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Ben Mullenix Year One Coach Thread

edited July 13, 2017 9:09PM in Coaching Forum 🧢

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 Races

9/24/2017 - IM Augusta 70.3® (Hometown race)


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 07/01/2017 
  • Complete the Trial Testing Week, save your Bike and Run Zones to the My Zones Page.
  • On 7/10/17 Load the Minimalist EN*Half Intermediate Plan on end on 9/24/17.
  • On 9/25 load the Post Half Recovery Plan to end on 10/8/17
  • On 10/9 load the Run Durability Plan Block 1 to end on 10/22/17.
  • On 10/23 chill out for a week. 
  • On 10/30 load the 2018 OutSeason® Training Plan to end on 02/04/18. 
  • On 2/5 load the 2018 EN*Half Intermediate Plan on end on 4/8/2018 into IM Texas. 

 

Coach Notes

With just one race on the calendar, your season is very straightforward. You also have experience here, so when we talk please keep me posted on how the race went down so I can do a good job of advising you on how to improve.

Right now the fact that the endurance nation half iron plan is so different from your normal plan, it should be diverse enough to have the effect we are looking for. If you have any questions or edits to the plan that you'd like me to make, please let me know here in this forum post.


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

The focus of this week is 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

  • I chose EN because I have trained this year with a similar thought as EN (higher intensity, lower volume) and it has yielded good results - my best year thus far in triathlon. I like everything I've seen so far with EN. I do triathlon because having a goal to work towards, be that an Ironman or a 70.3, gives me a reason to work out. I like feeling fit and knowing that I'm being proactive towards being healthy. I love the pursuit of getting better over time and trying for that perfect race based on my fitness and the course.

    My goals for the rest of this year are:
    - Change my training schedule to earlier morning sessions and fewer evening sessions; I need to figure out how to make training for long distance tri more sustainable for the long term (my wife and I will be having our first child in November)
    - Break 5 hours at Augusta - this is going to require getting stronger on the bike, being able to hold a higher %FTP than I have in other races, and building my general run fitness.
    - I'd like to get to 180lbs or so (~20% body fat) from my current weight of 188lbs.

  • @Ben Mullenix -

     Thank you for all of that information! There are some great stuff there and I think we can really help.

    We can certainly help you with the schedule, as that's what we all do. It's common knowledge that most guys are freaked out about having a family and what it means for the training… And that they all get faster afterwards. :-) It's more about setting better expectations with a good plan and we can help you with that. 
     I am confident the wait will start to come off as the volume goes up, but if there something special we need to do or you have done in the past, let me know.

    I agree that we are going to have to really get the bike Daldon 100%. If you have links to Strada events or I can take a look at your execution in the past, that would be great. Or if you can share what your normalized power has been for past races,  I can also advise. Basically what I like to do his map the distance between where you are now and where we need you to be so we can go if you concrete work outs to get there. 

    ~ Coach P 
  • @Ben Mullenix - Great call yesterday! I have updated your plan ^above^ to be the Minimalist one (you still have to make the change), so check that out. 

    In the meantime, please tell me what two weekends you can do "bigger" bike volume between now and race day. I am talking about two solid days (fri / sat or sat / sun). 

    As for rolling into next year, I have added that as well to the outline so you can see what's what

    Let me know about the training and we can go from there!

    ~ Coach P
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