So far so good with this plan (I'm in week 16) - No suggestions for improvement instantly come to mind.
However I have a general suggestion for the Training Plan webpage; it would be good if all zone data could be displayed on the Training plan page, ie: if we could view running zones for pace and HR on this page and bike zones for Power and HR. Or if this is not possible, maybe you could introduce a "My Zones" page, where all the zone data from the last test undertaken are displayed.
Tweak the minimalist plan to be minimalist.....maybe focus on distance vs. time? Current plan has me doing 4 hours rides at week 6 (I do a HIM bike in about 2:20-2:30) and long runs of 2 hours (HIM run is about 1:30)
I'm the total opposite of the above....I'm super slow...I need more mileage goals for both the bike and run instead of time.... maybe add mileage goals for each week.
A mileage goal for the long bike ride would be useful. The long bike rides max out at 210 mins (3.5 hours). I cannot get 56 miles done in this time. I do "get" that the training plan focuses on getting the work done and not the distance, but it is important to me to get some rides in of at least 56 miles before race day; otherwise I feel un-prepared. Hence I have been setting my own mileage targets for the long rides and going over the time targets. A target would help as a guide.
People are raising good points here, about distance vs time. For the bike and run, there can be factors such as terrain, temperature, etc, that can affect how long it takes to do x miles. Personally, I prefer to ride and run by time, but I have the issue when it comes to the swim. I'm the opposite of @Francis Picard, it takes me way longer to do the swim than the time given. Sometimes, I just have to go with however much time I have because of life, but as I get into the meat of the plan, I feel it's important to do the distance however long it takes me to do it. So, I can see where this could be a concern.
Amount of work required should be the primary focus / TSS. If you hit the TSS load before the allotted time, either stop, go easy or earn some extra credit.
Focusing on amount of work done/required accommodates different athletic abilities across the spectrum in terms of time and distance....
I try to ride my OS rides at the intensities and times set. The long rides are always a function of available time. When I am fortunate to have the time, my goal is to get the distance. However, Tss is a great measure to know where your workouts are.
I know it's hard to have "general" plans that are specific. I swim with a master's group, so I never do the swim workouts. So no comment there. My biggest "huh" moments come on bike and run workouts. When I joined EN in 2008, we never worried about "doing the whole distance" in training (not including RR). I do realize this is the HIM forum, bear with me. Back in the day- My longest bikes for IM were 4-4.5 hours. This year, I had the HIM intermediate for Syracuse. 4 hour bike on Saturday?! Why? I never did more than 2.5-3 hours. Sunday ABP ride, I never did more than 90 minutes. I felt overtrained much of the time. Back in the day- My longest runs for IM were 2.5 hrs. I maxed out at 15 miles. Never had a problem finishing the race. HIM program, 2.5 and 3 hour runs de rigeur. Que? I never ran more than 90 minutes. That said, I am never in the hunt for the podium, so YMMV. I think it is too much volume. The total mileage for the week will certainly surpass the race distance. IMHO- Back off the volume, not intensity.
Okay folks...DRAFT version of the 2018 EN*Half Bike Focused, 20 week plan is available to you now via the Training Plan dropdown.
If you can, I'd appreciate you loading it up and giving me some feedback on what you see. These are built off of the changes you see in the EN*FULL plans, so a lot of overlap there in terms of focus, updates, etc.
@Coach Patrick , I read the plan. If the assumption is that this plan will begin at the conclusion of the OS, I like it. The ramp up from the OS HIT bike back to Threshold is good. The name EN*Half Bike Focused, 20 week plan seems to have more of a run focus. I think the balance between run & ride is correct for the race prep plan. I do like the run focus combined with the long weekend biking. I notice in week 9 you switch the Tuesday run from imperial distance to metric. In week 7 we are running 2 X 1 mile. Week 8 is a test week. In week 9 we are running 4 X 1 km. That may be a confusing conversion. Other than that, I think the plan looks great.
I’ve read up through week 5, this is what I see so far: Week 1: Wednesday bike has rest intervals at 4”, 2” and 3” for Levels 1, 2 and 3, Did you mean 4”, 3” and 2”? Friday swim total should be ~2300 inc WU, not ~1800. I think you do that on the Week 2 Friday swim, also. Week 3: Monday swim should say 300 for MS2 total. I think you do that other Monday swims, too. Week 4: Not time for either bike test, assuming it should be 1 hr. Week 5: Thursday run says 75 min, should be 105 min.
I like the Friday recovery ride. Also like the weekly record of what went well and what could be improved, and the equipment check note. I’ll take a look at the rest of it when I get a few min.
Hey - not sure if this is the best place to post this - but noticed a couple typos / inconsistencies in the Half Bike Focused plan. I'm currently looking at week 13, but noticed it on other weeks as well.
Split Run 1 - 445' minutes for Level 2? - that's a hell of a run... Think I'll train at Level 3 for this one Split Run 2 - the overall time says 45 minutes - but the Levels are 65-75
Hey Coach! Again on 2018 EN*HALF Bike Focused, 20 weeks - Week 14 - I'm trying to reconcile what's in the top section of the following (1.5 miles @ Zone 3...) with what's in the Coach Notes (We start at TRP...). They don't seem align - what am I missing? Both seem like good workouts - but different. Thanks, Kent
@Kent Gavin Did you ever get an answer to your run times question? I am now at this place in my training and the issue has not been taken care of? Thanks for your help
@Kent Gavin Thanks Kent I did go back and look at the Coach note and you are correct it does answer the question. Thanks again for your help. Have a great week
I do believe that Saturday long ride intentions is to get use to the feel of race day. On HIM race day you will spend very little to no time in zone 4 because you want to have a successful run. The zone 4 work usually happens on the shorter rides.
@Abbey Bonner and @Katherine Chabot-Boucher , I had a discussion about this with some WSM in another 70.3 thread I can't find right now. But I believe the conclusion was that, during the RPP intervals, you should go slightly harder than your goal 70.3 bike race pace since these workouts are called "race pace plus" (see quote below)
"Race Pace Plus (RPP): The idea of the Saturday rides in this Race Prep phase is to have you doing intervals slightly above your target race pace effort."
Whether your RPP is Z2/3 or Z3/4 depends on how long a HIM bike split should take you as defined below in the EN HIM Race execution page (see below):
So if you are a 2:30-2:50 70.3 bike split, your RPP may be high Z3 or in between Z3/Z4 (easier to do with power than HR). If you are a 3hr+ bike split, then your RPP would probably be between Z2/Z3 with power, or as shown below.
If you follow the %FTP guidance below, someone suggested your RPP effort be one step up from where you would race, i.e., if you plan to race at 84-85% of FTP, then your RPP might be 85-87% of FTP.
@Abbey Bonner Sorry, I meant to say "on the long rides" not runs!
So, week 15 is an anomaly (two long rides as Fri Race Rehearsal + Saturday long ride) so Saturday is dialed down. If you look at Saturdays for Week 14 and 16 and 17, etc, you will see there is a dedicated block at Zone 3, followed by intervals between Zone 2 and Zone 3 (you pick how hard you can go).
Here is an example from Week 16:
Bike: Race Pace Plus Warm Up for All Abilities: 20' to 30' @ Zone 1 to Zone 2.
Level 1 [TSS: 171, IF: 0.76]: 40' (10') @ Zone 3, then 3 x 15' (10') @ midpoint between Zone 2 and Zone 3.
Level 2 [TSS: 180, IF: 0.77]: 60' @ Zone 3, then 3' x 20' (10') @ midpoint between Zone 2 and Zone 3.
Level 3 [TSS: 198, IF: 0.79]: 80' @ Zone 3, then 3 x 25' (5') @ midpoint between Zone 2 and Zone 3.
Recovery Intervals & Remainder of ride time is @ Zone 2. In aerobars, no surges, constant power, etc.
I don't think the weekend long rides should be HARDER than Zone 3...I'd prefer that you push the Interval Ride during the week and, if you need more, then push the Sunday ABP ride.
Please could you consider changing the Title of these workouts and the explanation that goes with themas I wouldn’t call these “RacePacePlus” rides. I think thats why I got confused.
I agree with @Abbey Bonner . A number of workouts in the HIM plan have coach comments or internal plan contradictory advice. This is especially noted as above "RPP" and Thursday long runs which seem to have been cut and pasted from the IM plans and not completely altered to fit the HIM plan.
In @Coach Patrick’s defense, he posted the draft of this plan for people to read, proof, and give feedback. Those of us who did also missed these items. Nothing like actually doing the plan to really focus on the numbers and descriptions . My suggestion would be to note these ambiguities to send Coach when the plans are revised.
Comments
However I have a general suggestion for the Training Plan webpage; it would be good if all zone data could be displayed on the Training plan page, ie: if we could view running zones for pace and HR on this page and bike zones for Power and HR. Or if this is not possible, maybe you could introduce a "My Zones" page, where all the zone data from the last test undertaken are displayed.
I always complete the swim and run in less time than prescribed, you could maybe add something for additional time available.
On the swim I always add sprints in order to do the full time and for the run I add strides at the end.
I liked the 30 on 30 off z5 intervals of the OS. The 2' intervals in the advanced plan kinda suck :-)
I also struggle with fitting the swim sets in the time allotted.
Focusing on amount of work done/required accommodates different athletic abilities across the spectrum in terms of time and distance....
SS
I swim with a master's group, so I never do the swim workouts. So no comment there.
My biggest "huh" moments come on bike and run workouts.
When I joined EN in 2008, we never worried about "doing the whole distance" in training (not including RR). I do realize this is the HIM forum, bear with me.
Back in the day- My longest bikes for IM were 4-4.5 hours. This year, I had the HIM intermediate for Syracuse. 4 hour bike on Saturday?! Why? I never did more than 2.5-3 hours. Sunday ABP ride, I never did more than 90 minutes. I felt overtrained much of the time.
Back in the day- My longest runs for IM were 2.5 hrs. I maxed out at 15 miles. Never had a problem finishing the race. HIM program, 2.5 and 3 hour runs de rigeur. Que? I never ran more than 90 minutes.
That said, I am never in the hunt for the podium, so YMMV.
I think it is too much volume. The total mileage for the week will certainly surpass the race distance. IMHO- Back off the volume, not intensity.
If you can, I'd appreciate you loading it up and giving me some feedback on what you see. These are built off of the changes you see in the EN*FULL plans, so a lot of overlap there in terms of focus, updates, etc.
Areas I have left to add are:
Fire away and thanks!
~ Coach P
@Michele Cellai @Francis Picard @Alicia Chase @Edwin Croucher @Shaughn Simmons @Chris Oubre @Abbey Bonner @Jeremy Behler
Week 1: Wednesday bike has rest intervals at 4”, 2” and 3” for Levels 1, 2 and 3, Did you mean 4”, 3” and 2”? Friday swim total should be ~2300 inc WU, not ~1800. I think you do that on the Week 2 Friday swim, also.
Week 3: Monday swim should say 300 for MS2 total. I think you do that other Monday swims, too.
Week 4: Not time for either bike test, assuming it should be 1 hr.
Week 5: Thursday run says 75 min, should be 105 min.
I like the Friday recovery ride. Also like the weekly record of what went well and what could be improved, and the equipment check note. I’ll take a look at the rest of it when I get a few min.
Split Run 1 - 445' minutes for Level 2? - that's a hell of a run... Think I'll train at Level 3 for this one
Split Run 2 - the overall time says 45 minutes - but the Levels are 65-75
~ Coach P
This seems low for HIM.
Does anyone know if this is correct or should it between z3 & z4? (That would make more sense to me)
"Race Pace Plus (RPP): The idea of the Saturday rides in this Race Prep phase is to have you doing intervals slightly above your target race pace effort."
Whether your RPP is Z2/3 or Z3/4 depends on how long a HIM bike split should take you as defined below in the EN HIM Race execution page (see below):
So if you are a 2:30-2:50 70.3 bike split, your RPP may be high Z3 or in between Z3/Z4 (easier to do with power than HR). If you are a 3hr+ bike split, then your RPP would probably be between Z2/Z3 with power, or as shown below.
If you follow the %FTP guidance below, someone suggested your RPP effort be one step up from where you would race, i.e., if you plan to race at 84-85% of FTP, then your RPP might be 85-87% of FTP.
I hope that helps!
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/RacingMemberCentral/RaceExecutionDetails/MasterRaceExecutionPage(HalfFull).aspx
"Heart Rate Athletes:
@Larry Peters - You have understood my problem perfectly. Thank you for providing this excellent information, it is very helpful.
@Coach Patrick - my post refers to the Saturday "RacePace Plus" bikes on the HIM plans, not the runs. I'm sorry if this wasn't clear.
From week 15 onwards the bike workouts change.
The workout tell us to aim for "midpoint between Zone 2and Zone 3" (see extract below). This would not be RacePacePlus for anyone.
Suggested amendments could be: "midpoint between Zone 3 and Zone 4" or "1-2% higher than your target race pace"
Week 15 Saturday Bike Extract:
So, week 15 is an anomaly (two long rides as Fri Race Rehearsal + Saturday long ride) so Saturday is dialed down. If you look at Saturdays for Week 14 and 16 and 17, etc, you will see there is a dedicated block at Zone 3, followed by intervals between Zone 2 and Zone 3 (you pick how hard you can go).
Here is an example from Week 16:
Bike: Race Pace Plus
Warm Up for All Abilities: 20' to 30' @ Zone 1 to Zone 2.
Recovery Intervals & Remainder of ride time is @ Zone 2. In aerobars, no surges, constant power, etc.
I don't think the weekend long rides should be HARDER than Zone 3...I'd prefer that you push the Interval Ride during the week and, if you need more, then push the Sunday ABP ride.
Make sense?
~ Coach P
Please could you consider changing the Title of these workouts and the explanation that goes with themas I wouldn’t call these “RacePacePlus” rides. I think thats why I got confused.
month. Or something.
I will be rewriting all the plans again this October, but will carve out
time to change the name of the workout to be more specific!
~ Coach P