2018 Ultraman Florida - Planning, Training and Goals
On April 1st, I was notified that my application was accepted, and I was invited to register for the 2018 Ultraman Florida. I've wanted to do this event (well actually the one in Hawaii), since I read Rich Roll's book "Finding Ultra". You need to do a qualifier to have a good chance at getting accepting to the one on The Big Island. I also followed @Simon Shurey when he did the race in 2016, and enjoyed his podcast.
Last year when @tim cronk wrote a similar thread announcing that he was doing the 2017 Ultraman Florida, I followed him and kept up with a lot of the threads in the EN forums. I did get a little anxious when I saw his training on Strava. I was planning on applying to do the race, but I was starting to have doubts. In March, Tim contacted me to see if I had been accepted, and that really helped. Also, a couple of friends of mine did double iron distance races in March, and I was inspired to give this a go.
After I posted my congratulations letter on Facebook, our own @Stephanie Weldon contacted me to let me know that she was interested. I am so happy that we are going to get go through this journey together. Also, when I mentioned this to @Coach P at Blue Ridge, he said not to worry that we (EN) have your back. That is when I became confident that I am going to be prepared for success!
My crew consists of @Francis Picard (he's in for 2019!) and a couple of my running relay friends from home (Ed Giroux and Rich Bazzy). All of these guys volunteered right away and I know we are going to work well together and have fun. I also have the kayak rental / support set up and a condo reserved.
I do not have much of an ultra resume at all. I've done 5 open marathons a 3 Ironman. I may have done 120 mile bike once, and the Mt. Mitchell ride at Blue Ridge camp was my longest in terms of time (almost 8 hours).
Between now and my training, I will race my fourth Ironman in Louisville on 15-October. I will be focused on this between now and then, but I am trying to make sure I have everything set to be prepared to train for this.
The plan that I put together is based off of training that Tim Cronk did to prepare for 2017. My plan is to take 3 weeks post IMKY to recover, relax and do some light unstructured training. After that, I've put together a 15 week plan that is broken into 3 five week chucks. I have copied a lot from Tim.
Weeks 1-5 (November 6th to December 10th) - This section will be similar to Outseason in that there will be Bike FTP Tuesday, Run Speed work on Wednesday and Bike Vo2 Max on Thursday. The difference is I will have 3 swims, and will be building the length of those swims. The weekend will have a long ride and long run and the goal will be to build the ride back up to 5 hours and run to 2.5 hours. Hopefully, the weather stays mild in Michigan this fall. If not, I have no issues with biking on Zwift or running outside in any condition but ice.
Weeks 6-9 - (December 11th to December 31st) This, so far, will be very interesting. I will have back to back long rides on Wednesday and Thursday. I have just enough vacation days left to cover these (or most). Then, I will have back to back long runs on the weekend. The swims will build up to be close to 10,000 meters. There is a possibility of travel for the holidays during this section. If that happens, I will move the rest week in the next phase to this Christmas week.
Week 10 (January 8th to 14th) - Rest week - Again, this may need to be swapped with the previous week and adjustments made to support Christmas travel. There is still quite a bit scheduled for this week, its a lot less than the prior 4 weeks.
Week 11-15 (January 15th to February 18th) The race us February 16th, 17th and 18th
During this phase, I will have 2 weekends that are race rehearsals. One weekend, I will be on vacation. For the race rehearsals, I will basically swim 3 hours before work on Friday and then ride 3 hours or what I can in the evening. Saturday will be an 8 hour ride and Sunday will be 2 to 3 hour run.
My goal as of right now is to finish within the cut off times, but I am sure this will change as get further into my training. I will worry more about this later.
I welcome any questions or comments!
Last year when @tim cronk wrote a similar thread announcing that he was doing the 2017 Ultraman Florida, I followed him and kept up with a lot of the threads in the EN forums. I did get a little anxious when I saw his training on Strava. I was planning on applying to do the race, but I was starting to have doubts. In March, Tim contacted me to see if I had been accepted, and that really helped. Also, a couple of friends of mine did double iron distance races in March, and I was inspired to give this a go.
After I posted my congratulations letter on Facebook, our own @Stephanie Weldon contacted me to let me know that she was interested. I am so happy that we are going to get go through this journey together. Also, when I mentioned this to @Coach P at Blue Ridge, he said not to worry that we (EN) have your back. That is when I became confident that I am going to be prepared for success!
My crew consists of @Francis Picard (he's in for 2019!) and a couple of my running relay friends from home (Ed Giroux and Rich Bazzy). All of these guys volunteered right away and I know we are going to work well together and have fun. I also have the kayak rental / support set up and a condo reserved.
I do not have much of an ultra resume at all. I've done 5 open marathons a 3 Ironman. I may have done 120 mile bike once, and the Mt. Mitchell ride at Blue Ridge camp was my longest in terms of time (almost 8 hours).
Between now and my training, I will race my fourth Ironman in Louisville on 15-October. I will be focused on this between now and then, but I am trying to make sure I have everything set to be prepared to train for this.
The plan that I put together is based off of training that Tim Cronk did to prepare for 2017. My plan is to take 3 weeks post IMKY to recover, relax and do some light unstructured training. After that, I've put together a 15 week plan that is broken into 3 five week chucks. I have copied a lot from Tim.
Weeks 1-5 (November 6th to December 10th) - This section will be similar to Outseason in that there will be Bike FTP Tuesday, Run Speed work on Wednesday and Bike Vo2 Max on Thursday. The difference is I will have 3 swims, and will be building the length of those swims. The weekend will have a long ride and long run and the goal will be to build the ride back up to 5 hours and run to 2.5 hours. Hopefully, the weather stays mild in Michigan this fall. If not, I have no issues with biking on Zwift or running outside in any condition but ice.
Weeks 6-9 - (December 11th to December 31st) This, so far, will be very interesting. I will have back to back long rides on Wednesday and Thursday. I have just enough vacation days left to cover these (or most). Then, I will have back to back long runs on the weekend. The swims will build up to be close to 10,000 meters. There is a possibility of travel for the holidays during this section. If that happens, I will move the rest week in the next phase to this Christmas week.
Week 10 (January 8th to 14th) - Rest week - Again, this may need to be swapped with the previous week and adjustments made to support Christmas travel. There is still quite a bit scheduled for this week, its a lot less than the prior 4 weeks.
Week 11-15 (January 15th to February 18th) The race us February 16th, 17th and 18th
During this phase, I will have 2 weekends that are race rehearsals. One weekend, I will be on vacation. For the race rehearsals, I will basically swim 3 hours before work on Friday and then ride 3 hours or what I can in the evening. Saturday will be an 8 hour ride and Sunday will be 2 to 3 hour run.
My goal as of right now is to finish within the cut off times, but I am sure this will change as get further into my training. I will worry more about this later.
I welcome any questions or comments!
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Comments
And yes we all have your back!
Its great that you are thinking about this longterm and putting out your road to Ultraman early while still focussing short term IMLOU... Love the plan structure with just a couple ideas/questions... Do you have a recovery week or few days built in after the first 5 week build? The second 5 weeks has 2 long rides, 2 long runs, 1 longswim per week (for 4 weeks) which is 5 days a week leaving only 2 short days or recovery days per week, this maybe too much although its much easier intensity? and why I attempted to go on a 10 day cycle.... I am not suggesting a 10 day cycle but maybe alternate a week of back to back long rides with a week of back to back long runs? You can always keep the schedule but vary the distances alternating weeks ? I like the recovery after this block and the last block with the UMFL RR format on the weekends... Some training goals for each sport would be to accomplish a 4hr or 10k swim which ever comes first, a 8hr bike ride, and up to or close to a 30mile run very very easy ... Above all be dynamic and willing to change as things go based on how you feel specially during that second block.... Some things to think about but for now keep your head in the IMLOU game...
I image you'll be saying this a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsk6MsNcURo
As for the second block, I read your post on the 10 day cycle. Since I have saved vacation days for this block, I think I can do something like what you suggest above ^^ with alternating. It will be winter here, so I want to do the runs outside in daylight. I will need to be a little flexible to account for weather. Also, I have a group of friends that run on the weekends, and there is always a few that are running long, so its nice to have company and run with them.
Did you run/walk? If so, did you run walk in your long training runs? My thoughts are that I want to do this.
@Tim Sullivan That would be great, accept I probably wont be charging up Box Hill
@Al Truscott Thanks and very true!
https://www.strava.com/activities/841076112/overview
Thought of something else to consider.... Paddle work to your swim.... Got that from Rob Gray and think it helped a lot for swim muscular endurance.... My swim priorities during the 2 last blocks were 1. longswim 2. 1hr long paddle work swim 3. recovery swim
The training is much harder than the race.
So, it's very daunting and humbling to be injured and yet have a monster race ahead of you but I'm seriously up for the challenge. I don't remember ever feeling so focused and ready to S/W/R than ever. But more importantly for me is incorporating a host of other factors to aid recovery and keep myself from reinjuring anything. And yes, maintaining balance with time and energy so my family & husband don't disown me in the process.
My roadmap to UMFLA looks a bit different and our plans converge about 11 weeks out. My three phase plan towards UMFLA:
7 weeks IMINT plan
9/24/17 IMCHOO -with a strong emphasis on swim & bike. Marathon will be a function of how well PT is going over the prior
1 week recover
7 weeks IMINT plan
11/26/17 IMCozumel- strong swim/bike.....easy run. (renting a bike...ha...should be interesting)
1 week recover (ish)
11 weeks
UMFLA
So like UMFLA....these Ironman races were already in place before injury to help me stay focused and have landmark races in my training towards UMFLA. I love race days.....I may not be fast (yet) but I love IM race day. LOVE LOVE LOVE em!! I truly believe if I can keep my jets cool during marathon portion of each that they will serve as great long catered training days...(expensive catering!! ha!!)
So my first order of business is continued recovery of my right ankle tendon. So all of the above is modified based on what I can do safely. This week no running but all of my "run" time is replaced by solid work on elliptical. Plus I add some short walk/hike time 3-4xs a week to get on my feet. We are in a strength building phase in physical therapy and things are going really well. I'm very encouraged. I just have to keep working within my means. I'm hoping Choo and Cozumel will just be good opportunities to practice run/walk intervals not worrying about intensity.
I've upped the ante on the IM plans.....I've never used "intermediate" level and already I feel like this is adding effort and intensity to my workouts. Focusing on solid swim and bike sessions. More swimming time is already evident.
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I've really been looking at TC plan and it works REALLY well with my music teaching schedule. I pretty sure I can swing the big-mid week volume over the holidays as we've have no big travels plans to contend with this year. First week of January will be a challenge. I'm still looking at the plan and wouldn't be opposed to a 7 day cycle if you guys thought that would be more effective training. Whatever I decided Mondays are an active recovery day...I gotta have my massage time!!!
But help me with this guys.... Since Day 1 of the Ultraman race is swim/bike seems like we'd want more training blocks that simulate that day. For me that's THE main day (the swim actually) i'm worried about. Looking at the plans there are only 2 swim/bike bricks 11 weeks out from UMFLA (1/26 and 2/2).... if I went by TC schedule that means I haven't seen a swim/bike brick since 11/26 (IMCozumel). Not sure if I missed something on schedule. That's not comfortable for me mentally. Coach @PatrickMcCrann and guys I need your thoughts and help on this. We have loads of time. Right now I'm working more with the IM plan than ever. There are 3 big swim/bike blocks within the 6 weeks leading up to each Ironman. Seems like we'd want a couple more thrown in before UMFLA.
I've never made a training plan. Just throwing that out there as food for thought?
ok off to work then BIKE!!!! Thanks again for all of you guys chiming in.... more soon!! Have a great weekend!
Kia Kaha (New Zealand Maori saying for "stay strong")
Steph
Next weekend after this one (Dec 7-10) I am going to a UMFL training camp in Florida. I just glanced at the agenda and realized we are doing a long open water swim followed by an 80 mile bike on day one. Day 2 will be a 120 mile bike. Day 3 will be a long run. Because of this, I am going to transition a little sooner into the second phase which will consist of more volume and less intensity. Basically, I'd like to do 2 long rides this weekend to see how it feels.
I like to have repeatable weeks to give my life a little structure. The plan for the next 5 or 6 weeks will be Wed / Thurs long runs and Friday / Saturday long bike. Tuesday - unsure, but torn between rest day or bike. I will gradually build the run through the end of December. My swims will be Monday (paddles), Wednesday 100s and Friday long (like 1000s or something). I will build that Friday to 3 hours or 10K. I seem to be hitting about 3.2k per hour, but I have yet to go over 3.8K. I never really feel tired in the pool, it just gets boring. Also, I never really bring hydration or food to the pool, so I need to start doing that. I read @tim cronk race report from last year and saw he took in 100 calories every 30 minutes. So for me, that would be a gel and a swig of GE.
There is a strong possibility that I will get to Florida again between Christmas and New Years for another block outdoors. We will see.
It was so fun following @Simon Shurey this weekend, including @tim cronk on his crew. My fellow UMFL athletes and crew on the FB group are so laid back and friendly. I am really looking forward to getting there, but I know I have a lot of work to do over the next 11 weeks.
By the way... Thanks @Scott Renick for that post. That will be very helpful!
Tim will be doing a crew race report in the next couple of days, I feel as though it will give you quite a bit of insight
My point of that post is starting to think of every day, every moment.
My plan:
Mondays-rest or optional swim
Tue-Swim/bike/run
Wed-swim/Bike
Thurs-Run/bike
friday Long swim
saturday-Loooong bike
sunday -double run day am/pm
pretty much doing a 7 day cycle to fit my work/Family schedule. Modified Race rehearsals:
12/21-23
1/4-6
1/18-21 will be the biggest weekend. Huge. Ugly. Slap yo mamma all out.
2/1-3
pretty much just gonna live eat breathe and sleep in bike shorts.
Game on
I just got the itinerary for the camp if want to follow on your own.
Friday - up to 10K swim. There will be 1000M loops, so you can stop and fuel.
80 Mile bike
Saturday - 120 Mile Bike
Sunday - 20 Mile run (2 X 10 mile loops of the clay road section of the course).
I will attach here.
I am giving Infinite a try (Vegan Blend) and it seems to work. I ran out this week, but I should have more arrive in time for this weekend.
This weekend I started the back to back rides. I did 4.5 hours on Saturday and 3.5 hours on Sunday (all on Zwift). My quads feel like someone punched me 100 times in each leg.... I will get a chance to do that and more outside this weekend!!!