Brad Marcus Official Coach Thread

Coach Patrick

Here's your personal Coach Thread, 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 here to guide you through your first year on EN, so you can always come back here.

As you'll see in this forum, I handle all manner of edits and changes. So post away, know that I reply here usually M/W/F 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

https://endurancenation.wistia.com/medias/qxfmz6uuz4

Your Races

• 11/24/2019 Philadelphia Marathon
• 07/19/2020 Ironman Musselman 70.3
•  08/01/2020 Rev3 New England 70.3

Season Outline

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 Final Surge by clicking on Training Plans / My Plans. Learn more about each plan on the Training Plan Central Page.

>> Last updated by Coach on November 07, 2019

• On 11/18/2019 Load the  -- Post Marathon / Half Marathon Plan (2wks)  to end on  12/1/2019
• On 12/2/2019  Load the  -- Run Durability 1 (9 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on  12/29/2019
• On 1/6/2020  Load the  -- OutSeason (Run Focus) Plan, 14wks  to end on  4/12/2020
• On 4/13/2020  Load the    Swim Camp  to end on  4/26/2020
• On 4/20/2020  Load the  -- EN Half Run Focused to end on  7/19/2020
• On 7/20/2020  Load the  -- EN Half Bike Focused  to end on  8/2/2020
• On 8/3/2020  Load the    Post Half Iron Transition Plan, All Levels (2wks)  to end on  08/16/2020
• On 8/17/2020  Load the    Run Durability for Triathletes 1 (9 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on  09/13/2020

Your Notes

2019: IMCT 70.3 and IMLP fullCurrent fitness is decent. Definitely more run focused as I prep for Philly Marathon in Nov.

Run 4-5x week

Swim 2x week

Bike 2x week

Your Homework

Tell Me Your Season Goals

•  What will make you consider this season a success?


•  What's your biggest limiter right now?


Contact Points

As part of your journey to becoming a Self Coached Triathlete inside TeamEN, we are prepared to give you excellent support for your first 90 days. Our goal is to transition you from live, in-person support to using our digital resources and the Team to help you continue your progress as you execute your Three Year Plan.

These are all the key points in your first year where we must talk. Please remember to include your phone number.

•  Welcome Call in Week One (set it up here)


•  Coach Call in Week Two to talk about your season (set it up here)


•  End of Trial Call -- We review your experience & Unlock Year One / Race Execution for you (set it up here)


•  End of Season Call -- We review your year & Strategize for your End of Year Gap and Year Two (TBD in this Coach Thread)


Questions

•  Coach Questions - Right here in this thread. Always reply to this same thread, it keeps a record for us as we evolve together!


•  General Questions - Simple stuff can go to the Q & A Central Forum for the Team to answer. For example, Best Bike? How to improve run cadence? How to flip turn?


•  Need Help? - Please check the EN Help Site first!


•  Admin Questions - Billing or orders or whatnot? Use the red chat button at the bottom of the Members Site (not forums) or email us here.


•  Specific Questions about a Race or Power, etc? - You can post those into the targeted forum for that topic. Power questions to the Power and Pace Forum. Race questions to your specific race forum, etc. Not sure where to post? Put it in the General Discussion forum and we will sort it out. Whatever you do, PLEASE ask your questions!!


For short or last minute questions, we recommend you use the Red Chat Icon on the main Members website.

We have also organized a complete chart of the best ways to contact us online here.

Your First Month on the Team

You have quite a few things to do when you start up. There are instructions on the top of the website, but you can review them under Resources / Trial Member Welcome.

Your First Year Inside Endurance Nation

This will be unlocked after your trial expires.

Looking forward to working with you this year,

~ Coach P

Brad Marcus

Brad Marcus

Brad Marcus

Hey Patrick,

Thanks for the details on my season plan. Just a couple of thoughts:

• You have me loading a post-marathon plan on 11/18. Philly isn't until 11/24, so I will just need to re-adjust the load date on that. No problem for me to fix that.
• I understand what you mentioned about a shortened swim camp for me based on timing to begin half IM training. That's not a problem since I swim in a master's program and will have a swim base throughout the winter. Taking this into consideration, I may think about eliminating swim camp all together. I typically do not need it as a buffer to reset my mind. I'm usually anxious to jump into the next step of training by that time of year!
• Thoughts on my upcoming marathon. Running has always been my strongest discipline. The trick has been to keep my body healthy while racking up miles. I've been pretty good throughout this build and am looking forward to the race. Next year, I'd like to shoot for a BQ. I think I'm realistically 10mins off of that this year.  More on later.
• IM issues – Yes, this has been frustrating for me. I’m 5x through the process, and although no one has a perfect race, I have crumbled on the run of every one of mine. This year, I crumbled on the bike too J! I’ve switched up my nutrition in recent years to try to fix things and this past year I even went to Infinit, and that didn’t do the trick either. Maybe I am missing something. Anyway, my choice to forgo the Full this year and race 2 Half distance is more a function of having a more manageable training load for a year (one of our kids is in his Jr year of HS). I’ve nailed my Half IM race nutrition pretty well so feel good there. Maybe we can work on solving this the above issues next year.

2020 Goals:

1. PR in my Half IM distance (current PR is 5:10)
2. Build on my run with hopes of a Fall 2020 BQ and set up for ultra distance run
3. Have fun and remain healthy!

That’s about it. I think you are racing IMAZ. If so, have a great race! We’ll be cheering for you!

-B

Coach Patrick

Hey Brad, thanks for all the detail. My apologies about mixing up the date of the Philly marathon. You think I would know it by now.

I'm glad to hear that even able to stay healthy and that you are looking forward to the race. I think Billy is a really fair course and aside from the evil out and back across the river late in the race, it gives you back what you put in.

Smart pacing is still key so don't forget that. I'll be curious to know what data fields you have on your watch when erasing a marathon to keep you on track. Feel free to share those and you can.

I can't believe you have a junior! That is personally terrifying to me as it means I'm getting old too. 🤣

Looking ahead it would be great to solve your nutritional problems for the full. Part of the analysis can look at how you execute on race day versus how you execute in training. Many times while we attempt to use the same nutrition plan, we execute different experiences and that can be part of the problem. With the goal of a fall BQ attempt on the horizon, I would recommend that we set some decent run durability goals for you for January through April.

I am OK with you pushing the bike intervals but establishing decent run volume early in the year can go a long way to keeping you healthy and sets you up for the work that happens on the marathon course.

Have a great November!

~ Coach P

Brad Marcus

Coach P,

Just looping back with a marathon update. Philly was 1 week ago, and I think I nailed the execution. Goal was 3:35 (8:12/min pace), and I went 3:31 (8:05 pace). More importantly, I stayed super consistent throughout. The suck came at the expected 20 mile mark, and the actual pain started at mile 22-23, but I pushed through and kept the splits pretty steady (see pics below - miles 6-7 were a Garmin error I think).

I’m very happy with outcome and now feel that with some more focused training, a BQ is within reach. I’d likely have to take off 9-10 mins, but I think it’s doable. I wish my run would translate to the full IM distance, but we can crack that nut down the road. Anyway, I’ll get back to SBR mode soon with a run focus as you’ve suggested. Congrats on IMAZ - that was some performance!

Coach Patrick

Brad - Thanks for the update. I agree that not only is a BQ within reach,
but your IRONMAN performance should be significantly better. I’m guessing
it’s a combination of both nutrition on the bike I also some form of total
endurance. I wonder if we need to take a look at your peak hours heading to
Ironman to prepare you to run well after exercising for 6 1/2 hours
already. That’s usually a volume problem, often a nutritional problem and
sometimes a pacing problem.