New 10wk Get Faster Training Plans
Team,
Patrick and I recently rewrote the Get Faster plans to reflect the many changes we've made to all of our plans since the first GF plans were originally released in about '12 or '13.
The Original Get Faster Plans:
Primarily used for three purposes:
- Post OS and Swim Camp: if you did the NovOS, finished that in early Feb and then didn't need to be in your A-race plan for many more weeks, I would put you in the GF plan after your OutSeason and Swim Camp to (1) keep the flavor of the OS rolling (high intensity, low volume) while (2) adding long bike and long run volume and (3) keeping your head out of place where you think you're training "for" your A-race.
- Our go-to plan for when you're not training "for" a race, or in a gap between A-race training plans. For example, I may have put you in OS --> Swim Camp --> EN*Half --> GF --> EN*Full plans, if there was a large gap between those HIM and IM races.
- The plan I would use for your second or more Olympic race of the season. For example, your TSR may have been OS --> Swim Camp --> Short Course --> GF plan to your second Oly.
Had testing in wks 1 and 8, so if I felt you may need to do testing on the front of back end of the GF plan I could schedule that for you.
The New Get Faster Plans
Will likely be used the same scenarios but the changes we made to the Run Durability / OutSeason plans this year required we make some tweaks to the purpose/structure of these plans. Specifically:
- After 14wks of Run Durability work in the OutSeason, and heavy interval work on the bike at the same time, the GF plan is Patrick's opportunity to make you a faster runner. We therefore (1) focused on the intensity of the running in the plan and (2) dialed down the intensity of the bike to accommodate this running.
- You'll also notice that we included pre-ride brick runs in the GF plan, to give you a head start on learning how to manage these runs, a valuable component to the long course training plans.
- We increased the length of the plans from 8 to 10 weeks, so I could have more weeks of the GF plan to assign to you. I've often found myself wanting to keep you in it longer so this is reflected in the increase to 10wks.
- Deemphasized or eliminated formal testing. In general, where Patrick and I are at these days is that we've learned by the time you've got 14wks of the OS plan under your belts, and exposure to how the rest of the team manages their own training, you're pretty much able to figure out on your own when you do/do not need to test and reset your training zones. So what you'll probably see across all of the plans and our conversations in the forums is guidance like "if you need you need to test, do _this_. Otherwise, do _that_."
Finally, our method of launching the Get Faster plans was to automatically replace the old GF plan you had previously loaded into your account with the new GF plan, while keeping the same end date. Also, I created many, many TSRs for the team when the GF plan was original 8wks, before we thought of and made this change to 10wks.
Here is my guidance for how to manage these changes:
- If you have previously loaded the GF plan and now you're in a different week than you expected or were supposed to be: please just follow the GF plan as it is in your training plan account.
- If you have not yet loaded the GF plan into your account but you have a TSR from me that says to load the plan on Date X to end on Date Y: please continue to follow this guidance in the TSR, with no changes.
- If doing ^this^ puts you into a testing week when you didn't otherwise expect to be in one:
- Do you feel you need to do test and reset your training zones? Then simply do the swim, bike, and/or run tests in place of the scheduled interval session(s).
- Don't feel you need to test? Then don't test, substituting a swim, bike, or run interval session for the scheduled test. Just look forward or back in your plan a week and pick the one you feel like doing.
Do you have questions about the new 10wk Get Faster plans?
Please post those here in this thread
Do you have questions about you and GF plans that are not answered in my bullets above?
Please post those individual questions to the Micro or Macro Forums, NOT to this thread.
Thanks!
Comments
Thanks for the update. The change put me in a testing week, but aligning with your advice I'm regarding the test as optional and a strong substitute for an interval session. In my case I'm fresh on my swim and bike tests coming out of OS, but never did a test or race representative of where I'm at in the run. So I plan on heading to the track on Thursday morning if it's not too cold (looking good at this point). After that I've already changed my TrainingPeaks account (I track my calendar there by cut/pasting to the TP calendar).
All is good. Thanks!
As week 5 is suppose to be testing and Im fresh out of the OS, I will probably do the workouts I would do in week 3 for this week and jump back on the scheduled wkout for week 6.
Im sure those changes will make us uh.. faster ?
This explains why my workouts are so different. Honestly, I was a little freaked out by the whole thing. One day I was in a regular work week, then, the next day, I am in a test week. I wasn't sure what part of the Matrix i had just eneted. Thanks. I love the new additions. I will let you know how they feel in a few weeks.
Todd
Those were hold overs that slipped through the cracks...thanks for catching them...all fixed!
Thanks for the update. I thought I had entered a time warp and missed several weeks! The run durability continuation is great.