LOL you are so funny. I am a cheap bastard with everything except my kids and my gear. So...I ended up with the Nespresso machine and milk frother combo. This gets me espresso when needed (americano) and "fancier" when wanted. At $249 vs my starbucks habit, this has already been paid off. The pods are an issue environmentally, but I picked up a kit that lets you re-fill reuse them and bought some super high end espresso stuff (or I hope so)...so a win. Haven't paid for a coffee out since March...so crazy!
I probably drink more coffee than anyone you know. And I bet I am even cheaper than you!
I like my coffee like I like my bikes. Black.
I just use a regular old Mr Coffee for regular coffee. Couple pots a day. And have a cheapo DeLonghi for 'espresso' and one of those old school stove top single serve percolator that I pack with espresso when I want a high power jolt.
I feel a cheap competition coming on! I would love to see a picture of your different options. I'm a visual guy so that would be a lot better for me if you ever have a chance. Hope things aren't too hot down there already.
@Brian Terwilliger - I got your Check-In update, and have pasted it below. This is part of our monthly process to stay connected, so thanks for filling it out!
Super impressed that you continue to dominate on the bike. I hope you were putting the hurt on a few folks in at least once a week. I think he would really thrive there.
As you know, heat adaptation is a function of pacing and body composition. If either one of those are things that you can improve, I recommend it. This is an a racing season, so body composition isn't necessarily high on the list. This means you can focus more on the pacing aspect. I tend to rely more on RPE for the longer runs, but push the shorter (30' or less) runs.
Hope all is well!
~ Coach P
As a reminder, Brian Terwilliger Is on the TeamEN (Coaching + Community Level) and is following the EN Half Bike Focused, 12wks.
His Rankings are as follows:
- Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Run Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Body Comp vs Last Month: 2
Next month's focus: Improve running, up mileage and efficiency in the heat
@Brian Terwilliger - oh my God, that's ridiculous. Next week looks a little bit like that on my weather app, and I'm not gonna lie. I am already terrified! That kind of heat is just lethal. I know you're doing all the right things, just remember that no workout is worth pushing yourself into a massive hole.
I am curious to know how you modify your fluids during and after exercise when you encounter days like this. Do you carry sunscreen as well to reapply?
@Brian Terwilliger I got your Check-In update, and have pasted it below. This is part of our monthly process to stay connected, so thanks for filling it out!
Rankings are as follows:
- Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Run Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Body Comp vs Last Month: 1
Next month's focus: I really have no idea
Extra help request: I'll be posting in the micro shortly regarding my future and random thoughts concerns for the next year.
Just parking this here...I'll be on the lookout for your "macro" post!
I found a real live 40K TT that is happening on 09/26. An actual race! With other humans. In the real world.
Is there a TT race plan/guidance like there is for half and full IMs on the EN site?
What kind of power plan would one use for a TT? Assume FTP of 285 (its higher), but lets play safe. How does one structure their power output over the course of the 40K? Its obviously not balls out start to finish. Its a flatish to slightly rolling course with 2 pops. One is an overpass and another is a short but steep little punch with 1.5 miles to go.
Here is the Strava of last years winner so you can see the actual course.
My fastest 40K to date was at IM Maryland last year. 1:02:35. For the 112 I avg 187 with my gimpy leg and my 20 min max avg power was 203. So didn't have any lengthy section of big power to produce that time. I’m thinking as long as weather is favorable to decent, we should be able to get well under an hour.
Oh, and IMMD was the last time I rode a bike on the road. This should be interesting. I have put in 107 miles on my mountain bike over the past 6 months though. So there has been some sort of actual riding of a bike.
In a few days I've got a big ol post for you about the coming year and the mysteries it holds. I’m lost and wandering but am getting a general idea of maybe what I want/need to do. Who knows.
Also, this Saturday the 12th I was going to do a DIY half since it would have been race day and I have sorta been training. Pool swim, 56 on Zwift, then 13.1 around the neighborhood. With the desire to destroy the TT, would it be best to blow off the fake half to avoid the stress and needed recovery? Wouldn't exactly be racing it.
If you really want to dial in that race, you could use Best Bike Split to run the numbers. It really shows you where the key areas are to put out the watts and takes the weather into account. It's not bulletproof but it's fun to play with and pretty damn close at the longer stuff. Shoot me a text and I get you the login stuff: (617) 513-3830
I think you'll be fine on the bike handling just smart at the turns into, within, and out of that out and back.
You can totally do the Half. Have fun. Don't go hard on the run, but you can do what you want on the Swim and Bike...it's still nice to be able to say you "got a tri" done in 2020! Even if the medal is a post race beer.
Looking forward to the long form. The depths of your mind always make me a better coach!
Well, with a tremendous lack of training I went for the DIY Half Iron today since it would have been race day.
Swim 30:17
Bike 2:27:45 on Zwift (I'm much faster in real life than on Zwift)
Run: 1:58:48
I think my only real goal today was to survive and run sub 2. Cause I haven't been running and the running I have been doing has been lazy. And going sub 5 for the disciplines I think is pretty damn amazing for the shape I'm in. Both training wise and body comp.
Run was horrible. Hot, overcast, humid as hell, and zero wind so the thick air just hung. And haven't run that long since March. Several 10 milers, but thats it for double digits. And I way over fueled on the bike, I think. Or I just wasn't processing and clearing the fuel as fast as I normally do from lack of such efforts over the past 3 or 4 months. So where as I probably would have taken in 3 or 4 GU or packs of shot blocks on the run, and sucked down 40 or more ounces Gatorade Endurance, I ate nothing and drank about 20 OZ of GE cause I feared horrible GI issues if I forced myself to fuel properly. And since it was a fake race I didn't really care about time and if the run turned into a never ending slog, so be it. Thankfully it didn't.
And doing a half solo is hard. There is no motivation really. No fans. No participants to chase or try to hang onto. Just you and the hot sweaty blacktop. Ugh.
For the swim, man, after the dog attack I couldn't swim. And when I got cleared, I swam twice and then everything shut down. Things opened back up and started getting in again 2 or 3 times for a couple months, but was really just doing it to burn calories and get some swimming in if by chance a race happened in the fall. For the bike, I probably did the half iron plan at about 80% of what the plan calls for. Shortened some long ones, skipped a few days, etc... But my bike fitness did progress nicely and its the one bright spot this year. Can't complain there.
Running? Forget it. Its been terrible. But hopefully that will change shortly.
Will post up a year recap and future plans/thoughts/ideas thread soon. Need some guidance and motivation.
@Brian Terwilliger - sub five baby!!! Your assessment of the solo HIM is spot on....the lack of fandom (even at small races) makes the solo effort INSANELY harder. Makes your accomplishment that much more awesome. Beast mode even. I bet your legs are feeling it right now brobeans. All good..now we recover and focus on the TT first...then big planning.
I have no idea on the TT. Never done one. Hell, I haven't rode outside in a year. Going to try and ride outside this weekend if the weather is nice to make sure everything on the bike works correctly. I did charge my Di2 a couple days ago. So I have that going for me.
Pretty much just looking for some kind of guidance on how to approach and pace my power for the 40K. I am definitely more built toward longer sustained power (as in for hours) than in high power for shorter periods.
I don't think I test for FTP either the 20 minute or ramp test at a number that is unrealistic. I can only think of 1 time that it produced a number that made the workouts undoable. Just dropped the number a few watts and then everything was good. But I don't think I could ever actually hold my FTP for an hour.
So at 285 I'm kinda stumped at what to go out at, what to up it to and when, and what to shoot for for an avg power for the full distance. Honestly don't even have a clue where to begin on trying to devise a power plan for such a thing. Want to have enough left in the tank for the last 6 or 7 miles to really go at it while hopefully others are dying, but not save it for then, leaving a bunch of time on the table.
And wait until you hear about what my big idea is for next year. Talk about crazy. I'm bringing it.
I think the best place to start is Best Bike Split. You can login as patrick.mccrann@gmail.com with the password dontbonk.
I went in and made a fake you (you need to update) and then add your bike and info about the ride. Then you can choose the NC TT Course and run some simulations with numbers.
The baseline shows you where power output matters most (you can even get weather geeky) and it's pretty spot on... hope you set aside an hour to get your geek on.
I think Best Bike Split believes in me more than I deserve. Its basically telling me I have to redline it right out the gate, and avg 283 to go just under 58 minutes. Not sure I can do that. But hell, lets try. Throwdown from the gun till I die. Kidding. Sorta. After thinking on it, and knowing my mind and body, I think hammering to get up to speed, then keeping it around 250-260 is likely my best option and if I still have a gallon in the tank with 10 miles to go, see if I can step it up. Or just try to hang on and not die.
So here is the year in review. There wasn't one. LOL. You know the post dog attack stuff already. No real updates there. Once everything started getting cancelled I really just focused on staying as active as I could with the attack recovery and the limits it was placing on me. It didn't really affect the bike after a while. It would have had minimal effect on the swim had pools remained open. But they didn't. The run is where it really manifested itself. While I started coming back a little faster than expected, and really did have a great run for the fake Half Marathon back in March with what I had been able to do since January and starting to run again. Then it seemed to fall apart. I think I came back to fast and tried to do things I probably shouldn't have and it backfired a bit. And as you may remember, I threw in the towel on Boston and decided to eat the entry fee. Then got lucky when it cancelled a few days later. The mental relief of having decided to not run lifted a great weight because the race was really weighing on me, putting pressure on me, and causing me problems.
I think the attack affected me far more mentally than I thought it would. Probably more so than the physical damage it did. And in the endurance game, the mental is the most important part. And I think having everything taken away for the year, leaving me nothing to focus on left me to focus on the negative, spiraling everything else downward. My wife thinks I should go to someone for PTSD but I don't think we are at that point. I believe that once I have a "purpose" to training again and something to focus on, it will turn around. I'm an exceptionally goal and outcome driven individual. I have a big F'n mouth and I love to say I can do something stupid. Then I go and cash the check my mouth wrote. So here is the check I'm writing to start 2021.
Tobacco Road Half Marathon on March 21st. This has the out season starting on Dec 14th. Would like to break 1:30 again. With my run being garbage its time to back off the bike after the TT and attack the run.
So what do I do starting Monday Sept 28th until Dec 13th.
Thats all I'm focusing on for the time being.
But here is a peak into the big plans for the year. I was going to do IM Cozumel, and may still, but that is likely a 2022 race as I'd like to see how races shake out and are handled next year and what international travel is like. Particularly with all the crap you gotta bring for an IM. So IM Coz is plan B.
Here is Plan A. How does a 444 mile time trial sound? You read that right. 444 miles, winner take all time trial. Broken up over 4 days. Day 1 and 2 are 100+ miles, day 3 is a 60 mile balls out time trial, then day 4 100+ miles to finish it. Fastest total time for the 4 stages wins.
This sounds right up my alley. Stuff like this is what I think I am mentally and physically built for. So start rolling those gears around in your head on how to train for such a thing.
Also, still have that Ventum entry to a 70.3 to use as they let me defer it to 2021. Any suggestions on which race(s) to pick? I'm leaning toward the Virginia Blue Ridge race as its early and fairly close to home.
@Brian Terwilliger yeah that BBS is relentless...but nice to see what is possible given your fitness. like to see where it says to "Work" and then make sure to target those areas on the ride for my extra watts. Probably only 5 to 8 sections vs your steady effort. Otherwise stay aero and fly.
You aren't alone with the struggles mentally but obviously in a different place after the attack...I think you recognize the effects a reduced mental toughness quotient means for you. I've never shied away from counseling; like workouts if I don't want to do them it's likely something I need to work on (abs? glutes? flexibility? Bueller?). But you do you, I support you no matter what.
I need some timelines from you. So a 3/21 half to rip it up post TT...when is the mega TT? And why do you hate your cycling legs so much?!? and where do you find these events?
Don't know full timelines as dates for next years races aren't out yet for the most part. The only one for sure is the half marathon on March 21st. Other races are a sprint tri. It may be last Saturday in May, it may be first Saturday in June, it could be July. Just don't know. Then there is the Run The Quay 15K Challenge (10K 7 am, 5K 8:30 am) on June 5th. This is unimportant. If the sprint falls on same day, will probably do sprint. Keep this in mind, I don't plan on training specifically for either of those.
Blue Ridge Half Iron in Virginia I believe is May 23rd. Leaning heavily toward this with my Ventum entry. This I would like to train specifically for coming off the out season on March 21st.
Then a half iron the 2nd weekend in September and IMNC 70.3 deferred from this year will happen late October.
The stupid 444 mile time trial is likely the week before Thanksgiving week. Probably won't know until late this year, early next on its exact date. This also happens to likely be the timeframe for IM Cozumel.
So here is my overview of objectives. Crush the half to end the out season. Then move back to focus on the bike and build massive power and endurance, attack the Virginia Blue Ridge 70.3 with a focus on the bike, and hope and prayer on the run. Quick recovery period, then move full bore into building the biggest baddest endurance bike engine possible with just enough running to perform greatly at the early September 70.3. The goal at that race will be to obliterate the bike course and hang on for a sub 2 run. And then its dedicated focus on the 444 TT. With IMNC 70.3 being at a terrible time leading up to the race, and it will be done just for fun, but again, with the plan being to destroy the bike and not care one bit about the run.
The 2021 plan/schedule is a convoluted mess currently, but it will come into focus. And really don't need to start nailing much down until we have concrete dates and are approaching then end of the out season. Out season is whats important, and while that starts Dec 14th, prep for the run focused out season starts Monday Sept 28th. So whats the plan from then until Dec 14th?
Rough day at the TT but had fun. 96% humidity makes for a sweat fest and sky rocketing HR. Missed the hour by quite a bit. 1:02:05 official time. Which wasn't that bad considering there was a stiff headwind for an 11 mile stretch right in the middle. Fighting through it blew me up a bit. Road conditions were less than great as well. Pretty rough older pavement. Ended up averaging 240 for the hour. One could always have gone harder and I could of. But HR was a concern. Once I get past 145 I know my time is limited as maintaining over that for extended periods makes me pay a big price, so just kept trying to hold 144/145 as best I could or I knew I'd be limping home. Plus having not ridden outside, and never getting any heat/humidity acclimation this summer impacted it as well. Never got anyone to draft off of. And the 2 people who passed me were way to fast to grab their wheel. And when you haven't trained for an hour of power, pushing power for an hour is hard. Real hard.
And man, there were some beasts racing. Holding damn near 400 watts for the TT according to their Strava uploads. Unreal. 51 minutes, into the wind, on crap payment. Come on man.
Having not ridden outside since IMMD last year other than 30 miles last Sunday to make sure everything on the bike was still working right started to quickly show. Staying Aero, not a problem. Never has been. Other than my neck. Riding upright for so long on the trainer leaves ones neck untrained for the aero position. So after 15 miles soreness and fatigue in the neck set in pretty good. So there was a good bit of fidgeting around and not holding a nice tight position. Neck till sore today. But had fun and I'll be back for more. Kinda made me rethink my loose plans for next year a little bit. But have plenty of time to think on that.
First and only concern now, crushing the half marathon on March 21st to end the out season. Which starts Dec 14th. So what do I do between now and 12/14 to get ready for a run focused out season to break 1:30 while somewhat maintaining bike fitness?
@Brian Terwilliger - thanks for all these notes. I hopefully will be able to use all those races you listed moving forward, so that I don't have to ask you to write them down all again. I love the overall flow of what you're thinking. Especially the spacing of events which I think is critical.
Having time to the TT gives us wiggle room...And honestly having some training constraints, if you will, I think I'll open the door for some adaptations that we might otherwise have missed on a more balanced program.
Kudos to you on getting things done in that time trial. I hear you on those animals. I can't even hold 400 W for that long, some people were just born to suffer like that. I have flashes of work, but nothing to sit on for an hour in time trial position no less. Insane. But a great benchmark for you looking to next year.
Also some good lessons learned for us regarding outdoor preparation for conditions and positional fitness heading into these events. That will likely need to be a larger part of how are you prepare for your epic 2021 cycling event.
Right now we have 77 days, or 11 weeks to get ready for the OS.
To me that plays out as follows:
09/28/2020 - Light Week to recovery, get back into training by weekend.
10/05/2020 - Start Run Durability Program #2 to run through 11/02/20
11/02/2020 - Bike Focus Week...go big here like 300-350 miles on le zwift. Frequent rides and at least two longer ones.
11/09/2020 - Start Run Durability Program #3 to run through 12/06/20
12/07/2020 - Your second Bike Focus Week here. Your call on the numbers.
12/15 - We go full OutSeason® .
You'll We have some modification questions for the run durability program in terms of cycling. I'd like to have two specific rides in the preseason.
One is a shorter event that's pretty hard. Something that includes about a 20 minute effort. That could be an all out 20 minute race, or it could be a "coffee" ride that is mostly 2.5 with a 20 minute effort at the end as a mini race.
The second one is more steady state/ endurance oriented. Given it's just ride #2 of the week you might want to be more at .75 IF vs .70, for example. Ideally this is 90' to 120' long...
Works for me. I'll get back into running this week and knock out some easy stuff just to get moving and do some Z2 spinning on Zwift. While trying to figure out how to lose 20 pounds and gain 100 watts for time trials. LOL.
My position fitness issues are easily fixed. Its called actually riding outside. Since I had no real reason to do so this season I didn't see the reward exceeding the risk so I just stayed on Zwift. When there is an actual race being trained for, I hammer Zwift for the weekday workouts, and ride outside for at least the ABP ride on the weekend.
Which Phase 2 Durability, runners, balanced, or triathletes?
On Edit:
Oddball thoughts. But they intrigue me. We all know that riding upright like on a road bike one can produce greater power. No one disputes this. In fact, a lot of riders have a significant drop off in power in aero. Losing 30, 40, 50 or more watts isn't unheard of if you do an FTP test in aero vs upright. So thoughts.
As we go through the next 11 weeks leading into the out season while I focus on rebuilding the run durability I'm going to focus on becoming able to stay in aero on the trainer. Its always cause me great difficulty to do so. On the road, never a problem. Trainer, huge problem. And when the out season starts and we kick it off with an FTP test, what do you think of swallowing the hard pill and ditching my hard earned near 300 watt FTP and taking the ramp test locked in aero and humbly accepting the much much lower number and working the entire off season in the aero bars? It seems, and I could be totally wrong, that this approach would likely lead to actually being a stronger and faster triathlon cyclist even with a lower FTP. Is my thinking way off?
And I'm back on the cadence thing again. My natural cadence is 90. No matter what, my legs gravitate to 90. If I were to put a piece of black tape over the cadence on the TV when Zwifting so I had no idea what my cadence was, at the end of the ride, it would avg 90-92. And I'd lay a huge wager on that. Going through some of the Strava uploads from the beasts at the time trial, they all seems to have cadences in the 70s and even very low 70s. Obviously time trialing is in no way applicable to triathlon cycling. But this is something I've noticed for a while from very powerful cyclists. Am I missing out on power by spinning at a higher cadence? Am I in some way possibly even burning up more energy by spinning at a higher cadence? Turning the pedals over what is thousands of times more at 90 vs say 75 over 56 or 112 miles in my uneducated mind thinks possibly so.
Who knows. I'm just rambling and letting my mind wander.
2nd Edit: Question on Final Surge. I'd like my wife to start using it, but instead of sitting there entering manually every darn workout for her, could I write up a plan in Final Surge so she could go and click on it and 'import' it into her calendar like I do with EN plans?
@Brian Terwilliger - Let's go Phase 2 for triathletes...that will be most appropriate for you.
Re TT time, yes if you want to TT it up, go for it. The numbers drop for sure but in terms of outcomes, specificity matters. The downside is that a lot of that work can "hurt" folks mentally. For example I ride my TT bike all year in Zwift but in the bars only on steady state and recovery watts.
The flip side is that work is work....so if you get 20% strong on road, some percent of that will trickle down to the TT bike. So as long as you are going to still do the work on the TT, you will get stronger. By that I mean some folks "shut down" gains when they go road to TT, accepting those lower watts. I know you aren't proposing that but want to be clear I guess.
Yes, lower cadence stuff is recruiting more fast twitch muscles to work. We see this in our Best Bike Camp testing data and outcomes. Low cadence work (60 to 70 rpms at a tempo intensity) recruits fast twitch muscles without triggering massive need for glycogen. And at some point when your strength gets up there you can turn a decent gear pretty economically.
Every athlete is different, but yes you'll see an 80 to 82rpm average for TT riders. Remember, it's very hard to spin a high rate in the TT position (other than tiny skinny Lance), and conversely it's easier to turn a full pedal stroke with that resistance.
You can work in some lower gear work into your riding now as an adaptation protocol, going 4 x 5' at 70 rpms with 5' rest every hour on the Steady state stuff.
I don't know if you can insert a plan into her account like that; remember FS makes it's money off plans / coached athletes, so I am sure there are some basic parameters. It looks like you can still create / save your own workouts to reuse, and possibly copy prior weeks to the future and make small modifications?
When are the new out season plans gonna hit Final Surge? Want to get a look at what I have in store for myself this winter and make some plans at times that will have the least impact on training.
Is there a particular race series or or other hardcore ride I should look at doing on Zwift with regularity over the next couple months? And no, not the EN Hang-on Ride. That is way to early in the AM for me.
Experimenting with doing near 100% of my trainer rides in the bars and at a cadence in the low 80s to try and better replicate outdoor riding, or at least better condition my body to doing work in aero and trying to bring down my reliance on higher cadence of 90+. I think getting better at pushing and holding power at a lower cadence will pay off down the road. And no doubt doing it in aero as much as possible will pay dividends.
@Brian Terwilliger The new OS plans will hit this Wednesday 10/28, just putting workout files together.
In terms of Zwift, we did just add an 8am Dial it up to 11 Ride on Saturdays, that's a 65' effort with the last 15 hard. Fun stuff. Hardcore ride really depends on your schedule during the week...if you get me typical training times (Tue/Thu at 9am, for example) I can dive in to make recommendations.
Lower cadence work is great...especially at HIM pace to recruit fast twitch motor units. We do this in the Best Bike Camp. Yes to the bars, but any time in low cadence is good. You can go down to 75 or 70 to make things more diverse. Like an hour as:
10' @ 85
10' @ 80
5' @ 75
10' @ 80
5' @ 70
5' @ 75
15' @ 80
Standing low cadence is okay as well!! Just remember that working in brakes, even for five minutes at 90 RPMs is good. Diversity of cadence overtime is just as important as specificity related to your race performance. 👍
I think the durability program is starting to yield some results. Don't feel like shit while running or like I'm just slogging along. The drop in temps no doubt has helped. Have kept it simple, followed the plan and not added any stupid stuff to it or tried to add on volume. Just finished up the first block and starting the 2nd block, level 3 after this coming week. This week is big bike volume. My schedule, life is unknown this week. I have an astronomical amount of vacation time on hand and may burn some this week and go to my parents place at the beach and instead of logging 300 to 400 miles on Zwift, maybe try to get in 100+ miles mountain biking. The HULK is the MTB trail in Myrtle and its different than any I have ridden. Some short and brutal climbs that you end up walking more than half the time and some very long flat stretches that you can hammer if you're a daredevil. Which I am not. I have 107 lifetime miles on my MTB. So knocking out 100 miles in 3 or 4 days will be huge. If I don't go, 400 miles is the Zwift goal. Unless I MTB with my son on the weekend here local, then I knock it down to 300-350. Do a nice pre-work ride in Z1-Z2 to warm up and start the day then come back after work do a Z2-Z3 ride with some segment and jersey chasing on sprints and climbs. I'm no climber, and I don't weight dope like so many on Zwift do. But went after a climb jersey on the Titans Grove reverse climb on Thursday and missed it by a heart breaking .2 seconds and landed in 2nd place. The leader must have ended his ride shortly there after as I got the Jersey while I was riding. Which doesn't count.
Just placed an order with UCAN. Listened to the podcast at least 4 times before deciding to give it a try. I figured why not. We got some time to play around and experiment. Gatorade Endurance with blocks has always served me well on straight run training and racing and Infinite has treated me well on the bike. But why not give something new a try while we are still in the recovering and growing mode for a year that we honestly have no idea what it holds. And maybe it will help me lose the weight I gained when there was no motivation or real reason to keep it off over the summer and fall. Need to drop at least 10, 15 is the stretch goal. Which in reality may be a touch too much. So 12 would make me very happy and likely set me up for a great shot at a PR for the half marathon on March 21st wether its a legit race or a solo effort if the actual race is cancelled.
Edit: Day 1 of big bike week in the books. 47.9 miles, 2 hours 1 minute (I ride in KM for more XP or I'd of gone 48). 245 watts avg for the 2 hours. And wasn't even tired and could have hammered out another hour at the same power no doubt. Will do a double the next few days with easy Z1 spinning in the AM and harder riding in the evening.
Its Friday night. 250 miles so far this week on Zwift. Instead of shooting for insane super high mileage as I was initially thinking, like shooting for 400 miles at reasonable power to not overly fatigue myself, I decided to go a little shorter, and at higher power. Like tonight. 240 watts for 40 miles which is 3w/kg, and popping some of the sprint banners. 230 for last nights 40 miles after a 20 mile 5:30 AM ride at a paltry 190 watts but with a butt ton of climbing in NYC. All this free riding is fun after so much structured worked.
In real life and in Zwift I am a better chaser than leader. I'd much rather be in 2nd place and try to chase someone down than be in 1st and try to hold them off. So to make myself work harder than I would if left to my own devices I've been jumping on the wheels of people doing FTP tests, or putting out a good bit more power than I had planned on and hanging as long as I can, or if I can tell they are annoyed that I'm drafting them, or passing them and they keep trying to drop me or refuse to let me stay in front of them, I've been dropping the hammer and dusting em and finding someone on the board ahead of me to chase down. Now beer.
While Monday starts level 3 run durability block, I'm gonna take it a little easy and just log good work on the bike and run without to much stress and fatigue to absorb the hard work put in this week.
I hope next years races start to get scheduled soon so I can map out a year.
Edit: Ugh, did a "club ride" today on the Pretzel. 46 miles, 4,500 feet of climbing. Its not a race! ITS NOT A RACE!!! Sure Jan.
2:24 with another 3 w/kg avg. Attacked the climbs, sorta recover on downs, steady on the flats. I'm beat.
Now I just need to get in good enough shape by Sept to hold 240 watts for that long and be able to do a legit run off the bike.
Comments
@Coach Patrick
So what coffee machine did you get? Review.
LOL you are so funny. I am a cheap bastard with everything except my kids and my gear. So...I ended up with the Nespresso machine and milk frother combo. This gets me espresso when needed (americano) and "fancier" when wanted. At $249 vs my starbucks habit, this has already been paid off. The pods are an issue environmentally, but I picked up a kit that lets you re-fill reuse them and bought some super high end espresso stuff (or I hope so)...so a win. Haven't paid for a coffee out since March...so crazy!
@Coach Patrick
I probably drink more coffee than anyone you know. And I bet I am even cheaper than you!
I like my coffee like I like my bikes. Black.
I just use a regular old Mr Coffee for regular coffee. Couple pots a day. And have a cheapo DeLonghi for 'espresso' and one of those old school stove top single serve percolator that I pack with espresso when I want a high power jolt.
I feel a cheap competition coming on! I would love to see a picture of your different options. I'm a visual guy so that would be a lot better for me if you ever have a chance. Hope things aren't too hot down there already.
@Brian Terwilliger - I got your Check-In update, and have pasted it below. This is part of our monthly process to stay connected, so thanks for filling it out!
Super impressed that you continue to dominate on the bike. I hope you were putting the hurt on a few folks in at least once a week. I think he would really thrive there.
As you know, heat adaptation is a function of pacing and body composition. If either one of those are things that you can improve, I recommend it. This is an a racing season, so body composition isn't necessarily high on the list. This means you can focus more on the pacing aspect. I tend to rely more on RPE for the longer runs, but push the shorter (30' or less) runs.
Hope all is well!
~ Coach P
As a reminder, Brian Terwilliger Is on the TeamEN (Coaching + Community Level) and is following the EN Half Bike Focused, 12wks.
His Rankings are as follows:
- Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Run Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Body Comp vs Last Month: 2
Next month's focus: Improve running, up mileage and efficiency in the heat
Extra help request: Free lifetime EN membership
@Coach Patrick
I really should have picked a different hobby. Like video gaming. Not running and triathlon.
@Brian Terwilliger - oh my God, that's ridiculous. Next week looks a little bit like that on my weather app, and I'm not gonna lie. I am already terrified! That kind of heat is just lethal. I know you're doing all the right things, just remember that no workout is worth pushing yourself into a massive hole.
I am curious to know how you modify your fluids during and after exercise when you encounter days like this. Do you carry sunscreen as well to reapply?
@Brian Terwilliger I got your Check-In update, and have pasted it below. This is part of our monthly process to stay connected, so thanks for filling it out!
Rankings are as follows:
- Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Run Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Body Comp vs Last Month: 1
Next month's focus: I really have no idea
Extra help request: I'll be posting in the micro shortly regarding my future and random thoughts concerns for the next year.
Just parking this here...I'll be on the lookout for your "macro" post!
@Coach Patrick
I found a real live 40K TT that is happening on 09/26. An actual race! With other humans. In the real world.
Is there a TT race plan/guidance like there is for half and full IMs on the EN site?
What kind of power plan would one use for a TT? Assume FTP of 285 (its higher), but lets play safe. How does one structure their power output over the course of the 40K? Its obviously not balls out start to finish. Its a flatish to slightly rolling course with 2 pops. One is an overpass and another is a short but steep little punch with 1.5 miles to go.
Here is the Strava of last years winner so you can see the actual course.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2489988638#62666886775
My fastest 40K to date was at IM Maryland last year. 1:02:35. For the 112 I avg 187 with my gimpy leg and my 20 min max avg power was 203. So didn't have any lengthy section of big power to produce that time. I’m thinking as long as weather is favorable to decent, we should be able to get well under an hour.
Oh, and IMMD was the last time I rode a bike on the road. This should be interesting. I have put in 107 miles on my mountain bike over the past 6 months though. So there has been some sort of actual riding of a bike.
In a few days I've got a big ol post for you about the coming year and the mysteries it holds. I’m lost and wandering but am getting a general idea of maybe what I want/need to do. Who knows.
Also, this Saturday the 12th I was going to do a DIY half since it would have been race day and I have sorta been training. Pool swim, 56 on Zwift, then 13.1 around the neighborhood. With the desire to destroy the TT, would it be best to blow off the fake half to avoid the stress and needed recovery? Wouldn't exactly be racing it.
@Brian Terwilliger A real race? WHAT BLASPHEMY DO YOU SPEAK OF?! 🤣
If you really want to dial in that race, you could use Best Bike Split to run the numbers. It really shows you where the key areas are to put out the watts and takes the weather into account. It's not bulletproof but it's fun to play with and pretty damn close at the longer stuff. Shoot me a text and I get you the login stuff: (617) 513-3830
I think you'll be fine on the bike handling just smart at the turns into, within, and out of that out and back.
You can totally do the Half. Have fun. Don't go hard on the run, but you can do what you want on the Swim and Bike...it's still nice to be able to say you "got a tri" done in 2020! Even if the medal is a post race beer.
Looking forward to the long form. The depths of your mind always make me a better coach!
~ Coach P
@Coach Patrick
Well, with a tremendous lack of training I went for the DIY Half Iron today since it would have been race day.
Swim 30:17
Bike 2:27:45 on Zwift (I'm much faster in real life than on Zwift)
Run: 1:58:48
I think my only real goal today was to survive and run sub 2. Cause I haven't been running and the running I have been doing has been lazy. And going sub 5 for the disciplines I think is pretty damn amazing for the shape I'm in. Both training wise and body comp.
Run was horrible. Hot, overcast, humid as hell, and zero wind so the thick air just hung. And haven't run that long since March. Several 10 milers, but thats it for double digits. And I way over fueled on the bike, I think. Or I just wasn't processing and clearing the fuel as fast as I normally do from lack of such efforts over the past 3 or 4 months. So where as I probably would have taken in 3 or 4 GU or packs of shot blocks on the run, and sucked down 40 or more ounces Gatorade Endurance, I ate nothing and drank about 20 OZ of GE cause I feared horrible GI issues if I forced myself to fuel properly. And since it was a fake race I didn't really care about time and if the run turned into a never ending slog, so be it. Thankfully it didn't.
And doing a half solo is hard. There is no motivation really. No fans. No participants to chase or try to hang onto. Just you and the hot sweaty blacktop. Ugh.
For the swim, man, after the dog attack I couldn't swim. And when I got cleared, I swam twice and then everything shut down. Things opened back up and started getting in again 2 or 3 times for a couple months, but was really just doing it to burn calories and get some swimming in if by chance a race happened in the fall. For the bike, I probably did the half iron plan at about 80% of what the plan calls for. Shortened some long ones, skipped a few days, etc... But my bike fitness did progress nicely and its the one bright spot this year. Can't complain there.
Running? Forget it. Its been terrible. But hopefully that will change shortly.
Will post up a year recap and future plans/thoughts/ideas thread soon. Need some guidance and motivation.
@Brian Terwilliger - sub five baby!!! Your assessment of the solo HIM is spot on....the lack of fandom (even at small races) makes the solo effort INSANELY harder. Makes your accomplishment that much more awesome. Beast mode even. I bet your legs are feeling it right now brobeans. All good..now we recover and focus on the TT first...then big planning.
What's on your mind re the TT stuff?
~ Coach P
@Coach Patrick
I have no idea on the TT. Never done one. Hell, I haven't rode outside in a year. Going to try and ride outside this weekend if the weather is nice to make sure everything on the bike works correctly. I did charge my Di2 a couple days ago. So I have that going for me.
Pretty much just looking for some kind of guidance on how to approach and pace my power for the 40K. I am definitely more built toward longer sustained power (as in for hours) than in high power for shorter periods.
I don't think I test for FTP either the 20 minute or ramp test at a number that is unrealistic. I can only think of 1 time that it produced a number that made the workouts undoable. Just dropped the number a few watts and then everything was good. But I don't think I could ever actually hold my FTP for an hour.
So at 285 I'm kinda stumped at what to go out at, what to up it to and when, and what to shoot for for an avg power for the full distance. Honestly don't even have a clue where to begin on trying to devise a power plan for such a thing. Want to have enough left in the tank for the last 6 or 7 miles to really go at it while hopefully others are dying, but not save it for then, leaving a bunch of time on the table.
And wait until you hear about what my big idea is for next year. Talk about crazy. I'm bringing it.
I think the best place to start is Best Bike Split. You can login as patrick.mccrann@gmail.com with the password dontbonk.
I went in and made a fake you (you need to update) and then add your bike and info about the ride. Then you can choose the NC TT Course and run some simulations with numbers.
The baseline shows you where power output matters most (you can even get weather geeky) and it's pretty spot on... hope you set aside an hour to get your geek on.
@Coach Patrick
I think Best Bike Split believes in me more than I deserve. Its basically telling me I have to redline it right out the gate, and avg 283 to go just under 58 minutes. Not sure I can do that. But hell, lets try. Throwdown from the gun till I die. Kidding. Sorta. After thinking on it, and knowing my mind and body, I think hammering to get up to speed, then keeping it around 250-260 is likely my best option and if I still have a gallon in the tank with 10 miles to go, see if I can step it up. Or just try to hang on and not die.
So here is the year in review. There wasn't one. LOL. You know the post dog attack stuff already. No real updates there. Once everything started getting cancelled I really just focused on staying as active as I could with the attack recovery and the limits it was placing on me. It didn't really affect the bike after a while. It would have had minimal effect on the swim had pools remained open. But they didn't. The run is where it really manifested itself. While I started coming back a little faster than expected, and really did have a great run for the fake Half Marathon back in March with what I had been able to do since January and starting to run again. Then it seemed to fall apart. I think I came back to fast and tried to do things I probably shouldn't have and it backfired a bit. And as you may remember, I threw in the towel on Boston and decided to eat the entry fee. Then got lucky when it cancelled a few days later. The mental relief of having decided to not run lifted a great weight because the race was really weighing on me, putting pressure on me, and causing me problems.
I think the attack affected me far more mentally than I thought it would. Probably more so than the physical damage it did. And in the endurance game, the mental is the most important part. And I think having everything taken away for the year, leaving me nothing to focus on left me to focus on the negative, spiraling everything else downward. My wife thinks I should go to someone for PTSD but I don't think we are at that point. I believe that once I have a "purpose" to training again and something to focus on, it will turn around. I'm an exceptionally goal and outcome driven individual. I have a big F'n mouth and I love to say I can do something stupid. Then I go and cash the check my mouth wrote. So here is the check I'm writing to start 2021.
Tobacco Road Half Marathon on March 21st. This has the out season starting on Dec 14th. Would like to break 1:30 again. With my run being garbage its time to back off the bike after the TT and attack the run.
So what do I do starting Monday Sept 28th until Dec 13th.
Thats all I'm focusing on for the time being.
But here is a peak into the big plans for the year. I was going to do IM Cozumel, and may still, but that is likely a 2022 race as I'd like to see how races shake out and are handled next year and what international travel is like. Particularly with all the crap you gotta bring for an IM. So IM Coz is plan B.
Here is Plan A. How does a 444 mile time trial sound? You read that right. 444 miles, winner take all time trial. Broken up over 4 days. Day 1 and 2 are 100+ miles, day 3 is a 60 mile balls out time trial, then day 4 100+ miles to finish it. Fastest total time for the 4 stages wins.
This sounds right up my alley. Stuff like this is what I think I am mentally and physically built for. So start rolling those gears around in your head on how to train for such a thing.
Also, still have that Ventum entry to a 70.3 to use as they let me defer it to 2021. Any suggestions on which race(s) to pick? I'm leaning toward the Virginia Blue Ridge race as its early and fairly close to home.
@Brian Terwilliger yeah that BBS is relentless...but nice to see what is possible given your fitness. like to see where it says to "Work" and then make sure to target those areas on the ride for my extra watts. Probably only 5 to 8 sections vs your steady effort. Otherwise stay aero and fly.
You aren't alone with the struggles mentally but obviously in a different place after the attack...I think you recognize the effects a reduced mental toughness quotient means for you. I've never shied away from counseling; like workouts if I don't want to do them it's likely something I need to work on (abs? glutes? flexibility? Bueller?). But you do you, I support you no matter what.
I need some timelines from you. So a 3/21 half to rip it up post TT...when is the mega TT? And why do you hate your cycling legs so much?!? and where do you find these events?
~ Coach P
@Coach Patrick
Don't know full timelines as dates for next years races aren't out yet for the most part. The only one for sure is the half marathon on March 21st. Other races are a sprint tri. It may be last Saturday in May, it may be first Saturday in June, it could be July. Just don't know. Then there is the Run The Quay 15K Challenge (10K 7 am, 5K 8:30 am) on June 5th. This is unimportant. If the sprint falls on same day, will probably do sprint. Keep this in mind, I don't plan on training specifically for either of those.
Blue Ridge Half Iron in Virginia I believe is May 23rd. Leaning heavily toward this with my Ventum entry. This I would like to train specifically for coming off the out season on March 21st.
Then a half iron the 2nd weekend in September and IMNC 70.3 deferred from this year will happen late October.
The stupid 444 mile time trial is likely the week before Thanksgiving week. Probably won't know until late this year, early next on its exact date. This also happens to likely be the timeframe for IM Cozumel.
So here is my overview of objectives. Crush the half to end the out season. Then move back to focus on the bike and build massive power and endurance, attack the Virginia Blue Ridge 70.3 with a focus on the bike, and hope and prayer on the run. Quick recovery period, then move full bore into building the biggest baddest endurance bike engine possible with just enough running to perform greatly at the early September 70.3. The goal at that race will be to obliterate the bike course and hang on for a sub 2 run. And then its dedicated focus on the 444 TT. With IMNC 70.3 being at a terrible time leading up to the race, and it will be done just for fun, but again, with the plan being to destroy the bike and not care one bit about the run.
The 2021 plan/schedule is a convoluted mess currently, but it will come into focus. And really don't need to start nailing much down until we have concrete dates and are approaching then end of the out season. Out season is whats important, and while that starts Dec 14th, prep for the run focused out season starts Monday Sept 28th. So whats the plan from then until Dec 14th?
Lets get on it.
@Coach Patrick
Rough day at the TT but had fun. 96% humidity makes for a sweat fest and sky rocketing HR. Missed the hour by quite a bit. 1:02:05 official time. Which wasn't that bad considering there was a stiff headwind for an 11 mile stretch right in the middle. Fighting through it blew me up a bit. Road conditions were less than great as well. Pretty rough older pavement. Ended up averaging 240 for the hour. One could always have gone harder and I could of. But HR was a concern. Once I get past 145 I know my time is limited as maintaining over that for extended periods makes me pay a big price, so just kept trying to hold 144/145 as best I could or I knew I'd be limping home. Plus having not ridden outside, and never getting any heat/humidity acclimation this summer impacted it as well. Never got anyone to draft off of. And the 2 people who passed me were way to fast to grab their wheel. And when you haven't trained for an hour of power, pushing power for an hour is hard. Real hard.
And man, there were some beasts racing. Holding damn near 400 watts for the TT according to their Strava uploads. Unreal. 51 minutes, into the wind, on crap payment. Come on man.
Having not ridden outside since IMMD last year other than 30 miles last Sunday to make sure everything on the bike was still working right started to quickly show. Staying Aero, not a problem. Never has been. Other than my neck. Riding upright for so long on the trainer leaves ones neck untrained for the aero position. So after 15 miles soreness and fatigue in the neck set in pretty good. So there was a good bit of fidgeting around and not holding a nice tight position. Neck till sore today. But had fun and I'll be back for more. Kinda made me rethink my loose plans for next year a little bit. But have plenty of time to think on that.
First and only concern now, crushing the half marathon on March 21st to end the out season. Which starts Dec 14th. So what do I do between now and 12/14 to get ready for a run focused out season to break 1:30 while somewhat maintaining bike fitness?
@Brian Terwilliger - thanks for all these notes. I hopefully will be able to use all those races you listed moving forward, so that I don't have to ask you to write them down all again. I love the overall flow of what you're thinking. Especially the spacing of events which I think is critical.
Having time to the TT gives us wiggle room...And honestly having some training constraints, if you will, I think I'll open the door for some adaptations that we might otherwise have missed on a more balanced program.
Kudos to you on getting things done in that time trial. I hear you on those animals. I can't even hold 400 W for that long, some people were just born to suffer like that. I have flashes of work, but nothing to sit on for an hour in time trial position no less. Insane. But a great benchmark for you looking to next year.
Also some good lessons learned for us regarding outdoor preparation for conditions and positional fitness heading into these events. That will likely need to be a larger part of how are you prepare for your epic 2021 cycling event.
Right now we have 77 days, or 11 weeks to get ready for the OS.
To me that plays out as follows:
09/28/2020 - Light Week to recovery, get back into training by weekend.
10/05/2020 - Start Run Durability Program #2 to run through 11/02/20
11/02/2020 - Bike Focus Week...go big here like 300-350 miles on le zwift. Frequent rides and at least two longer ones.
11/09/2020 - Start Run Durability Program #3 to run through 12/06/20
12/07/2020 - Your second Bike Focus Week here. Your call on the numbers.
12/15 - We go full OutSeason® .
You'll We have some modification questions for the run durability program in terms of cycling. I'd like to have two specific rides in the preseason.
One is a shorter event that's pretty hard. Something that includes about a 20 minute effort. That could be an all out 20 minute race, or it could be a "coffee" ride that is mostly 2.5 with a 20 minute effort at the end as a mini race.
The second one is more steady state/ endurance oriented. Given it's just ride #2 of the week you might want to be more at .75 IF vs .70, for example. Ideally this is 90' to 120' long...
What do you think?
~ Coach P
@Coach Patrick
Works for me. I'll get back into running this week and knock out some easy stuff just to get moving and do some Z2 spinning on Zwift. While trying to figure out how to lose 20 pounds and gain 100 watts for time trials. LOL.
My position fitness issues are easily fixed. Its called actually riding outside. Since I had no real reason to do so this season I didn't see the reward exceeding the risk so I just stayed on Zwift. When there is an actual race being trained for, I hammer Zwift for the weekday workouts, and ride outside for at least the ABP ride on the weekend.
Which Phase 2 Durability, runners, balanced, or triathletes?
On Edit:
Oddball thoughts. But they intrigue me. We all know that riding upright like on a road bike one can produce greater power. No one disputes this. In fact, a lot of riders have a significant drop off in power in aero. Losing 30, 40, 50 or more watts isn't unheard of if you do an FTP test in aero vs upright. So thoughts.
As we go through the next 11 weeks leading into the out season while I focus on rebuilding the run durability I'm going to focus on becoming able to stay in aero on the trainer. Its always cause me great difficulty to do so. On the road, never a problem. Trainer, huge problem. And when the out season starts and we kick it off with an FTP test, what do you think of swallowing the hard pill and ditching my hard earned near 300 watt FTP and taking the ramp test locked in aero and humbly accepting the much much lower number and working the entire off season in the aero bars? It seems, and I could be totally wrong, that this approach would likely lead to actually being a stronger and faster triathlon cyclist even with a lower FTP. Is my thinking way off?
And I'm back on the cadence thing again. My natural cadence is 90. No matter what, my legs gravitate to 90. If I were to put a piece of black tape over the cadence on the TV when Zwifting so I had no idea what my cadence was, at the end of the ride, it would avg 90-92. And I'd lay a huge wager on that. Going through some of the Strava uploads from the beasts at the time trial, they all seems to have cadences in the 70s and even very low 70s. Obviously time trialing is in no way applicable to triathlon cycling. But this is something I've noticed for a while from very powerful cyclists. Am I missing out on power by spinning at a higher cadence? Am I in some way possibly even burning up more energy by spinning at a higher cadence? Turning the pedals over what is thousands of times more at 90 vs say 75 over 56 or 112 miles in my uneducated mind thinks possibly so.
Who knows. I'm just rambling and letting my mind wander.
2nd Edit: Question on Final Surge. I'd like my wife to start using it, but instead of sitting there entering manually every darn workout for her, could I write up a plan in Final Surge so she could go and click on it and 'import' it into her calendar like I do with EN plans?
@Brian Terwilliger - Let's go Phase 2 for triathletes...that will be most appropriate for you.
Re TT time, yes if you want to TT it up, go for it. The numbers drop for sure but in terms of outcomes, specificity matters. The downside is that a lot of that work can "hurt" folks mentally. For example I ride my TT bike all year in Zwift but in the bars only on steady state and recovery watts.
The flip side is that work is work....so if you get 20% strong on road, some percent of that will trickle down to the TT bike. So as long as you are going to still do the work on the TT, you will get stronger. By that I mean some folks "shut down" gains when they go road to TT, accepting those lower watts. I know you aren't proposing that but want to be clear I guess.
Yes, lower cadence stuff is recruiting more fast twitch muscles to work. We see this in our Best Bike Camp testing data and outcomes. Low cadence work (60 to 70 rpms at a tempo intensity) recruits fast twitch muscles without triggering massive need for glycogen. And at some point when your strength gets up there you can turn a decent gear pretty economically.
Every athlete is different, but yes you'll see an 80 to 82rpm average for TT riders. Remember, it's very hard to spin a high rate in the TT position (other than tiny skinny Lance), and conversely it's easier to turn a full pedal stroke with that resistance.
You can work in some lower gear work into your riding now as an adaptation protocol, going 4 x 5' at 70 rpms with 5' rest every hour on the Steady state stuff.
I don't know if you can insert a plan into her account like that; remember FS makes it's money off plans / coached athletes, so I am sure there are some basic parameters. It looks like you can still create / save your own workouts to reuse, and possibly copy prior weeks to the future and make small modifications?
~ Coach Patrick
@Coach Patrick
When are the new out season plans gonna hit Final Surge? Want to get a look at what I have in store for myself this winter and make some plans at times that will have the least impact on training.
Is there a particular race series or or other hardcore ride I should look at doing on Zwift with regularity over the next couple months? And no, not the EN Hang-on Ride. That is way to early in the AM for me.
Experimenting with doing near 100% of my trainer rides in the bars and at a cadence in the low 80s to try and better replicate outdoor riding, or at least better condition my body to doing work in aero and trying to bring down my reliance on higher cadence of 90+. I think getting better at pushing and holding power at a lower cadence will pay off down the road. And no doubt doing it in aero as much as possible will pay dividends.
@Brian Terwilliger The new OS plans will hit this Wednesday 10/28, just putting workout files together.
In terms of Zwift, we did just add an 8am Dial it up to 11 Ride on Saturdays, that's a 65' effort with the last 15 hard. Fun stuff. Hardcore ride really depends on your schedule during the week...if you get me typical training times (Tue/Thu at 9am, for example) I can dive in to make recommendations.
Lower cadence work is great...especially at HIM pace to recruit fast twitch motor units. We do this in the Best Bike Camp. Yes to the bars, but any time in low cadence is good. You can go down to 75 or 70 to make things more diverse. Like an hour as:
Standing low cadence is okay as well!! Just remember that working in brakes, even for five minutes at 90 RPMs is good. Diversity of cadence overtime is just as important as specificity related to your race performance. 👍
@Coach Patrick
I think the durability program is starting to yield some results. Don't feel like shit while running or like I'm just slogging along. The drop in temps no doubt has helped. Have kept it simple, followed the plan and not added any stupid stuff to it or tried to add on volume. Just finished up the first block and starting the 2nd block, level 3 after this coming week. This week is big bike volume. My schedule, life is unknown this week. I have an astronomical amount of vacation time on hand and may burn some this week and go to my parents place at the beach and instead of logging 300 to 400 miles on Zwift, maybe try to get in 100+ miles mountain biking. The HULK is the MTB trail in Myrtle and its different than any I have ridden. Some short and brutal climbs that you end up walking more than half the time and some very long flat stretches that you can hammer if you're a daredevil. Which I am not. I have 107 lifetime miles on my MTB. So knocking out 100 miles in 3 or 4 days will be huge. If I don't go, 400 miles is the Zwift goal. Unless I MTB with my son on the weekend here local, then I knock it down to 300-350. Do a nice pre-work ride in Z1-Z2 to warm up and start the day then come back after work do a Z2-Z3 ride with some segment and jersey chasing on sprints and climbs. I'm no climber, and I don't weight dope like so many on Zwift do. But went after a climb jersey on the Titans Grove reverse climb on Thursday and missed it by a heart breaking .2 seconds and landed in 2nd place. The leader must have ended his ride shortly there after as I got the Jersey while I was riding. Which doesn't count.
Just placed an order with UCAN. Listened to the podcast at least 4 times before deciding to give it a try. I figured why not. We got some time to play around and experiment. Gatorade Endurance with blocks has always served me well on straight run training and racing and Infinite has treated me well on the bike. But why not give something new a try while we are still in the recovering and growing mode for a year that we honestly have no idea what it holds. And maybe it will help me lose the weight I gained when there was no motivation or real reason to keep it off over the summer and fall. Need to drop at least 10, 15 is the stretch goal. Which in reality may be a touch too much. So 12 would make me very happy and likely set me up for a great shot at a PR for the half marathon on March 21st wether its a legit race or a solo effort if the actual race is cancelled.
Edit: Day 1 of big bike week in the books. 47.9 miles, 2 hours 1 minute (I ride in KM for more XP or I'd of gone 48). 245 watts avg for the 2 hours. And wasn't even tired and could have hammered out another hour at the same power no doubt. Will do a double the next few days with easy Z1 spinning in the AM and harder riding in the evening.
@Coach Patrick
Its Friday night. 250 miles so far this week on Zwift. Instead of shooting for insane super high mileage as I was initially thinking, like shooting for 400 miles at reasonable power to not overly fatigue myself, I decided to go a little shorter, and at higher power. Like tonight. 240 watts for 40 miles which is 3w/kg, and popping some of the sprint banners. 230 for last nights 40 miles after a 20 mile 5:30 AM ride at a paltry 190 watts but with a butt ton of climbing in NYC. All this free riding is fun after so much structured worked.
In real life and in Zwift I am a better chaser than leader. I'd much rather be in 2nd place and try to chase someone down than be in 1st and try to hold them off. So to make myself work harder than I would if left to my own devices I've been jumping on the wheels of people doing FTP tests, or putting out a good bit more power than I had planned on and hanging as long as I can, or if I can tell they are annoyed that I'm drafting them, or passing them and they keep trying to drop me or refuse to let me stay in front of them, I've been dropping the hammer and dusting em and finding someone on the board ahead of me to chase down. Now beer.
While Monday starts level 3 run durability block, I'm gonna take it a little easy and just log good work on the bike and run without to much stress and fatigue to absorb the hard work put in this week.
I hope next years races start to get scheduled soon so I can map out a year.
Edit: Ugh, did a "club ride" today on the Pretzel. 46 miles, 4,500 feet of climbing. Its not a race! ITS NOT A RACE!!! Sure Jan.
2:24 with another 3 w/kg avg. Attacked the climbs, sorta recover on downs, steady on the flats. I'm beat.
Now I just need to get in good enough shape by Sept to hold 240 watts for that long and be able to do a legit run off the bike.