Doug Johnson Coach Thread
Hey Coach P! How are you doing? I just wanted to check in. We spoke in the beginning of June and I told you I was healthy and going to ramp up the running for an October marathon. You told me to reach out to you for some guidance on how to train towards that race.
Well…shortly thereafter I strained a calf and a couple weeks after that I suffered a migraine. The silver lining to the migraine was that it forced me to rest for several days and allowed my calf to fully heal. This is the long way of saying I have been set back about a month.
This has been my 4th consecutive week of getting back to training and having some consistency. I’ve mostly been running but in the past 7 days added in a few 60’ rides and a 1000 yard swim. At this point I’m leaning towards skipping the marathon in October in order to take some “pressure” off and to focus on taking care of myself a little better, building more consistency into my training, and gaining fitness back on the bike and run over the course of the next few months. I think this would put me into the right place to enter a December or January OS and on track for a couple late spring/early summer 70.3’s and then possibly an October IM.
Like I said, just wanted to check in and didn’t want you to think I was just giving you lip service during our phone call. If you have any thoughts, comments, suggestions on the above I would love to hear it. If not, that’s cool too. Thank you!
Looking good on Strava, keep crushing that training!
Comments
I think it's important to remember that any pressure you feel is coming from within. I personally have found that creating the best process and following the process is far more important to me than focusing on an outcome or target. Outcomes and targets simply don't motivate me or leave me to make good decisions about my training. Instead, building a sustainable week allows me to do what I need to do and monthly check ins against that process allow me to see how I'm progressing.
Thank you for your response! Great advice and I agree with you. The pressure is definitely internal and based on goal outcomes/targets I had set a couple months ago…restore a strong running foundation, get the body comp back in line, and run a 3:30ish time. I believe those goals were reasonable, and are probably still attainable. However, I think I’d be much more satisfied on December 1st saying that I’m in a good place to start the OS and prepare for 2018 tri-season rather than saying I ran a sub-par marathon in October.
The only thing I’m professional at is pushing paper! I work for the NY State Dept. of Transportation in the Office of Right-of-Way. I’m trained to acquire property for highway projects under Eminent Domain Law, but I currently coordinate the highway outdoor advertising program for the 7 counties surrounding Rochester. I’m very fortunate in that I work 7-3, M-F with rarely any travel or late nights, however, I do sit at a desk all day.
This past week I started following an OS-type schedule. Riding Tues/Thur/Sat with “focused” runs on Wed/Sun. I was planning on hitting the pool on Mon/Fri to get my feel for the water back. The pool is very accessible for me and I enjoy shorter non-marathon sessions. I have started to add some short tempo intervals into my running. In the next week or so I feel I will be able to do the same with the bike.
Basically I was just trying to get confirmation that this is the path I should be headed down and see if you had any comments or suggestions. I definitely don’t need/want you to reinvent the wheel for me.
I think the Sunday group rides are great. Typically I can only make the first 60’ or 90’ of them. The 1st hour is really pretty easy for me. Maybe it’s good to put that in there as a recovery/loosen up the legs ride and do some hard running in the afternoon?
Thank you for your help and any input you have for me!
I like the idea of one session a day, done. This way you just have one goal and you can say yes/no. There's no need to be near anything we would consider a double sessions during the week.
Yes, I do like the idea of you riding a little longer on Saturdays, and then joining the group in the mornings on Sundays before doing a run later in the day. With Monday as a day off or perhaps swim only, you have the bed with.
Monday - 30' swim + core work
Tuesday - 75' ride with high Z2 & Z3 work
Wednesday - 60' run w/2 X 1 @ Z4 w/ remainder at TRP
Thursday - 45' TRP run w/some strides
Friday - 30' swim + core work
Saturday - 75' ride w/ high Z2 & Z3 work (build this up to 90' over the course of the 1st 4 weeks)
-30' run @ TRP w/some strides
Sunday - 60' run w/some longer tempo intervals at Z3 and remainder at TRP -> MP
- build this run to 80' over the 1st 4 weeks
I will try to get at least 1 more core day in there probably Wednesday and/or on the weekend.
Next 4 weeks add in a 5th run, probably on Tuesdays after the bike. 30 - 35' @TRP w/some strides. Build that Sunday run to 90'. I'll also look to start adding in some bodyweight training and make sure to get in at least 4X core wko's per week.
The next 4weeks would see me add in a 6th run, probably on Friday. This would be 30' - 35' @ TRP w/some strides. Evaluate and continue the weight training and make sure to get in a 5th core wko per week.
This brings me to the end of November. The primary goals over the course of these 12 weeks is body comp improvement and getting back into a concrete training routine. I have no doubt the body comp improvement will translate into a higher VDOT, less stress on the body and therefore faster recovery and more durability. During the 3rd 4-week block i'll start evaluating where i'm at and start thinking about what my goals should be starting in December.
What do you think? Thank you so much for your input.
Oh, and depending on your preference maybe swap the Saturday Sunday workouts? You could easily run on Saturday and then join the team on Sunday in swift if the social thing appeals to you. It certainly makes a 2 to 2.5 hour ride go by very quickly!
I’ve laid out the plan to help you visualize and it helps me too. It does look like a lot of moving parts, ha ha. I’ll add the following comments…
Mondays and Fridays are my easy days. The swim is the 1st wko to go. I am planning/hoping to swim in MT next week.
You can’t pay me to go to a gym and pump iron. The weights are just an add-on to my core routine. I envision it mostly as boot-camp-type stuff or fooling around with a sandbag or doing some plyometrics. Very easy to add another 30 minutes onto my core routine to get this type of work done.
For the first time in a while I don’t have much going on for the next few months which I am really excited about. It is the perfect opportunity to get my crap ironed out so that when things do get crazy again I will have the mindset to not just give up training for 3 or 4 days at a time and eat all the starburst in the bag!
The timing of the Zwift ride doesn’t always work for me. But I will get on there occasionally for a spin.
Thank you for all of your help and input.
See you soon.