Robert Patrick 2017 Official 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 Races
- 10/15/2017 IM Louisville
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 07/21/2017
- Complete the Trial Testing Week (at least for the Bike!) save your Bike and Run Zones to the My Zones Page.
- ASAP Load the Intermediate EN*FULL plan to end on 10/16/2017
Coach Notes
You have twelve weeks to go which is blast off time for us. That's when the volume goes up and it's time to start doing the longer rides and runs. Once you lose explain you have a chance to explore some of the weeks by clicking ahead. I suggest that you also go check out our Training Plan Central Page to see the official overview.We also have a training plan with more focused workouts and less total volume. This is called our "minimalist" plan which maybe some more suitable to you given your schedule. You and I can discuss this more on our Coach Call but you can schedule here.
It is a lot to learn, but I promise you we have a fantastic system and we can get you up to speed very quickly. The most important steps right now are (1) getting your training zones set and then (2) making sure our weekly schedule fits your life which we can do here anytime you want as I'm on this page 24/7.
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'm riding a cervelo P3 with the following Gearing: Chainrings: 52/36 Q-Rings and Cassette: 28-11. I see this is different from the "official EN" gearing. Any issues with this gearing for Full Ironman (Louisville specifically)?
I assume you have the Q rings set up for TT mode?
I ask because there are quite a few places where there are extended down hills, and getting into your 5211 combo will allow you to set and sustain some pretty high speeds I shall come to your advantage. But you still need to be patient on those hills!
I think you are in a great place moving into Lou...if you haven't already, connect with the Team in the Lou forum so you can make sure you are up to speed on all things race.
Let's see up the run frequency...it still has benefits for you. The pacing is hard to do...if required, switch over to Heart Rate based off of what you'll run on race day. Outside of your interval run on Tuesdays, you can use HR and focus on the Race Effort to lock that in.
You'll also want to really practice using the Gatorade Endurance. It is very freeing to have that locked in before the race, and know that you are never far from endless fluids. This will required some time...I even had to ride with a bike jersey for a while so I could hold two more bottles...anything to avoid having to stop too many times.
Your long term improvement focus is Body Composition. We can still dial that in a bit now...I don't know what your weaknesses are (I have a sweet tooth), but you can easily do the following to help you out:
- Buy Crystal Light for after dinner drink vs dessert.
- When you get hungry a bit before bed, have a scoop of protein powder in 12-16oz cold water, blended. I use Choc Peanut Butter...it's satiating and yummy.
Most importantly, you still have to fuel all your workouts properly. No skimping there please as you are teaching your body how to consume while working out!Keep it up!
~ Coach P
I recommend that we go one of two ways:
Option number two — if the long ride is what really hurts right now, then let’s transition the weekend into more of a Temple focus. You could do 2 x 56 Mile rides at more of at half Iron Man pace on back to back days. This would give you a chance to stay sharp and still avoid the mental anguish of such a long training ride.
Keep me posted!
~ Coach P
At a minimum. if you are totally unfamiliar with the Louisville course, your should drive it on Friday (or have someone else drive you). I'm not familiar with the course, so I don't know where some of the key or worrisome sections might be. But it would be a good idea if, during that ride, you rode your bike for about 30-45 minutes somewhere along the way. First of all, to make sure that all systems are go on the bike, secondly to shake out the cobwebs in your legs from traveling, third to give yourself some confidence in how your legs are working, and fourth, to spend a small amount of time, like 3 x 4' working a bit harder than race pace.
Good luck!
THAT IS AWESOME!!!
The protocol post race is to load up the Post Ironman Training Plan...you can find it on the My Plan page under the Move / Change Plan button.
Set that to end on 11/12, and follow it. Some of it will have longer bikes than you want, but I like the structure and the "easing" into activity again.
Once you have some races for next year, enter your races into the Roadmap and we can plan more!!!
Happy resting,
~ Coach P
Here's your updated Season Plan, 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 my best outline of how to proceed with your races, but you can ask any / all questions you want. 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 Notes
Just finished Ironman Louisville. 11:21 race time. Currently doing the post ironman plan through Nov 12. Fitness feels like its been in a good place. I did the 12 week intermediate plan leading up to Louisville. Feel like I definitely had some left in the tank at Louisville and probably could have / should have run harder... but it felt like a really good race and I didn't slow up. This was a 1 hour 25 minute improvement over last year's time at IMLOU.
Your Races
Season Update
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.
Coach Notes
Hey man, you had a GREAT RACE.... 1:25 improvement with energy in the tank is nothing to be ashamed of. Technically you aren't supposed to hit the finish line and explode.
I think we should consider your "Transition" using the Run Durability Program (RDP), and I hope to see you in our GroupMe Chat for RDP where folks are connecting and challenging one another. Then it's a January OS into Swim Camp then the Half Plan. Really focusing on the Bike for you mid year here. We recover then into the Lou plan.
This year I'd like to see you add some bigger bike volume (weekend pop? Week pop?) to challenge yourself...looking at the calendar these would fall into early July (4th weekend?) and then again end of August / early Sept. Let me know!
Let's get to work!
~ Coach P
1) My overall goal is a Kona qualification... eventually... (no set time table right now).... I can see that I'm a ways away from that. Looking at the field I can see that I'm going to need significant improvements in the coming years in pursuing this goal. Given where I am, I'm guessing I'm at least a couple of years out due to the significant improvements needed (sound reasonable?). With this in mind, is it a good idea (or a bad one) to have a half in the summer before I do the full in October? I mainly inserted the half because I like doing the races and just the one in October isn't "scratching that itch". So, let me know if that impacts whether or not I should have the half inserted in here. I'd like to keep it, but its a B race and my overall goal isn't closely associated with it.
2) I see you having me switch to the run durability plan starting Oct 30... since that has passed I assume I just pick up with the plan starting with today's workout (Friday) and just not doing the workouts that passed between the 30th and today. Sound right?
ps talked to Joe Ryan today, he had too many nice things to say about you!
When you come back you’ll be needing 2 to 3 days of light exercise and spinning to be ready to do your tests.
Sent from my iPhone
OS Week 12 - as planned but some extra biking
OS Week 13 - vacation - running as you prescribed above
OS Week 14 - Do the prescribed week 13 plan maybe some extra biking
Swim Camp Week 1 - Do as prescribed except add in the bike test and run test
Load the Intermediate EN*Half to end on 7/15/2018
I understand you change the name of the plans each year. Should I actually load EN*Half (Run Focus) or (Bike Focus)? I did "Run Focus" for the outseason. Also... same question for when I get to the EN*Full... "run focus" or "bike focus"?
Thanks!
- On 4/30/2018 Load the Intermediate EN*Half to end on 7/15/2018
Looks like that starts me in something like week 10 of that En*Half plan (2018 - 20 week plan).... is that correct... skips over the first 9 weeks or so? Just wanted to be sure I understood.By the way... VERY PLEASED with the outseason plan results... went terrific... delivered just like you said! Thanks!
You did it right... That's the reason you choose the "End Date" for your plan as the race date... It works backwards from that point to time it such that all of the important dates like Race Rehearsal and taper process, etc. set you up for your race... The earlier weeks in the plan (i.e. weeks 1-9) are really just setting you up to be ready to "train" and you already covered that with your OS work instead. Some people might choose to dial back the first week's worth of the new workouts in the new plan (i.e. week 10) just a bid if they seem like a bit much (i.e. you can cut the bike intervals a few mins short or do them at 95%, etc). But after a week or so you will have forgotten all about the OS and swim camp and you'll be setting your sights on having a great race!