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What is new in the 2012 plans?

MattAaronsonMattAaronson
in General Training Discussions

Hey RnP,

I'm curious as to what has changed this year in the in-season plans (HIM, IM, SC). At the beginning of the OS you did a good job summarizing the main differences – most notably the introduction of "run_second" vs. bricking – and I would love to know what state-of-the-art is at work in the in-season plans.

 

Since we are all self-coached athletes here, there is a lot of learning from the plans and how they are constructed, so summarizing the changes and the logic for the changes would be helpful.

 

Thanks!

Matt

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    Good suggestion Matt. I'd like that too!
  • Michael JohnsonMichael Johnson

    It looks like alittle more running days. Hopefully coaches will chime with .

  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Swim:

    • Did my best to correct math errors, tweaked a few workouts, cleaned up formatting and a ton of other stuff to make the workouts look cleaner, less cluttered.

    Bike:

    • Incorporated the "ON" stuff from the OS vs the 30/30, 2.5/2.5 stuff.
    • Did my best to fix the weekday bike workout math, and pretty sure I kept all weekday bikes at a max of 90'.
    • I may have changed up a few of the weekday bike intervals.
    • Max Satuday long ride is 4hrs, with the exception of Race Rehearsals.
    • When writing/editing the Saturday ride I was more mindful of the total TSS for the ride and it's impact on Sunday ride
    • Increased length of the Sunday ride to from 3 to 3.5hrs hours.
    • We are now calculating the TSS points for every bike workout. I'll need to include some notes/screencast how we did this and what it means so we don't get questions about why I'm only getting 228 TSS vs the 229 TSS scheduled . 
    • Did a lot of cleanup of formatting, naming of zones, and generally making everything tighter and consistent across all workouts.

    Run:

    • Incorporated our brick guidance into the plans. I think the biggest change everyone will see this year is us encouraging you to run on Saturday BEFORE your Saturday long ride. I did this a lot this summer training for IMWI and it worked out very well.
    • Patrick can speak to specific changes he made with run workouts.
    • We also calc'd the TSS of all run workouts. Patrick will include notes on how he did this, assumptions he made, etc.

    TSS calcs and watts/pacing integrated into the plans:

    • As you've seen with the OS plans, we are now inserting your wattage zones and run paces directly into your training plans. You'll also see this in the HIM, IM, and Short Course plans.
    • Our next step, coming soon, will be to display TSS scores for each bike and run workout, and the total TSS for the week (sorry, we have no plans to include swimming TSS).
    • I have my own ideas about we can do with ^this^ information as a team but, as far as I know, this level of training plan details has never been published to an entire team in one shot. I'm very curious to see what good stuff the brain power of the collective could extract from this
  • Paul HoughPaul Hough
    Awesome Rich. But I'm fearing that extra 30 mins on Sunday!
  • Coach RichCoach Rich
    Posted By Paul Hough on 13 Feb 2012 08:18 PM

    Awesome Rich. But I'm fearing that extra 30 mins on Sunday!

    But I took out 30' from Saturday .

    And when the TSS calcs are done and if we feel we need to adjust sessions aftwards, we can tweak the plans again a bit...I think.

    But I think it's going to be pretty cool to put a plan in your hand that has TSS #X, Y, Z for all of your Saturday long rides and compare those numbers to your typical IM bike leg...and ditto that for HIM training and racing.

    What happens when you get an entire squad of IM athletes truly thinking about their training load from a TSS framework (intensity and volume combined) vs just volume with intensity in there, of course, but not as quantified? Seeing and thinking about TSS for the week vs 13-15hrs? 

     

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    Great stuff Rich, thanks for all your work! image

    What are some 'typical' TSS values for a week?
  • matthewbwardmatthewbward
    Hey Rich,

    Regarding this: "As you've seen with the OS plans, we are now inserting your wattage zones and run paces directly into your training plans. You'll also see this in the HIM, IM, and Short Course plans."

    Is that live? I've got the run paces showing up but no watts on the bike - just the prescribed zones.

  • Coach RichCoach Rich
    Matthew, we have a LOT of parts moving back here right now. Please be patient, it's in the works.
  • MattAaronsonMattAaronson
    I am surprised you advocate running prior to the Saturday long bike. That seems like a pretty fundamental shift in philosophy...historically the guidance has been to do the Thursday long run as early as possible in the day to maximize recovery time in preparation for the Saturday bike.
  • Coach PatrickCoach Patrick
    This is a great question. Rich, thanks so much for kicking things off with that bulleted outline. I did not make substantial changes to the run workouts this year for the half iron or Ironman distance plans. So the intensity of the interval runs, and the duration of the long runs both remained very much the same. The biggest change came in the form of adjusting the long run for the final six weeks before your race. About 6 week mark, you shift from building fitness in your long runs to building race–specific skills. Rich covered a lot of this in his buildup to Ironman Wisconsin last year, when he did a lot of his long runs at race pace with the 30-second walk break every mile.

    The other substantial change you'll see is the elimination of most brick workouts. Again, this is RnP pushing the ball forward, doing what we think is best for your overall ability to improve your fitness and be ready for race day. As Matt noted above, we still advocate that you do your long run on Thursday morning for maximal recovery before your Saturday morning bike ride. After all, the long run is one of the hardest sessions will do all week. The run before your bike workout is not is costly. It will range anywhere from 30 to 45 min. in duration, and I'll have the chance to do a little bit of intensity, usually at the half marathon pace.

    From our experience, this allowed minimal impact on your ability to ride your bike and gives you a chance to do a much "better" run than what you'd get after 4.5 hours of riding.

    Should that not be the case, then we can adjust your workouts in the micro or macro threads.
  • SwanieSwanie
    Sounds bitchin'! Any changes you guys make, I'm sure will make us stronger and faster. Can't wait to see the changes in April.
  • SwanieSwanie
    Sounds bitchin'! Any changes you guys make, I'm sure will make us stronger and faster. Can't wait to see the changes in April.
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