Pat Koss' Micro: Lead in to IM Chattanooga
Hope all is well with you Patrick.
Been going from week to week and workout to workout. Feel overall pretty good but still following up with doctors from my hospital stay June 12 at the Grand Rapids, MI 70.3. The follow-up tests have caused one doctor to question a few things, but in my mind I suspect that he is just not used to dealing with endurance athletes. Above and beyond that the whole June 12 matter still messes with my head regarding how healthy it is for me to be doing such intensity at age 61.
Anyway that's where I'm at overall.
Specific question: I'm currently in Week 12. This past weekend was to be Big Day 2 but that got blown up due to the extreme heat here in Arkansas and an unexpected work night on Friday night. I did get the 4 hour bike in but completely missed the swim and the run (there was no way I would run in the heat we had here). The bike overall was a good experience on execution. I got a little loopy (confused) in the last 15 minutes. Overall my weight was pretty much +/- 0 or nearly so so I'm just chalking it up to the heat (7 24 oz GE's in 4 hours). So, with the Chattanooga camp coming up in 10 days, Would you recommend that I just put the Big Day 2 behind me and focus on the upcoming volume workouts, still focusing on execution within each, or go back and replay the Big Day 2 this coming Saturday (before the Chattanooga camp).
Comments
Skip the big day and move on...plenty of work to do in CHOO regardless!!!
Side note -- let's make sure you are getting enough calories in (not just fluids) so that you are 100%....CHOO would be a great place to practice that!!!
Dynamite weekend with Rich in Chattanooga. I've never done anything like that before. Learned a lot and never have put in a 20 hour training week!.
Just to confirm what I think I heard in Rich's talk from Saturday evening...
Plus any other input you would have for me.
thx...pat
The other stuff is fine but on the Week 15 stuff that's really your first Race Rehearsal. So we want a swim then ride 6h/112mi (whichever first) and then a short run....what you do on the Sunday after doing that ^above^ is totally up to you...some folks just need to rest....others can get in "some" kind of aerobic ride.
Let me know what you think!
~ Patrick
Took two days off and had an hour before work this morning to do a 2 x 15' on the bike. Planned to keep the low in the z4 range and came in at 0.96 and 0.97 IF respectively, and that in 99% humidity on the trainer outside. Felt good about that and after that. Could have done more but had an 8am conference call.
Will target the Week 14 workouts (full IM intermediate) for the rest of the week. Thursday I'll see how I feel in the morning before deciding on the Thursday long run. Unless I feel VERY good I'll move it to Sunday and probably bag the ABP ride. If I do move the long run to Sunday I'll probably fill in with some pool time.
~ Coach P
Saturday and Sunday here in Arkansas have been very atypical. Instead of being 95 to 105 as it usually is in August, it has rained ALL weekend. Saturday I got out for 55 mile bike ride in the rain in the hills. That was good in that it gave me confidence in my current bike status to know that if it rains at Chattanooga, I can do this, and how to adjust.
Sunday (Today) was that long run I deferred. I took the 2 hours on the schedule for Thursday, looked up my marathon partner, Alison, and mapped out a Chattanooga run ascent simulation course. One of my friends (and an EN'er, Heather Bender) locally who did Chattanooga in 2015 said she wished she had run hills and named a local hill (Overlook) as one that she would run. So the course was pretty flat over the Big Dam Bridge along the Arkansas River for 7 miles and back over the BDB (as we call it). Kept the heart rate fully in check for this first part (but then not so much
So 7.5 miles in then came Overlook. The run last Sunday with Rich in Chattanooga was 698 feet of ascent in 13.1 miles, and the run from today was 916 feet in 11.6 miles. A little more aggressive on the Overlook ascent, but I'm pretty pleased. Plus Alison finished a 35 mile week with this one. She trains on the hills up Overlook. She was in full on BEAST mode, pacing me the whole way, bringing us in at about a 10:35 overall pace. What a friend! (sure miss running marathons with her)
What do you think? Too aggressive on the hills for the long run? (doesn't look like the graphic, which showed in the editor made it to the post. The elevation profile is in the last 4 miles of the run, otherwise pancake flat and is more aggressive than Chattanooga)
Ps for intervals, you need to use the "attachment" section BELOW your reply post (not the actual icon above the text window).
BTW, I've never much used the Micro forum for dialog with you before. I like this. It helps a lot.
Building your own course sounds perfect. The better you can be at executing race like conditions, the better your race performance will be, period.
Feel free to post the link here if you want me to check it out.
Glad you like the forums...game on!
~ Coach P
Took your advice and just ran short loops (2-3 miles) from the house. Completely changed up the hydration. Drank a mix of GE and water to the tune of just over a gallon of fluids in the first 9 miles, one salt cap per hour and assorted gu's and clif shot blox. Also tried a ginger candy recommended to me by an ultra runner to settle stomach. Everything worked. Where normally in the summer I've been down 2 to 4.5 lbs on a 168lb base, today I was +/- 0 and could have gone longer but was late to get to work. Where in the past I was walking a lot in the last third of the run, today the only walk was to tear off the wrapper on that damn ginger candy
. This could have been my best summer run ever. Oh, the course is just the hills in my neighborhood.
In four Ironman's I have never had a good run and always been very sick. Today gave me hope. If I can run this once, I can do it again. A radical change in the hydration plan was the key. I have hope now that in Chattanooga I can do better.http://tpks.ws/jGCag
Also found another, little less aggressive simulation of the Chattanooga Barton run (flat then up). Pretty easy to repeat that. Had fun Sunday when I just ran the 2nd Barton simulation route (have had so much rain that I had no desire to ride in the rain any more). In Little Rock we have the perfect hills to simulate Chattanooga.
More rain scheduled for early Saturday. Probably going to move the 4K swim to early Friday if its not storming, and then do the 5 hr ride/run on Saturday and 3 hr ride Sunday.
Thanks Patrick.
Have a great weekend,
~ Coach P
Just a quick update. I'm taking advantage of the holiday and rearranging a bit. Shifting the 18 miler to run a 2x9 Chattanooga hills simulation course early Sunday morning before church. The weather is going to break here away from heat/humidity and we are riding 112 on Saturday so I liked the idea of running on tired legs to focus on execution and form. Ran 8 this morning more as a JRA (His, Hers, His). The middle was 3 with Virginia as I am working to get her volume back up with running season approaching.
Saturday will be 112 in the west central Arkansas hills. I think we will do 4K in ascent with a few climbs and descents. More aggressive than the Chattanooga hills.
I'm going to shift the Sunday ABP to the Monday holiday. Then swim on Tuesday for the last full week!
Have a great weekend.