Mason Duke's Micro Thread
New member here, happy to be on board. One question regarding my next couple of weeks: I'm heading off for vacation in Italy from Aug 25 to Sept 4. I did convince our group to do a cycling day but will probably only be able to do 1-2 days of cycling, 2 open water swims, and whatever running I can do in the mornings. What's the best way to handle that? Just run 3-5 miles every morning to stay sharp, then pick up the training plan again when I return? Looking forward to any input you have. -Mason
Tagged:
0
Comments
Jenn Edwards here stepping in as Coach P makes his way back from IMMT.
We actually have a great resource for you all written up on how to handle a vacation just like yours. Spoiler alert: You're already right on track with simple frequent running run as you've noted above.
Enjoy the vacation and feel free to ping us back here if you need anything else before you head off to what sounds like an amazing adventure!
Cheers... or shall I say... Chow! - Jenn
Thanks!
Be sure to check into the January Outseason forum too.
I've got a lot of travel coming up that makes it difficult to do long rides over the weekends - no bike available. Usually my travels don't prevent my from doing swims & runs. I was thinking of simply swapping Thursday (long run day) with Saturday or Sunday (long bike + brick run days).
If I do need to cut down on the bike rides for the week, which ones have highest priority? There's a 65 min "Vo2 Bike" on Wednesday, a 210 min "Long Bike" on Saturday, and then a 150 min "ABP Bike" on Sunday. If I can only do 1 or 2 of those three I'd like to understand which is best.
Last, I just updated my zones for my new test - the bike HR and run pace is about the same as it was in August 2017 when I started. Bike NP is down from 189 to 181. That seems insignificant but wondering if that's what you'd expect.
Thanks!
Switching the long run and bike isn't a bad idea if you can get those runs in while you are travel. How to prioritize your bike rides depends on what your weakest bike link is and your racing background. If you are new to long course, then I would prioritize them in order as 210 - 150 - 65 mins, but then really put some quality into that long ride. After you get some endurance you can occasionally (but not often) use the ABP w/o as the top pick for the week ... especially if you are time crunched. Try not to miss more than one of the three bike rides per week though. If you can only do one, do the longest one you can fit in your schedule.
If you have been hammering on the outseason plan, and rested for the test, then no, I expect your power/pace would improve assuming a fair comparison between now and last August. There's a lot of reasons why they might have stayed the same, but in the long run "work works" and it will show in both your tests and your race results.
Yes we are using the 2018 plans now and the ability levels in the main set. L2 is the intermediate level you need. Everything else the past as above is spot on!