Joel Bell Official Coach Thread
Here's your updated Season Plan, 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 my best outline of how to proceed with your races, but you can ask any / all questions you want. So post away, know that I reply here usually M/W/F each week.
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Your Notes
Raced 70.3 WC in Chattanooga and have been active but unstructured since. Typically running 2-3X per week and riding 2-3x per week. No swimming since Chattanooga. I'm not even sure I remember where the pool is. I have a ton of travel through the rest of November but plan to get back into the groove first thing in December. My A-race for 2018 is Challenge Roth and I'm gunning for a PR in the 9-9:15 range. My super stretch goal is 8:59:xx.
Your Races
- 05/12/2018 - Kinetic 1/2
- 07/01/2018 - Challenge Roth
Season Update
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 11/20/2017
- 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
- On 1/8/2018 Load the Advanced OutSeason (Run Focus) Plan, 14wks to end on 4/15/2018
- On 4/16/2018 Load the Advanced EN*Full to end on 7/01/2018
- On 7/02/2018 Load the -- Post Ironman Transition Plan, All Levels (4wks) to end on 7/30/2018
Coach Notes
Great to hear from you man!! Congrats on 70.3™ worlds. I see you doing more RDP stuff through DEC, with the JAN OS being where we build your engine big time.....so bike focus OS please.
Then we recover from the OS (TBD if needed) into the proper Full Plan; along the way you do Kinetic.
About the top end goal...you'll need to nail down that awesome bike, so I see it playing out like this:
- Your Swim Has to be Strong so it doesn't hurt on race day. You need to start swimming 2x a week come Feb; goal is to be up closer to 3x a week come April and 4x a week / 10k by June. Last 3 weeks should be close to 15k to 18k as you taper the swim.
- Your Bike has to be Beastly. We need lots of ABP strength so you can ride with the fast folks and work the group flow out there as much as possible. Bike will been to be in 4:50 range which is possible, but you need to be strong. Big FTP goals for the OS, and consider an early big bike weekend late May / early June.
- The Run has to be strong (early) and fast (as you peak). You'll need to be able to run low 7s for 16 miles...and then hang on as it starts to fade. You are GREAT runner, so I am not worried about it other than keeping you healthy. We don't need to do low 7s all year, more like 7:30-7:45s to complement the odd Threshold Run....but we'll need some Race Specific hard running in June...we can discuss.
If you have more for me let me know, otherwise, let's get to work!
~ Coach P
Comments
Recent run test - Turkey Trot 5k - 18:01. Not terrible coming off 6 weeks of traveling and sporadic training. I ran 17:24 back in late September. A few weeks of consistent training should get me back closer to 17:30-17:45.
I think a 4:50 bike split is completely realistic. I rode 5:06 at Chattanooga in my most recent IM a few years back and that's 116 miles. I'm spending a week dedicated to training in Clermont, FL Feb 12-17 - bike heavy. I'll definitely plan a big bike week somewhere around Memorial Day. When is the Blue Ridge camp?
I'd say I under-perform a bit on the run in IM but I don't necessarily think it's from poor bike pacing. Maybe doing more easy volume than I have in the past. I always focus on quality over quantity but getting my weekly volume up might be the key. Thoughts?
Don’t obsess too much about the quality of the work you’re doing right now. You have such great physical infrastructure that it’s the consistency that matters the most. Even if it’s just a 1 mile run because of your schedule, keeping the fire burning will make a big difference. I am excited to see you get back on track!
10k benchmark this past weekend = 37:15, 5:59/mile, VDOT = 56.5
I'm heading to Clermont, FL next week for a 5-day training camp and hoping to put in some relatively big bike volume and get some input on my swim stroke.
Could very well be that this volume bump is enough to tip the scales in your favor… Just remember to recover for a few days when you get back!
I’m definitely not worried about your swim, I just want to make sure that you can do all of the work and observe it while you’re there.
I took two days off and then swam yesterday. Today I hit a short 3X8' FTP session to see how things felt. It wasn't particularly difficult but I felt a bit of fatigue still. I'll swim and run easy tomorrow and then jump back onto the OS plan starting this weekend.
In other words, or replace a much larger role on race day than it does in your typical training but we need the training information to help make the race day parameters effective. Make sense?