Options
Gabe's 2016 Goals
I enjoyed the threads from Coach Patrick and Peter Noyce on their 2016 goals. Taking a page from them, here are my goals and race schedule for 2016.
2016 Race Schedule
2016 Goals
- Regain bike fitness in the outseason. I've done minimal cycling since Boulder 70.3 in June with a 21-week run focus. My FTP was at about 240W in June, but I'd estimate it is maybe 200W now. I'd love tips from the team on building back up.
- Finally learn to swim and break 40 minutes in a 70.3. I've been able to do 1900m in 38 minutes in the pool, but the closet I've come in a race is 43 minutes at Boulder. There is a SwimLabs opening in Sandy not far from my house that a former pro triathlete I know from SLTC is running. I'm planning to do sessions with video analysis to address whatever technique issues are holding me back. I'll also follow Mike Roberts guidance from his gem of a thread. Other recommendations from the team?
- Break 5:30 at St George 70:3 and 5:00 at Boulder 70.3. Last year I went 5:48 and 5:22, respectively. However, I felt like I left at least 10-15 minutes on the course at Boulder due to a nausea issue on the bike and beginning of the run (I later found it was due to a mold deposit in a water bottle that I missed -- I am very allergic to mold). I'll need to get faster in every phase of the race. My transitions are tight. I need to trim about 5 minutes off the swim, 10 minutes off the bike, and 10 minutes off the run.
- Break 11:30 at Ironman Boulder, including running my first sub-4hr IM marathon. This would be over an hour improvement from IM Arizona. The above goal should help with this. I'll need my swim to be 1:20 or below. If I can get back up to 240W or more, then I should be able to do the bike in about 5:30 according to BestBikeSplit (which has been within 5 minutes of predicting all my bike splits). I am expecting my run focus to payout big time on the run, shooting for a sub-4hr marathon, which would be over a 30 minute improvement from IM Arizona.
- Complete my first 50-mile ultramarathon. The 50k I did last week has got me hooked and I want to see how far I can go. Perhaps I'll do a 100-miler in 2017. With the new run focus of EN, it should be straightforward to roll from Ironman training into an ultra, especially if I'm putting in 40+ MPW. I'll mix in trail running to the triathlon training to keep my technical skills up -- and it's just a helluva lot of fun!
- Run R2R2R in the Grand Canyon for my 43rd birthday challenge. This year's challenge was my first ultra, last year was IMAZ, and the year before was my first 70.3 and century ride. I have friends who've run or hiked it, so I'll hit them up for a brain dump. I'm also looking forward to John Withrow's report. Ideally, I'd like to hike it before to scout it out, but not sure where I can fit that in the schedule.
Questions
- I notice Coach Rich is putting on a training camp July 7-10 in Monrovia, CA (my old home town). We still have family and friends in the area, so I would actually earn SAUs by making it a family trip. How does this fit in with the timing for IM Boulder? Is it too close?
- What is the best way to rebuild bike fitness? Like I said above, I have done minimal riding since June. I have a Kickr in my pain cave and a laptop full of Sufferfest videos.
- I'm worried the 7 weeks between IM Boulder and North Face Challenge Park City 50-miler is not enough time. If I do 3 weeks recovery, that give me 2 weeks to peak with 50+ MPW, and then taper for 2 weeks (a 3 week running taper is too much for me -- I go crazy). I am assuming I'd put in a bunch of 40+ miles during the IM Boulder training.
Thanks for reading! Looking forward to hearing from the EN ninjas!
0
Comments
While this was your run building year, it was my bike building year, so I'm happy to share what worked for me. I was able to build my FTP up from ~230 to ~260 by riding lots of hills. Ride the Kicker all winter, but as soon as you can, go outside and ride hills.
Little hills - https://www.strava.com/activities/285576411 and https://www.strava.com/activities/287886332
and big hills - https://www.strava.com/activities/311900926
Sufferfest is great, but for my n=1, nothing beats the real thing!
Clark, great idea on doing R2R with you in May as a preview for R2R2R. I'm guessing R2R2R will have a big recovery cost, but R2R shouldn't be too bad. I'd likely go with the option of meeting you on the North Rim and letting your friend drive my car back. Or I'd leave my car at North Rim the day before and take a shuttle to South Rim to meetup with you guys. Then I could just jump in my car and drive home. Let's definitely stay in touch as the dates nears to firm up plans.
Good advice on the hills. I love the Kickr + TranerRoad + Sufferfest trifecta but will add in hills once winter lifts. I signed up for St George to start the season to scare the crap out of me during the outseason. As Rich says it's a 3/4 Ironman with over 3000ft of climbing on the bike and 1000 ft on the run, which is also usually in the 90F range. That should motivate me to do some gut-buster hills like Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Wow; ambitious and challenging. It will be a tricky dance to keep your body on the right side of the line between fit and over-trained/injured. Some folks have found that taking a mandatory day off each and every week helps in that department.
One thing you don;t comment on is Body Composition. Are you satisfied with your weight and BF%? If not, should;t that be in your goals, along with swimming and bike fitness?
"...I'm worried the 7 weeks between IM Boulder and North Face Challenge Park City 50-miler is not enough time..." Plenty of time as far as recovery goes, as you note yourself elsewhere - the UM pace is "easier" than even an Ironman. You might even consider stripping the taper back to less than 2 weeks, and easing off a bit in the training during that time. More of a run durability rather than a high volume focus.
Good point on the body composition. I've stayed pretty consistent around 168lbs and 12-13% body fat this year. I've been loosely following the approach from Matt Fitzgerald summarized in the below thread. The big change I made this year is upping my carb intake, which caused cognitive dissonance after years of tight restriction. I carefully monitored my weight and BF, expecting to balloon up. To my surprise, there was no weight gain, and I feel like it fueled a big jump in performance.
http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/17454/Default.aspx
That said, I'd like to be at 10% BF. That would put me south of 165lbs. The last time I saw 165 on the scale was after Navy boot camp in 1992, where my ribs where sticking out. I'm pretty diligent about tracking consumption on MyFitnessPal. I'll set it to lose 1lbs per week during the outseason starting next week. I don't like to run a calorie deficit in-season because I run out of energy and tend to get sick when the volume increases on a calorie deficit.
That sounds like a good approach between IM Boulder and the 50-miler. After the St George Marathon, I had some knee issues. I didn't want to end up with tendentious, so I dialed back my volume but kept run frequency up. My biggest week between St George and the 50k was only 38 miles and my longest run was just under 17 miles, but I ran 4-5 times per week with lots of easy 3-mile runs. I felt strong until about mile 30 where I finally hit the wall on the 50k.