Brian Kubiak Official Coach Thread [PlanEN]
@"brian kubiak"
Here's your personal Coach Thread, as promised. This is where you'll return to post all your "coach" questions as responses; I'll see them and reply. This first post is here to guide you through your first year on EN, so you can always come back here.
As you'll see in this forum, I handle all manner of edits and changes. So post away, know that I reply here usually M/W/F each week.
Power User Tip: Click the Star icon by the Title of this thread to subscribe, and you'll get email updates when I do reply.
Coach Notes
Your Races
- Ironman Lake Placid (2019-07-28) #IMLP_19
Season Outline
These are your recommended training plans, including the date you should start each one (sometimes you won't complete a full plan but transition to another one). You can change your plans on Final Surge by clicking on Training Plans / My Plans. Learn more about each plan on the Training Plan Central Page.
>> Last updated by Coach on June 17, 2019
- On 6/17/2019 Load the EN*Full Bike Focused to end on 7/28/2019
- On 7/29/2019 Load the Post Ironman Transition Plan, All Levels (4wks) to end on 8/25/2019
- On 8/26/2019 Load the -- Run Durability for Triathletes 1 (9 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 9/22/2019
- On 9/23/2019 Load the -- Run Durability for Triathletes 2 (8 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 10/20/2019
- On 10/21/2019 Load the -- Run Durability for Triathletes 3 (7 months out) -- 4 weeks to end on 11/17/2019
Training Plan Support in Your First Month
You can connect with @matt limbert as needed in your first month to get dialed in with your training plans and data. You can set up a call with him online here: https://calendly.com/new-member-phone-call/1 and he'll be on this thread shortly!
Your Notes
Ironman Connecticut 70.3 (Quassy) 6/2/19Pool swimming twice a week - 4000-4500 yds
Running 5x per week (including 2 short runs as brick sessions) - 30-35 miles
Biking 3 times per week - 115-120 miles
Your Homework
Tell Me Your Season Goals
- What will make you consider this season a success?
- What's your biggest limiter right now?
Contact Points
As part of your journey to becoming a Self Coached Triathlete inside TeamEN, we are prepared to give you excellent support for your first 90 days. Our goal is to transition you from live, in-person support to using our digital resources and the Team to help you continue your progress as you execute your Three Year Plan.
These are all the key points in your first year where we must talk. Please remember to include your phone number.
- Welcome Call in Week One (set it up here)
- Training Plan Call in Week Two to talk about your season (set it up here)
- End of Trial Call -- We review your experience & Unlock Year One / Race Execution for you (set it up here)
- End of Season Call -- We review your year & Strategize for your End of Year Gap and Year Two (TBD in this Coach Thread)
Questions
- Coach Questions - Right here in this thread. Always reply to this same thread, it keeps a record for us as we evolve together!
- General Questions - Simple stuff can go to the Q & A Central Forum for the Team to answer. For example, Best Bike? How to improve run cadence? How to flip turn?
- Need Help? - Please check the EN Help Site first!
- Admin Questions - Billing or orders or whatnot? Use the red chat button at the bottom of the Members Site (not forums) or email us here.
- Specific Questions about a Race or Power, etc? - You can post those into the targeted forum for that topic. Power questions to the Power and Pace Forum. Race questions to your specific race forum, etc. Not sure where to post? Put it in the General Discussion forum and we will sort it out. Whatever you do, PLEASE ask your questions!!
For short or last minute questions, we recommend you use the Red Chat Icon on the main Members website.
We have also organized a complete chart of the best ways to contact us online here.
Your First Month on the Team
You have quite a few things to do when you start up. There are instructions on the top of the website, but you can review them under Resources / Trial Member Welcome.
Your First Year Inside Endurance Nation
This will be unlocked after your trial expires.
Looking forward to working with you this year,
~ Coach P
Comments
Brian, Welcome to Endurance Nation and congratulations on IM 70.3 Connecticut (AKA Quassy)! I look forward to hearing more about the training you have done so far and helping you prepare for your race at IM Lake Placid. I'm here to make your first month of Endurance Nation as simple and as awesome as possible.
Like Coach P mentioned, getting your data into Final Surge and checking out the forums. The racing resources we have will make you smarter and improve your race day execution. Its like free speed!
We have a lot of folks who have done (or are doing) IM Lake Placid - so there is a ton of experience and learning you can get from other members of the team. Ask me a question in this thread or schedule a call with me here https://calendly.com/new-member-phone-call/1 and we'll get you started. Talk to you soon.
Brian, Coach Patrick has just made your season plan in Final Surge, so you can sync your Garmin or Strava (only one!) and get your workout data uploaded.
In Final Surge: Workouts -> Garmin / Device Upload (see picture below)
Then chose either Garmin or Strava. Just chose one, otherwise you will get double workouts recorded in Final Surge.
Let me know how I can help. I look forward to hearing more and helping you crush it at IM LP!
@Brian Kubiak
Brian, Good to talk with you. I look forward to seeing your data in Final Surge etc.
Here is Coach Patrick's review of the IM LP course last year. If you scroll down just below the video you will see all the race reports from the last couple of years.
Here is the race forum. Please introduce yourself and join the discussion. Folks will start posting more frequently here closer to the race.
Here is a good start on IM racing fundamentals:
Brian, To get your Zwift bike workouts into Final Surge you may have to use your Strava connection instead of your Garmin Connect connection.
Although your Zwift workouts got to Garmin. Garmin will not forward third party data. They only forward Garmin data. So, if ride Zwift then you will need to use the Strava connection to Final Surge.
Zwift -> Strava -> Final Surge.
Note: You could just turn on your Garmin and record the ride, but the Garmin will only record the time, heart rate and power. It won't show distance because you didn't move - GPS location never moved. You will get "credit" for time, heart rate and power, but no distance.
In order to get the time, heart rate, power and distance into Final Surge you will need to use the Zwift -> Strava -> Final Surge connection.
To make Strava your primary data source.
Connect Strava ->to-> Garmin Connect
and
Connect Zwift ->to-> Strava
and
Final Surge ->to-> Strava
and finally
Disconnect Final Surge and Strava.
This will ensure:
You running via Garmin will get uploaded to Garmin Connect -> Strava -> Final Surge.
Outdoor Bikes via Garmin will get uploaded to Garmin Connect -> Strava -> Final Surge
Zwift workouts will go from Zwift -> Strava ->to-> Final Surge
Once we get it right. It is a set it and forget it, kinda thing.
Brian, Nice work on you long bike and long run this past weekend! As you get all your technology setup, you might be interested in the Final Surge App.
Final Surge | Mobile Apps
https://www.finalsurge.com/apps
The mobile app makes it super easy to add comments about your workout. Click on the "pencil" icon to tap "how I felt" or "perceived effort."
Those comments are really handy when you are comparing workouts, tailoring your own training, evaluating progress and planning for your.
You can also see your entire calendar so you can plan for the upcoming workouts.
Check out the short video.
Brian, good work adding the comments to your workouts. Those will pay off as you are able to compare workouts across the season and your nutrition & hydration plans/notes for long rides. Are you still having problems uploading your Zwift rides? Another big bike and run this weekend. Good luck out there! @Brian Kubiak
Brian, I saw a comment about your calf. I hope it feels better. Here is some guidance from Coach P on injury management and workout modification:
If your calf continues to get better or you just need to modify some stuff:
WorkOut Triage
If you go to work out and it just ain't happening, we suggest, in order:
From a macro level perspective you'll want to check in on your quality of sleep, nutrition, wellness to make sure this isn't a bigger issue.
Which brings up what not do to:
Brian, Good to see that your calf feels better and you got that long run in. Also, nice work getting some big bike efforts in followed by the solid sunday runs.
Couple of questions for you: What will make you consider this race a success? What's your biggest limiter right now?
If you have some time this weekend or in the next week - it would be good to check out the old race reports and race plans in the forums. Get faster, by getting smarter.
Start here:
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/MasterRacingPages/IronmanLakePlacid.aspx
Also, the course changed a bit this year and Coach P did a review on the EN Facebook Live page. Check it out here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/337157050264482/?ref=share
Other IM LP events to plan for:
Truthfully, I would consider my race a success if i can finish in 15 hours or less. My biggest limiter right now is open water anxiety after my race at Quassy 70.3.
When you get a chance - I would like to hear more about that Quassy swim.
Here is a thread on some open water tips, including practice on sighting, increased cadence for choppy water etc. Lots of good advice across the board but I would draw your attention to Mike Roberts post about half-way down the page. He is the guy who wrote the Swim ebook with Coach Patrick and really taught himself to swim better.
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/23585/open-water-swims
Also a video from Coach Patrick on open water swimming:
I have personally never had a panic attack before, even in open water. Quassy was very foggy causing them to shorten the swim for safety reasons. I started pretty strongly. At about 250-300 meters out the woman next to me began scream for help. Another man next to me was pouring blood out of his nose. I started to feel my heart rate and breathing increase. I swam to a kayak to try to catch my breath. I fought through the rest of the swim and burned a lot of energy doing so. It caused some anxiety even when I got back pool swimming. It is now getting much better.
What an experience! That would rattle anybody and burn through a lot of adrenaline/energy. It is certainly an outlier and despite all those things you were able to pull it together and finish the swim - that is some great mental toughness and fortitude. I'm glad to hear it getting better. Getting some positive open water swim practice in can help. Do you have an opportunity to swim with a local tri group? Or friend/friends willing to swim open water with you?
Remember, your workout triage for the rest of this week. This weekend's race rehearsal takes priority. Adjust the upcoming workouts, so you can get a good effort in this weekend - work nutrition, hydration and pacing.
Also, look at the racing central pages - to develop your race plan. See EN Full specifics. There are details for race week, swim, bike and run pacing.
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/RacingMemberCentral/RaceExecutionDetails/MasterRaceExecutionPage(HalfFull).aspx#IMspecifics
Use this guidance and combine with your own experience from your race rehearsals to write your own race plans like those here. There is no format. Its your plan, write it how it makes sense to you. Checklist style, bullets, narrative. Combination. Most have some form goal or strategy for execution combined with a checklist for logisitics and a process for preparation/hydration/nutrition.
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/categories/race-execution-discussions
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/MasterRacingPages/IronmanLakePlacid.aspx
Brian, Good luck at Lake Placid. You have done a lot of great work. You got in the long bike and runs and had a pretty good string of consistent training. The hay is in the barn as they say. The water temperature there has been warmer than normal. Be prepared for non-wetsuit swim just in case. You can follow all the action, updates and EN group activities with the other folks headed to Lake Placid here:
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/25538/2019-im-lake-placid-kick-off-thread
Coach Patrick will be at the race. If you are interested in meeting him in person. Here is the link to the EN team dinner.
Here is the Group Me (group text app) with everyone doing Lake Placid. Its easy to use on your mobile device - you can turn alerts on or off. Search for GroupMe in you app store.
Coach Patrick has a Pre-race week and Race week video to keep you focused.
Did you get a chance to look at any of the race plans or reports? How can we help?
@Brian Kubiak
Thank you for your help and encouragement! I am headed to LP today. I will hopefully be able to attend the dinner tonight. I am also signed up for the 4 Keys talk tomorrow morning. I am excited about the race but still a little nervous about the swim. I am going to try to get in Mirror Lake tomorrow for my last swim before the race. I have put together my race plan but I’m not exactly sure where I document it.
Brian, nice work putting together your race plan. Post it here as soon as you can.
Race plans go here: https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/categories/race-selection-reviews
Scroll down a bit and you can see other race plans for IM LP.
Going to the dinner and the talk are great ideas. You joined the GroupMe right? There will be several folks from the Team doing some practice swims. Use the dinner or GroupMe to link up with them for your practice swim There will be lots of IM LP veterans folks at the dinner, you can get some good advice, insider tips on the swim and offer encouragement. That is exactly why we have a Team. They are all super helpful.
Brian, I hope you got to the Team Dinner last night. I would like to introduce you to Derrek Sanks @Derrek Sanks. He has done IM LP, he is a super nice guy. He can talk you through the swim if you are interested, he some great advice. I chatted with him yesterday and recommended texting him first, so he'll have your number and know who is calling 719-650-4770.
Brian, I recommend checking out this post.
Dustin is a new member and posted a question about his race at IM Lake Placid. A lot of experienced folks weighed in and gave him some good advice for race fueling and hydration which can apply to your next IM.
You could get some feedback on your own race report - consider writing it your "workout for today"
Let me know what you think.
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/25966/dustins-2019-ironman-lake-placid-report