Brian Hickox Official Coach Thread

Coach Patrick

Here's your personal Coach Thread, as promised. This is where you'll return to post all your "coach" questions as responses; I'll see them and reply. This first post is here to guide you through your first year on EN, so you can always come back here. 

As you'll see in this forum, I handle all manner of edits and changes.  So post away, know that I reply here usually M/W/F each week.

Power User Tip: Click the Star icon by the Title of this thread to subscribe, and you'll get email updates when I do reply. 

Your Notes

Very little racing history. a couple of sprints. I don't know how to rate my current fitness in respect to Ironman fitness.

Your Races

Ironman Lake Placid (7/22/2018) #IMLP_18

Season Outline

These are your recommended training plans, including the date you should start each one (sometimes you won’t complete a full plan but transition to another one).  You can change your plans on the Training Plan page by clicking the Move / Change button. Learn more about each plan on the Training Plan Central Page.

• Last updated by Coach on 10/30/17
• Complete the Trial Testing Week, save your Bike and Run Zones to the My Zones Page.
• On 10/30/2017 Load the -- Run Durability Plan 1 (9 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 11/26/2017
• On 11/27/2017 Load the -- Run Durability 2 (8 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 12/24/2017
• On 12/25/2017 Load the -- Run Durability 3 (7 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 1/21/2018 
• [EXIT EARLY]
• On 1/8/2018 Load the Intermediate OutSeason / Run Durability Plan, 14wks to end on 4/15/2018
• On 4/16/2018 Load the -- Swim Camp (2 Weeks) to end on 4/29/2018
• On 4/30/2018 Load the Intermediate EN*Full to end on 7/22/2018
• On 7/23/2018 Load the -- Post Ironman Transition Plan, All Levels (4wks) to end on 8/19/2018

 

Coach Notes

How to Train This (And Every Fall) Inside Endurance Nation,  GroupMe Chat for RDP 

https://endurancenation.wistia.com/medias/c4agocb1xd

Contact Points

These are all the key points in your first year where we must talk. You can schedule all calls with me for these times online here. Please remember to include your phone number.

• Welcome Call in Week One (set it up here)
• Coach Call in Week Two to talk about your season (set it up here)
• End of Trial Call -- We review your experience & Unlock Year One / Race Execution for you (set it up here)
• End of Season Call -- We review your year & Strategize for your “gap” and Year Two (to be announced)
  

For short or last minute questions, we recommend you use the Red Chat Icon on the main Members website. 
We have also organized a complete chart of the best ways to contact us online here. 

Your First Month on the Team

You have quite a few things to do when you start up. There are instructions on the top of the website, but you can review them under Resources / 0-- First 30 Days on EN.  If you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to reach out via the chat icon on the main Members website here.

 

Your First Year Inside Endurance Nation

RACE EXECUTION and how we can help you get faster by being smarter on race day. There are no medals for great swims or getting to the top of a hill first — on race day only your finish time counts. There are many ways of being faster, and here are some of the resources we have to help you out.

- The Four Keys of Race Execution Video: The Coaches walk you through the macro level elements of a successful race.

- Distance Specific Guidance: Learn the fundamentals of racing Short Course and Long Course events, from each discipline to pacing zones, etc.

- Race Specific Pages: We have aggregated information on specific races from the internet, race reports and even our own coaching resources. You can find your race Master Racing Page section.  

- The Race Forums:  You can search for race reports or connect with your teammates. There are sections for 70.3, 140.6, and Marathons.

 

Your Homework

Tell Us Why You Choose EN & Your Season Goals

• Please reply below with WHY you chose Endurance Nation and WHY you train/compete.
• Whenever possible, please identify your goals -- time, body composition, completion...the sooner you put them down the sooner we can get towards achieving them. 
  

Looking forward to working with you this year,

~ Coach P

Coach Patrick

@brian hickox - it was great to talk to you yesterday. Sorry for the bad connection, now that I am back in the states things are much better! Please pass on my apologies to your better half. 

Here's what we covered:

1) You need a referral to Mike Silva in Warren at Foundation Performance. Let me know if you need help getting in to see him.

2) We should set some baseline body composition goals to help you make small, healthy choices that add up over time. When you get a chance, reply back to me here with your current weight, as well as your target weight on race day. We can then create a plan for you to follow to your goal.

3)  We need to figure out how to outfit your road bike to be as tri-specific as possible. Do you have any pictures of you on your road bike? Would be a good starting point for us...maybe a random race photo from an event?

4) I would like you to begin planning for two bigger ride weekends, one in June and another in July. Depending on how flexible your schedule is, you might even want to go up to Lake Placid to get in some training. Either way, we are looking for 2 to 3 days of several our rides. These back to back cycling days will add significant volume to your fitness and help you make quantum leaps in your preparation for race day. So put those on the calendar!

Brian Hickox

Excellent. I'll work on these items.  As for the long rides, both Liz and I are going to the training camp in June up at Lake Placid..this is the same one Liz went to last year. A note on schedule flexibility, Liz and I are also business partners and own our own schedule. Thank you

Coach Patrick

 Fantastic! I kind a have an idea but wasn’t sure. It’s gonna be great to have you up at the camp because that really give you a chance to do longer rides on the course.

She likely has a reputation of there, but I’m sure you are prepared for that! :-)

Keep me posted on those other items when you can. 

Brian Hickox

I focused mostly on non-running cardio last week as I hadn't figured out what was causing my toe pain. So my "miles" are more estimates. Not a big deal to me, but I emailed Mike Silva the day we spoke on the phone and never heard back from him. He might want to know. I had a suspicion that my shoe was too narrow/small and went to see a physical therapist in town who agreed. I also switched out of Hoka's as she said they limit my calf/foot movement and were likely to blame for some planter fasciitis that was starting. I am trying out the On Cloudflyer and had a great 6.3 mile run yesterday and no pain so I think I've sorted that issue out.

Body composition goal would probably be 175 lbs to 180 lbs based on past fitness

Coach Patrick

I am glad you’re making some progress. It’s really difficult to tweet all of the equipment to get it just right, but it’s a worthwhile process in the long run.

I said keep things on the cloud flyer if it all possible.

The best bet is to call Mike’s office and make an appointment. He runs four clinics and doesn’t really do new athletes by you now. He’s much more big time than a little try coach like me

Brian Hickox

All good re Mike, just passing it on for what it's worth. Really happy to be pain free on a run for the first time in a long time. Focus now is on adding miles and dropping weight 

Coach Patrick

Slow and steady is the rule. If you want to shoot me a Strava link, I can make some general recommendations based off of what I see there. Keep up the good work!

Brian Hickox

Not sure how to share a Strava link, but I just "followed" you on Strava so you can find me easily.

Coach Patrick

On it. Normally I ask you to go to your account on Strava via the web, and then just send me the URL from the browser bar. No problems Ill find you!

Coach Patrick

@brian hickox - Okay, i found your account and you can consider yourself followed. Are you able to upload your bike and swim workouts to Strava? I want to make sure I have as clear a picture of what you are doing as possible. 

Thanks!

~ Patrick

Brian Hickox

I don't have a watch/heart rate monitor, yet, so will upload in the future for swim/run/treadmill. One question I have is on the run miles I see other folks putting up on the Google Docs page. I notice that others are accumulating more miles than I am. For the most part, I just follow the workout time on the durability plan, even if I feel good and want to continue to run, I don't. Should I add miles where I can, or forget about what "others" are doing?

Coach Patrick

 Brian, the team is a healthy mix of new folks like you and savvy veterans to be doing this for a long time.

There are quite a few people who are doing a 100 day run streak right now. 

 So this means they run every day even if some days are just 1 mile. I’m a little hesitant to recommend that for you given how you are just getting back to being healthy/pain-free.

 Don’t worry so much about the other people are doing I really only care that we get you into a good routine and prepare you for the upcoming Outseason.

 If you want to add more 1 miles like that you can, but they need to be at a “do no harm“ ever. Make sense? 

Brian Hickox

excellent. I am pleased with the gains I am making/getting faster and more comfortable, but also know that I'll make big gains with lowering my weight and improving body composition. I am dropping about 1.5 lbs a week, but wouldn't mind picking up the pace a little in preparation for getting done to Florida (mid January). Thanks

Coach Patrick

 Sounds good. I have had a lot of success making two specific changes to my diet. The first is adding a scoop of MCT oil into my coffee in the morning to replace my creamer.

The second is to have a scoop of protein powder in cold water/a few ice cubes for dessert instead of actual food. Additional protein has really serve me well and has help me avoid all the snacking  that undermines my goals. Maybe Santa can get you some of both! 

Brian Hickox

ironically, Santa already had MCT on the way! liz got us MCT oil, which we add to our coffee in the am. So far, I really like it. I'm not much of a breakfast eater, so the few calories I get from the MCT is nice. I have been fighting a chest cold so workouts have been a bit limited this past week, but I'm on the tail end. Any difference between the powder and oil other than composition? We use a Vega protein powder as we are mostly plant based and a lot of fish. Not a moral/political thing, just Liz started doing it and i followed along. I do notice limited soreness with the removal of dairy from our diets though.

Santa also brought me a 920xt so I'll be able to start heart rate training this week. 

Coach Patrick

 Set it was super nice to you. He must’ve been a really really really good boy. :-)

I simply prefer the powder because I use it as a creamer… So probably a texture thing. I to have a limited most dairy and have enjoyed that change. Not sure if it’s as much of a positive thing, but I do notice that when I eat food with cheese that I generally suffer.

Looking forward to seeing those new workouts on Strava from you!

Brian Hickox

Finally getting settled in to Florida after a few long days of travel. What training plan should I be doing now? Should I do the same as Liz is doing or something different? 

Coach Patrick

Glad to hear you are settling in. You should be following the training plan guidance that I gave you above at the top of this thread. It’s from October 30. Right now you should be in the LC is in training program. Since you are a nicer weather you may want to modify those weekend arrives to be more endurance than intensity, just to take advantage of your environment. But I defer to you. Please load up the training plan and then let me know what you think/what you need help with in terms of adjusting.

Brian Hickox

Hey Coach, happy to be getting our zone tests done today/tomorrow. My one question I have is on some of the bike sets that call for hard/very hard intensity. Am I trying to focus more on fast cadence that brings my heart rate up or more power needed? I am only heart rate training. On a separate note, Liz and I might be interested in somehow becoming a sponsor/partner of EN. Is there a good email to send info to and get your thoughts on if it is a good fit?

Coach Patrick

 That’s a great question. I don’t want you to artificially inflate your cadence just to make the heart right numbers go up, because your HR should go up as a result of the work your legs are doing. In other words the desired outcome is working the muscles really hard which is represented by higher heart rate. 

 So if you normally ride at 90 RPMs in this town to do an interval want you to push harder and keep your cadence somewhere between 90 and 95 rpm’s. 

 I’m not trying to say that I hire cadence isn’t effective, I’m just saying if it’s not something you’re going to ride at on race day then it’s not worth while. 

 Would love to hear about the sponsor stuff, your best bet is to send it over to Mariah and she and I will talk about it in our weekly meeting: mariah@endurancenation.us

So jealous of your warm weather right now it’s not funny

Brian Hickox

Thanks. Makes sense to me. What can I do to help prevent calf and foot cramps when swimming? should I add in more kickboard work of get some fins? what helps? 

We have started to meet some local triathletes which has added some nice social elements in to training too. This Florida weather is treating us VERY well! Except for the events Lizzie encountered yesterday!

Brian Hickox

Good morning,

Checking in...Officially back from Florida and no more travelling. I was able to get some decent miles in Jamaica last week, 34, and found a spin bike for a couple of brick sessions too. Overall, I feel pretty good. My biggest issue/concern is that I feel sluggish on the bike. Getting to Zone 3 is really difficult and my legs give in WAY before my heart rate gets high. I am trying to do more of the bike workouts on the trainer as I'm always pushing vs on the road where I get breaks. We are going to head out of town to get some hill work this weekend, Wachusset Mt area, and then go do the Rev3 Quassy course the following weekend.

I read in the swim Ebook, that ankle flexibility can be an issue. I will work on sitting on my ankles to help this, but will using fins help? My feet tend to cramp.

Lastly, I have made improvements in body composition and am down to the low 190's. Race day goal is low to mid 170's.

Thanks

Coach Patrick

@Brian Hickox - Thanks for checking in! Like I said before, it’s hard to get a good sense of your data because what you’re posting to Strava is fairly erratic. That said, it is very common for bigger athletes  to have difficulty  getting heart rate up on the trainer. You’re essentially in a locked down environment, and unless you’re really crushing yourself (more than that intervals that we prescribe) your heart rate won’t really get up there. I am more interested in your effort with in each interval. So are you seeing better numbers there in terms of speed?

I might also suggest a little bit of a longer warm up, and the order of about 20 minutes. During that time you can spend easily for 10 and then do several one minute pick ups at increasing level of intensity which will prime your body for the work to come. If adding Zwift to the equation is an option, should you try some races I think you’ll find and no issues getting your heart rate up!

I think we will find it when you get outside to ride that you will see hire her rates. Good luck this weekend with the weather I hope it stays dry for you!

Ankle flexibility can also be helpful rolling the Calves and the Achilles. Using some things could help but will not be super affective as it disrupts your stroke and gets people thinking more about speed then ankle flexibility. Sounds like you could use some really good massage work on those cards and the addition of 2 to 3 foam rolling/self massage sessions a week to your program.

That body composition improvement is awesome! How has it affected your running? Have you noticed a difference?

I’m sure there will be team down at rev three so be sure to say hi!