2016 IM Louisville- Week 16- Recover/Swim

Laura Becker

Week 16 Rest/Run Focus/ Swim up a storm!
WOW WOW WOW!! SO impressed with the mojo in this group! I LOVE IT!!! Shout and welcome to Danielle and Trent! SO excited you guys are here @Beth I loved your happy dance posts. Congrats on your week.  @ Paul-- you are a rockstar with sharing so much good info and helping everyone out!! This group is the BEST!!!!  I loved reading about your plans and seeing some more posts in the forum!! KEEP IT UP!!!So this week has a few pretty important notes.


Mandatory for Camp Week Completers!  You must rest to consolidate the work you have done. If you did NOT complete camp week, you may do the workouts listed beginning on MONDAY.


It also is a Run Focus Week! If possible, aim for 6 to 10 miles more than your "typical" week by either inserting another run day or adding a small amount to every run you do. BUT this is entirely optional, it simply plays into the coaches separate build / taper approach for managing fitness by discipline across your Race Prep phase.




This week you will also have another 4200 yard swim (which will be seen in the following weeks as well).  These can be  used as Swim Race Rehearsals.  Here are a few notes about that…..


Anything that takes your mind off of your swimming form is counter productive


Your primary pacing tool is counting your strokes allows you to focus on technique and you will be in a pace where you can maintain


Set yourself up for the artificiality of the chaos the swim start will have on race day — rather than warm up (since you most likely won’t have that on race day) dive in and swim faster to replicate how it will be on race day then drop into your race pace- however pay attention that you aren’t dropping into a pace that is slower than your goal race pace


You will never be able to fully replicate the “washing machine effect” like race day but work on your mental focus for that effect. Focus on your legs and try not to kick too much.


Only swim as fast as your ability to maintain form.


Practice siting : 50 meter pool site 2x per 50
                         25 meter pool site 1x per 25
                         OWS use judgement  
Only site with your eyes so you don’t drop no chin out of the water
** Alternative **
You COULD just do this--- Train like you Race (Funny )

Keep crushing it Louisville Crew!!!!-- so proud of you all

Paul Curtin

With all the focus on last week's race rehearsal, I didn't pay as much attention to yesterday's workouts ... it was a long day! Actually had a better day than last Saturday because I did the swim beforehand. I could feel the fatigue when starting the bike ... took about 20 minutes to adjust.

The run was super-hard ... my legs were trashed after all those 25' Z3 sets on the bike. Waiting for the body to wake up before hitting it again today. It's cooler here so I'm not in any hurry to get out there.

Paul Curtin

Got through today's workouts, the cooler weather helped. I did an extra swim before the bike just to keep getting used to the feeling of starting the bike with a groggy head. The ride went fine (mostly). Made a nutrition mistake by drinking too much GE without the right balance of water, and it cost me on the run. I need to adjust with a higher water balance the last hour of the ride - maybe even all water and gels.

steven cummings

I made it through 90% of last week's workouts. I have somehow developed knee pain that is only occuring when I am on the bike. It started the Wednesday after Camp weekend so I'm not sure if it's just overuse or what. Rode 105 miles Sunday but was in some pain by mile 75 so my power started dropping which led to coasting a lot. I've never really dealt with an injury through 3 previous IM's so this is new territory. Just trying to ice and rest it today. Fingers crossed this thing clears up.

Paul Curtin

steven - definitely get to a doc or sports-med place and get it looked at. also get to your bike fitter or LBS and have them look at how your knee is tracking when you pedal. my right leg tends to get shorter over time and that shows up as knee pain - it also shows up as the right knee twisting inward - i now have an ITS wedge in my shoe (actually 1 in the left and 2 in the right). when that stops working it tells me my hips are too far out of alignment and it's time for a chiropractic adjustment.

Elizabeth Hornak

@Steven,

I, by no means am a medical professional, but agree regarding bike fit and, also depending on where the knee pain is, it could be a quad thing (I go to a functional chiro who figures out where my muscular deficiencies are and assigns me homework to get muscles to turn on and off).

Keep us posted.

Elizabeth Hornak

Beth's Week Update - missed last Tuesday's workout as I had to travel to help take care of my mom, but other than that, I got the work in. Saturday was a brutally hot day (+90) and I did 75 miles in 5:10. Not super happy about that, but given the circumstances, I wrote it off as a lab exercise - making sure I was eating and hydrating properly. Sunday was much nicer, about a 20 degree drop in temperatures, and speed was back up to what my goal pace is for the bike. I ran +17 minutes more on the run I do most of my long runs on the elliptical (save the 3 hour RR this week) for 6 miles. I felt really good and really strong, and hope that is a positive sign for race day.

Looking forward to getting those final workouts in and all the good team mojo. Keep up the awesome work, keep posting out so we can support each other, and have a great Monday evening!