2018 Season Summary

Al Truscott

I'm starting this thread to encourage folks to review their training/racing season just past. Data, impressions, pictures, results...everything is fair game. The idea is to dive into the past year a bit, and maybe find something nuggets for learning, then share that with others. I've found this provides a good springboard to the subsequent year's planning.

Sport #/avg Hours/avg Distance/avg Pace/avg [Compared to average 2007-2018]

Swim 98/115 76.5/93.5 201,466.5 m/252,864 2.6 km/hr/2.7

Bike 178/152 362/303 5612 mi/4849 15.2mi/hr/16

Run 182/166 115.5/140 750.5/947 9:14 min/mi/8:52

Weights 68/87 40.5/52

Skiing 29/18 33/29.5

Walking 13/7 18/13.3 40 mi/32

Races/Events: [All the events had 3-6 in AG except TTs, which had about 10, and IM, which had 20]

5K Run x 3: 1st x 3

HM x 3: 1st x 3

Bike TT x 3: 2, 3, 4

Sprint x 2: 1st x 2

Oly x 4: 1st x 4

HIM x 1: 3rd [USAT Nat'l Long Curse Championship]

IM AZ: 3rd

Events: Mt Palomar Gran Fondo, Mt St Helens Tour de Blast; EN Mallorca Camp; Al T 'Tude Colorado Camp

Here's what stands out to me:

The last two years, I've dropped my swimming. I think that's because prior to 2017, I was doing 2-3 IMs a year, which requires a fair amount more distance than a palate of shorter tris. I ran much less, primarily because Jan 13-Apr 17 I hardly ran at all due to the discovery of Right patellar osteoarthritis, and then another 3 weeks lost due to a minor surgery in July. The cycling events really boosted my cycling time, distance, and strength.

Here's my PMC for the year; 10/28 was my peak CTL, 135, 3 weeks before IM AZ. The times I was not able to run are pretty obvious with the dips in the purple line of ATL. The dips in April were also associated with traveling in Spain before and after Mallorca:

What did I learn?

• It's fun to race a lot. I especially liked the Olympic distance triathlons and the half marathons. I think a mono-manical focus on Ironman as the be-all and end-all for triathlon is a mistake. Those "shorter" races are plenty hard, and serve as great training not only as physical workouts, but also as mental preparation for adopting a game face when needed.

• The great thing about triathlon is, when you can't run, you can bike, and still have fun and get fit.

• Doing stuff with friends is better than training alone.

Paul Hough

@Al Truscott - is "National Long Curse Championship" a typo, an accurate description or both?

I don't need to look at my data to know how the year went. Pretty much I was at my strongest in March and then started on a downhill glide slope after suspecting that I had a hernia in April. I made it through the entire season but felt it more and more as time went by. I scheduled my surgery ffor 5 days after IM Florida but that turned into just 4 days when IMFL moved to Haines City and slipped a day. That meant I could not take any aspirin, Advil or such during or after the race per my pre-op instructions! My takeaway from 2018:

• The hernia hurt when I hammered on the bike, but using a hernia belt eliminated most of the discomfort.
• Swimming with a hernia didn't bother me at all.
• Running with a hernia was a non-issue at first but became a hit or miss pain as the season wore on. At IMFL it hurt going downhill and hurt a LOT the last 7 miles.

Bottom line is that the hernia was my biggest limiter in 2018, and thankfully it is now fixed. Good luck on your world domination tour...can't wait to read all about it!!

Jeff Phillips

Great idea @Al Truscott , this is the first time I've put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to do a review of the previous 12 months. Note, I was not an EN member until late Sept of this year:

Below are the facts as Garmin has collected:

Swim: 174,960 m/ 3,365 avg per week

Bike: 1,961 miles/ 37.7 avg per week

Run: 690 miles/ 13.3 avg per week

Weights/ Core: Unknown total hours. But one Pilates session per week along with core/ strength sessions 2-3x per week

X Country Ski: Unknown total miles and hours. Typically 2 hrs per week December - March.

Below is my 12 month performance management chart from TrainingPeaks (maybe @Coach Patrick will get some useful insights from this too?):

Races/ Events this year with results:

• Early May - Half Marathon - 34th AG (out of 125)
• Early June - Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon - 30th AG (out of 214)
• Late June - 2 mile open water swim race - 2nd AG
• Mid July - Olympic Distance Tri - 3rd AG (out of 39)
• Early August - 2 mile open water swim race in Lake Superior - 7th AG (out of 18)
• Late August - 70.3 triathlon - 4th AG (out of 13)

You'll see a slow build starting in January, with the pop in early February being the Tour of Sufferlandria. I feel I did a good job of building throughout the season. The increase in CTL and form has been since starting RDP in late September. My biking and swimming is sporadic to non-existent right now as I focus on the running. This was the first year I did two weeks "on", with a one week "rest/ recover". I think this allowed me to accumulate a lot of TSS during the two weeks and then absorb that training in the rest week.

My 2018 takeaways:

• I focused more on pre-hab/ self-care than I have in the past and felt that paid dividends throughout the year. I didn't have the typical niggles that have caused me to pause training in years past. If I felt more fatigued than normal, I took a rest day and tried not to feel guilty
• Training for Escape from Alcatraz and an early July Olympic had me running with more speed earlier in the season than years past. I think this paid dividends as I carried that speed through the summer into my 70.3 where I PR'd overall and the run specifically
• I need to focus more of my longer bike rides on riding fast. I typically have used the long bikes as race rehearsals, focusing on pacing and nutrition. I need to ride harder than race pace for parts or all of some rides
• I had a great year of swimming in the pool with so-so open water results. I swim outside 1x per week in the summer and may need to do more to translate the good pool work into open water

I'm looking forward to my first full year with EN and seeing how my 2019 totals and results will compare. Happy to discuss the TP chart if anyone has further insights.

Derrek Sanks

This is always a good to do as it's a great reminder of how far I've come. I remember 2014 being an epic year wondering how I was going to top racing Boston Marathon, completing my first IM, then racing Chicago and NYC Marathons. Then in 2015, I completed my 2nd IM and run a PR at the very hilly Route 66 Marathon. In 2017, I finished 10th place at my 4th IM and the KQ seed is firmly planted. That brings me to 2018 with a few more PRs and all-time biggest achievement of racing Kona. Not sure how I'm going to top 2018.

Races/Events

March: NYC Half Marathon - 1:32 (7:05 pace), 4 mins off my PR in 2015. 44th/963 AG

April: Cherry Blossom 10 miler - 1:06 (6:40 pace). PR . 15th/568 AG

April: EN Cycling Camp, Mallorca, Spain - Best cycling ever!

May: St Mary's Oly Triathlon - 1st/7 AG; 18th/133 OA

June: IM 70.3 Raleigh - 12th/90 AG -- Bike PR and run PR

July: IM Lake Placid - 8th/252 AG. Swim PR (non-current assisted swim)

October: IM Kona - 141st/212 AG

Totals: 2018 / 2017, Miles (Dec 1 to Nov 30)

Swim: 270 / 218, 19% increase

Bike: 5,314 / 4,439, 16% increase

Run: 1,561 / 1,240, 20% increase

No surprises with the increases. See below regarding swimming. I blame Zwift for most of the bike increase. Run volume is typical. My 2017 volume was lower than usual due to a couple minor running tweaks/down time earlier in the year. For comparison, 2016 was 1,556 miles.

Lessons Learned:

1. Zwift is a great training tool. Between Zwift races, group rides and EN group rides, I used Zwift about 2x a week. Using Zwift made me ride harder and longer than I thought possible. Riding at or near my FTP for 50-70 minutes or at 88-95% FTP for 90+ mins gave me confidence in how hard I can ride in races. I didn't see a big FTP improvement but I had huge increases in 60', 90', 2 hr and 3 hr+ power.
2. Continue swimming 3x a week during the OutSeason, then 4x week during IM training. With 3 pools within 10 mins of my home, admin time is a minimum. I'll continue following Tower 26 Swim program. Besides a swim PR at IMLP, biggest result realized is coming out of the swim with much more energy, able to run fast (not jog) to T1 and feel fresher at the start of the bike.
3. Train hard to get comfortable with being uncomfortable (Zwift is good for this).
4. It was a great experience to hang out with, learn from, train with and race with @Coach Patrick and EN Teammates at Mallorca Camp, Lake Placid Race Execution Camp and Team Races IMLP and Kona! Thanks for a great year!

Jeff Phillips

@Derrek Sanks , great write-up and congratulations on a wildly successful 2018. It is informative to see the volume numbers of those at the pointy-end of their age groups.

I've explored the Tower 26 swim program some, would you be willing to share some insights into the program and your perspective? (We could go off-forum too to keep this thread focused on 2018 reviews)

Thanks in advance.

Derrek Sanks

@Jeff Phillips Thanks! I'll send you a PM.

scott dinhofer

https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/comment/271137#Comment_271137

@Jeff Phillips - how about starting a thread in EN on this? I know I'd like to hear more and I am sure there are others...

Al Truscott

@Jeff Phillips i think @scott dinhofer means start a Tower 26 thread?

tim cronk

Love the year end summary thread. Was an Ultra-running year for me. Raced three 50k's, two 50M's , two 100's , R2R2R , one Triathlon SOS , and a few other shorter running events. Certainly my biggest year of run training and least amount of swim/bike. Good timing on thread since I started my season on 12/4/17 after IMAZ . Data below is the time frame 12/4/17 - 12/4/18.

Swim 140k yds , 37hrs

Bike 1941 miles , 116hrs

Run 2313 miles , 470hrs (over 200k elevation gain)

Strength 30hrs

S/B PMC's clearly show the time off both, short block in spring pre-Ultra ramp for Vt100, then the SOS build, and currently in my Off Season minimal swimming , and building the bike back with intensity.

Run PMC - IMO is a thing of beauty , clear builds for each race and recovery time after as well. Even though I am running 20-30 miles per week with 2x intensity in OS my CTL is still falling... Just about stabilized now.

What I learned-

The bad - Be careful how long you go without biking, at some point the bike fitness really drops off.

The good - After prolonged periods off swimming and biking , I can bring the swim back up to near 100% in 6-8 weeks and I can bring the bike back up to near 100% HIM fitness in 6-8 weeks.... Some of this is taken from the PMC charts above but was confirmed to me anyway with my successful race at SOS Triathlon considering my power/pace/and ranking after only 6-8 weeks of focussed training post Ultra 100.

This Year - Another Ultra 100 in August and IMAZ in Nov gives me 14 weeks between the two. I wont allow the bike to drop as low as I did last year.... Considering I thought I was almost 100% HIM fitness after 6-8 weeks training for SOS , I think 10-12 weeks should be almost 100% IM fitness... I say almost because there is no way to be a full 100% after a 100 and only 14 weeks but its gotta be 95% or better which is good enough, the rest is mental.