February Outseason 2018 - Week #3

Patrick Marsh

Welcome to Week #3.  By now, we should all be feeling the effects of the out season block - perhaps a little fatigue, and hopefully a lot of strength.  

This week we are increasing the number and lengthening the duration of intervals in our cycling workouts.  For Tuesday, there will be another sweet spot/Z4 interval.  For my training plan, we will be moving from 24 minutes at Z4 to 30 minutes.  I am sure that the third interval will be hard to hold onto.  For Thursday, we are adding more sprint/V02 max intervals.  For Level 2, that means we are going to 28 intervals, consisting of two sets of 14.  That will be up from 24 last week.  The upside will be that we are increasing the rest to 30 seconds.  The long Saturday ride will be significantly the same.  There will be two minutes added to the first two sweet spot intervals. However, my legs were getting pretty heavy after the 150 minutes this past weekend.

Overall, the work is building and I am starting to feel some fatigue in my legs as I climb stairs or run.  However, I am feeling very good overall.

This week, I will have to do some improvisation.  I am scheduled to ski on Friday and Saturday with family; then on Sunday I will have to travel for work.  I am planning to rent a bike Sunday to get a ride in, but will have to figure out how to squeeze in a long run.  
Week #2 was good to me.  No aches in pains when getting out of bed.  No technology issues with Zwift.  Most importantly, I did my first solid long run since September (when my knee gave out).  On Sunday, my girlfriend and I did the 10K loop of Central Park.  Surprisingly, I was able to run descending miles and finished with an 8:48 pace for 6.8 miles.  

Good luck to everyone this week.  I am looking forward to hearing how the training goes.  

Josh Church

Feeling Week 3!
 Week 3 was going great tues FTP went as expected, Did a decent run Wednesday, then came Thursday 16-30/15! Kicked my butt but didn’t fully feel it until my run on Friday. 
  You think I would’ve know better, I did in the back of my head, went running with friends went 6.8 miles a little to fast and almost 3 miles too far. Should have stopped at 4. Peer pressure will get you, be smarter than me.
  Last year I learned that I need at least one day between very hard trainer rides and longer runs, ITB stuff.  This is just an early reminder for this year I guess.
  Still easing into the run this week with no expectations on time or distance, just getting comfortable running and rolling/stretching the hips and legs. 

John Culberson

I’m back after 10 days off for a recurrence of a flare-up of a chronic back problem due to an overly aggressive February long run. I’m committted to an 8 week 3x week walk/run return to running program and focus on Aquabike through June. Really no pain while swimming, biking, or running... but something causes inflammation and sciatica that really makes life miserable. I checked in with Coach P, and am capping my bike intervals at IF .85 for a couple of weeks and 2x40’ and a 60’ ride/week. I’m filling in with some serious swimming. Key to success will be to keep-it-rolling and hold on to relatively good fitness that I had built through early February.

John Culberson

Will soon see if my glute issues are related to indoor cycling... what started out as an easy Zwift ride turned into a group of five and then a two-man break, climbing 1500’ in Watopia to a sprint KOM finish. I did pretty well controlling the pace to match my .85 limit, but it was a 40’ effort. Have to admit, that was a fun ABP hour ride! 

Josh Church

@John Culberson good to see you have a plan in place to aid a healthy progression. It’s such a balancing act with flare ups sometimes. 

I kept it it safe at 17 miles of running this week, no laughing! I really just want to hang out around 25 so I’m not worried at this early in the year. I also cut my long ride to 1hr 50 min, really didn’t want too but it helped my Sunday run go smoother. 

Im going into week 5 with my legs feeling better so I’ll continue to push the bike and have a slow/safe run build for a couple weeks then try extending my long runs to actual times. 

Keep working hard, We only get one OS! 

John Culberson

@Josh Church: Since this is a real recurring issue, even my plan as described represents an unwillingness to really back down to healing levels. It’s clear that swimming is not causing trouble, and beneficial. Therefore, I’m going to murder myself in the pool for the first time since college in 1981! After re-watching Coach P’s “Injury” presentation, its pretty obvious that losing fitness now is a small price to pay for a return to form in late 2018 and the ability to continue beyond. Decrease intensity, duration, and continue frequency. I’m retreating to walking for the next 3 weeks, and limiting bike duration to a steady 3x20’ this next week, targeting 30’ by FOS week 6. I MAY increase intensity to IF: .85 at that time. That allows me to finish with 8 weeks of increasing run/walk per the protocol and gradually increase my bike volume by week 14. I’ll slip into a Get Fast program and focus on a smart Aquabike in late June. That gives me 5 more months until Multisport Nationals. Aquathon (sprint distance) and Aquabike (long course) may be a good option for 2018. 2019 is an “age-up” year... and my IMAZ entry can be forwarded for $50 ;-)

Josh Church

Good idea John it takes commitment to reduce training and stick to it for the sake of recovering. On the bright side my week went well and I’m feeling great starting week six on Monday. I did not test bike or run this week, I feel like I am being challenged where I’m at.
Carry on friends!!

Sent from my iPhone