy to say that I am recovered from my Achilles tendonitis!! I stuck to the rehab plan and it just got better every run.
Raced Blue lake Oly on sunday (C race). I was debating even racing because I didn't want to aggravate my achilles, but made the race day decision to do it. Had a 6 day running streak with 3 days at altitude, and felt great. Speed and endurance was about 80% from before wildflower a month ago. Prerace: flew in from Denver Sat night at 11pm. Started hydrating 3 days prior to race expecting temps in the 90s. Woke up at 4am sunday. Didn't have much for breakfast bc of time: smoothie, coffee, kind bar. One more bottle of hydration 1hr from start. Gel at start. Swim: (no full suit, just roka shorts bc of air temp in the 80s and to have a faster T1) 24:16. Had a hard time getting into a rhythm bc the buoys were so far apart and was sighting a lot. Good practice i guess. Full suit buoyancy might have helped. Most peoples GPS on strava had the swim course at 1550-1650m. Fastest in AG by over a minute. Came out of water pretty fresh. T1 1:13 , fastest in AG Bike: 1:05.18 . First 20' @highZ3, 10'@ low Z4, 30'@Z4. 192w, 93%FTP. Drank 32 oz Scratch labs rescue hydration. Practiced using BTA hydration. Passed a younger guy in the last 2 miles that passed me in the first 4 miles. Pacing execution and endurance was the difference. T2: 1:02, fastest in AG Run: 43:56 (PR 10k oly split!) Felt incredible off the bike. All the bricks during training paid off big time. Had to slow it down a little in the first 5', then opened it up. Passed lots of people, but none in my AG (winner passed me on the bike first 3 miles). Was passed by a guy in my AG @ mile 4.5. I had a 3' lead off the swim so he was closing fast. Couldn't stay with his 6:30 pace. Air temp in upper 80s was not an issue for me but many others had problems. Finished 19th of 280 overall. 3rd AG and didn't get chicked! Very happy overall with the recovery of my achilles and the race. Ready to finish final training block for Canada! Thanks for the great coaching, B
BV, epic!!! Thanks for this!! Such a great report. I really like how you put some thought into how to structure your day to be fast. And how you were smart on the bike for a solid run. These are all great lessons that will carry through to CA..let's keep you on that healthy track with the Achilles though.
Thursday: 30 min easy SUP, nice to get outside and do something.
Friday: woke up @ 4:30 for 5am masters swim practice. Ate a banana and hydrated 8oz Skratch Labs (SL).
--200y WU straight into 4200 nonstop. Splits were on the 400 and were scary (3rd and 4th 400 were identical down to the hundreth!). Easily maintained race pace, finished in 59:18. BM at the pool post swim.
On the 15' drive home had a cliff bar and 16oz SL. Filled up 2 x 24oz bottles w SL. 9 x peanut butter, banana, honey, rice balls (RB) in bento. Aim to do 3 x 33.4 mi loops in 6hrs.
--First bike loop Avg HR 139. Avg watts: 142; 68.93% . Felt very easy. No hills. 1 hr 48'. Finished 2 bottles and one RB on the 30's. 3 total.
--second loop Avg HR 140. Avg watts:141. Felt a little harder, but still fairly easy. 2 x 24oz SL and RBs on the 30's including one at the beginning at the 2hr mark. 4 total. Friend arrive to help out on 3rd loop, 14' break.
--third loop: HR 137, watts: 130. Drafted too much on this loop. At this point just made it my goal to get over 100 mi. I tried to do my share of pulling, so watts were not as consistent as first two loops. Same hydration and food. Decided to take hilly route home to add time and simulate Canada course. Moving time 5:45, elapsed 6:10. Avg HR 139, Avg watts: 137. Mileage: 105.
--run: 60', 6.8 mi. Avg HR 146. 8:48 pace = Z1 +8". All miles under 9' except 30" sec walk break at 3 to eat gel. Pace felt great. Started to feel some dehydration on last 2 miles. Counting on aid stations to keep hydrated and fueled.
Personal Assessment of Friday: Swim is perfect, just need to maintain. Bike need more big miles, that will come in weeks to follow. Could use another 12oz SL/2hrs on bike and gel every 45'. Run is good, need some more volume which will come in the next 4 weeks.
Saturday: --Bike: Noticed storm clouds everywhere but still went out. After 75' of being pelted by hail I took it inside. Tried to maintain 9' @ 140w, 1' rest. After a few intervals did a two sets of 30' at 145w. Fueling was easy on the trainer. --Run: perfect IM pace (-3"), 8:37. HR 136.
Sunday: Cereal, coffee, blackberries for breakfast. Run (TM): perfect TRP for 60', but my ass was ready to explode. Took 10' bathroom break. Back on TM: 45' Z2, 15' Z3. Felt really good specially at the end. Will watch my food choice in the future. (Monday rest).
Very happy with weekend, looking forward to the next one! BAM!
BV, very well done my friend! I like how it all went down and your pacing (And those data points) are epic. Please continue to save them up.
I agree with adding the gel every 45' and the additional fluids (always better to be ready for more fluids, you can always drink a bit less if cold / wet).
And if you are a coffee drinker, you might want to make gel in the second half of the bike have 1x caffeine.
For the record, we recommend PowerBar gels for the high sodium content...and you'd take them with Skratch...not with water, etc.
Hi CP, update for the week so far: Monday rest after long weekend Tues pm: 2 "laps" at the local reservoir. Each lap 1.2 mi. Very easy effort finished in 60'. Bricked a 4mi run at TRP. Skipped the 3' x Z5 intensity bc legs still felt fatigued from weekend. Wed pm: 75' bike with 20' high Z4 work. Felt surprising strong. Skipped the run brick and got in a real good stretch/roll out. Thurs pm: 2.5 h run. (I really have to sych myself up for these runs) I put in "Pumping Iron" (LOL) and started in low Z1 on the TM. My HR shot up to 170 then slowly dropped. Not sure if this is real or if my monitor is malfunctioning. Looking at the HR graph, I think it was glitching. Stayed in Z1 for 60' (HR monitor was correct by now), then dropped to TRP for 90', finished with some high Z2 for a total of 18 mi. Used the TM to simulate aid stations and to get my fueling down. I tend to bonk really ez when I run long on the road and it gets ugly fast. The other day I ate some wild apples off someone's tree! Anyways, I got down 24oz SL Hydration/hr and 1 gu/45'. Felt awesome at the end. Training going excellent. Looking forward to the weekend. BV
BV, I am pumped for your week. I like the early adjustment you made with removing the run intensity after your open water swim. No point in poking the beast.
I also think that adjusting the pacing on your long run, using the treadmill, to eat more allowed you to feel better too. I encourage you to continue trying to eat and drink more is that is the difference between an okay race and a good race.
Hi CP, update on the weekend: Friday 25' recovery run. Saturday: 110mi bike in 6:21. I could not get my P1 to sync to my 510 so I went by HR (bike is at lbs being made race ready and making sure P1 syncs correctly). I was paced by two friends which helped keep down the effort. I'm feeling much more comfortable on the long rides. Food is going down great; one Rice ball/30' and one gu/45'. Also 30oz of Skratch labs/hr. After bike, 45' at bike HR felt very easy; drank every mile and finished 24oz, also one gu @ 20'. Sunday: 77 mi in 4:30 at race HR. I wanted to do 5rs, but I ran out of hydration and did not want to push it. Monday: took family to a 4th parade, lots of leisurely walking to stretch out legs. Looking forward to week 18. One question: Here is my hydration setup: BTA bottle cage, cage behind saddle, cage on seat tube. On my 33mi RR loops (2hrs) I fill all of them with Skratch labs (24oz/bottle). For the race I have a xlab versa BTA, I'll have one bottle on seat tube and keep rear saddle empty. IMCA says it will have "gatorade". Does not specify bottle type. I am assuming it will be gatorade endurance with the top you can twist open with your mouth. So, start the race with SL in both bottles (maybe one on the rear to throw out when empty?), take a gatorade when needed to accomplish my goal of 30oz/hr. How's that sound? Maybe put 2 more bottles of SL in special needs?
Brian, great update!!! Some smart (and hard) work in there...super impressive. Glad you even got to enjoy the Fourth!!!!
I think that you should carry three bottles on there of scratch...and as you fill up, then replace with Gatorade Endurance.
So you have Front / Tube / Seat all scratch.
You drink front, so fill from Tube.....at aid station you throw tube bottle...move rear to tube. Continue riding with 2 bottles.
Continue drinking Front. Replace with Tube bottle...at next aid station throw tube bottle and replace with GE....bottle.
Then it's GE through the system once you finish Front bottle...until special needs. You might want to fill SN bottles 1/3 with water...tops off...freeze. Then on race AM mix Scratch on top with remaining water...it will melt and be cold by the time you get there.
I would also plan on external salt (recommend Salt Stick pills) in case the gatorade isn't real endurance stuff OR if you need to balance out skratch vs GE...
Friday RR report: you couldn't have asked for a better day of weather for training today. 68 deg, low cloud cover, mild wind out of the north. Slight drizzle off and on. Got in a 850SCY warm up waiting for my training partner, Josh Underman (who is also doing IMCA and is an amazing swimmer). We did 10 x 400 on a 5:30 base. I avg 1:18s, Josh was about 5sec faster/100. Ended with 200 cool down for 5050yds. Bike: 2 x 33.4mi loops, one more 45.2 loop to make it an even 112. My goal is to avg 142w, (67.6% FTP) on the bike (It's ok, Josh snickered at that number too. I'm 5'4", 126lbs, He's 6'2" and ripped). 1st loop 142, 2nd loop 138 (Josh asked me to bring it down a little), last loop 145 (Josh said he felt good so I opened it up a little). Fueling went perfect: 10 Rice balls on the 30', 30oz Skratch/hr, 1 gu/hr. Peed every hour. 6:03 moving time. https://www.strava.com/activities/634481939. I'm felling better with the volume after every big ride. Run was good. We both monitored our HR and had to slow/walk several times to keep it down. One gu at 20', should have had one before the run because I started to feel the onset of bonking but caught it in time. Drank 24oz of scratch. 6 mi in 54:39 I feel pretty good overall, looking forward to getting this last day done.
Brian...just got done replying to Josh (you beat him on posting!)...great session. You are both fish, but I am pumped with two things:
#1 -- Your attention to detail on the bike, especially the stronger finish (mimics "hard" end of race ride). Looking at Strava from HR perspective you were a "bit hot" in the first lap. On race day you'll need to keep the first 30 minutes low. So your AHR for the ride was 135 but for lap one you were 137...I'd rather you were 133...then build to 135 in lap two and 137 at the end.
#2 -- Keeping that HR down. I agree that you will want food in T2. If you haven't checked out the race nutrition stuff, it's all in here: http://bit.ly/1MZIciR I recommend a small banana in T2!
Great to catch up today. Really appreciate your perspective…
Between now and Hood To Coast you need to freshen up the legs and get ready for some fast running / high efforts. Good news is you have until 8/27 to do that.
I say that you keep up the Transition protocol through the end of next week — that gets you two full weeks of the recovery. Then you have two weeks to get into speed shape… you could load the Get Fast Beginner Plan and do weeks 2+3, but you could also do this:
Monday: Easy run of 30-40 minutes, 6 strides at the end. Tuesday: Interval run: 4 x 1/2 mile in Zone 4, maximum recovery. Wednesday: Easy bike day, just spin it out. Thursday: Hill Bounding day. 8 x 40 seconds, with a 5’ sprint over the top. Video is here: http://bit.ly/2aAt6jN Friday: OFF Saturday: is an Hour run with a few 1’ pick ups. Sunday: Easy short bike ride.
Week Two is the same as above, just Saturday is race day.
Really want to fuel properly between sessions to recover, and light stretching to stay loose. Even a short warm up jog before each leg would help.
As for the four year plan, that’s not so easy to whip up. Can you get me some interim events / goals that you think are feasible and I can start there?
Thanks,
~ Coach P
Ps - Would love to hear more about your entrepreneurial journey…oh, and that nutrition stuff too!!!
Comments
Ran 20 min yesterday on the TM @ 12'/mi. No pain at all; a little tightness at 19' so I stopped and stretched really well. Today I visited my PT. He took me through several movements and looked over both ankles. He could not find any problems. So I went on one of two of his underwater treadmills (my PT has the WR for fastest WUTM marathon!). I ran for 30 min. Not sure of the pace, but it was about a Z1 effort and took some time to get used to. I have 3 more sessions, one on thursday and then tues and thurs of next week.
Swimming is going really well. Biking I still feel a little fatigued. The hills on Wildflower were a challenge. I'll continue with the swim and bike workouts and substitute the runs with a 30' UWTM session until the end of next week.
~ Coach P
I am happy to say that I am recovered from my Achilles tendonitis!! I stuck to the rehab plan and it just got better every run.
Raced Blue lake Oly on sunday (C race). I was debating even racing because I didn't want to aggravate my achilles, but made the race day decision to do it. Had a 6 day running streak with 3 days at altitude, and felt great. Speed and endurance was about 80% from before wildflower a month ago.
Prerace: flew in from Denver Sat night at 11pm. Started hydrating 3 days prior to race expecting temps in the 90s. Woke up at 4am sunday. Didn't have much for breakfast bc of time: smoothie, coffee, kind bar. One more bottle of hydration 1hr from start. Gel at start.
Swim: (no full suit, just roka shorts bc of air temp in the 80s and to have a faster T1) 24:16. Had a hard time getting into a rhythm bc the buoys were so far apart and was sighting a lot. Good practice i guess. Full suit buoyancy might have helped. Most peoples GPS on strava had the swim course at 1550-1650m. Fastest in AG by over a minute. Came out of water pretty fresh.
T1 1:13 , fastest in AG
Bike: 1:05.18 . First 20' @highZ3, 10'@ low Z4, 30'@Z4. 192w, 93%FTP. Drank 32 oz Scratch labs rescue hydration. Practiced using BTA hydration. Passed a younger guy in the last 2 miles that passed me in the first 4 miles. Pacing execution and endurance was the difference.
T2: 1:02, fastest in AG
Run: 43:56 (PR 10k oly split!) Felt incredible off the bike. All the bricks during training paid off big time. Had to slow it down a little in the first 5', then opened it up. Passed lots of people, but none in my AG (winner passed me on the bike first 3 miles). Was passed by a guy in my AG @ mile 4.5. I had a 3' lead off the swim so he was closing fast. Couldn't stay with his 6:30 pace. Air temp in upper 80s was not an issue for me but many others had problems.
Finished 19th of 280 overall. 3rd AG and didn't get chicked!
Very happy overall with the recovery of my achilles and the race. Ready to finish final training block for Canada!
Thanks for the great coaching,
B
SMARTER = FASTER!
Thursday: 30 min easy SUP, nice to get outside and do something.
Friday: woke up @ 4:30 for 5am masters swim practice. Ate a banana and hydrated 8oz Skratch Labs (SL).
--200y WU straight into 4200 nonstop. Splits were on the 400 and were scary (3rd and 4th 400 were identical down to the hundreth!). Easily maintained race pace, finished in 59:18. BM at the pool post swim.
On the 15' drive home had a cliff bar and 16oz SL. Filled up 2 x 24oz bottles w SL. 9 x peanut butter, banana, honey, rice balls (RB) in bento. Aim to do 3 x 33.4 mi loops in 6hrs.
--First bike loop Avg HR 139. Avg watts: 142; 68.93% . Felt very easy. No hills. 1 hr 48'. Finished 2 bottles and one RB on the 30's. 3 total.--second loop Avg HR 140. Avg watts:141. Felt a little harder, but still fairly easy. 2 x 24oz SL and RBs on the 30's including one at the beginning at the 2hr mark. 4 total. Friend arrive to help out on 3rd loop, 14' break.
--third loop: HR 137, watts: 130. Drafted too much on this loop. At this point just made it my goal to get over 100 mi. I tried to do my share of pulling, so watts were not as consistent as first two loops. Same hydration and food. Decided to take hilly route home to add time and simulate Canada course. Moving time 5:45, elapsed 6:10. Avg HR 139, Avg watts: 137. Mileage: 105.--run: 60', 6.8 mi. Avg HR 146. 8:48 pace = Z1 +8". All miles under 9' except 30" sec walk break at 3 to eat gel. Pace felt great. Started to feel some dehydration on last 2 miles. Counting on aid stations to keep hydrated and fueled.
Personal Assessment of Friday: Swim is perfect, just need to maintain. Bike need more big miles, that will come in weeks to follow. Could use another 12oz SL/2hrs on bike and gel every 45'. Run is good, need some more volume which will come in the next 4 weeks.
Saturday: --Bike: Noticed storm clouds everywhere but still went out. After 75' of being pelted by hail I took it inside. Tried to maintain 9' @ 140w, 1' rest. After a few intervals did a two sets of 30' at 145w. Fueling was easy on the trainer. --Run: perfect IM pace (-3"), 8:37. HR 136.
Sunday: Cereal, coffee, blackberries for breakfast. Run (TM): perfect TRP for 60', but my ass was ready to explode. Took 10' bathroom break. Back on TM: 45' Z2, 15' Z3. Felt really good specially at the end. Will watch my food choice in the future. (Monday rest).
Very happy with weekend, looking forward to the next one! BAM!I agree with adding the gel every 45' and the additional fluids (always better to be ready for more fluids, you can always drink a bit less if cold / wet).
And if you are a coffee drinker, you might want to make gel in the second half of the bike have 1x caffeine.
For the record, we recommend PowerBar gels for the high sodium content...and you'd take them with Skratch...not with water, etc.
Onwards!!!
Monday rest after long weekend
Tues pm: 2 "laps" at the local reservoir. Each lap 1.2 mi. Very easy effort finished in 60'. Bricked a 4mi run at TRP. Skipped the 3' x Z5 intensity bc legs still felt fatigued from weekend.
Wed pm: 75' bike with 20' high Z4 work. Felt surprising strong. Skipped the run brick and got in a real good stretch/roll out.
Thurs pm: 2.5 h run. (I really have to sych myself up for these runs) I put in "Pumping Iron" (LOL) and started in low Z1 on the TM. My HR shot up to 170 then slowly dropped. Not sure if this is real or if my monitor is malfunctioning. Looking at the HR graph, I think it was glitching. Stayed in Z1 for 60' (HR monitor was correct by now), then dropped to TRP for 90', finished with some high Z2 for a total of 18 mi. Used the TM to simulate aid stations and to get my fueling down. I tend to bonk really ez when I run long on the road and it gets ugly fast. The other day I ate some wild apples off someone's tree! Anyways, I got down 24oz SL Hydration/hr and 1 gu/45'. Felt awesome at the end. Training going excellent. Looking forward to the weekend. BV
I also think that adjusting the pacing on your long run, using the treadmill, to eat more allowed you to feel better too. I encourage you to continue trying to eat and drink more is that is the difference between an okay race and a good race.
Friday 25' recovery run.
Saturday: 110mi bike in 6:21. I could not get my P1 to sync to my 510 so I went by HR (bike is at lbs being made race ready and making sure P1 syncs correctly). I was paced by two friends which helped keep down the effort. I'm feeling much more comfortable on the long rides. Food is going down great; one Rice ball/30' and one gu/45'. Also 30oz of Skratch labs/hr. After bike, 45' at bike HR felt very easy; drank every mile and finished 24oz, also one gu @ 20'.
Sunday: 77 mi in 4:30 at race HR. I wanted to do 5rs, but I ran out of hydration and did not want to push it.
Monday: took family to a 4th parade, lots of leisurely walking to stretch out legs.
Looking forward to week 18.
One question: Here is my hydration setup: BTA bottle cage, cage behind saddle, cage on seat tube. On my 33mi RR loops (2hrs) I fill all of them with Skratch labs (24oz/bottle). For the race I have a xlab versa BTA, I'll have one bottle on seat tube and keep rear saddle empty. IMCA says it will have "gatorade". Does not specify bottle type. I am assuming it will be gatorade endurance with the top you can twist open with your mouth. So, start the race with SL in both bottles (maybe one on the rear to throw out when empty?), take a gatorade when needed to accomplish my goal of 30oz/hr. How's that sound? Maybe put 2 more bottles of SL in special needs?
I think that you should carry three bottles on there of scratch...and as you fill up, then replace with Gatorade Endurance.
So you have Front / Tube / Seat all scratch.
You drink front, so fill from Tube.....at aid station you throw tube bottle...move rear to tube. Continue riding with 2 bottles.
Continue drinking Front. Replace with Tube bottle...at next aid station throw tube bottle and replace with GE....bottle.
Then it's GE through the system once you finish Front bottle...until special needs. You might want to fill SN bottles 1/3 with water...tops off...freeze. Then on race AM mix Scratch on top with remaining water...it will melt and be cold by the time you get there.
I would also plan on external salt (recommend Salt Stick pills) in case the gatorade isn't real endurance stuff OR if you need to balance out skratch vs GE...
Keep those update coming!!!!
~ Coach P
you couldn't have asked for a better day of weather for training today. 68 deg, low cloud cover, mild wind out of the north. Slight drizzle off and on.
Got in a 850SCY warm up waiting for my training partner, Josh Underman (who is also doing IMCA and is an amazing swimmer). We did 10 x 400 on a 5:30 base. I avg 1:18s, Josh was about 5sec faster/100. Ended with 200 cool down for 5050yds.
Bike: 2 x 33.4mi loops, one more 45.2 loop to make it an even 112. My goal is to avg 142w, (67.6% FTP) on the bike (It's ok, Josh snickered at that number too. I'm 5'4", 126lbs, He's 6'2" and ripped). 1st loop 142, 2nd loop 138 (Josh asked me to bring it down a little), last loop 145 (Josh said he felt good so I opened it up a little). Fueling went perfect: 10 Rice balls on the 30', 30oz Skratch/hr, 1 gu/hr. Peed every hour. 6:03 moving time. https://www.strava.com/activities/634481939. I'm felling better with the volume after every big ride.
Run was good. We both monitored our HR and had to slow/walk several times to keep it down. One gu at 20', should have had one before the run because I started to feel the onset of bonking but caught it in time. Drank 24oz of scratch. 6 mi in 54:39
I feel pretty good overall, looking forward to getting this last day done.
#1 -- Your attention to detail on the bike, especially the stronger finish (mimics "hard" end of race ride). Looking at Strava from HR perspective you were a "bit hot" in the first lap. On race day you'll need to keep the first 30 minutes low. So your AHR for the ride was 135 but for lap one you were 137...I'd rather you were 133...then build to 135 in lap two and 137 at the end.
#2 -- Keeping that HR down. I agree that you will want food in T2. If you haven't checked out the race nutrition stuff, it's all in here: http://bit.ly/1MZIciR I recommend a small banana in T2!
Onwards!
Great to catch up today. Really appreciate your perspective…
Between now and Hood To Coast you need to freshen up the legs and get ready for some fast running / high efforts. Good news is you have until 8/27 to do that.
I say that you keep up the Transition protocol through the end of next week — that gets you two full weeks of the recovery. Then you have two weeks to get into speed shape… you could load the Get Fast Beginner Plan and do weeks 2+3, but you could also do this:
Monday: Easy run of 30-40 minutes, 6 strides at the end.
Tuesday: Interval run: 4 x 1/2 mile in Zone 4, maximum recovery.
Wednesday: Easy bike day, just spin it out.
Thursday: Hill Bounding day. 8 x 40 seconds, with a 5’ sprint over the top. Video is here: http://bit.ly/2aAt6jN
Friday: OFF
Saturday: is an Hour run with a few 1’ pick ups.
Sunday: Easy short bike ride.
Week Two is the same as above, just Saturday is race day.
Really want to fuel properly between sessions to recover, and light stretching to stay loose. Even a short warm up jog before each leg would help.
As for the four year plan, that’s not so easy to whip up. Can you get me some interim events / goals that you think are feasible and I can start there?
Thanks,
~ Coach P
Ps - Would love to hear more about your entrepreneurial journey…oh, and that nutrition stuff too!!!