Hi @Coach Patrick - thanks for putting on and organizing UltraMay. I had a fun time! It was fun to get psyched up for an event again. I'll try to put together an event report for the forums.
This was my last week in the Bike Focus plan, but I modified it obviously. I moved the Vo2 Short ride to Wednesday and did the 1' intervals at about 120% vs 150%. I didn't test, but did do a somewhat easy IRL ride this morning. I probably should hold back on the 12 mile run tomorrow - we'll see how the legs feel. My ride this morning was really a scouting ride to see if the loop I planned would work for Sunday's planned epic long ride. I'm not planning on riding for 8 hours, but I might try for 100 miles. I might shift back to Zwift, though, and hit up one of the pretzel routes or similar. We'll see.
Moving forward, I've loaded the 70.3 Bike Focus plan in prep for the EN DIY triathlon (Al's event) at the end of August. 70.3 Traverse City hasn't been canceled yet, but the timing is the same as the EN Tri, so nothing lost there. Can't believe Ironman moved Wisconsin 70.3 to the same day as IMWI! I'm sure it's just a stopgap and both will be canceled. That said, I will likely defer to 2021 regardless of whether they cancel or not - 4000 (!) athletes (in theory) plus all the people that come with them doesn't sound very safe to me these days. I am tentatively planning on the longer EN Tri for mid-October and possibly my re-scheduled 50k in mid-November. But for now I'm planning to focus on the 70.3/DIY event.
Hope you're recovering well and staying safe and sane!
@Dave Mehl - it was so great to have you as part of the group of crazy people! I really enjoyed it as well, much more than I anticipated. Well, maybe not the part about my legs hurting. But the jokes were fast and furious and it was great to see all the pictures. I still can't believe how are you compress the timeline to get it all done! That is total #beastmode
I think your decision to focus on the event at the end of August is best. As you noted, there's nothing lost and yes I don't see how Wisconsin is going to be remotely possible. One of the elements they haven't even considered is that universities will be back in session as well at that time, and Madison is a humongous college town. All of the students coming from around the country, if not the world, will undoubtably lead to strain unwelcome municipal systems. I don't see how Madison will handle an extra 60,000 students (vs now) as well as 4,000 competitors and related folks...and, as you noted, even if they CAN I don't want to be ANYWHERE near that train wreck.
@Dave Mehl - Just following up on your monthly feedback for us. Thanks for doing it!
Here's what you said:
Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 1
Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 3
Run Fitness vs Last Month: 2
Body Comp vs Last Month: 2
Next month's focus: Body comp
Extra help request: I could use some help with accountability with regards to body comp, mostly just eating too much, especially comfort foods.
Great to hear from you, thanks for dialing it in. We can definitely help you hack some of these comfort foods. Here is the three-step process I'm thinking of:
Step 1 - Identify those comfort foods here. What are the top 3, how much do you eat and when.
Step 2 - identify one of them to target, and we create a system that encourages healthy behavior around it..
Step 3 - Based on lessons learned from Step 2 we can proceed with the other challenges.
@Coach Patrick thanks for responding so quickly to the survey! I've been thinking about and watching myself this past week with regards to comfort foods. #1 on the list is easily cereal - I'm a big fan! And we're not talking the "healthy" cereal - this is the full-on sugary kids' cereal. Trouble is I can't stop after just one bowl. :( It's mostly a breakfast problem - occasionally I'll have some at other meals if our family schedule is crazy and we're all eating separately or something. Other comfort foods include pretty much anything I can munch on - tortilla chips seem to be particularly tempting, especially late afternoon and/or around dinner time.
The target for now should probably be the cereal - easily my worst offense these days. I'm thinking I should probably just eliminate it completely, except maybe as a "reward" after a long weekend ride or something? I'm all ears on other ideas, too.
@Dave Mehl not a huge fan of elimination, we can start with re-ordering if possible. For example, there's a period of time after you work out when your metabolism is working harder. Let's say you run an hour, for the next hour or so your metabolism is running at a higher rate. It's in that window that you could have a bowl of your favorite cereal is recovery. Just having a bowl of that cereal because it's 9:15 AM is not a good idea. So if you can get a morning workOut in, this is part of your recovery!
For those mornings when you're not training but you need something in your stomach, we need to have some thing that's a suitable replacement without all those sugars. On these mornings I would recommend not using serial is your go to item, but replacing it with something else that you enjoy. Is there an easy alternative for you?
@Dave Mehl 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:
- Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Run Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Body Comp vs Last Month: 2
Next month's focus: For August, I'm still focusing on the DIY Tri.
Extra help request: After the DIY Tri, I am thinking of continuing my run-focused season (and run streak, currently at 218 or so days!) by training for a DIY 50k and/or 50 miler, or possibly an actual ultra race if there are any left that are being run safely. I'm also considering my deferral options for IMWI - either sticking with IMWI 2021 or maybe changing to IM Chattanooga 2021. Either way, I think I would be looking at the January Outseason?
Hey man, thanks so much for the update. Like to see your progress heading into the DIY TRI, looking strong. That run streak is enviable! Super impressed. Remember, as a coach I'm required to say that we have to keep some level of caution there so that we are putting your body into any danger by chasing a streak. You know the drill.
In terms of moving forward, yes he would be January I'll season start. I'm assuming the ultra would be somewhere in the October November timeframe. That would be great, because it would give you a couple weeks of downtime before we started ramping back up for the next year. Even if you chose to keep the streak alive, we need to give your body some time to absorb the ultra.
Obviously I wanna point out that we do have ultra plans here inside the team, both run only and balanced with cycling included. Happy to help you with all of that when you are ready, maybe after DIY?
Comments
Hi @Coach Patrick - thanks for putting on and organizing UltraMay. I had a fun time! It was fun to get psyched up for an event again. I'll try to put together an event report for the forums.
This was my last week in the Bike Focus plan, but I modified it obviously. I moved the Vo2 Short ride to Wednesday and did the 1' intervals at about 120% vs 150%. I didn't test, but did do a somewhat easy IRL ride this morning. I probably should hold back on the 12 mile run tomorrow - we'll see how the legs feel. My ride this morning was really a scouting ride to see if the loop I planned would work for Sunday's planned epic long ride. I'm not planning on riding for 8 hours, but I might try for 100 miles. I might shift back to Zwift, though, and hit up one of the pretzel routes or similar. We'll see.
Moving forward, I've loaded the 70.3 Bike Focus plan in prep for the EN DIY triathlon (Al's event) at the end of August. 70.3 Traverse City hasn't been canceled yet, but the timing is the same as the EN Tri, so nothing lost there. Can't believe Ironman moved Wisconsin 70.3 to the same day as IMWI! I'm sure it's just a stopgap and both will be canceled. That said, I will likely defer to 2021 regardless of whether they cancel or not - 4000 (!) athletes (in theory) plus all the people that come with them doesn't sound very safe to me these days. I am tentatively planning on the longer EN Tri for mid-October and possibly my re-scheduled 50k in mid-November. But for now I'm planning to focus on the 70.3/DIY event.
Hope you're recovering well and staying safe and sane!
@Dave Mehl - it was so great to have you as part of the group of crazy people! I really enjoyed it as well, much more than I anticipated. Well, maybe not the part about my legs hurting. But the jokes were fast and furious and it was great to see all the pictures. I still can't believe how are you compress the timeline to get it all done! That is total #beastmode
I think your decision to focus on the event at the end of August is best. As you noted, there's nothing lost and yes I don't see how Wisconsin is going to be remotely possible. One of the elements they haven't even considered is that universities will be back in session as well at that time, and Madison is a humongous college town. All of the students coming from around the country, if not the world, will undoubtably lead to strain unwelcome municipal systems. I don't see how Madison will handle an extra 60,000 students (vs now) as well as 4,000 competitors and related folks...and, as you noted, even if they CAN I don't want to be ANYWHERE near that train wreck.
DIY Tri Info coming soon...
~ Coach P
@Dave Mehl - Just following up on your monthly feedback for us. Thanks for doing it!
Here's what you said:
Next month's focus: Body comp
Extra help request: I could use some help with accountability with regards to body comp, mostly just eating too much, especially comfort foods.
Great to hear from you, thanks for dialing it in. We can definitely help you hack some of these comfort foods. Here is the three-step process I'm thinking of:
Step 1 - Identify those comfort foods here. What are the top 3, how much do you eat and when.
Step 2 - identify one of them to target, and we create a system that encourages healthy behavior around it..
Step 3 - Based on lessons learned from Step 2 we can proceed with the other challenges.
The ball is in your court!!! 🏀
~ Coach P
@Coach Patrick thanks for responding so quickly to the survey! I've been thinking about and watching myself this past week with regards to comfort foods. #1 on the list is easily cereal - I'm a big fan! And we're not talking the "healthy" cereal - this is the full-on sugary kids' cereal. Trouble is I can't stop after just one bowl. :( It's mostly a breakfast problem - occasionally I'll have some at other meals if our family schedule is crazy and we're all eating separately or something. Other comfort foods include pretty much anything I can munch on - tortilla chips seem to be particularly tempting, especially late afternoon and/or around dinner time.
The target for now should probably be the cereal - easily my worst offense these days. I'm thinking I should probably just eliminate it completely, except maybe as a "reward" after a long weekend ride or something? I'm all ears on other ideas, too.
Thanks!
@Dave Mehl not a huge fan of elimination, we can start with re-ordering if possible. For example, there's a period of time after you work out when your metabolism is working harder. Let's say you run an hour, for the next hour or so your metabolism is running at a higher rate. It's in that window that you could have a bowl of your favorite cereal is recovery. Just having a bowl of that cereal because it's 9:15 AM is not a good idea. So if you can get a morning workOut in, this is part of your recovery!
For those mornings when you're not training but you need something in your stomach, we need to have some thing that's a suitable replacement without all those sugars. On these mornings I would recommend not using serial is your go to item, but replacing it with something else that you enjoy. Is there an easy alternative for you?
Let's leave the chips for now...TBD...
~ Coach P
@Dave Mehl 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:
- Swim Fitness vs Last Month: 2
- Bike Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Run Fitness vs Last Month: 3
- Body Comp vs Last Month: 2
Next month's focus: For August, I'm still focusing on the DIY Tri.
Extra help request: After the DIY Tri, I am thinking of continuing my run-focused season (and run streak, currently at 218 or so days!) by training for a DIY 50k and/or 50 miler, or possibly an actual ultra race if there are any left that are being run safely. I'm also considering my deferral options for IMWI - either sticking with IMWI 2021 or maybe changing to IM Chattanooga 2021. Either way, I think I would be looking at the January Outseason?
Hey man, thanks so much for the update. Like to see your progress heading into the DIY TRI, looking strong. That run streak is enviable! Super impressed. Remember, as a coach I'm required to say that we have to keep some level of caution there so that we are putting your body into any danger by chasing a streak. You know the drill.
In terms of moving forward, yes he would be January I'll season start. I'm assuming the ultra would be somewhere in the October November timeframe. That would be great, because it would give you a couple weeks of downtime before we started ramping back up for the next year. Even if you chose to keep the streak alive, we need to give your body some time to absorb the ultra.
Obviously I wanna point out that we do have ultra plans here inside the team, both run only and balanced with cycling included. Happy to help you with all of that when you are ready, maybe after DIY?