Ed Croucher 2017 Coach Thread
Coach, looking for some guidance for this camp week. As I told you in my text, my work week has been thrown upside down. I'm unsure how much of the camp week plan I will be able to get to. I am working straight through to Wednesday July 19 so the Big rides are out. The length od my work days this week are unclear. Yesterday was 15 hours. How should I proceed?
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First step is to assess your training over the past 3 months...I believe it has been pretty high / consistent. My recommendations are:
As I mentioned earlier, your fitness isn't evaporating...let's keep it "hot" until such time that you can get back on track!
~ Coach P
Ps lots of good food and water; time to stay as healthy as possible!
As for the bike, I will take whatever you can get during the week even if it's shorter but harder. We just need some longer hit outs on the weekend. I don't know what your schedule looks like over the next three weeks but big weekends matter more than total weekly bike volume at this point. They will allow you to dial-in your nutrition, focus on proper pacing (is it the start strong at the finish) and create some fatigue that will challenge you during your weekly run consistency focus.
Let me know what your time looks like moving forward and we can go from there!
Great to see you again. Overall, I got back to a fair week of training. I didn't swim except in Mirror Lake. I really need more swim time. I ran well, a little over 37 miles and that doesn't count 8 to 10 miles of walking with Elaine and oh yes, Tennis. Here is the results of my long ride on Thursday. I don't know if my Power meter was operating correctly. Through 50 miles, my average NP was 127W & my AP was 113W. Over the next 32 miles my average NP was 160W & my AP was 149W. I kept my perceived level of exertion the same. My HR was solid and locked in just above 130 bpm. Here is the table:
- you really only need one long swim for the week, ideally in open water. Hopefully that makes things logistically easier for you. Race week you can swim in open water as much as you want both before you leave and on site.
My plan for this week is three big days on the bike. I need to push passed the 112 mile mark.
This week as you get those longer rides in, remember you only need one to be 112 miles. The rest of them can be around 100 miles that's fine with me. All I care about is that you do a ride along enough to see if the Nutrition) is working and challenge your mental state in the last third.
we also want to avoid over doing it as you process last weeks run mileage. I look forward to following you on Strava!
There is no need to do anything more than 2 hours for the run....instead let's dial in your run nutrition.
I'm back at the Station tomorrow morning. My plan moving forward is to run easy & often. I also plan to swim 4 or 5 times each week. I also want to keep the bike fitness I have added.
I recommend two full days off of training to let your legs, and ass, recover. Then you are into taper mode which allows you to swim as much as you want and run frequently... there is only one decent run this week and it should be no more than 10 miles at race pace.
I would plan on two bikes this week… A 60 to 75 minute FTP session during the week, and one final 3 to 4 hour easy ride on the weekend in full race kit and set up.
Now's the time to start thinking about the logistics of your tubes and food in gear so that all of that could be dialed in before you pack it up for Tremblant.
Compensate for lack of training by making good nutritional choices and staying as loose as you can… I am sure Elaine would love a few extra walks!
I will follow you advice. Taking today off is easy. I had to come to work early anyway and I won't get home until late. So, I will get home and put some work in on the Air Relax compression pants. Tomorrow, the plan will be similar but I should have a normal work day. I am already thinking about the logistics.
The race was a blast and I really enjoyed the venue. I had a great week with the housemates. Although I am very frustrated, I didn't go totally crazy. I did a 30 mile ride earlier this week and it was no problem. My legs were way too strong. I have completed 3 runs this week including a 2 X 1 mile interval run yesterday. I should not feel this strong after an Ironman. I really thought about signing up for IM Maryland. There is only 1100 athletes signed up. However, If I did that race, I would not have a good out season and I would not get stronger. Also, I would have to go to that race alone.
So, I am trying to figure out where to go from here. September is my 4th anniversary with the team. I have really enjoyed everything the team has given me. I have enjoyed sharing what I can with the team on line and in person at races. I still have the goal of earning my ticket to Kona. I need to figure out how to get that ticket punched.
I know that you have a ton on your plate. I hope your build to the "Big Show" is seamless and smooth.
Every year, every race, however is a chance to gather some more lessons learned...like your bite valve, for example.
Everyone was slower in the water in Tremblant...Any where from 3 to 8 mins slower. It wasn't easy this year at all.
The bike was fast but windy on Lap Two as well. I haven't seen your data to see how you paced it. You can fix the bite valve, but do you even have hard targets like 48 oz per hour? If you knew you needed 48oz, you could have drank 2 aid station bottles per hour...or gotten a new one every 10 miles and been "okay" with things. But you need to know the math to be able to make adjustments...
As for the run, all bets are off if your nutrition was bad...it's like trying to drive to grandma's without gas, but then wondering why you weren't able to make it. I think you did your best, and it was a great mental exercise even if it wasn't the race you wanted.
Not to mention, your bike Avg HR was 132...so that was your target for the first 6 miles...but your run HR was WAY higher than that for the first 9-ish miles...there's just no way you can recover from that type of early effort on the run.
Your call on the rest of the year...you do you, I can work around you. If you have unfinished biz, make the call...I am sure you can find a roommate there or something. Or we build for 2018.
100% your call. The Team and I support you 1000000%, and you know that.
I'll stand by!
~ Coach P
The best decision I can make right now is to move on with Training and not try to add that race in Maryland. Although the race participants are low, I would be entering with less than a fully prepared me. I think of this as the "Fall Marathon" you have mentioned in the past. I am going to race a local half Iron Saturday. I'll let you know how that goes.
In the mean time, I will live vicariously through the racing achievements of you, Mike R. & Pete L.
Ed
Goals & Plans for 2018
Thank you for the call this week. When I scheduled the call I had not been assigned to the detail that sent me away from home. That assignment kept me from properly planning for the phone meeting. So, I will try to properly set out my season here. During our call I gave you my goal for the 2018 season. My A race is IMLP. I do plan to race Tupper Lake Tinman at the end of June with a sub 5 hour goal. Mallorca Camp in April and some really focused time in Placid leading into the race.
This is my fifth year with the team and I am entering a new age group, the 55 – 59 group. Like a comment you made during the Town all cast, I have not reached my goals. For a variety of reasons my race performance has plateaued. I feel my Ironman performance is not consistent with my 70.3. I am able to put together a 5 hour 70.3 race but I have not come close to that kind of performance in a full Ironman. I know that some of that is training load. During IMMT this year I felt the benefit from bike load I added a few weeks before the race. My retrospective view of the training leading into that race and the race was that my run volume and particularly the big runs were too low. During the race build I need to have big volume weeks for both run & bike. I know this is a schedule issue that I have to master. To that end, I have added a serious run durability segment to my training. I am currently on day 25 of this plan. I am averaging 30 miles per week. My goal is to maintain this volume through the entire training period. I know I need to have several weeks during the race build where my run volume is 40 to 51 miles with several runs over 18 miles. Ideally, I will get at least one of those at the end of my biggest bike week. The build period is far from today. Now I need to focus on building the strength across all sports to get me to the build.
For my training standards I have recently performed two events. I set my vdot based on a 5K race I did in September. Without any explanation, my vdot is set at 45 which is low. I just did the 40K TT on Zwift I told you about. I rode 1 hour with a 245W average (1.0 IF). I do most of my running around an 8:00/mile pace. I have done some progressive pace running where I end up at 7:20 for the final mile. I have not done any focused hard intervals in a while.The vdot has my TRP at 8:37/mile. I usually push the final mile into the 7:30 – 7:50 range. Last night I did a recovery run and focused on cadence. My goal here was to keep my pace around 9:00/mile and my cadence to 180.
My first question is for run training. Should I be doing hard intervals weekly? How much easy pace running should I do? Like a lot of people, it is very hard for me to run slow. The easy pace by the calculator has me at 9:17/mile.
My next question is for the bike. How do I get my power levels up? In general, I am able to get two 1 hour bike workouts in each week. They are usually late in my day, but I get them done. For my 30”/15” VO2 intervals I am averaging 350 watts. I am riding a Zwift race or two each week.
Thanks and I look forward to your response.
Right now I recommend that you are in the RSB program. You can build up a nice run CTL with consistency and very little intensity.
This will help set the stage for the rest of your year so you don't need mega run volume (b/c your CTL will already be there).
I am running 30 miles/we in block 1, 35 in block 2, and 40 in block 3 (December). Just one interval run per week other wise it's too much. Bike Zwift.races 1-2x a week, 1 longer ride on the weekends.
Ideally by. Dec you are running 6 days a week (frequencv). Then we are into the January outseason.
My bike didn't suffer much from the time away. I did a FTP test on Tuesday (255W for 42:30 minutes). This is a 10 watt increase from my first FTP of the training season.Legs are doing good. Although I did the VO2 workout yesterday and had good numbers there. I averaged 1.31 for the first set of one minute intervals and 1.28 for the second. I tried to follow up yesterday's VO2 work with a Sweet Spot ride today but I didn't have the legs. I got 1:30:00 in at 82% and finished with a 5k brick.
I am not going to be a slave to the streak. My schedule at work has finally beaten me. I need a break. So, I did not brick the Tuesday bike. Going to put my feet up and drink a beer.
COACHING QUESTION - My training season has had a two week break. My CTL droped from 85.8 to 66.6. That will take a long time to recover. How fast should I try to move my CTL up? I plan to get back to 30 miles per week as soon as I can, but smartly. I am not going to do any long runs beyond 10 miles. I am going to try and insert some split runs. Should I worry about boosting my FTP? I can reload the OS and work the mid-week bike.
Mallorca is going to be a big test.
You are a SICK , very FIT person.
The inly way way to get it back is nice and steady. No point in cramming; mallorca will be a great boost. Remember the race is the real goal, not the camp!
typically it will be 3-5 days of aerobic time, then 3-5 with some Z3...then you are back.
Anything else will run the risk of the rest of
your year (aKA not Worth it).
If it helps, same boat here. I hate my chart.
Current Plan Schedule:
- On 4/30/2018 Load the EN*Full to end on 7/22/2018
- On 7/23/2018 Load the -- Post Ironman Transition Plan, All Levels (4wks) to end on 8/19/2018
Additional Details:Execution Steps:
Other Thoughts:
Thanks,
Ed