Open Haus - Are my training plans acceptable or not?
I would appreciate inputs on the following plan substitutions and scheduling. Sometimes adjusting your own plan is like being your own doctor -- not wise. So it's good to get a second opinion.
1) I'm doing Miami Man on 13 Nov. Wk 19 of the Advanced HIM plan calls for a 150 min bike and 20 min brick run on Saturday with Sunday off. What if I took Saturday off, and jumped into an organized 100K ride on Sunday with friends and do my brick run right after?
2) I'm doing IM South Africa on 2 Apr. Similar to the HIM plan, Wk 19 calls for a 150 min bike and 30 min brick run on Saturday with Sunday off. Again, what if I flipped the weekend and instead did a Medio Gran Fondo (~55 miles) on Sunday followed by the brick run?
3) Finally, what are your thoughts about coming off the IM on 2 April and racing St Anthony's Olympic on 29 April? Basically 2 weeks recovery, spin up for 10 days and then taper into it?
Comments
1- seems reasonable.. think about your downstream monday Wko & how that will be affected by your delay of a day for your big ride/ brick
2- same comment as above
3- it's doable & I've seen people do this and place in their AG. Personal experience, did IMMOO, 1 week later, paced my friend in his Central Park Ultra for 18 miles at a walk/run pace of 15+, then did an OLY a week later. (2 weeks post IM) I had an ok swim (more me not being in my box), an amazing bike (fastest in AG) and just didn't have the run legs I hoped for, ending up 6th of 88 in AG..
only comment I have on 1&2 are that the group ride & Fondo are going to have many surges in your riding & the style of ride will be different than riding steady power as I would hope you would do on a training ride. There will be a different load & effect from that as well...
Another thing to keep in mind is safety. Large group rides tend to include many participants who don't normally ride in large groups. Crashes are common. Just FYI.
I got one word for you Paul..... Specificity
Always structuring training from least specific (farther away) to most specific (closer to event).... Group Rides = NOT specific
@ Tim - I think as much as I WANT to do those events, your reminder of specificity tells me I shouldn't. Deep down, I knew the answer but hearing it from others - including Scott and Clark - is the check I needed to do the right thing. The Gran Fondo in particular - which I've done several times - has all out timed sections. For training in general, a very high VI is GOOD, but in execution it is BAD. And as you note, a week out from an A race I need to be very specific.
@ Brenda - re the Micro forum. Technically that is where you post questions to adjust your training that week and I'm asking well in advance. I considered my question to be a cross between the micro/macro forums because it deals with a micro question in a macro context. That's why I posted it separately.
@ Scott - re #3. Yeah, it's gonna hurt. I could do an international race a week later giving me 5 wks post IM, but St Anthony's is in my back yard and highly competitive. The Oly a week later might as well be the Podunk Tri. I want to maximize 2017 since you only get to be the young guy 1 yr in 5.
@ Clark - my experience is that the longer the distance of an organized ride, the more serious the participants and the better the cyclists they are. I've done countless centuries and have only seen one crash. Yet when I go out solo up the bike trail, I seem to pass by a serious wreck every month -- typically from a small training group out doing their own thing. YMMV
@ Clark - I feel your assessment of large group rides potentially consisting of many unskilled group riders is painted with too wide of a brush. I have a minimum of one large group ride (if not two) a week. I tend to see there may be one or two individuals whom are not comfortable riding in a group, but not several.