So I’ve just started low volume full distance plan. Turns out my knee injury I picked up earlier still isn’t fully recovered meaning I can’t run at the moment. Cycling doesn’t seem to bother my knee so I’d like to focus more on the bike while I’m unable to run and since the bike is my weakness it makes sense. Do I use the train now feature to replace the the runs with a ride of same duration or do I start a new plan from scratch say ssb and add in swims?
Thanks
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I have the time to add in a decent amount of endurance work and really work on building a base.
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If it were me I’d look at goals for next year and decide based on that. If you’ve got time to do a full ssb cycle and fit in a triathlon training cycle before any target races, then it sounds like an opportunity.
But if you’re aiming for early season races then I’d be tempted to keep the full distance plan in place and sub in Train Now workouts - mostly to give your knee the best chance of recovering
(disclaimer: I’m not as experienced in training as a lot of the people round here, and I am very cautious when it comes to injuries!)
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What are you doing to get the knee better? If the run time would be better spent re-habbing it then I would do that. If you are already doing the re-hab at other times then adding more aerobic stuff wouldnt be a bad thing.
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Switch your plan up to medium volume.
Add a couple of endurance rides for a week or two first, if you’re handling the extra bike load well, update your plan.
I’d echo the concerns of @timb34 and @simon-trimon and personally I’d focus the spare time on swimming, which is after all renowned for rehab and injury-risk-free training.
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So I made it to a physio and it turns out that my I’ve got It band syndrome so no running, cycling or squatting at least for a couple of weeks. Planning on swimming as much as possible and plenty of core, stability and upper body strength training.
I’ve got enough time before my ironman to fully heal my knee so it’s best to follow the physio advice now and make a full recovery before starting training properly.
Once given the all clear of still like to focus more on the bike since the injury risk is lower and its a relative weakness when compared to running.
I might as well delete my current plan from the calander and reassess when allowed to cycle again? Start with train now and plenty of zone 2 work?
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Yes, this is what I do.
Good call seeing a specialist and getting your diagnosis, I’ve had a couple bouts of ITBS and it’s WAY easier to deal with when you catch it sooner than earlier.
Don’t ditch the rehab once you are better, keep the glute work in particular as prehab / maintenance since it’s now a known issue when not worked on.
I’d also start off with mostly zone 2 and a bit of train now, advantage of ironman training being that you aren’t really in the upper energy systems, so building a deep base will go a long way.
Good luck
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I would 100% ditch the training plan because I HATE seeing what I “should” be doing and end up feeling annoyed with myself because I cant do it. We all know that what you should be doing now is getting that injury right but workout anxiety is very real. Good luck with getting it sorted and if you follow the physio advice youll be back to training and racing before you know it.
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That’s what I’m thinking with the zone 2 work will only benifit me in the long term anyway.
I had been putting off seeing a specialist for the simple reason I kinda knew what was coming and didn’t want to except it that I was going to have to take some actual downtime. Even considered ignoring the advice and still riding but the wife talked me out of that so going to really focus on getting the knee stronger ready to start training properly again.
Thanks. I’m due for a check up in 2 weeks so hopefully that will be enough healing time to start allowing for some cycling but doubt running will be anytime soon.
I think I’ll have to delete the plan because like you say it’s a cause of stress seeing every scheduled workout getting missed plus remove temptation to jump back in to early.
Still plenty of time left to get on shape before the event provided I take this recovery time seriously.
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Perfect.
Remember to ramp up slowly from your current volume, so if you currently swim 2hrs a week I would get the frequency sorted with like 30min swim on 5 days, then gradually increase the length of each session. And have a different focus for each session.
Upper body strength has the risk of curtailing your swim, so easy there as well.
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