2016 IM Louisville- Week 12- Testing
Week 12 - Be a Scientist
Heyyyy Louisville Crew! Hope everyone had a great BIG DAY!! Let’s hear about it!!
This week is a test week. The coaches want us to focus on the following:
- Measure
- Gather Data
- Don’t forget to Sweat Test
When you head to an Ironman event, you will see lots of athletes suffer because they did not know something as simple as having a nutrition plan. However- in the “haus”, EN’rs know how important EXECUTION is because we practiced and show up prepared. Lots of little things can take a toll on you over 140.6 miles. Having muscles be so tight on the run from poor form on the bike. Not knowing sodium totals to account for the change in temperature on the course. Not knowing their power meter numbers, not knowing their heart rate numbers in case power meter fails, etc. Coach Patrick has said how important it is to have multiple "A games" because so many things can change within a race. This is what we talk about when we say "stay inside your box" You can adapt and change to the things outside of your control on the course but that comes from testing, gathering data about your body, how it reacts to nutrition, heat, cold, rain etc. And those results are gathered now. Be a scientist, a student of your body as an athlete in this sport. This is another reason why posting in the forum and weekly training recaps is critical!!!
Here are the sweat test rules in case you forgot or haven't done one in awhile
1) Weigh yourself nude right before a run.
2) Run at race pace for one hour, keeping track of how much you drink (in ounces) during the run.
3) After the run, strip down, towel off any sweat, and weigh yourself nude again.
4) Subtract your weight from your prerun weight and convert to ounces. Then add to that number however many ounces of liquid you consumed on your run. (For example, if you lost a pound and drank 16 ounces of fluid, your total fluid loss is 32 ounces.)
5) To determine how much you should be drinking about every 15 minutes, divide your hourly fluid loss by 4 (in the above example it would be 8 ounces).
6) Because the test only determines your sweat losses for the environmental conditions you run in that day, you should retest on another day when conditions are different to see how your sweat rate is affected. You should also redo the test during different seasons, in different environments (such as higher or lower altitudes), and as you become faster, since pace also affects your sweat rate.
P.S. Ya'll Rock - Now go out there and crush it!
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Comments
It was a HUGE confidence boost to get through 114. My longest ride going in was 75 miles - it really wasn't that bad to jump up that much.
For me the swim needs the most work - hopefully adding another swim or two will improve my confidence.
For the run, I did 50' and I live rural / residential so choosing a course that had ample hill was not a problem. Over the past few weeks, I've seen some really nice gains on the run even though I am run light due to my knees. Just need to keep on doing what I am doing and know that I will go into LOU ready!
Looking forward to reading everyone's check in!
Cheers!
If the fatigue persists then I'll push the long run to Sunday and drop the planned 3-hour ABP ride. Yes, it's going to be a tough few weeks - I think a key to success is how well we adapt to what our bodies say versus what the plan says.
I am not doing any of the testing at this point. I think to get a good number on either the bike or run, I would need a day of rest and that is not in the cards. Just doing the intensity instead. Actually had a great bike intensity this week.
Moved my long split run today. Was tough getting in the second one - I like to get most of my work done in the am. My daughter got dinner ready and I got in my pm run. I havent decided which I like less, one long run or 2 runs in a day. Our weather in Chicago has been hot and humid. Getting some runs done on treadmill as it is much cooler.
I got the first SR done this morning. I plan to do either trails or the treadmill for SR 2 this evening. Still not sure whether I've recovered from all the Chattanooga Camp volume ... trying to get extra sleep to get rid of this zombie-like feeling.
Trent indicated he may come down Friday and ride Saturday. If that weekend works for anyone else let me know.