Carole H 2016 Macro Forum

Carole Harbison

Hi Coach Rich-

Brand new member off the trial period last week, so while waiting for my season roadmap I have a couple questions (yes, already! ). For context, big race of the year is IMLP (my first) with Quassy tuneup.

I swim on Wednesdays with a group (though May), which I'd really like to continue doing- we do about 2300 yrd in an hour, so is within the volume of the workouts in the plans that I've been looking at. Is it ok to swap around days to make that happen as long as I keep the general organizational scheme of the week is intact--eg don't bike 4 days in a row, still keep an even mix of workouts across the week?

Also, I notice it's a feature of your plans not to have very many days off scheduled in. This goes a bit against the "always one day off per week" dogma I'm familiar with, so I'm curious, do you just assume that people will be missing enough workouts to get one rest day a week or in your experience have people kept to most/all the workouts and been alright with training straight through the week? Especially if I'm rearranging things a bit, I'd want to find that sweet spot balance between getting every workout in but maybe overtraining and skipping too many workouts and losing out on potential fitness gains. I want to put in as much as possible for IMLP, but have a stubborn tendency to do everything on a plan even when it's not the best idea to do so (like practically every triathlete, ever). 

Thanks! Looking forward to getting this season going! So far I just jumped into "get faster week 2" while waiting for the season roadmap since I did threshold tests similar to yours in January already. 

Coach Rich

Hey Carol,

I'm at Starbucks right now before the game, getting this done for you. Notes:

- Yes, fine to do that Wed swim.
- Day off: we've developed our weekly template (how Monday fits with Tues, works with Wed, etc) across thousands of athletes. I think you'll find that you may not "need" a day off. That is, we've done a very good job of scheduling recovery into each week by paying very close attention to how each day works with the days around it.

Good luck!

Carole Harbison

Cool, thanks for uploading this, during the Superbowl no less! Hopefully you didn't get any nacho cheese on your computer. So arrgh sorry, I think I already made a mistake in not entering Rev3 Quassy right on the table so it doesn't appear on the plan (a sprint tri I must have entered is in that spot instead). Will that change anything?
Also, the only Get Faster Intermediate plan I see is 8 weeks long, of which I'm on week 2 now (roadmap shows it as spanning the next 10 weeks). Do I repeat a couple weeks in the middle somewhere or should I switch over to something else?
Also also, I was considering doing the Lake Placid training camp with you guys if it fit in, but it is one week BEFORE my 1st race rehearsal/high volume weekend is scheduled and it's also only 4 days after I'd be racing Quassy. Should I take the LP camp off the table for this season? It sounds fun, but maybe too much to cram in.
Thanks, and sorry for the mixup on my end scheduling, will try to be more careful in the future!!

Coach Rich

Posted By Carole Harbison on 07 Feb 2016 08:12 PM


Cool, thanks for uploading this, during the Superbowl no less! Hopefully you didn't get any nacho cheese on your computer. So arrgh sorry, I think I already made a mistake in not entering Rev3 Quassy right on the table so it doesn't appear on the plan (a sprint tri I must have entered is in that spot instead). Will that change anything? Are you doing the half Ironman or Olympic?

Also, the only Get Faster Intermediate plan I see is 8 weeks long, of which I'm on week 2 now (roadmap shows it as spanning the next 10 weeks). Do I repeat a couple weeks in the middle somewhere or should I switch over to something else?  Please watch the screencast on your TSR page, in which I explain this. 

Also also, I was considering doing the Lake Placid training camp with you guys if it fit in, but it is one week BEFORE my 1st race rehearsal/high volume weekend is scheduled and it's also only 4 days after I'd be racing Quassy. Should I take the LP camp off the table for this season? It sounds fun, but maybe too much to cram in. If you do the LP camp weekend that will take the place of that RR weekend in the training plan.



Thanks, and sorry for the mixup on my end scheduling, will try to be more careful in the future!!

Carole Harbison

I'm doing the half ironman at Quassy, which is what's making me wonder if doing the camp right after that would be too much in that short span. 

Also, I get an error message where the screencast should be (since this is my first time I didn't really know what was supposed to be there), I'm  not sure if it's a browser issue but I'll check in with tech help about that, thanks! 

Coach Rich

Posted By Carole Harbison on 08 Feb 2016 01:44 PM

I'm doing the half ironman at Quassy, which is what's making me wonder if doing the camp right after that would be too much in that short span. You should be ok, just need to "rest hard" Mon-Wed before the camp. 

Also, I get an error message where the screencast should be (since this is my first time I didn't really know what was supposed to be there), I'm  not sure if it's a browser issue but I'll check in with tech help about that, thanks! Not sure what going on but try viewing it from this link: http://www.screencast.com/t/YWPMUbiV

No changes required to your TSR for the addition of Quassy Half. 

Carole Harbison

Thanks for the updated TSR! Same problem with the screencast--trying multiple computers, multiple browsers I get the same error such that I can't view the video, do you mind forwarding the link again? That worked just fine last time.

Coach Rich

Posted By Carole Harbison on 10 Feb 2016 10:28 AM


Thanks for the updated TSR! Same problem with the screencast--trying multiple computers, multiple browsers I get the same error such that I can't view the video, do you mind forwarding the link again? That worked just fine last time.

Hey Carol, sorry for the delay. I think this is it?

Carole Harbison

Hi Rich- I'm in full planning mode and am looking forward to next season. I know I want to do two half IMs (partner vetoed doing another full until 2018 ) but am wondering if there's an "optimal" spacing between them. Timberman (Aug21 this year, assume will be similar next year) seems like a great option but then would want another one, probably early season. St Croix maybe (was May 1 this year) but that's pretty early. There are a few in early June (Eagleman, Hawaii), would that be better from a season planning standpoint, or does it not really matter? Thinking about time to build for the first, recover, and peak higher for the second one, taking into account that there's no OWS around boston till mid-late May at best.

Thanks!! Looking forward to an awesome 2017 and EN year 2!

Coach Rich

Hey Carole, I'd say that ~8wks between IMs is more than enough to do what you describe, but 3-4wks is the minimum.