Amulya's 2019 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 Monday & Friday each week.
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Coach Notes
Amulya, I have you dialed in through early February in the OutSeason Plan with extra cycling for the weekend of the CA Coast Ride (sounds epic!). Our goal now is to build up that run while we maintain some decent biking given your short term future! When you get a second, See what I set up for you in Final Surge and we can go from there!
Your Races
- I will be traveling to India Dec 13 - Dec 30. I will be able to swim and run during this time but will not have access to a bike.
- 01/19/19 (Cycling) California coast ride - 3days x 125 miles - San Francisco to Santa Barbara
- 03/23/19 (Cycling) Solvang Double Century
- Ironman Texas (2018-04-27) #IMTX_19
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 10/26/2018
- On 10/29/2018 Load the OutSeason (Bike Focus) Plan, 14wks to end on 2/3/2019
- On 2/4/2019 Load the EN*Full to end on 4/27/2019
- On 4/28/2019 Load the -- Post Ironman Transition Plan, All Levels (4wks) to end on 5/25/2019
Your Notes
Here is what I did in 2018
- Jan: California coast ride - 3days x 125 miles on the California coast.
- March: Solvang double century
- May: Ironman Santa Rosa 13:41:47 (First full IM)
Want to do something very similar for 2019 again.Currently doing 2 swims, 3 runs and 3-4 rides/week for the last couple of months.
- Swims are typically 2200-2500 yards
- Runs are usually short 25-30 minutes Z2
- Bikes are 2-3 indoor sessions lasting about an hour 1:20. Saturdays is usually a group ride around 55-70 miles.
Also trying to squeeze in a yoga session on Sundays.
I will be traveling to India Dec 13 - Dec 30. I will be able to swim and run during this time but will not have access to a bike.
Let's get to work!
~ Coach P
Comments
Coach! Plan looks good. Last year you had me do a big week of cycling a week before the Coast ride. It helped me both mentally and with endurance. Quoting what you had me do from the last years thread "That first week of January should also be a big cycling week. Riding almost every day and hopefully cracking 350 miles. You could do 7x50 mile rides in a row or at least seven consecutive days of riding. You can finish with a longer ride on that weekend and then we basically taper in to the weekend itself. " Should I be doing something like this from Jan 8 - 13th?
Wow, 2017 Coach Patrick was pretty evil! Yes, we could work out then I’ll do I believe I have you doing some back to back longer rides. How do you think you would structure that week given your fitness now?
Coach,
I think my current fitness going into this out season is probably the best compared to the last 4 years.
Here is my PMC just for reference from 2018 OutSeason and then jumping into the 2018 Coast Ride in Jan 2018.
And here is my current PMC for the last 90 days
What I’m worried about is that I will most likely loose some biking fitness when I’m in India between Dec 13-29 and some over all fitnesses as well due to the holiday season. What I’m thinking is having that 350 miles big biking week like I had last year from Jan 7th - 13th. I would do a 2hr Zwift ride Mon - Friday and two longer outdoor rides Saturday and Sunday. I would skip all of the running that week and move it to the following week.
Let me know what you think.
Thank you so much for those charts! Pretty awesome to see just how far you’ve come in a little over a year. Kudos to you.
I agree that the big bike week will certainly rejuvenate that fitness. However, don’t forget that the mileage doesn’t have to be done at any sort of intensity. As we look at the week the earliest rides should be the easiest. You should be able to “ride yourself into shape“ by the third or fourth day and feel stronger. I still don’t want you to push anything, it’s more about reactivated those muscles and your aerobic system.
I hope you have a fantastic trip!
Thanks for the tip Coach. Will keep the big bike week easy and strictly based on a comfortable RPE.
How are you feeling now?
Coach! Thank you for checking in. From a fitnesses perspective, I feel pretty good. My body is able to take the training load so far and recover pretty well. I’ve had some slight tightness in my calf earlier this week and now has translated into tight achilles in the last couple of days. I’ve been seen my chiropractor and it as helped release my calf but the tightness in achilles is still there. I’m going to take it easy for a couple of runs this week until I’m pain free before I increase intensity. Any feedback would be great here. This seems to be a common problem/injury with my running as I start increasing intensity or volume.
Apart from that things are looking good.
The Delta in all of those metrics looks good. Remember, we don’t have to be too aggressive with the building of the run mileage. If you ran a 15 mile week, but did that for five or six weeks in a row, you would see in improvement in your Fitness for the first few weeks. Eventually it would “plateau“ but by that point time you would be resilient enough to handle another increase in volume. I am glad you’re being very cautious about the run.
It’s also worthwhile to make sure that you’re running shoes are friendly for the run. We want to shoe that has a decent heel to toe drop of about 8 to 10 mm. If you are Running in a race flats that are zero drop or 4 mm or less, that does put additional strain on your Achilles which it may not be prepared to handle. Some people use shoe inserts to offset this, but whatever you choose we need to be careful of it.
Thank for the tip coach. I'm currently using stability and motion control running shoe with quite a bit of heel to toe drop. I also have custom orthotic inserts made by my podiatrist for running.
It could be a case where i'm suddenly starting to ramp up my running and I had not been running much in the summer after IMSR. Also running hills may have put some additional strain. Will dial down the intensity and keep an eye on the Achilles and let you know how things go.
Thanks again.
Perfect. It’s possible you may want to spend most of your runs at the high school track where you’re running on a level surface and you can just get used to that basic strain, and adapt. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Coach,
Just checking in to see what are the next steps as I exit the outseason/modified outseason plan next week?
On the 2019 California coast ride front, the ride went flawlessly. Day two was a little bit of a let down since Mother Nature didn’t cooperate and we had rain/drizzle for the entire day. Overall I road much stronger than last year and my body seems to recover pretty well after riding 125 miles each day. Believe it or not, I felt the best on the last day(3rd day) of the ride.
On the running front, It looks like I have made big improvements without too much stress or putting in a lot of speed work. The progress seemed very gradual and I just realized that today as I look back to see from where I started.
The only issue I have with running right now is that I have an ache on the the bottom of my right foot ( Towards the right side of the Ball of the foot) which started two weeks ago. The pain went away earlier this week since I took a break from running for 4 days during the coast ride. I was also massaging the foot with a lacrosse ball and there was tightness in the abductor digiti. Unfortunately the pain has reoccurred today after my long run. The pain has now shifted from close to the ball to the abductor digiti muscle to be specific. It felt pretty tight there a few days ago and I used a foot roller and lacrosse ball heavily. I hope I didn’t cause something to get inflamed there. Anyway, I have been icing it and the pain seems to be somewhat subsidizing. I’m a little concerned about the the half marathon on Sunday. Any advice here?
Going forward, what is the plan that I need to load after next week leading into my double century on March 23rd and finally into IMTX?
Thank you for checking in remember when you have a run injury like a, that injury is essentially your coaCh. And right now, your coach Is telling you do not run in get a new paIr of shoes right away.
You have done good work, but even done properly that work has a cost. We have to be smart, and Make sure that you don't do anything that aggravates Your foot. I would recommend a week where you do not run outside, just do three short runs to help with the transition.
The next step in your training Is to load The 2019 bike focus Full plan tO end on the Sunday of Santa Rosa weekend.
Now our job will be Integrate this to your schedule In a healthy manner. Please give me an update when you get a chance.
~ Coach P
Coach,
Thanks for the tip/reminder on the shoes. It did the trick.
I just had another minor setback. I got hit with a stomach bug this weekend and was completely down on Saturday and Sunday. It was pretty bad but I’m glad it was short and I feel recovered today. I was planning to give another day( Tuesday) to recover and then ease back into training and listening to my body. Is there anything I should be doing in terms of getting back to pre-illness intensity?
@Amulya Parthasarathy That’s fantastic news on the shoes! Sorry to hear about the stomach bug, but you are right to simply back things down for a bit. Are usually takes a few days of just easier training so your body can get used to actual stress from your muscles are us is from your immune system. You should be fine by this weekend.
Coach,
Just got sick this weekend again. This time it was a cold which turned into a throat infection. There has been a lot of things going on lately.
Wednesday 2/20 - Started getting a dull shin pain on my right leg but was able to do my short brick run. Started massaging the shin and also the foot. The flexibility on the foot seems to have tightened up a bit and when I tried to stretch. When I tried stretching the shin and ankle, the pain/tightness seem to go back to the outside of the foot (near the abductor digiti) which started a couple of weeks earlier and also my ankle.
Thursday 2/21 - Swapped the run workout with a long swim followed by a short swim/bike brick. Stretching my right ankle multiple times a day to get back mobility.
Friday 2/23 - Symptoms of getting sick/Cough (Took the day off). Still stretching my right ankle multiple times a day to get back mobility. There seems to be signs of improved mobility
Saturday 2/24 - Throat infection (Started antibiotics) and completely down. Rested in bed most of the morning/afternoon.
Sunday - Recovered and had energy to move around etc but not workout. Still stretching my right ankle multiple times a day. There seems to be signs of more improved mobility but still not the same as the left ankle (Almost, but not fully there ).
Monday - Planning to take the day off and recover fully. Main goal is to continue stretching and doing mobility exercise to get that ankle flexibility on the right leg feel the same as the left leg.
Also with regard to my bike workout, I'm finding it hard to complete the bike workouts at the prescribed intensity ever since I did the Coast ride ( 125 miles x 3 days) last month. On the other hand I feel like my running has recently improved but cycling has declined a bit. Not sure what to make of this but I was always a better cyclist than a runner to begin with. Apart from the recent running injury I feel that I can complete my run workouts quite easily which I would usually dread in the past.
Need some guidance on how to proceed from here. I've missed two weekends (8th -10th and 22nd-24th) due to sickness. My biking intensity has also suffered. Do I need to make any changes in my plan or just tone down the intensity and distance and ramp it up slowly?
My next event is
@Amulya Parthasarathy -
Thanks for the update. I am sorry to hear that you aren't 100% right now, but it's REALLY COMMON to be fighting cold, etc. The key here is to get those long sessions back; we have 8 weeks to race day so it' snot a ton of time. The Solvang Double will help, but i recommend riding the weekend sessions for TIME even if you can't do the intensity yet. Okay?
This first weekend in march = double ride weekend (Sat as Planned, Sunday as 2 to 3 hours SUPER EASY)...that should get you back on track.
Re the run...we need to be careful. Not sure if it's a long run issue or an all run issue. If long run, we can "split" those runs to reduce the load...and we can look at treadmill time as well. You tell me.
Re the bike effort...just do your best sustainable effort. I think the "fatigue" levels are high...the work is good, but I don't want you to push so hard early in a session that the second half is garbage. Make sense?
In terms of training, I recommend you check out the IM Texas GroupMe (https://groupme.com/join_group/37696189/HnAXnK) it's just starting but would be good for you to stay connected with folks in there!!
Re ankle mobility, I find this band stretch to be really effective. The distraction allows for greater flexion, accelerating the flexibility process.
Please keep me posted!
~ Coach P
Thanks for the feedback coach!
Regarding the Run, it's currently a long run issue. This may be something that may have started several weeks ago but I may have been running through it. What I feel is that subtle changes in gait due to flexibility issues/tightness that started several weeks ago is now showing up as more painful issues as I increase mileage/speed. I don't know what I'm doing wrong and how to address the root cause? Should i try new custom running orthotics? Orthotics I've got is about 3 years old. I have running issues every year unfortunately 🙁.
Regarding the bike, no issue with volume/time. It's just the intensity that I'm unable to keep up now. Short intense bursts are totally fine, but long sustained efforts seem hard. Will tone down the intensity and keep up with the weekly session time for now.
GroupMe - Joined the IMTX group a few weeks ago 🙂.
Thanks for the tip on the ankle mobility. I'v been using Leigh's video (Athletes Treating Athletes) this week https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFRVEWa7EAI which is very similar to what you just sent me.
Thanks again for your feedback. Really appreciate it.
I would love to hear what a really good physical therapist says about your hip and ankle mobility. My guess is that at higher speeds you were asking your body to do something outside of its comfort zone in terms of range of motion. I bet they could give you a really good prescription, and even do some manual work to help. Or ART could do it.
Coach,
Just checking in. I took your advice and got an full flexibility and nutrition evaluation done by my chiropractor. The feedback I got was what I expected. Lack of hip and other movement flexibility. I was told to add flexibility/core training hours as a part of my training in the ratio on 1:3 or 1:4. I’v added 2-3 yoga sessions /week for the last three weeks and already see improvement (I.e staying injury free). With regard to nutrition I was told that I’m at least 30gm short on protein/day. Also trying to cut out diary and other foods that cause inflammation. My chiropractor/nutritionist recommends my weight x .6 as the total grams of protein intake for the level of training I’m currently undergoing. I’v made all these changes in the last 3 weeks and staying injury free. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m still barely holding it together but there hasn’t been any event that has had me derailed so far. I’m happy for that.
My double century two weeks ago went pretty well. My main goal was to try and stay in aero as much as possible and I think I accomplished that. I can see overall fitness improvement after that.
Im just waiting to get over the long run on Thursday. I’m in Houston this week for work and I plan to take advantage of doing the run on the actual IMTX run course. If I’m over that, I think I’m mentally prepared for IMTX 😁.
@Amulya Parthasarathy NICELY DONE! I think you will find that yoga stuff to really be a great fine tuning for you as you head into the final build. Your fitness looks really solid; if we can keep you healthy you'll be great. I hope Houston is warm and beautiful to run in!!!
Pictures if you can...put them right into the IMTX Chat GroupMe! 👍
~ Coach P
Coach,
i had to cut short my long run in TX due to heat and humidity which I was not prepared for. The plan called for 3hrs but I did 2.5hrs. My long run from next week starts to taper down to 2hrs. Should I make any changes to the long run or just stick with the plan?
Stick with the plan! 2 1/2 hours and extreme humidity is much harder than three at home I promise you. Remember to capture some of your lessons learned with regards to placing a nutrition so you can be ready for race day. Remember that the last hour and a half of the bike in the first hour of the run is all about getting wet with water to mitigate the heat. Kudos to you for getting the working on the road! 💪
@Amulya Parthasarathy I got your Check-In update, and have pasted it below. This is part of our monthly process to stay connected, so thanks for filling it out!
How can I help you get back on track with an eye towards 2021? We do a lot of planning and "starting" incremental steps to build up...but it depends on your goals and where you want to go. Let me know!
~ Coach P
Amulya Parthasarathy Is on the TeamEN (Coaching + Community Level) and is following the Other Plan / DIY Training.
His Rankings are as follows:
- Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Run Fitness vs Last Month: 1
- Body Comp vs Last Month: 2
Next month's focus: Keep active and have fun swimming, biking and running