Paul Hough 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.
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.
Coach Notes
Paul, I hope you are recovering quickly. Good thing you are SO FIT...and that you have ROAD GRAND TOURS. 🤣 I have mapped out most of the year beyond January, but don't want to be too aggressive early with a "plan." I think it's best if we for that out here via the forums or in a call: https://calendly.com/pmccrann/15min so we get it right!
Your Races
- 03/16/2019 Intimidator HIIM
- 05/11/2019 Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast
- 06/23/2019 Ironman Ireland
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 11/15/2018
- Rest up through 12/31/2018 (just a bit more than 6 weeks).
- Re-entry training for 4 weeks (through End of January).
- On 1/28/2019 Load the EN*Half Bike Focused to end on 3/17/2018
- On 3/18/2018 Load the EN*Full Bike Focused to end on 6/23/2019
- On 6/24/2019 Load the Post Ironman Transition Plan, All Levels (4wks) to end on 7/21/2019
- On 7/22/2019 Load the EN*Full Bike Focused to end on 10/13/2019
- On 10/14/2019 Load the Post Ironman Transition Plan, All Levels (4wks) to end on 11/10/2019
Your Notes
14 IMs started and 14 finished. Slowing from age. Run ability fading like an Etch-a-Sketch in a clothes drier. After training and racing with a hernia for most of 2018, I had scheduled surgery on 8 Nov 2018, four days after IMFL. I am now out of commission for 6 weeks except daily walking. Will start back with light training Christmas week....sooner if the doctor allows.
Primary races for 2019 are IM Ireland and IM Kona. I'll throw in some international distance races and maybe a HIM or 2 in the lead up to Ireland, then regroup and start getting ready for Kona. I would like to race well at Ireland. Kona will be a suckfest, just-wanna-finish race, glad I finally got to do it kind of event.
Let's get to work!
~ Coach P
Comments
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.
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.
Coach Notes
Your Races
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 within Final Surge by clicking on the Training Plans > View My Plans. If you need help manipulating your plans in Final Surge, be sure to check out our Help Site. Remember, you can learn more about each plan and find related plan resources on the Plan Descriptions and Resources page.
Your Notes
My knee is gone, but I'm fit for swimming and biking and hope to step those up in 2020 now that I won't be spending time running and walking.Training 7 days a week biking, swimming and lifting weights.
Let's get to work!
~ Coach P
@Coach Patrick - thanks for the season plan. I'm doing a hodgepodge of training right now before I take off for Mt Kilimanjaro in late December. In fact, I just rode the 40th Horrible Hundred in Clermont this past weekend (4260 ft gain, and it never got over 56 degrees)!
I have to confess that I haven't used Final Surge up to this point - I'm sort of a very late tech adopter. But as soon as I get back from Mt Kilimanjaro on 4 Jan I will sign up for that and get started on the outseason cycling plan. I rode the Cross Florida tour some years back and just want to do it again. After that, I do have about 4 Olympic distance aquabike races planned for the summer before I head to Almere. I'll be in touch.
@Paul Hough I can load your Season Plans, help you configure zones and use the app too. Let me know once you finish setting up your Final Surge account and sync your Garmin or Strava account to Final Surge. Sync only one, either Final Surge or Garmin. If you sync both, you will get double workouts. Pro Tip: Strava is better is you ride Zwift.
In Final Surge: Workouts -> Garmin / Device Upload
Customize your workouts Final Surge
Once you customize them, the workouts will say 20' @ (135-145 heart rate) vs. 20' @ Zone 2.
Here is how you update your training plan with integrated and customized zones (there is a video here too):
Final Surge has an App too.
Let me know if I can help.
Matt
@matt limbert - thank you for the offer; I will come to you if I have issues! I am not on Strava and I haven't logged into my Garmin connect account in probably 5 years or more. I also am a team outlier in that I use Rouvy instead of Zwift. And I don't use heart rate anymore either. The workout and zones are all I need to make my day! :)
👊👍️
@Paul Hough - 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!
Rankings are as follows:
Next month's focus: Survive a major work project and then continue to push swim volume UP!
Thinking to myself how grateful your work is that you found a way to stay active. Can't imagine how grumpy pants you would be if there was no opportunity to train whatsoever! 🤣
I saw your epic swim from over the weekend, so cool. Hope you don't mind that I shared it with the team in our Monday newsletter. What is the desired outcome of the swim? Are you still going to do that event in Tampa?
~ Coach P
Coral Reef 5 mile Open Water Swim. However, they just cancelled that event
for this year, so i'm going to have to wait until 7 Nov 2021 to tackle that
... at least it will still be the 25th! To replace that, I'm going to
enter a local 3 hour swim at Madeira Beach on December 13, 2020. It won't
be the same since I'll have the advantage of a wetsuit in December. Plus,
it is a loop swim where you come out each mile and then go back in. My
goal will be to do 5 loops and stop. By contrast, St Croix is a 5 mile OWS
point to point from Buck Island to the Bucanneer Hotel near Christiansted,
St Croix. Both will be epic.
The local Rainbow River is fed by a first magnitude spring and is the best
swim in the state. The total river is only 6 miles long. There are a few
distance options for swimming it but the most common is 3.6 miles from K.P.
Hole county park to the bridge in Dunellon. With the current it comes in
very close to an IM swim as far as time goes. I'm new to strava this
summer so I got credit for the "longest" swim this past weekend. The key to
the swim is not to take tangents as the river meanders but to always try to
move where the current is fastest - typically the deeper portions. People
swim it in everything from Speedos to full wetsuits. I used a pair of
Xterra lava shorts in this last swim. With coronavirus, the park has
really greatly reduced the number of tubers on the river but there is no
limit on swimmers. I missed swimming through all the tubers on my way
downstream ... you can always seem them pointing at you like you are nuts,
since most of the tubers are unlikely to be able to swim very far. With
the Rainbow River you have to be able to swim the distance because there
are no places to get out before the bridge once you start the swim. One
last thing - the water is pristine. I didn't see a single piece of trash,
not one beer bottle or soda can in the river all the way down. They keep
it that way by having VERY strict rules on what tubers and kayakers can
take with them on the water and there is a sheriff's boat that patrols the
river (very slowly). We all wear bright swim caps and have a swim buoy
tied to our waist for visibility. Jet skis are strictly forbidden and the
entire length is a no-wake zone. Only one boat was on the river this
weekend. I don't think I've ever seen more than 3 on a swim there.
@Paul Hough - I think your change in plan works out just right. Unfortunate that you won't have that whole epic swim in front of you, but sounds like you have an adequate adjustment in place. You'll just have to pretend you're in St. Croix! 🤣
That swim sounded epic. I've heard of people swimming in rivers before for long distances, but for some reason I thought that was super old-school. Didn't know it still happen. You are a living bucket list of things for other people to do.
Hope the family is well!
~ Coach P
crashing hard on a work project this week and flying to Ohio tomorrow to
see one of my kids. r/Paul
@Paul Hough - next time! I hear you on trying to crush work, I'm trying to take advantage of every opportunity to make sure that I'm pushing things forward without big races on the calendar. Have a fantastic trip!
~ Coach P
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!
I low-key half? That sounds like a nice opportunity for you. Do you have any specific goals around it or just getting back into your mojo after some travel in the US? Let me know what you are thinking!
~ Patrick
Paul Hough 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: Will load up an aquabike plan. Probably going to do a lowkey half-iron on 15 Nov.
been getting in the way of actual racing opportunities else I would have
scored several races in the past two months. I have a sprint aquabike this
weekend, and am considering up to three races in October. Meanwhile, I
stopped walking to put more time into swimming and biking. I'm swimming
about 15,000 yards a week now and climbing. I want to be at about 20,000
scy/wk into November before two long distance swims in December. The
half-iron is just another opportunity along the way since I have some
friends looking at that race who had registered for MiamiMan (USAT National
Long Course) on the same day, but that is unlikely to happen as the word on
the street is that MultiRace (the RD that puts on nearly every race in
Miami) is either bankrupt, out of business or both. They haven't posted
anything on facebook since Aug 11, have turned off their phones and won't
respond to e-mails. USAT says they are talking with them, but the clock is
ticking and it looks like any registration fees paid to MultiRace for 2020
races are lost. Meanwhile, the people who originally created MultiRace
and sold the company in 2013 have announced a new race company (Integrity
MultiSport) and intend to host the exact same set of races in 2021. In
positive news, if anyone wants to do a full distance triathlon in 2020, the
30th Annual Great Floridian received their permit last week and that race
is a go barring some crazy spike in covid cases. So that's the primary
dirt in Florida at this time.
r/Paul
@Paul Hough - Thanks for the info! And nice race this past weekend...super speedy! I think your plan is a good one. I could see you creating some kind of a rhythm where, for example, every fourth week you drop down the volume a little bit on the swim so you could do a little more walking. I still believe in the overall benefits of walking and it will be a nice break for your shoulders. 100% up to you.
The race drama is real. I think we will see more of that...I don't know how IM is going to survive. They just held Cairns and it was 221 racers with 75 slots. That's 95% less participation that normal...going to be an interesting few years!
~ Coach P