Jason Maclellan Year One Coach Thread
Here's your personal Coach Thread, as promised. This is where you'll return to post all your "coach" questions as responses; I'll see them and reply. This first post is here to guide you through your first year on EN, so you can always come back here.
As you'll see in this forum, I handle all manner of edits and changes. So post away, know that I reply here usually M/W/F each week.
Power User Tip: Click the Star icon by the Title of this thread to subscribe, and you'll get email updates when I do reply.
Your WHY and Goals
Coming soon...see homework below!
Your Season Outline
These are your recommended training plans, including the date you should start each one (sometimes you won’t complete a full plan but transition to another one). You can change your plans on the Training Plan page by clicking the Move / Change button. Learn more about each plan on the Training Plan Central Page.
- Last updated by Coach on 06/22/2017
- Complete the Trial Testing Week, save your Bike and Run Zones to the My Zones Page.
- On 6/26 Load the Intermediate 2017 Short Course, 20wks to end on 9/10/2017
- On 9/11 Load the Beginner Post HalfIron Transition Plan, All Levels (2wks) to end on 9/24/2017
- On 9/25 Load the Beginner Run Durability 1 (9 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 10/22/2017
- On 10/23 Load the Beginner Run Durability 2 (8 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 11/19/2017
- On 11/20 Load the Beginner Run Durability 3 (7 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 12/17/2017
Coach Notes
I think that you are in a great place right now... you have a few months under your belt and an OLY far enough away to get fit without getting too carried away. Our first step, after doing the tests that matter (if you can't guesstimate your zones) is to get you integrated on the training plan. You don't have to do ALL the workouts...I really just want one good session a day (you can use the color codes to keep the most important workouts in the week).
Once we are through your OLY, I have specified that you load up a Recovery Plan and then head over to the Run Durability Program to start laying the foundation for next year's 2 x 70.3® schedule. I am happy to talk you through this on our call!!
Coach Contact Points
These are all the key points in your first year where we must talk. You can schedule all calls with me for these times online here. Please remember to include your phone number.
- Welcome Call in Week One (set it up here)
- Coach Call in Week Two to talk about your season (set it up here)
- End of Trial Call -- We review your experience & Unlock Year One / Race Execution for you (set it up here)
- End of Season Call -- We review your year & Strategize for your “gap” and Year Two (to be announced)
For short or last minute questions, we recommend you use the Red Chat Icon on the main Members website.
We have also organized a complete chart of the best ways to contact us online here.
Your First Month on the Team
You have quite a few things to do when you start up. There are instructions on the top of the website, but you can review them under Resources / 0-- First 30 Days on EN. If you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to reach out via the chat icon on the main Members website here.
Your First Year Inside Endurance Nation
RACE EXECUTION and how we can help you get faster by being smarter on race day. There are no medals for great swims or getting to the top of a hill first — on race day only your finish time counts. There are many ways of being faster, and here are some of the resources we have to help you out.
- The Four Keys of Race Execution Video: The Coaches walk you through the macro level elements of a successful race.
- Distance Specific Guidance: Learn the fundamentals of racing Short Course and Long Course events, from each discipline to pacing zones, etc.
- Race Specific Pages: We have aggregated information on specific races from the internet, race reports and even our own coaching resources. You can find your race Master Racing Page section.
- The Race Forums: You can search for race reports or connect with your teammates. There are sections for 70.3, 140.6, and Marathons.
Your Homework
Tell Us Why You Choose EN & Your Season Goals
- Please reply below with WHY you chose Endurance Nation and WHY you train/compete.
- Whenever possible, please identify your goals -- time, body composition, completion...the sooner you put them down the sooner we can get towards achieving them.
Looking forward to working with you this year,
~ Coach P
Comments
WHY I chose Endurance Nation - I stumbled across your podcasts and really liked the sound of your philosophies and training approaches. What i was hearing made sense - work works, if you want to run fast fast go fast and I liked the idea of doing more fast work in the winter when there's less time to get out and go longer when the weather's better.
WHY I train and compete - I've recently got back into training and it reminded me how much I enjoy the feeling of being healthy and fit and how good it is to have something to strive for. I swam competitively when I was young and so I enjoy competition in general but also seeing how far i can push myself.
My goals for this year are to get back into training consistently and I want to complete my OLY tri in Sep in under 2:45.
Excited to have you on the team and work with you towards your goal of the season.
Since it's been a while, our top goal is to get you back on being consistent. I want you doing something almost every day (except rest days), don't freak out about if it's swim / bike / run, just get it done. And since your strongest discipline is the swim, it is a lower priority as well. To be frank, as much frequent running you can do… Even if it's one or 2 miles… will make a big difference.
I can see you are getting the work done on Strava. Here is how you can make sure that you are 100% connected to the Team (and me) via Strava: Learn More.
You can move your long ride to Sunday to be with the group; would you be able to do the "long run" of 60 minutes in the early AM on Saturday so you can still have family time? That would really make the week scheduling much easier....but it's 100% your call.
As for Mallorca, I assume you'll have the bike? We can get really creative there..let me know what you think your time to train might be.As for the Powertap stuff vs Pedals, we use Wheelbuilder.com for our wheels. You can contact them online and tell them you are an Endurance Nation athlete when you ask for the pricing. Not sure if it really matters given how far you'd have to ship it...but worth checking out!
Let me know how things are going when you can!
~ Coach P
I am planning to have the bike in Mallorca. I'll be there for 13 days and should have plenty of time for training in the mornings (2 to 3 hours a day) so could fit in a more long rides than a typical week.
I'll take a look at the wheels. I have done a few of the bike intervals on the Watt bikes at my gym, which seems ok so might keep that going for a while.
Jason
The only key session you'll have each week is that long run which we will want to keep on the program. Maybe you outline what you think the plan should look like I can give you some advice?
I prefer this approach so I'm not creating a training plan for that messes up your vacation!
As for the race my goal for the race was 2:40 based on swim: 25, bike 1:20, run 50.
Swim: it was a sea swim and the conditions were quite hard. I didn't feel like I was swimming fast and felt like I had to sight more often than I normally would but I felt like it was still ok. I'm not sure what happened but a group of about 30 of us managed to miss a turn and head quite far off course and then had to swim back to the course. I came out of the water and looked at my watch and it said 35 minutes. I couldn't believe it as my race prep sessions were in the 23s and the slowest I have ever swum a 1500 is 27. It turned out I had swum 2.1k so that explains the time however at the time I knew I had blown my goal time and in my best discipline however I managed to put it behind me and focus on biking and running as well as I could.
Swim Time: 36:34. Overall 35/212, Age 13/63
Bike: I tested my FTP 3 weeks before and it came out as 217 so my plan was to aim for 205 for the bike leg. I had never raced with a power metre before but it really helped me to not go too hard up the hills and put the power down where normally I would have been coasting. It wasn't a fast time but I felt like I performed to my potential and finished with AP at 208 and NP at 210.
Bike time: 1:14:23. Overall 102/212, Age 36/63
Run: I went out hard but manageable on the run. I was pleasantly surprised to see 07:30-07:40 for my mile paces. I ended up doing the first 5k in 23:32 which is bang on my 5k pr. It was an out and back run and the way back was into a pretty strong head wind so it was a bit of a sufferfest. My mile averages went up to just over 8 minutes but I managed to hold on to finished with a 10k PR.
Run time: 47:57. Overall 87/212, Age 31/63
Overall time was 2:42:09. Overall 72/212, Age 28/63.
Although I missed my goal time if I had even a halfway decent swim I would have been much closer to 2:30. I was pleased with my execution on bike and run and 28th out of 63 for my age group seems ok on 11 weeks training after 9 years in inactivity.
Really enjoying EN so far, I haven't been very active in the forums but I think I have consumed every piece of content you have produced (and there is a lot of it!). I am looking forward to starting the RDP plan. I did sign up for the Zwift academy for a bit of fun and while the workouts are quite hard I feel like I would like to finish it. Do you think this will be a problem doing this with the first few weeks of the RDP plan?
I guess I’m going to have to make you swim and bike before all of your 5K tests in the future!
You're invited to my new group 'EN Sunday ABP Ride' on GroupMe. Click here to join: https://groupme.com/join_group/29902223/JHEyw3 https://groupme.com/join_group/29902223/JHEyw3
Zero issues with you doing Swift Academy. On those days you can either not run or Doll the runway down. Remember in the fall, we determine success by the number of runs we do, not the distance of any particular run. A mile run keep the streak alive!
~ Coach P
Racing is just such an incredible work out, my guess is you will quickly improve. Suffer, but also improve.
As far as next year is concerned, everything is a bit up in the air at the minute as we have decided to take an opportunity and move over to states to work in NY. I am really excited about it however it is making planning for next year quite hard. We suspect we will be moving over around May time but it depends on the timing of visas coming through. My training could be a bit all over the place so was thinking train as if I had an Oly in June time and plan for a half around Sep/Oct time, exact event tbc. Realise this doesn't give you much to go on but I think a lot of this year is going to be do what I can when i can so any sort of plan would be helpful.
cheers,
Jason
In the meantime yes, let’s move you to more of a bike focused week.
Mon - Core Stremgth / Self Care / Rest
Re the foot, I am getting pain towards the heel and outside of my foot. The pain comes and goes which seems odd to me but it is sore even if I am not running. If i had to guess I would say it feels like a ligament but not sure. It feels like it might be getting better with rest as the pain is coming less frequently so hopefully I stopped in time before I did any damage.
When you say Bike Steady for Sat what does that mean, is it zone 2?
Sorry, couldn't help myself. So as you move into your year "event-less" as it were, you can still make some good progress. I;d like to see you load up the Bike Focus Plan (6 Weeks) and do the Beginner or Intermediate workouts. You don't have to go crazy pushing the numbers, but it would be nice to target an FTP of 215 to 220W. Try to get ahead of last year if you know what I mean.
You can maintain the running by doing the runs as the plan suggests and also working in some durability runs at 2 to 3 miles per day where you have time, very low intensity!
Please keep me posted!
~ Coach P
That's a great question! Don't worry about "forcing" yourself down into Zone 1. If there's a "happier cadence" for you that isn't too much work, let's have you start there.
For example, if Z1 is 10:17/mile and you are much happier at 9:40s....I'd be willing to take that. The key here is that you aren't pushing effort on these runs.
Tell me more about Xert when you can!
~ Coach P
I've decided this weekend that I am not to put everything on hold pending our move and I've gone back to my original plan of 2 x 70.3s this year. I'm planning to do Staffordshire 70.3 in the UK on June 10th and Atlantic city 70.3 on Sep 23rd (assumes i will be in the states by then). I've switched onto the Half IM minimalist plan to end 10th June which means I am dropping in at start of week 9 but the workouts look doable. Is this a sensible thing to do?
My goal is to do sub 5:30 at Stafford and I feel that should be achievable with a good 11 weeks of training. I feel like my body can take the increase in load because I don't think adding the swimming back in will tax me too much but what do you think of my plan? I will try and do the full week 9 plan and let you know how the body feels on the increased load.
And to clarify, week nine is a perfect time to start, that’s usually when we have people dropping into the plans.
Just checking in before my race on Sunday. I have been following the plan pretty closely and enjoyed it a lot. I definitely feel like I am in good shape heading into the weekend. In terms of my goals for the race i want to get under 5:30 but a lot will depend on the bike.
My swim is fine, I've done 29:23 and 29:32 for my 2 1900m tt's which I am happy with as haven't really been focusing on swim at all.
My plan for the bike is to target 185w on the bike (0.79IF). I managed this on my last good bike rehearsal and then ran well off the bike so feel like this is a good number for me. In terms of nutrition I am planning to have 3 bottles and 4 gels on the bike as this has worked on my long rides. Best bike split reckons this power will give me a split of around 3:05. I have invested in some aerobars for my road bike and have been using them on my long rides. I am pretty comfortable staying in position now so hopefully this will give me some speed compared to previous events.
I am feeling good about my run at the minute so think I can run sub 1:45. I have set a 10k PR on my last 2 mid week tempo runs so I am definitely in the best run shape i've ever been in. Plan is to start at 8:15/mile for first 2 miles and then hopefully settle into around 7:50ish pace.
What do you think of above, does it sound sensible? Anything else I should be thinking about?
thanks,
Jason
The swim was a bit weird as i could not catch my breath after jumping in, i had to swim about 100m with my head out of the water just trying to catch a breath. As soon as I got my head down I swam well and started to overtake a lot of people. It wasn't quite the time I was hoping for but was good enough for 12th in my age group so not too bad. Not sure why I couldn't breath as water wasn't that cold - they said 20c. Don't know if you have any thoughts on it?
Bike went really well although VI was not great at 1.1. AP 189, 208 NP, IF 0.88. It was not as flat as advertised and I just couldn't stay at my intended power going up the hills so this caused some of the spikes. Also after about 2.5 hours of being continually passed on the bike I actually felt really good for the last 30 mins and pushed hard. I started to overtake some people back and had to surge a bit to get through some of the big packs that had developed.
I made a couple of mistakes on the run. First 3 miles were probably a bit too fast 7:24, 7:42, 7:44 but I am happy with the time as it's a PR of more than 2 mins for a HM. I made a stupid snap decision in transition not to take the 2 gels I had packed in my run bag (don't know why) thinking I would use the ones on course. They were disgusting and I couldn't take it at all so ended up with no nutrition on run so last few miles were really hard. My heart rate also seemed really high, over an hour in z4 HR zone. Training peaks told me I set a new threshold heart rate during the run, which doesn't seem right.
I will write up a full report and post it but really chuffed with the time.
While I high VI is not ideal, the way you executed by being patient at the start is about as good as it gets. Nice job.
You should always always always carry ylur
own Nutrition. There is zero cost to carry into gels in your hand. Worst case scenario you just get rid of them at an aid station but always better to have it then wish you did.