2017 UMFL training/prep/goals etc.
I signed up for this. http://ultramanflorida.com/
321.6 miles in 3 days.... Day 1 - 6.2 mile swim/ 92 mile bike , Day 2- 171 mile bike , Day 3- 52.4 mile run
My ground support crew is Heather Webber, Steve West, and Scott Renick. Kayak rental, support, and accommodation's are reserved. Now all I gotta do is train for and complete Ultraman Florida on 2/17-2/19/17. With just under 12 weeks to go here is the thought process till now and the remainder to race days.
Base Fitness - Average weekly volumes accumulated over the last 4 years. 8300yds swim , 123 miles bike, 28 miles run
Race Experience - 15 IM's with 2 DNF's , 4 Marathon's with 1 more before UMFL , 1 50k Ultra and 1 50mile Ultra
Other Ultra Type Endurance Training - three 8+ hr bike rides , one 16.5 hr bike Everest attempt , one 3 day training session with Dave Tallo mimicking the Ultraman format - day 1 -9000yd swim / 73 mile bike , day 2- 153 mile bike, day 3 -26 mile run.
20 weeks between my last race @ IMMD and UMFL ... Here is how I structured it.
Weeks 1-4- 4 weeks of easy Z1 unstructured training/recovery/resetting/absorbing the season , In 6 weeks my CTL fell from a peak of 152 two weeks prior to IMMD to a low of 93 at the end of the 4 weeks post IMMD.
Weeks 5-9- 5 week build , the primary focus was building the longride from 3 to 5hrs , the longrun from 1.5hrs to 2.5hrs , the long swim back to IM distance , all while maintaining 1 swim interval session, 1 run interval session, and 2 bike interval sessions per week , secondary focus during this period was to gradually increase time in all the interval sessions, and overall weekly volume.... third focus was 5 weeks of 2-3 times a week strength training.... Just finished week 4 with one more week to go in the build... I have only missed 1 swim session and 2 strength sessions.... Even raced a couple HM's and a 10k.... CTL is up to 111 from 93 in 4 weeks.... Simply training my body to train...
Week 10 - Recovery week to absorb the build... Cutting way back and tapering to Race a Marathon at the end of this week...
Weeks 11- 14- This is where it gets interesting. We always think in 7 day cycles since that is how long a week is. From what I understand to this point the key to Ultra training is the long back to back days. This is prevalent in all Ultra running plans and I applied this with success to my Ultra runs. The problem is how do you do back to back long runs and back to back long rides in a 7 day cycle while still maintaining your long swim and some kind of intensity work? I plan to apply a 9 day cycle and go through it 3 times which adds up to 27 days just one day shy of 4 weeks giving me a rest day or a back up day. The main focus will obviously be the back to back longbike ,back to back long run, the long swim, going through each 3 times or once every 9 days, increasing the time/distance each cycle .... The layout will look like Day 1 longswim , Days 2 and 3 longbikes , Day 4 Swim Recovery , Days 5 and 6 longruns , Day 6 Swim medium length with some intervals , Days 7 and 8 will be bike/run medium in length with some intensity intervals... Repeat
Week 15 - Recovery week...
Weeks 16-18 - Race Specificity Focus ... Going back to a 7 day cycle... Main goal is to replicate the UMFL format on fri-sun...Fri will be longswim followed by medium bike, Sat - will be longbike , Sun will be longrun.... tues/weds will be bike/run days with some intervals , mon/thurs will either be OFF or swim only days.... There will also be a method to the madness of these 3 weeks.... I plan to vary the taper lengths of each SBR over the 3 weeks.... 5 weeks out from the race in week 16 will feature my longest single run, 4 weeks out from the race in week 17 will feature my longest single bike , and 3 weeks out from the race in week 18 will feature my longest swim....So a 4 week run taper, a 3 week bike taper, and a 2 week swim taper....
Weeks 19-20- Taper , Travel , Onsight prep , Recon , etc... Since the race starts on a friday this shortens the taper under 2 weeks..... This will be a hard taper coming down fast from the taper that had already begun... This will look a lot like an IM taper and I am a big believer in less is more here...
Goals , Race Plans, Nutrition, Etc to come later just wanted to get this down...
Questions , comments , anything at all are welcome...
Comments
TC,
I am really glad you posted this. I would like to do the same in 2018, and I hope to learn as much as I can from you and a friend of mine who just did her fifth in Hawaii last weekend. I am going to forward your post to my friend to see what she says. I am curious to see what she recommends.
Also, If you need something to listen to on those long runs... Here are some podcasts with Rob Gray (Ultraman world champ)
http://www.imtalk.me/blog/2016/2/1/imtalk-episode-501-rob-gray-and-thorsten-radd.html
http://www.imtalk.me/blog/2016/2/22/imtalk-episode-504-dougal-allan-rob-gray-and-arno-selukov.html
Good luck!
Also, your weeks 16-18 look real similar to what Rich roll said he did when he trained for Ultraman.
Gonna be fun watching you evolve this training cycle!
I intend to use all the mojo I can get from this!
Thanks for posting Tim!
SS
- why the intensity in training? U probably won't do anything above Z3 in UMFL would u? is just to maintain a high "ceiling" so your Z2-Z1 speed are high?
- good thing on custom cycle days (9 ISO 7 days), although I would have in each cycle (or 1 every 2 or 3 cycles) a 3day block that mimic the race format
something like a 10day block:
Day 1: Long swim/long bike
Day 2: Long bike/mid range run
Day 3: Long run/short bike (to recover from run)
Day 4: long EZ recovery swim
Day 5: Long bike/short run
day6: long bike /short/run
Day 7: Long EZ swim/short bike
day 8: mid range bike/Long Run
day 9: Long run/EZ bike/ short swim
Day 10 recovery (EZ swim/EZ bike or just rest)
REPEAT!
good luck Tim, excited to follow u through this crazy thing
the reason behind it is U'll have more time to get used to ride long after a very long swim (and adjust/tweak bike position if needed) and the feeling of the long run on day 3, and I'm a big believer in repeating race day format (U know how u'll feel on race day). For example, for many years, I would run after every single bike ride, no matter how trashed I was, so much so that now, I run faster/feel better after a ride than on stand alone runs..)
@David , Thanks for your thought out comments and questions. NEVER taken the wrong way and always welcomed. UMFL will be spent at Z1-Z2.... There will be NO Z3.... But when your fast is fast , your slow is faster..Gotta keep sharp while increasing the easy long endurance... I'm a big believer in doing work in each Zone 1-5 in every sport , every week , the key is how much and when , depending on what kind of race and how far out you are.... Working from least specific to most specific... As I progress thru the blocks the higher intensity will get lower and less of it... I will also go by feel so I do not dig myself a hole... The first 5 week block will have the most intensity Z4-5 in it... The second 4 week block on the 9 day cycle is to get the bike/run volume on those back to back days with a swim only day every 3 allowing some recovery.... The third 3 week block gets me back on the 7 day cycle with the UMFL format falling on the days of the race fri,sat,sun..... There is no need for bricks in any of these blocks with the exception of the swim/bike brick on day one and 3 of those are enough for me....Keep in mind this is a work in progress, will be dynamically changing as I go thru it... For instance I may do very short 2 mile runs on some of the swim only days just so I do not go too long without running....
What will be your longest run plan ? Are you gonna use the long split run in order to build to a daily volume of over 40km ?
Thanks for sharing your experience, alot could be learn from that even for us, normal IM
good luck on that project!
@TC, Now I am curious.... What is your fueling strategy?
My run taper may look something like this 30, 24 , 18, 9 , RACE
The bike taper may look something like this 160 , 120 , 60, RACE
The swim taper may look something like this 12k , 6k , RACE
I do use the split run when training for IM once I hit 2.5hrs but , I won't be using the split run format to build my longrun for UMFL.... These runs will be slower than IM training and I am looking to build up to back to back 20 milers for a peak as I did in Ultra training.... However I will probably use the split bike to accumulate time/mileage on the big back to back bike days.... Even here in AZ I will be on a trainer in the am. So I can see a few hrs in the AM on the trainer, lunch , then a few hrs outside.... Not perfect but it will do... Will try to avoid breaking those up on the RR's.
TC,
My friend replied. She's very laid back (like an ultra runner). All she recommended was building to running 30-36 miles in one day and doing at least a few 5000 yard swims and rides up to 7-8 hrs.
Training Time- 12hrs to 17hrs
TSS- 700-1000
Strength training- 1hr per week in the training hrs but not added to TSS
Swim-weekly yards 6500 to 11,700
Bike- weekly miles 109-161 w/longbike 3hrs to 5hrs
Run- weekly miles 26-41 w/longrun 1.5hrs to 2.5hrs
Bike FTP time - weekly minutes 26' to 42'
Bike Vo2 time - weekly minutes 13' to 30'
Swim intervals - 10 x 100yds to 18 x 100yds
Run intervals - 2miles to 3.75miles
Recovery week Complete.... Easy recovery taper type wko's from Monday - Friday.... Saturday Marathon race hard with 6 min PR... Sunday easy recovery swim/bike.... Totals 10hrs , 655 TSS, 7k swim, 51 miles bike, 37 miles run....
Next up - 4 weeks of volume.... easing back in over a few days and then will concentrate on building those back to back bike/run days and that long swim .... looking forward to dropping a lot of that intensity and slowing down the pace a bit to make up for the additional volume...
And the unwritten message is there are no signs of either overtraining or incipient injury?
@Paul, You are absolutely correct I have been light on the swimming. Just getting ready to train. This summer I logged 12 weeks all well over 13k per week, several 3 milers and a 4 miler , not too mention the swimrun with Heather that had 4 miles of swimming in it.... Over the next 4 weeks my primary swim I plan to do is a 7k, 8k, 9k, 10k swim and my secondary weekly swim will be PB and paddles for strength.... The 3 weeks of RR's will have a 7k , 9k, and 11k swim.... 6.2 miles is 10,912 yards.... The 9000yd swim I did with Dave Tallo a couple years ago took 2.5hrs so I will have a couple 3hr pool sessions :-)
Total Time- 96hrs, weekly progression 22hrs,23hrs,24hrs,27hrs
Total TSS- 5055, weekly progression 1060, 1240, 1285, 1464
Total Swim- 54,854yds, key longswim progression 7k ,8k , 10k, 11k
Total Bike - 1005miles , key wko progression 3 back to back rides and one bonus for 7 longrides , 5hr-111mile/5hr-70mile , 6hr-107mile/5.5hr-100mile, 6.75hr-140mile/6hr-125mile, bonus ride 7hr/146mile
Total Run- 170miles , key wko progression 3 back to back runs and one bonus for 7 longruns, 16.7/16.7 miles , 18.7/18.7 miles , 21/21miles, and the bonus run was 24 miles
Recovery Week- Today I had pencilled in a 60min easy swim , over the last couple wko's I had reduced that to 30min, this am when I got up I said ok 15min, when I got to the pool and all the lanes were full, I sat in the hotub for 20min and came home (Note: the lanes opened up in minutes) NO SWIM :-) , other key wko's for the day was a 80min massage and 60min nap... The remainder of the week will be pretty low key and easy anticipating 10-12hrs max.
TC - Looks like you are going to be in great shape for this! That was a great 4 week of work you did, and I am thankful that you are sharing it. Just curious.... What was your CTL the day before your hot tub day?
Enjoy the rest week!
Current Peak CTL vs. Peak CTL in Sept. 2016 for IMMD
SBR 148.6 151.9
BR 122.2 120.7
S 27.7 32.9
B 66.1 73.3
R 57.4 49.5
Tim,
It's always great to watch you ramp up. Thanks for sharing and some huge volume put in will pay dividends.
Time in hrs - 22, 22, 20
TSS - 1356, 1209, 1183
Weekend 1 - goal was to have the single longest run on sunday and taper from there... Weather was bad so I spread it out over 4 days instead of the 3 planned... Thurs was 8k swim, Fri was 4.5hr trainer ride, Sat was 5hr trainer ride, and Sun was 30mile almost 5hr run.
Weekend 2 - goal was to have the single longest bike ride on saturday and taper from there. Friday was a 12k swim in the pool w/wetsuit (3hrs) and a 3.5hr trainer ride, Sat was 8hrs of riding done as 2 x 4hrs with one ride on the trainer and one ride outside, Sun was 20 mile run in almost 3hrs....
Weekend 3 - Goal was to have the single longest swim and taper from there... NOTE: it took me longer to swim 11k w/sim shorts than it did to swim 12k w/wetsuit ... Friday was 11k swim (3hrs) and 3hr ride .... Saturday was 6hr ride... Sunday 14 mile 2hr run...
This week the taper has really begun but I have been tapering the run for 2 weeks and the bike for 1week already... The race begins in 10 days.... I plan a 1hr swim , 2hr bike, and a 1hr run as my longest wko's between now and race begining...
CTL - peaked at 158 which is 6 pts higher than my summer build to IMMD...
Next up - some details on my nutrition plan and my actual race plan...
Seems like your CTL should be much higher, if it includes SBR?
Best of luck and execution!
OTOH, maybe you should have done last Sunday;s run on a treadmill while watching the SB. It might have actually held your attention?
been watching, closely, and excited for you!!! no doubt you will do this and do it well!
@Al- we watched the puppy bowl... never had a clue who won until the next day...
@Scott- yep we had really bad weather in Tucson LOL and I had to ride on a trainer a half dozen days... but that is really cause I didnt wanna be cold :-) .... I rode a bunch on the trainer last year as well since I was recovering from my hip fracture.... However the winter before I did exactly ZERO trainer rides !