Post IM training and breakthroughs
I raced IMLP on July 25. I started back by swimming on Wednesday, biking Friday, Saturday and Tuesday, and running Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. This is almost certainly too much too soon, but I've been feeling great. (Let's hope I don't pay for it in a week or two.)
I've been so damn fast the last few days, that it's making me rethink my IM pacing and whether I could have done more--i.e., whether my slowdown was mental, not physical.
Last night, I set a 5k PR of 19:23, down from 19:43 last September. It was hot, humid, and I'd already biked that morning and run the previous two days. This VDOT gives an E/L pace pointing to an IM marathon of 3:40. I ran/walked 4:25 in IMLP.
Last Friday, I rode for an hour with an NP of 258. (AP was only 205--this was a hard-charging hill bashfest on my road bike.) My previous FTP tests suggested an FTP of 205 on the tri bike and 235 on the road bike.
In Lake Placid, I did most of the climbing sitting up as I'm really not too happy hammering away in the aero bars uphill. I'm still unsure what my "real" FTP was on race day based on this combo of aero and sitting up and the wide power variance that I have between the two positions. I tried to go for an NP of 150, and ended up at 155. Given the various FTPs, this results in a TSS of 371 at 205 FTP, 282 at 235 FTP, and 235 at 258 FTP.
Any thoughts on this? I'll post a full race report soon, but I'm thinking I should have been faster on the run after my bike. I certainly didn't push myself into the pits of despair--I took 50-step walk breaks before I got that far down out of fear of totally losing it. But maybe I could have hammered through? I guess there's always next year. I swore I wouldn't do this again, now I'm thinking I should do the full Vineman.
Comments
I'm hearing several questions here:
1. Why am I so damn fast so soon after my recent IM? Do you track your workouts in WKO or Training Peaks online? Check out your Performance Management Chart. Looking at mine as a result of your post, I discovered that my acute training load (ATL) and chronic training load (CTL) reached their low points for the year so far about 10-12 days after IM CDA - lower even than where I was the day before the IM, which was the previous low for the year. And my training stress balance (TSB) was of course at its peak. The taper lasts a while, apparently, and is actually helped by the combo of the "long training day' which is the IM, and the enforced decrease in training right afterwards.
2. Should I have been using my newest (post-IM) VDOT for pacing? I don't use a 5K VDOT for my IM pacing; I use one from a HM I do about 6 weeks before, which has me about 20 sec/mile slower for IM pacing, per RnP's suggestion when I asked that specific question.
3. Did I leave something on the table on the run - on that SPECIFIC day after a 112 mile bike? If you felt fresh at the end, if you ran the whole way (except aid stations), and if you weren't sore in your calves and quads on Mon and Tues, then, yes, you could have run faster. Otherwise, you probably did what you could. Make sure you focus on your bike splits and pacing, and your run pace for each mile in your race report, to learn what role bike and run pacing played in your marathon performance.
EVERYONE swears at some point during the marathon they will never do another IM; it sounds to me like you've got some curiosity and drive to find out just how good you can be. Only way to find out is to try again.
P
ps this also points to the importance of knowing your FTP HARD before entering a race!!!!