2017 IM Louisville- Week 17 - Start thinking 4 Keys
Week 17
I have to say I am SO PROUD and EXCITED about all your hard work for your race rehearsals!!!! And races! And all the reflecting going on! MAN it's awesome!!
And now we are 4 weeks out from race week! So let’s get chatting. There are 4 Keys of Racing within EN. What sets EN athletes drastically apart from other athletes is the ability to know to race. You're putting in the training and doing a fantastic job of posting your information with the team to discuss but as you wind down your training in the next couple weeks you need to put your head in a space to have the 4Keys down pat. Even if you have been with EN for awhile, there is always something to learn or something you can teach to help someone else's race experience.
Not to reinvent the wheel here is a mixture of coaches perspective and a couple other race captains:
X - Race day is about execution NOT fitness
Theme for this week is important. Start visualizing your upcoming RR2 and Race Day in terms of simply Executing your Fitness:
The majority of athletes on race day are fitness-focused (look at my T-shirt, look at my abs/veins/etc, look at how fast I can go in the first hour of the bike, etc.). They think of race day as the application of their fitness to the course, the distance. They are wrong. Race day is about the application of sound execution skills to a long day. Your fitness is just along for the ride. Through our observation of many, many races we can tell you that fully 90% of athletes out there do not understand this and do not know how to execute properly. For the Endurance Nation athlete then, race day is largely an exercise is doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing!
Easy to read/comprehend the above, difficult to actually apply on race day, when you feel rested, invincible with adrenaline and the best you have felt during the entire training cycle. So important to start thinking and scripting this concept now.
Some other important notes- Check out the videos this week about sports specific tapering AND checking your gear! Start this NOW because race week WILL sneak up on you!!!!
Good Job team.... keep chipping away, two more weeks left of fitness
Comments
Had a good swim this morning at the local rec center in Cleveland. Passed on dinner with the client; did yoga and core work in the hotel fitness center instead
Bibs are posted
Looking forward to this last push. I have to admit, these past two weeks have been hard to get excited for, but I'm starting to see the light. Thanks for all of the mojo!
Felt good considering my last 2 weeks bike volume (might not be alot for all the animals here) but 11h-12h avg in the last 2 weeks for me is big bump, considering that 30% of it is zwift crazy races.
you just being kind?
I'm getting excited! Looking forward to tackling the last 2 big weeks. I am getting over this cold, but not as fast as i'd like. I did a test run yesterday everything felt good. My legs are fresh from the time off. I tried to hang with @Francis Picard on a Zwift race last night, but I was not quite ready for that. Hopefully tomorrow! I swam this morning and am looking forward to the run intervals tonight!
@scott Dinhofer enjoy Snowmass! Say hi to Al and Tim!
When I got back into training 2 weeks ago, I was really in doubt.. I was even worrry about not finishing.
But the last few days have been a confident boost for me.
Since is back and even faster than pre-IMMT, I am not 2-3s/100m faster and hopefully that will reflect in the OWS, that will almost bring me to the 1h05 mark.
Yesterday I did the first of the 2 90' run (Patrick wanted me to split the 3hr into 2 X 90' on back to back days) and it went really well, HR was low. While running I made calculations in my head and realized that running at 5m/KM is a 3h30 marathon, which would be a IM Marathon PR.. (still far from my open marathon PR of 3:04) so that means no need to go crazy sub 5'/km on race day... I need to review my plan. I guess execution intel is finally entering my brain...
good luck tomorrow for your long run !
Will still try the long run but deferring to this afternoon. Heat will be an issue so I'll stay in the shaded sections of the bike path
Yesterday I did a 2 x 20' FTP workout on the trainer. I think it's the first time I've ever completed that workout. it was hard.
Anyway, I was going to use Beet Elite but based on my stomach, I skipped. For breakfast, I had my usual Almond Butter and jam on GF bread. I had GE in my hydration pack along with Base Salt, Clif Blocks, Tums and Tylenol. Started off conservative...maintaining the after the bike HR of around 125-130. First 6 felt fine. Still some uneasiness in the gut so I ate 2 Tums....a few miles later I felt somewhat better but not awesome. Got to mile 10 and stopped. Used the bathroom and refilled my pack with more GE. Started back out again for loop 3 and felt meh...legs were starting to feel it a little. Decided to take 1 Tylenol at mile 13. (There's also a big discussion going on the IM Lou FB page on this very topic.) Loop 3 done and I was starting to come around. Ate 1 more Tums tablet, focused on making sure I was drinking and keeping the HR in check. Loop 4 I got over the hump and felt "normal". Was able to push it the last 2 miles and let the HR creep up.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1194540787
@Brian Hagan Glad I took your advice on the Tylenol. I think that really helped. I'm going to continue to incorporate that. Still going to do some more research on it. It seems people have the most issues with taking Advil or ibuprofen.
Overall, very pleased with the run. Let's just hope it goes this well on race day.
And regarding Tylenol ... acetaminophen is preferred because it gets metabolized in the liver rather than kidneys ... the kidneys have enough work to do on race day
Did a solid 166KM on zwift.. avg speed was 37.8km/h. IF: 0.76 and VI:1.04.
The good news about this ? When I look at all my "long ride" (means over 100KM) since IMMT. I was able to execute all of them with a VI under 1.08, the IF had been between 0.73-0.76. I really wonder if thats because I am finally understanding on how to pace the bike, more fit on the bike or everything I learned this year and its all getting clear now.
Week 18 - I will do a full RR on Friday and try with those numbers again
how did your long runs go ?
@Sabra Gonzalez
good job ! I know its late to change anything and dont know if thats available where you live but had you tried the maple syrup gels ? those are really easy on the stomach for running
This week was terrible. Mystery Virus took me off my feet M-T, and now my back is full-on 10/10 spasms making anything but the sofa impossible. Really trying to manage how discouraged I have felt - I have been very consistent in this build, and had been working up to this week as the culmination and consolidation of volume and speed.
Ok - putting my big boy pants back on now.
@Francis Picard - I have used the Maple syrup gels. I need to use them again. Thanks for the reminder!
Keep it up everyone! I'm going to log into the Sunday Zwift ride tomorrow.
Woke up Saturday and knew that 5-hour ride wasn't going down; I did Sunday's ride instead: 3-hours of ABP indoors; then a brick run in the heat
Today was interesting: knew again that 5-hour ride wouldn't happen so hit the trainer this morning for a 3 x 20' Z4 session (about 2 hours or so); power was Z4 but HR stayed in Z3. Hopefully I traded quantity for quality this week on the bike
Finally got to the race rehearsal swim this afternoon but my swim form fell completely apart after 2500 or so; I shut it down at 3100 yards
@Sabra Gonzalez, excellent execution on your 20 miler!
@Dave Tallo, hope you're feeling better...
"Jeff Kane", great job managing your run/bike workouts and the heat/humidity. I've learned it's not worth suffering through hot temps.
I took my weekend training to Buffalo. Went to watch my daughter play two home volleyball at Univ at Buffalo. Thanks to member of the local Tri club, I found a good 40+ mile loop. Ended with 83 miles/4.5 hours on Saturday. Then did my 18 mile race sim early Sunday morning before it heated up. Yes, even Buffalo was hot this weekend. A few hours later (after IHOP breakfast) I drove 7 hours back to VA. That was rough on the legs. Good thing I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow! I didn't get in the RR swim, but had 3 good swims earlier in the week.
I'm ready for week 18!
Pool swim Friday - not great. I only did about 950 meters and left.
Saturday - I had a great ride except for a mechanical that caused me to split it into 2 rides, but I did get about 5 hrs / 100 mile in for the day. I was out of time and pushed the run to Sunday.
Team EN Sunday ABP ride was awesome. We had a few new people and lots of people on this week. I rode for 2.5 hrs with lots of Z4/5 efforts on the KOMs.
Sunday evening I got in an hour run and things are really starting to feel better. Hopefully my lungs get back to 100% in a couple of days. I'm looking forward to the long run tomorrow and am expecting to feel a lot better.