Todd's Summer Micro Management
Sorry about dropping this in your lap, but looking for a little guidance. My life will be getting a little hectic after father's day for eight weeks and I am trying to figure out to best manage my training load. So here goes... I will be traveling every monday morning and Thursday evening for 8 weeks. It means that is I keep my normal routine i will only have 1 wo on Mon night. regular tues, wed and Only Thursday morning. However, I will have all day FRI-SUN to do as I please. So here is my thoughts. MonPM weather permitting long swim outdoors in 50M pool. tues usual hard bike and brick run. Wed hard swim and a run. Thurs long run. i will not be able to split run as i have been doing but likely work up to 2 hours max. At my paces that is 17+ and it is hard to be effective the rest of the day after that. The weekend I will keep as normal but Friday Is open. I will have access to open water swims each of the weekends so was thinking of adding an easy bike to get some miles and hopefully an OWS. Does that seem too much. To be honest, I haven't looked at the IM plan but figure it's likely still the same. Also, It looks as though I might have to cancel the 70.3 I was going to do. I have an olympic planned for later in the summer. I just can not find one that fits into the training schedule. Thoughts? Thanks as always for your help. next time I will try to use paragraphs. 
Todd
Comments
I think your plan is good for sure. Here is my suggestion given the free-er weekend...
Mon - long swim outdoors in 50M pool
Tues - drill swim + FTP run
Wed - usual hard bike and brick run
Thu - Long Run no more than 2 hours.
Fri - Swim Early if possible (can be short like 30'), then do the Saturday Long Ride (no run)
Sat - ABP ride from Sunday (group?), Brick Run of like 30'.
Sun - OWS followed by an aerobic run (easy, not hard) between 60 and 90 minutes.
Note -- FTP ride on Wed to accommodate TH long run and Fri/Sat rides. If you want more ride time you can beef up the Sat with aerobic time. I like the swim / run option on Sunday---the OWS and the EASY I SAID EASY DAMMIT run should be more active recovery, and you can always drop the run, just swim to recover. OR swap Sat/Sun if needed...I really like the swing day.
That said, you COULD pick one or two weekends to go bigger in that window. Like back to back big bike weekends for a volume pop there...totally your call on how you want to rack up the stress...I can help you plan that out too!
Patrick, I hope all is well. I have made a few subtle tweaks to the plan as we talked about before, but it is mostly as we discussed. Thanks again for your guidance. As I start my final race prep I was hoping to fine tune my goals as well as ask a question if I could.
For the race, IMMOO, my main goal is execution. I don't feel I have had a great IM in some time independent of my fitness level. I recently retested and have some tangible number to work with. I hope you can look at them and provide me some thoughts on what I should be aiming for . My swim is better than ever. While I know the Red Mist swim is not an exact indicator or time or success my last one started at 1:27 and went down. SCY. My indoor FTP on my bike was 282 and I seem to be about 10 Watts faster outside. So I would be at 3.98 W/Kg My recent run on the track was an avg of 5:45. So let me know what you think realistic goal times might be.
My question is abut pace. I am beginning to stalk strava and I see people who are historically at my level or faster posting their run times. When I look at there pases they seem to be doing whole runs in Zone 1 or 2. Is that something I should be doing. The upper tempo really takes a toll on me more than anything and would love to drop it down because I do not know how much speed I will pick up in the next 12 weeks.
I am sure I will be a pain in you side up until race, but as I said i am REALLY training and working for this one. Thanks. Also, you have to add the Red/Pink Mist into the EN protocol. It fits everything you do, quick, repeatable and it generally works!
Todd
I can't remember what you do for a living, and I bet you're about as good at predicting the future as I am. :-) I don't know what those times you yield for you on race day, but I will tell you that you are very very fit. And, should you be able to pace yourself, stay healthy for your training, and execute like a ninja on race day, you will be very fast. So we start with the deck stacked in your favor.
When you look at the new full distance training plans, you should see that our majority of the runs are at TRP pace which is a sweet spot between zone one and zone two. I believe this effectively answers the question you are asking.
Yes, we have found that while the intensity makes you fit, that fitness usually brings fatigue. Fatigue that interferes the ability to build and sustain the endurance to be successful and competitive on Race Day. This is one of the biggest changes we made in our training plans for the season. Definitely skip ahead and take a look!!
So. I guess I'll keep plugging away but wonder how you would approach next week for me. I think it will be week 15. I'll have Sunday-Saturday off of work. I figure I'll swim when I can, run at least 2 times in addition to the long run, but am lost as far as the swim. I want to try to rack up
Some miles but would likely due better with 5x50-75 as opposed to 2 x 100.
Also. How bad is it if I start to do all my pool
Swims 50% + with a pull buoy. My weird kick seems to aggravate my tendinitis.
Thanks as always for the help and I am Hoping that this note finds you tired from some kind of work out.
Todd
Ps this was done from my cell phone. Forgive my errors.
1) Swim frequency is key..and you don't need to kick in a wetsuit, so just pull it out so you don't bug that.
2) Let me know if ALL runs or Runs After "X" Time bother the knee....if we need to rest it a bit, now is the time.
3) With that time off, I'd go swim bike week. Swim early, then bike off it. It's HARD (even with a break to get kids to school if required) and very race specific. My personal favorite is 2 mile OWS followed by 3 hours at ABP....really makes race day feel EASY....If you want to outline your Week 15 with swim options, do it here and we'll crack the code!
I hope this note finds your health improving. As usual I am in that empty time after an IM and am looking for your thoughts. So you know it wasn't the same without you at IM Wisconsin. The R & P show is hard to match. I had a very good race in Madison but not a great race. I went 10:33, under some strange circumstances. My swim which had been strong was a little weak, my bike was fast but at very easy Watts and my run let me down a little.
Anyway.... I promised the family no IM next year but really want to keep/improve my fitness. I am planning to focus on Olympics and 1 or 2 1/2' IM's next year. I just can not sit still,for long. I was hoping for some guidance on if you think that is most beneficial looking ahead to a all in 2 IM year the following year. Also, I seem to recall you looking at IM bike files and tearing them apart in very constructive ways. Can you do that based on my strava file? Thanks as always for your thoughts.
Todd
Every race is unique, but I did see your run and wondered what happened. Would be good to see your race report so I can capture fueling execution, etc. You can post that link here too.
We can brainstorm out the year for sure...give me some guidance...
1) I recommend some epic cycling fun...are there events in your hood, if so when / what?
2) I'd recommend one half...ideally late in summer like August...what do you think?
3) let's plan on an early season half mary at the end of your OS...
4) How much recovery time do you need for the fam / your body?
~ Coach P