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2016 IM Louisville- Week 17- The secret



#EN4KEYS WEEK 17
Well Louisville Crew- You are AMAZING!!! Keep posting, keep sharing, lets keep the mojo going!!! 
YOU are 4 weeks out from race week and there are 4 Keys of Racing within EN. What sets EN athletes drastically apart from other athletes is the ability to know to race. You're putting in the training….. Recording your information…..sometimes discussing with the group (lets do more of that team!) but as you wind down your training in the next couple weeks you need to put your head in a space to have the 4Keys down pat. Even if you have been with EN for awhile, there is always something to learn or something you can teach to help someone else's race experience.
Not to reinvent the wheel here is a mixture of coaches perspective and a couple other race captains:
X - Race day is about execution NOT fitness
Theme for this week is important.  Start visualizing your upcoming RR2 and Race Day in terms of simply Executing your Fitness:
The majority of athletes on race day are fitness-focused (look at my T-shirt, look at my abs/veins/etc, look at how fast I can go in the first hour of the bike, etc.). They think of race day as the application of their fitness to the course, the distance. They are wrong. Race day is about the application of sound execution skills to a long day. Your fitness is just along for the ride. Through our observation of many, many races we can tell you that fully 90% of athletes out there do not understand this and do not know how to execute properly. For the Endurance Nation athlete then, race day is largely an exercise is doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing!
Easy to read/comprehend the above, difficult to actually apply on race day, when you feel rested, invincible with adrenaline and the best you have felt during the entire training cycle.  So important to start thinking and scripting this concept now.
GREAT Job team.... keep chipping away, two more weeks left of fitness. Let's hear it- how is this week going?? What lessons have you learned?? 

Comments

  • Did my long run today -- started at around noon -- temperature was very comfortable and rose to about 74. I'm used to it being much hotter.

    That was a tiring workout though. After mile 14 or so I kept having to push the pace harder to keep heart rate from dropping. I suppose on race day that will get pretty hard to do right at mile 18.
  • I did my long run today too - started out at 6:35 this morning and kept on moooving! A friend joined for the first 8.5 miles, then she had to get ready for a meeting so I was on my own for the last half of the run. I practiced my / Coach Rich's protocol of water, water, gel (I used EGel) for 16 miles. I went over the allotted 3:00 and went to 3:30. Besides the run in camp week, I have only executed my long runs in the pool or on the elliptical (I am still shaking out the last of the medial knee-thing). I feel super psyched about what I was able to do today (and it felt really, really good!), which gives my high hopes for race day. I still learning about heart rate (I came to the HR game late - Coach P made me get a monitor) and how to keep that low.

    I may have to do my long ride tomorrow as we are on deck for a full day of rain on Saturday. It won't be fast or pretty, but it's only a lab, and will not be indicative of race day.

    Hope everyone else is having an awesome week!

    Cheers!
  • Got the long run too today. Started at 4:30am to get it in before work and rather than go with only 18 miles pushed to close to 20 to get in over 2:20:xx I think overall it went pretty well and probably the hardest part was forcing myself to go slow in the first 6 miles, but it payed off and the final 3 to 4 miles was able to push to my Z2 pace and finish strong. Also learned a lot about trying to take in gel and gatorade on the run in a lot more frequency than I normally do.
  • Great job everyone. I stuck strictly to the 3 hour timeframe. That was a bit over 15.5 for me. Slow but thats what the numbers needed to be. Felt pretty good. HR stayed quite low. Not tired at all today and that is a good sign.

    I have to get my race rehearsal in this weekend and I am doing a century with a run after on Sunday. Didnt want to go over in my run and trash my legs.

    Keep up the great work.
  • I've been following all your work the last few weeks but haven't really had much time to post. I'll be rereading all your reports from camp week you guys did to try to get a grip on what the course has in store.
  • I have been been almost completely out of commission with the flu/sinus infection combo for the past week and half. I was determined to get in my race rehearsal run in on Wednesday, since the flu symptoms were gone (the massive amount of head pressure and snot remained). I went into race mode and pushed through a 20-miler and managed to hit my race day goals. Maybe this was a good race simulation, since my energy levels were already drained image

    This was a huge mental win for me. In my head, I thought I was screwed for missing the last week and half. I'm on the tail end of this crud, so I think I can actually breathe enough to swim now. I'm happy to have gotten this now vs. getting it the week of IM Lou!

    Happy training everyone! We are getting close!
  • It's nice reading about everyone's workouts ... keep up the good work! @Rich W: great effort pushing though that run!!
  • Been closely tracking nutrition and honing in what works (and what doesn’t). Key lessons-learned for me:

    -- I’m consuming a ton of calories on most rides (500/hour), and definitely need solids on the bike; Powerbar and Clif Bar work well
    -- For last hour on bike, taking only gels and water seems to work best
    -- Too much GE creates GI issues; I have to alternate between GE bottle and water bottle
    -- That start-the-run-with-a-banana thing? Bleech, not for me. Bananas are okay on the bike but I can’t eat them on the run
    -- Clif Shot Bloks work great for me on the run; about 1 every mile; mostly water and some GE for fluids
    -- Yesterday’s workouts had a net weight loss of only one pound; hopefully I can repeat that on race day
    -- When doing a brick workout, eating a bowl of chicken noodle soup between the bike and run is awesome! (although not really practical for race day)
  • Packed a banana in my T2 go-bag... Worked great at slowing up my pace in the early stages...

    I agree on the solids... That's a big change I've made this year on the bike... Get too hungry if only eating the gels
  • Link to water temperature - http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ky/nwis/uv?site_no=03292494 - if the trend continues, it is going to be a toasty swim.
  • Hi all! I have been slacking on the Lou forums, so sorry!! Have read the thread below and wow you all are killing your workouts. Great job!!! As for me, training is going much differently coming in to Lou than it was a mere 3 months ago leading up to LP. I've been sidelined from running for a bit to work on an upper quad/groin muscle thing that has been irritating my significantly when I run. What does this mean for the Lou marathon, I have no idea. All new territory for me. I'm hoping the rest and ART work I'm having done on it will fix it in time for Oct 9th. In the meantime, minimal to no running until race day (I think). So what does that mean? Lots and lots of swimming (25k yards this week) and biking. Good news is I feel like I'm getting stronger in both areas. Bad news is no running could result in a very long 26.2. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided 2016 was going to be a 2 IM season, haha!

    Do have a question for you all. Anyone racing Lou with a disc? I'm playing with the idea but have never raced with one, so I'm hesitant. Your thoughts?
  • Hi all - I have been MIA from the IMLou forums due to WI.  That is complete.  I have been following your great work from afar.  Looks like you all are ready!  Just over 20 days to go!

  • @Beth - thanks for that site info ... it will continue to trend downwards. Last year it was supposedly 69 degrees on race day, and almost everyone had a full wetsuit (I watched the swim start)

    @Danielle - you are a swimming machine! Disc wheels are the Bitchin' Camaro of triathlon, so I'd vote yes

    @Alan - welcome to the crew. You and Ed are studs for doing both events so close together - that's gotta be tough
  • Okay, this week was deceptively hard! After Thursday’s 20-mile run and yesterday’s workouts I was pretty tired today. Swam this morning, and started the 3.5-hour ABP ride this afternoon, but shut it down after one hour because the body was just not responding. I tried to push the power but all I got was “meh”. No worry though, this coming week is going to be tough and the extra rest is much more valuable
  • Hi everyone. Sorry I have not been around much on the forums or posting. Just caught up on the above posts, and love the real hard work that is going down!

    I've had a difficult few weeks. I'm still trying to deal/heal with an upper calf issue that has caused me to shelve some runs. Group that with two out of town soccer tournaments the last two weekends (no way to ride outside unless I towed my girls in a wagon), and a packed week of annual meetings (followed by dinners) with food that my body ended up finding as the devil, my volume and mojo has been down.

    I was able to do my first interval run last Tuesday, and did "part" of my RR Run Thursday. Remember the devil food I discussed, well it decided to come at me Thursday morning on the run. Thank god for a gas station, starbucks and my house (twice) in the first 12 miles! When the sensation came again, I just figured it was not my day. But, in always looking for a positive, the 8:21 pace was easy even with my GI issues.

    I gotta buckle things down these next three weeks, and forget the shit of the last few weeks. Query, my lower volume has brought with it a few added pounds, so wondering how others would go after that? Differently put, how far before the race should I take a calorie deficit? I've read two weeks, but think I would like an extra week to shed the added weight. Thoughts?

  • Also, meant to ask. I saw Trent post a question about swim-skins. Is there a real risk that the IM Lou swim will not be wetsuit legal?
  • You're creeping up on race day... Not the time to be dropping a few pounds. That said... If you eat a little cleaner... The volume should help you bring it back a little before race day.

    If you're still having trouble with that calf... Maybe reach out to coach P via micro on how to handle the next couple weeks
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