Two IMs in 9 weeks! And it's NOT revenge - it's KONA!!
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Funny how I just did my first IM (NY) on Saturday and I'm getting antsy to get on the bike again:-) Coach Rich says "no way" this week, so I will listen. Had a nice easy swim today and feel great. BUT - I have to think about what my training should be like over the next 8 weeks to train for Kona.
Coach P. has the "Revenge IM" on the Wiki - which is probably pretty close to what I should do? That is, after my recovery (not sure how long), I should skip the intervals on the Sat. ride and keep the Sun. ride negative splits. Maybe do that for a couple weeks, then jump back into the IM plan for a few weeks, then taper?
I just don't want to do anything stupid between now and Kona! I also don't want to lose my fitness and have a crappy race there either. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Comments
Carol - congratulations!
First off, you can do this - a lot of people do it every year from IMs like Canada, Louisville, etc. I'll be doing a shorter turnaround, with Canada on Aug 26 and then Kona 7 weeks later.
From my own experience and conversations with others who've gone this route, here are a few general principles:
• I saw Rich's response in the Macro thread, and in general he's right, but you're on kind of a high right now, and it's easy to understand wanting to get back on the horse right away while you've got the mojo. Your body will tell you, however, if/when it's OK to ramp up again. After the soreness fades, there's still the tiredness to deal with. Swimming more than 20 minutes, trying to bike or run with any distance or intensity would make that immediately apparent. Let it go this week.
• Some people say that 1 day off for each hour you raced is a good formula. I think that breaks down after about 8-10 days; in other words, you should be able to do some EASY biking this weekend, and then gingerly try running next week. Stretching, weight training if it has been a part of your routine, and swimming are all OK this week.
• Assuming you felt your fitness was OK going into IMNY, you really don't need to worry about LONG distance work. E.G., you don't need to do an RR#1 - you just did it, in effect! And, you probably don't need to do any runs longer than two hours (trust me on this, it'll just tire you out, and not add value to your training at this stage.)
• I think the following are key workouts to make sure you hit each week during September: one interval session running, one biking, and a sprint session swimming. You can skimp on the cool downs, but warm-ups of 15-20 minutes for each are necessary at our age. And the weekly long run, and two weekly "longish" bikes of 4 and 3 hours complete the list. BTW, if you are doing really solid FTP or even VO2 work once a week on the bike, I don't think (again at our age) we need to be hitting the high intensity stuff on the Saturday ride, just riding that day at 0.7-0.75 IF, and 0.75+ IF on Sunday is what I do.
• Maybe even more important is to try and get exposure to two things: wind and heat. Side winds and headwinds on the Kona bike course are unreal. Maybe the South Jersey shore has something like that? And starting Oct 1, doing runs either in 75+F weather, or wearing extra clothes is important to start acclimitizing. A sauna a day also helps.
Congratulations....awesome accomplishment. Not sure if I'm special or not, but in my 50's and it takes me 6 weeks to recover from an IM, completely...suggest following Al's guidance but don't be afraid of doing less...
Bill
-take a looong victory lap ... you well deserve it!
-adjust your performance expectations. Yes, do your level best, but don't count on this being your new A race. Particularly given the course conditions.
-I think the taper can go from 2 weeks to 1 week.
-Between now and Aug 30, feel free to let your bike position just happen. Riding in the bullhorns is fine. Road bike is fine. But as of September 1, it's all aero, all the time.
-generally: frequency first, (cautious) intensity second, volume third.
-recovery is Job #1 for the next 9 weeks. To me, this means an extra hour sleep beyond what you get regularly, plus 45-minute naps on the weekends, as the starting points. Point is, after a full season of training, you've been in the hole for so long that you no longer know that you're there. This new normal might feel natural post-IM, but trust me ... you're fatigued.
And congratulations - you made it!
This is really good stuff here! Just what I was looking for:-)
I will say I'm doing a great job of celebrating this week!
Great tips from Dave and Al.
I would add that it's important to set the right expecations for Kona. In my opinion, the real world offers us just about zero opportunities say "on this day I was XXX in the WORLD in this activity." Your first trip to Kona is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'd hate to see someone compromise that by training for and expecting to race it, especially with such a tight turnaround.
That is is to say I feel you should recover and then train enough to enjoy the experience with no time or placing expectations. As Al said, your body will tell you what is and isn't going to happen when you start to get out there. Listen to your body and you'll be fine.
Good luck!
I've been doing everything as recommended (except I did an AquaVelo this past weekend:-). At least I skipped the run portion!
Been doing the intervals (swim, bike, run) during the week. Longest run was 2 hours last week. 4-hr ride on Sat.; 3-hr on Sunday.
Mostly Z2 - Z3 on the long rides. Feeling fine.
Should I plan on doing RR#2 next weekend (22nd) as indicated? I'm thinking I should do that since it will be 6 weeks since IMNY and 3 weeks before Kona.
Also - since my marathon run in IMNY was very slow/long (5:47), should I do a couple of longer runs (e.g., 2.5 - 3 hrs) for my long runs?
I've been biking and running with extra clothes on but it's been so cool lately. Everyone is happy about that except me:-)
When should I start using the suana? They have one where I swim.
Thanks all for your input!
Again, just sharing what I'm doing, coming off of IM Canada two weeks ago and a Ragnar relay this past weekend:
I will be doing RR# 2 on Sept 23 ... this is my KEY workout for then entire remaining training cycle.
I will NOT be doing any run longer than 1:45-2 hours; on Patrick's advice (remember the Kona call with him?), I'll be taking my next two long runs as: 2 hours this week; 1:45 in the AM and 30-40 minutes in the PM the next week. Imay even split this weeks run to 90/30 AM/PM, depending on how my things feel in two days.
Running longer than 2.5 hours at ANY time in the twelve weeks before an IM (ESPECIALLY if you;ve done that IM marathon so recently) is a sure fire way to either risk injury, or at least get so fatigued you can't manage any decent workouts in the subsequent 2-5 days. It doesn't matter how "slow" you are; you will have plenty of run endurance potential going into Kona based on your training the past summer. AND, the key limiter to your ability to keep running is not how long your long runs have been, but rather how hard (or easy, actually) you work the bike on race day, how well you keep up with hydration during the bike and early portion of the run, and how well you manage your run pacing and aid stationwalking during the first 2/3rds of the run - which is where special needs will be, at the bottom of the E Lab hill.
Oh, I didn't see that last comment about clothes and sauna. I've gone the sauna route, and not, and can't see the difference. So I won't be doing any extra special sauna sitting leading into the race. I think much more important is training my GI system to be able to absorb 8-12 ounces of fluid every mile while running. Even at that rate, I know I'll end up getting dehydrated at the end, but that's about all I can take in at a time without rebellion in the boiler room.