Art Paterson's Micro Thread...
Great to talk with you today. you absolutely have your work cut out for you, but I think you will be okay. Not only do you have experience on the course, you're also light-years ahead of where you were this time last year.
Our job then will be to make sure your training is as focused and race specific as possible to help you achieve your goals.
First and foremost I want to make sure that you use the minimalist training plan that we specified. When you go to choose your training plan on the training plan page, you will use the drop-down to choose that minimalist plan. You should use that plan instead of the generic one that Coach Rich will recommend. It will flow better for you.
Whichever plan you do end up choosing, please reach out to me once you've had a chance to load it into your account. Comparing that plan to your actual weekly training regimen will be a bit of a wake up call for you. I am standing by to help you make any adjustments you need to integrate it properly into your currently week.
You are IN to Trainer Road so you will now see our workouts in your drop-down menu when you search. You will just search with something like “2017 IM Adv Wk2” (if that’s your week) and you will see the available workouts that correspond with your training plan.
In addition it's important for you to check out those key training weekends. You can learn more about the minimalist full plan on the Training Plan Central Page here:
http://members.endurancenation.us/TrainingPlan/TrainingPlanCentralPage.aspx#minfull
As you can see from this hourly comparison chart, those last six weeks to race are some of the biggest. When you have a training plan loaded you can use the drop-down"Week count" to pick future weeks to see what's coming. Generally speaking, you have big bike weekends at five and three weeks out...so Fourth of July Weekend is #2, and the Weekend of June 16/17 is #1...these will be bigger bike weekends for you.
Hourly Comparison Chart
Also, here is the page you need to research for Lake Placid. It has a combination of both coach information as well as athlete race reports that will help you out. Be sure to browse that page when you have time.
https://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/MasterRacingPages/IronmanLakePlacid.aspx
That's all I have for you right now...as you dive in you'll undoubtedly have questions...so fire away!!!
Great to have you here,
~ Coach P
Comments
Got your back!
No more base work for you. You are all set there. Since GF is a 10 week plan, you would load it to end on 6/4, but only do the first 5 weeks...as on 5/1 you are loading the IM plan.
I agree that working on the swim should begin....but only in baby steps. Remember a 50m pool is legit harder than a 25y one...so you have that in your corner. Use the pull buoy as a bridge to get in some extra yards without cost (minimal kicking). Ideally we have you swimming 8,000 per week on a consistent basis.
I think your split run on Sat is genius. It's not so much about pace for the first few times...just getting it done. Do your best...maybe you can run pre/post game or between games if things workout. Your call.
Sunday is the priority training session. No need to swim first except for Week 15 and Week 18 (plan ahead using your calendar!) and anything in the 3-4.5 hour range is good..you'll have those two longer sessions -- see ^above^ -- but let's stay focused on building that good week for now!
Last thing you mentioned was the FTP -- it will be hard to get that up in-season, part of that will be a function of how hard you went in the winter. So do your best on those mid-week sessions to challenge yourself. Feel free to extend recovery after the FTP intervals if you need a bit more time...
Keep me posted!
~ Coach P
Thanks Coach P - appreciate the call and the follow up. I've been adding yardage each week in the pool. I was on vacation recently and got early runs/swims in each day so feeling better and better on the swim...good call on the pull buoy!
Also thanks for the clarity on the Sunday training sessions and good to know Saturday's are an okay switch for the split runs. My FTP is currently 221 from most recent 4/2 test...if I work hard at those mid week sessions and all goes well, what's a realistic increase in FTP? I started at a fairy low 190 FTP from Feb 7 test
Thanks,
Art
You do #2 by improved aero position, better pacing, better gearing and gearing choices, etc!