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2016 IM Canada Week 13- Bike Focus
Week 13 - Knowledge burst
Does anyone have a 70.3 this weekend? Coaches like to have you break up your race season into A, B, C races and this is traditionally the last weekend you can have a 70.3 leading up to your full.
This week is a Bike Focus Week. Coaches have strategically put in some volume bumps within the plan to prepare you for your race! This will be a chance for your to push your boundries in cycling. So what do you have on your plan for cycling this week? Going anywhere beautiful and exciiting to enjoy the time outside?
A couple more notes: Make sure you are tweaking your nutrition plan as needed if the weather around you is getting HOT!!
Camp is in two weeks - see how this is going to work into your schedule. If you are coming to LP Camp I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU!! Any questions, don't hesitate to ask myself or Coach P. So now I turn it over to the fantastic Canada Crew- I want to hear all about your training weekend and what you learned.
Let me know if you need ANYTHING at all!! Let’s GET IT!!
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The trip gave me some time to step away from the training plan to reassess my situation and how I got here. This is my second injury in 2 months. It is time for some changes.
- I am too old to not warm up prior to an early morning run. I plan to treadmill walk/jog or bike before any early am running, which will reduce my running time to accomodate.
- The beginning of any run will be on flats/treadmill for at least a mile or 2 before elevation gains.
- I will be cutting something out to make time for some strength training. Currently I do none.
- I plan to rearrange my running plan, substituting some straight-up easy running to the mix. Like Z1 or less. At the end of my OS I ran a PR half marathon 1:32 with the first 4-5 miles at 6:30s, finishing with 7:10-7:20s. That effort put my VDOT at 49, and the resulting pace calculator puts my z2 at 7:24 - which is just too fast to be considered 'easy' for me. My version of easy is closer to 7:5X, but even that is a tug. I think my 'do no harm' pace is 8:15-8:30, and I have spent exactly 0 minutes at that pace over the past month, unless going straight up a hill with a z3-z4 HR.
- Hills seem to be my primary nemesis. Both injuries occured running up and down hills. Oddly, neither injury declared itself until after the hill run. I know hills are important, IM StG gave me a firm lesson on that point. I think more gradual inclines than what I have been doing will help. Not sure.
Looking at Friday, I can only laugh! 4.5 hours! This advanced plan is cra. I am going to have to quit my job to do this...
mike. glad you are not too bike injured. I will be indoors until a couple shake-out riders closer to the race. just the way that works best for me. Kickr and go.
paul. you do a nice job of mixing it up.
doug. hang in there. your run thoughts sound reasonable. you have become a fast runner quickly and that may be catching up. I am saving big volume bike and run weeks closer to the race. I can not survive recovery-wise otherwise.
generally going well for me. the vasa swimmer seems to be working well. have been doing low swim volumes as I mentioned. but did 5000 m yesterday - 3/5 with floaty Roka shorts. tolerated the swim well.
@ Doug - Bike and run on Friday are low priority. I will drop the run. Looking ahead to Week 18 I near choked. I will pull that up to 4th of July weekend so I can start my taper a little earlier. I think I need a little longer at my age.
@ Robin - I reserved a room for Ironman South Africa today. Host hotel and closest hotels are booked, but I got one within 6 blocks. I may see if the host hotel has a waiting list for drops that are sure to occur.
Robin and Paul, glad to hear the training is going well. I've thought about the Vasa as an alternative to pool time. But for me I think it's technique I need as much as fitness.
I've had a good start to the week. 4000m swim on Monday, and 3000m with buoyancy shorts yesterday. I could feel the fatigue in my shoulders yesterday and I cut back the swim a little, trying to be careful. I'm hoping to get into the lake for the first time on Friday, so I can get in 1-2 OWS before Victoria.
10 hours of biking in the plan for me this week -- we'll see how that feels on Sunday. The weather is looking good for the weekend rides for once, sunny and "hot" (meaning highs in the 80s with 50% humidity...nothing like Florida).
@ Mike -50% humidity is an oxymoron. That is bone dry!
I think, and removal of the stimulus is rather depressing
Wed PM - did an hour on the bike. I wasn't up for 2x20 at FTP, but I did 3 x 10 mins pushing up the wattage on each set. Success!
mike. yes vasa not helpful for technique.
doug. well we are supposed to be doing this all for fun. so wherever the funness factor points you.
paul. I have a full iron year this year. will keep my April 2017 plans open for now. South Africa does not sell out ?
So I am calling it quits on IM victoria unfortunately. This damn ankle has punched at least a 10 day hole in my IMC build. Super depressing watching the PMC go backwards.
But my taco making skillz are coming along. No way to chart that!
My left foot isn't great but is hanging in there, and I was able to run 7 miles this morning and another 7 miles tonight. The weather was the biggest challenge. Our low was 77 this morning with a high of 92 and very sticky. I took one bottle with me this morning and had to walk at 5.5 miles, then jog a half and walk-jog some more until the end. Tonight, I took a double fuel belt and walked some after each mile to get a good drink. That made a big difference.
I plan on biking outdoors this weekend but the really challenge is to do it the heat and humidity we are having.
I saw a sports med doc today. He gave me the green light to do an easy run, but then 48hrs off running. Having survived 3 easy spinners, so I am going for a long ride tomorrow after a run, see if I can right the ship here a bit . If all goes well, will do a bike swim Sunday... high hopes!
Similar to last Saturday, I have to make a tradeoff between sleep and heat. It's going to be hot anyway so I slept in (somewhat), and then drove to the trails for a 5 mile run starting at 7:45am. Low this morning was 78 with oppressive humidity due to a tropical depression/potential storm coming this way Monday ... like a heat pump pulling tropical moisture from the Caribbean. It took awhile to rehydrate from that and I made it out the door to bike at 1030 am with the heat index climbing to 115 today. I got in 100 with IF at .72. 5:16 net of stops...4 gas stations for ice and gatorade and 2 stops to cool off my feet. I averaged about 50 oz fluid per hour and didn't take a leak until I was home. Man it was HOT!!
Hit the bike early. First half I nailed - 2.5hrs, 51miles, NP very close to my target (hit 214, goal was 210, IF 0.79), HR in check. Stopped for g-aid, then the wheels fell of a bit. I got another 40 minutes in before front tube blew. Got it changed, the second tube blew before I got the wheel back on the bike. Put another tube on it successfully, 20 minutes later the ride became bumpy. I noticed the tire bulging laterally at the valve site. Called in the wife to rescue me rather than attempt another hour. In total I got 4 hours and 76 miles in today, though the last 5 were super slow hoping the tire would not blow again which make the stats look less than glorious.
Prologue: took the wheel to LBS, he tells me I failed to seat the tube deep enough into the tire at the valve site. Duh. I take it home, inflate the tube he placed - it blows out. I put another tube on - it blows (4 tubes thus far). I now inspect the tire - find the culprit, a tear with a sharp thing stuck. Pull the tire, replace the tire (which I bought from the LBS just in case the mechanic was wrong). Placed a 5th, brand new tube - it blows! 5 tube day! I check the rim, nothing there. The 6th tube is now in place all seems well, and I will try to get a 5hr ride in tomorrow - with a single spare tube!
Doug same thing happened to me other than I couldn't find anything wrong with the rim, wheel tape, nor tire. I came to the conclusion of faulty tubes around the valve stem area due to all of the tubes I bought at my LBS had the same blow out site. I took the tubes back to the LBS and they gave me an over sized tube for my 23 rear tire and I haven't had a problem since (3 months). It's very frustrating.
Yesterday's heat fried me and I didn't roll out of bed until 9:45am! I hit the pool first in case storms came through later (they did) and just did 1800 mixed effort including 4 x 25 butterfly because it's so hard! I couldn't do 2 days in a row outside so ended up on the trainer for 3hrs 6 mins -- first doing Spinervals #41, Ascending Mts for hard hill effort, then watching a movie mostly in medium Z2.
For the week, I put in 16,000 yards swimming, 264 miles on the bike, 25 miles running and 1 x 45 min weight session. That was a huge effort for me.
I have the same issues with high VI. Between downhills, narrow paths, and traffic, there is a limit to how hard I can push for a lot of the ride. I just go hard when I can to keep my NP up, and don't worry about the average power as much. I found I was still able to race pretty smoothly (VI 1.04 on a hilly course) even though that isn't how my long rides go.
The weekend was hot! Both rides peaked at over 90. A good chance to practice hydration in the heat. Saturday I had five bottles (four on the bike, one in the jersey) and still lost a couple of pounds. My stomach was at the limit of what it could absorb; I don't know whether it was too much fluid or too many calories (about 2,000 calories in 5 hours). Next time it's this hot I'll dilute the bottles more. Saturday I took a hillier route than usual to avoid a big bike event, and ended up with 6,000 feet of climbing in 75 miles. Sunday was my "flat" ABP route with 1,800 feet in 40 miles. Overall 10.5 hours of cycling in the week.
@Robin - I live in UP just north of Chamber Bay GC waterside. I have two main routes - south into steilicum then to Rainier/Yelm are, or across bridge up into GH and PO. I would like to try out the routes north, to black diamond/auburn, but wary of riding through Tacoma to do it. You would school me, but we should hook up for a ride!
doug. those two routes are my main ones. Levee road to the Orting trail is nice but hard to get a good workout with the walkers. I will be inside until Canada though but thanks.