On 6 weeks, and asking a different question (or asking the question differently)
It’s gonna get hippy-dippy down here. You’re warned.
Okay, maybe not. But I wanted to do some exploring of thinking – or ‘thinking about thinking’ about a certain block of time in my schedule.
Right now, I have a 6-week period between today (week 17 OS), and the start of in-season training for Kona. I have a plan that includes a micro strategy, the workouts, and the end goal. These are guided by the question I chose to ask about those weeks: “what do I need to do in order to train to train?” In other words, I know that I want to get to 13 weeks out from race day in the best shape possible, and I'm training to get to that day. It’s ‘on time’, and this will more or less follow the time-tested pattern of race prep in the EN ecosystem. And why shouldn’t it … it’s worked in the past.
So then I’m thinking that the question itself of ‘what do I need to do in order to train to train’ is probably giving me my answer. Sure, I have to go through the problem-solving, but I would guess that if I asked 10 EN coaches / EN veterans the same question, they would probably go through the same process of reasoning that I did, and arrive at roughly the same schedule, same workouts, etc. Again, why wouldn’t they … it’s worked in the past.
All of this is good – it’s worked - but I’m curious about the unexplored. But there really doesn’t seem to be a way to get to a different conclusion if the question is “what do I need to do in order to train to train.” I’m thinking this: what if I asked the question differently? Or a different question? Would it lead to a different, better answer? A different strategy, workouts, whatever? Are there possibilities here? Is there some creativity being left on the table, and even bigger, better downstream results that I’m not seeing because I’m not getting the whole picture or I’m getting trapped in my own conventional thinking and problem-solving?
Take, for example, a “planned week off” post: heresy in the training world where “the only way to build is to build up.” Even though I was asking the question in (masked) terms of “what would lead to improved race outcomes,” I like to think it still presented something a bit different, and slightly along the lines I what I’m posing today.
The thing I love about EN is it models a lot of stuff on a slightly contrarian view of triathlon training and race execution. And it works. In this spirit, I post this to try to think about how to explore the boundaries by rethinking / reframing / redefining them (as trite as that sounds) by redefining the inquiry. There is always something else out there that’s funky, different, or just possibly ground-breaking that we can get at, if we ask the right questions.
So what is the question?
Comments
Dave I have another one ... ... why are you only focusing on the next 6 weeks? if I follow your math you have 19 weeks to Kona.
Isn't your quesion how do I arrive at Kona as prepared as I can possibly be ... ... ...?
Seems that EN focuses a lot of on physical and nutritial prep, what about mental prep? When you think about Kona, and about what it means to be prepared, what cmes to your mind? What feelings does that elicit in you? and what have you done in the past to address directly those feelings and reactions?
Having watched you train, push boundaries, etc ... ... ovr the last year +-, I think you have pushed a lot of your physcial boudaries, what about how you push your mental bondaries?
Whatever maks you the most personally uncomfortable is worth exploring more deeply to figure out why?
just my two cents ... ... ...
Dave ... This reminds me of an apocryphal story from my college days. A professor was famous for his final exam. It listed 6 questions, of which the students need only answer one. The first four were standard questions bassed on the course material. The fifth was "make up your own question, and answer it." The sixth ... "Make up your own question." The professor commented, " if you choose the last option, remember this is a 90 minute exam, and your question reflect that amount and depth of thought." No one ever picked the sixth option.
So I'll ask and answer my own question. "In addition to and/or instead of the standard EN 12 week IM build, what am I going to do to get ready for Oct 13?"
1. After my last run test failed to improve my VDOT, I chose to end my OS and start the EN 20 week plan, as I'm swimming anyway, and want to start longer rides and runs.
2. Into my usual BBW x 2 @ 13 weeks to go, I'll throw a cycling event, the Double Triple Bypass, 120 mi x 2 over two days and 22K of climbing up to 12,000 feet.
3. During my usual BTW x 2 @ 5 weeks to go, I'll throw a running relay, Ragnar, again over mountain passes in CO.
4. My first RR will be IM Canada.
5. Maybe most important, for the first time in 10 years, I won't be doing IM CDA end of June.
The general theme here is to shake up my usual program, without getting entirely out of the sensible strategies and progressions which underly the EN training, and which I know work. Some variety and novelty within the context of the standard plan is what I'm looking for, which I hope will reinvigorate my enthusiasm for this sport which literally saved my life.
My foundational set of beliefs is that the best race performances are predicated on two physiological factors:
1) showing up on race day with the highest possible mean max #'s around race duration
2) showing up without carrying any significant fatigue which could affect #1
Certainly, there are a host of other factors (mind training, nutrition, life stress, etc), but the training plan has a hard time influencing these.
Based on your info above, you seem to have a great deal of faith in the 12 week plan to fill the right. So, my question would be 'how much more can you raise the left in the next 6 weeks?'
Another question to ask is 'how much OS-related fatigue can I shed so that I enter the 12 week phase as ready-to-go as possible?"
And the psychology question that comes to mind is "what can I do to stay strong and not bury myself between now and when it counts?" (ie. how do I not go overboard in these next 6 weeks?)
And more importantly, "Will any training I do now, for six weeks, or in the remaining 11 weeks, really have any impact on my ability to acheive my answer to Question #1?"
My guess is that fitness has very little to do with your answer. At least it didn't for me.