How do EN plans fit into my goals (or how do I pick one)?
A bit about me and my tri-history and goals:
I've been racing triathlons for 5 years after coming out of the weight room for many years. When I started I was 5'9" and about 218lbs. I carried a fair amount of muscle that proved to be useless in my new sport of choice. I'm currently 197 lbs, gave up the steel habit, and over the past few years completed a few half-iron races (PR 5:20 on a dead flat course), Ironman Wisconsin (12:47 in 2010), but have just kind of floated around since IMOO without a motivation or direction.
I have decided to wash down this race season (after Musselman in July derailed me with GI issues) with a few cold beers, and jump back with a fresh head and body right now. My plan is to bust hump this fall/winter/next spring and come out fast and lean in 2012 and do short course racing with the hopes of peaking for a couple "A" races. Fortunately, I can do Oly's almost any weekend during the summer in Michigan, so I can adjust my racing schedule to train properly.
I'd like to drop my weight to around 180 lbs, maybe 175 if there is room and it doesn't cost me a ton of power. I am thinking the offseason (outseason) is the best time to really make great strides here.
I am in the fortunate position of having a PowerTap, a Computrainer, and my trusty Garmin 310XT...so from a testing/training/monitoring standpoint I am good to go.
My FTP is currently 257 watts (a paltry 2.87W/kg), and Vdot score is 40 which I'm not too fond of. I swim around 1:53/100m, due to the fact that I get black-line fever in the pool and just don't swim unless I can get in open water (which has to change).
So, my question for the coaches is: I don't know which plan to buy to help me get to where I need to go...do I buy an Outseason plan and then pony up also for the Intermediate or Advanced Short course plan in February? That's a pretty sizeable chunk of money for both plans (I'd fund it by selling my computrainer, but my wife uses it). What are your thoughts? How do I get from A to B in an efficient manner without breaking the bank?
Thanks,
Jay Adams
Comments
As far as your goals, you're right, the OutSeason plan is the prime 'get-faster' way to go.
However, there's a lot of overlap between the OS plan and the short course plan. Think of the short course plan as the OS plan, with added swimming. There are other differences, but they're substantially similar. If you're just looking for one plan to buy, and hate to swim anyways, I'd suggest the OS plan, and repeat for your short-course season, figuring out how to work in swimming.
Of course, I'd suggest that you've got lots of opportunities to faster race times by improving your swimming (both technique and fitness), too! Those deficiencies start to really stand out in short course racing. When you give up 3-4 minutes in a sprint on the swim, getting it back on the bike/run becomes a huge challenge because the race is so short.
Short answer: get faster = OS plan.
Thanks to you all. I guess that's why they call Mike a "Wicked Smart" contributor.
As I look over the website deeper, I just keep finding more and more resources from which to draw upon. It can be a little overwhelming the number of ways people communicate on here, between the chats, the forums, social media, etc. However, I'm sure with time it, like anything else, becomes second nature.
I like that you can change the program in a moments notice and select when you want it to start/end and just roll right into it. Moving form OS to Short course (and from begineer to intermediate to advanced) is very seamless in this site, just awesome.
I had really hoped that in the trial membership I would get a chance to look at the "Data Tool", and see some sample data from members and feedback/analysis from the team, but it looks like that is one of the few places us Trialers can't get into. Do you guys use this, is it intuitive and helpful?
And is there a way to have your daily plan emailed to you (ala workoutlog.com or trainingpeaks.com)? There are times when I'm on the road and have my smartphone, but don't have my laptop to easily access the full site. A mobile app someday would be pretty cool. Sorry, getting off-topic.
I guess I'll keep checking out the site and dig in as deep as I can over the next few days. I'll have to check the 'ole budget and see if I can afford to NOT waste my time, effort, and energy getting marginal improvements, and instead put the "work works" theory to the test! Thanks again.
Jay
Jay,
Welcome to your trial membership. I'll hit your survey later today.
For now, I think you should spend your time interacting with the members and watching how the coaches and team give training, racing, and other support to each other.
The bottomline is that EN can give you any/as much/as detailed and helpful support as you need. In our opinion, much more than Patrick and I were ever able to give our 1:1 coached athletes back in the day when we still coached people that way. The rub is that you need to take the initiative to seek out those resources -- asking for help, feedback, reading and learning on your own. Rich or Patrick don't drop out of the sky into your inbox or cell phone to ask you how you're doing, check on your or hold your hand. Instead, you come here ask a question at 8a and you'll have a dozen very high quality answers by 12p.
In addition, the vibe that's created by 500+ athletes doing the same plans at the same time (the OutSeason especially) is very, very powerful. It's like having hundreds of virtual training partners.
@ Jay re: your cell phone access, you can very easily set up a way to see your daily (and next day's) workouts even while on the road.
There are many of us that travel and check in that way. Not a problem at all.
@Rich: Thanks for the reply. I've got all the hand-holding and coddling I need from my 180 member triathlon club locally, and our in-person meetings are held at a brew pub which just makes me feel even more at home. What I need is a great strategy and solid planning to help direct my execution - and that is what EN looks like from first and second glance. If you or Patrick ever get to the Detroit area on the third Wednesday of the month, please let me know if you'd like to speak to a large chunk of potential target audience. I'd be happy to arrange it.
I just noticed your profile pic, and am reminded of seeing you on the college campus at IMOO 2010 in your pink speedo after losing a bet to the ladies. Gotta tell you, after 10 hours I didn't think I had it in me to laugh, but I managed a chuckle. Thanks again.
J
Jay - Data tool: very easy to use, providing bike and run paces based on periodic tests. I check my zones on the run every now and then, as I have a poor memory for my mile pacing needs. It's also gives visibility of trends over time, so you can see how your test resultshave improved with work.
Mobile app - it exists! I've got one on my iPad. Available here. I'll admit I don't use it, as I tend to tweak my workouts around as to timing as well as content, but it does show today's and tomorrow's workout just as written, even with the little photos for each day, just like the browser version.
@William: I don't know...I've looked over what I can see of the OS plan, and the main sets look like they could get pretty rough fairly quickly. Having 2 days off to recover each week tells me I'll be suffering pretty hard 5 days a week. Just filling in the "extra" time around the main set with 80-85% FTP in the sweet spot doesn't make me believe getting fast is going to be a cake walk. But I MUCH prefer suffering badly for a little while to mind-numbing 5 hour LSD rides. Thanks for the warning :-)
J