My August was pretty good - pretty motivated overall - averaged about 14 hours a week (swim, bike, run)
3 swims a week at the local pool - 4 runs per week - 5 rides per week. Long rides on Saturdays in the 3 - 4 hour range and runs on Sundays getting up to 1:40 range.
A few of my early season events and one fall event are actually happening in September
Windermere Half Marathon (Spokane WA) - Rolling start over 3 days - where you have to log on and select your start time - 5 people every 5 minutes - I am racing (eh running) tomorrow morning
Coeur d"Fondo 9/20 - (Coeur d’Alene ID) I am riding the 85 miler this year with a training partner - its un-timed and also a wave start with no pack riding (unless immediate family or close friends) **It specifically says no new friends event )
The Split Half Marathon 9/27 - (Spokane WA) - same race management group as the Windermere so I am imaging it will have the same rolling start - max 5 people per slot - slot times spread over a weekend.
I am in pretty good shape, felling pretty good overall - excited to get out an test myself a bit - even in the modified event structures. All these are C events so training right through them, but I am excited none the less.
IM CDA 2021 opens up general entry on Monday and I am conflicted - I want to race it (its my backyard), I think I am going to gamble and hold out till early next year to sign up. Tired of having $$$ locked up in future events. With all this years deferrals it might sell out, but I have IM STG 70.3 and IM Maple Valley 70.3 on lock for 2021.
My main plan was to focus on swimming and running until the end of the year, but somehow, I injured my shoulder - I was not even training, just doing household chores… Anyway, with Covid I got used to changing plans
swim: no real swim for me in September, but I can do some strength training. Will refocus on it October (optimist) or more probably November. I will be able to swim almost every day, so I’m not worried at all
bike: I’m training almost every day, but not yet doing a TR plan - will start end November. I feel like I need to add some longer easy rides / workouts though
run: I’m going with the 80/20 method - it’s quite strange to run this slow but I believe it works - I already did some of it last 2 years and got great improvements. More importantly, it keeps me injury free while I increase the mileage
food: eating well and almost no alcohol - I’m hovering around the weight I had for my Ironman in 2019, and there is room for improvement ! I believe I will be ~3kgs lighter as compared to 2019 - this will be a huge improvement and the easiest one to get - according to a simple bike speed calculator, I will save around 5mins on the climbs
—-Edit—-
Five more bananas in me and the bike course done slightly faster than in May only now I dont feel destroyed by it
And finished off the run 21.1km rolling terrain +230m in 2:10:59. which Im satisfied with given Im only back running three weeks after a few weeks off during SPB.
Pretty happy as a stand alone half iron, faster than in May and none of the struggles and collapse that brought, but Im going to need some time to digest how this reflects on my full distance ambition.
August was a good month for me. It took me a week to recover from Disaster attempt then things started sailing smoothly. Ftp is up to 279 now using baby step system. Started swimming and running this last week as well in preparation for 70.3TX on 11/22 if it goes. So far my Achilles are behaving. I also added a new stress which is Tennis. Signed up for a few tournaments so I do something with my wife. It’s very fun but it stresses my Achilles way more than running 30 min. So I’m taking it easy when I do run. I’ve also decided to transfer my registration next year from IMC to IMCDA. I can’t trust things will go smoothly if I have to travel to Canada.
I finally pulled the trigger today and officially requested to defer my entry to IM Arizona to 2021. This would’ve been my first full, and it sucks to know it’s not happening this year. But the long weekend training has been hard on my family, and I can’t justify another two months of it while feeling that the race is likely to be canceled.
On the plus side, I made it through 20 weeks of Low Volume Full Distance Base + Build with very high compliance (aside from the obvious swimming limitations). So my confidence is bolstered that training next year will go well. I also learned a lot about nutrition and setting myself up for long ride success.
I ended up deferring an earlier 70.3 to Indian Wells, which is Dec 6th, so I’ll jump into a shortened Half Distance plan. I didn’t the Low Volume plan last year, but I’ll try Mid Volume for the next couple of months. I may have to ditch some of the recovery rides, but I’ll feel more motivated doing something a little different.
I just can’t find it within me to register for CDA full. It’s a bummer, because I’m a CDA native and I’ve been wanting to do that race a LONG time, but this just doesn’t feel like it. I’m also doing stg 70.3 (it was my CDA half deferral before they eventually offered the CDA full credit, and Maple Valley half, and IM Canada. CDA has a lot going for it though, and I hope it works out if you do it! I’ll come spectate if it does.
Morning all
A week late in posting. as I’ve been away.
August was a solid month for me, a month of climbing challenges and the re-introduction of strength training into my week.
The month started with a recovery week, then I managed to be quite consistent across the rest of the month.
Aug for me continuing as normal. Even though Weymouth has been postponed until 2021 I am still planning on a full dress rehearsal the day it should have gone ahead.
August was a great month for working on my bike fitness after 7 weeks with no exercise whatsoever after a hard crash.
I was able to take my FTP from below 220 up to above 240 mostly based on pure volume.
My ATL (acute training load) and TSB (train stress balance) sky rocketed but I only hit the bottom of the pit once and two days without riding were enough to recover some functional freshness.
My running is running late… I need to increase mileage like a lot but my priority was the bike fitness. Swim is being very inconsistent with the pools still closed and my own pool being only 10m long.
Relevante stats are all about the bike:
CTL went from 17 to 60 and it is now getting close to 70 (I want to ramp it up to 75 and to keep it above 65 until the taper in the last week of October).
I was on vacations so I prioritized volume over intensity (my TSS/hour was around 50 which translates to a 70% IF). I rode outside 95% of the time and my weekly saddle time was between 13 and 17 hours.
I am getting back to work on Monday so I will lowering the volume and moving up intensity. I will not do a dedicated specific block. My intention is to work all the zones above Z3 (Coggan 7 zones).
Maybe we should start sharing self-supported tips?
Im slightly lightweight as Im opting for bike indoors - I cant do race pace outside. But when I did simulate outdoors I used a 30km loop and left my drinks/bars in the front garden.
I am lucky Joe that I live very close to where the event will take place so I race the course. I have volen-told my long suffering wife into holding my bike while I swim the distance and then transition and the bike will hold all my gels and the like for the bike phase. For the run I have a 2ltr camel back so hopefully that will be enough and a friend will be meeting me at the 2nd transition to run it with me.
The past month has been good. I’ve got into some good, consistent training. Still not doing much running (one 5km per week at most) but I just want to focus on the bike at the moment and get a really good base. My A race is not not until next July so I have plenty of time to build up the running. So bike is going well - just about to finish IM base and I expect my FTP to have gone up when I do the ramp test afterwards. Did my first century ride in over a year a few weeks ago and it felt good to know I have that in me again (even if I was knackered at the end!). Swimming is also going well. I’m lucky my local pools are open so I’ve been able to swim up to three times a week.
So the short term plan is just to continue gradually building the bike and swim, then I’ll bring in some cross country running in the winter.
I’m due to finish IM base in a few weeks and then move onto IM build. However, I’m going to be away on a hiking trip during the scheduled first week of build which will basically write off that entire week. Normally I would just start the build plan the following week but I am using the plan builder and it’s already populated my calendar. As far as I’m aware there isn’t a way to amend the plan builder to take account of this missed week of training so what would you recommend? Should I just miss the first week of build and begin at the second week? Or begin with week 1 of the plan and miss a week somewhere else along the way? My inclination is to just start on week 2 of the plan as I will still be exercising (hiking) during my week away.
You can push the week AFAIK (as long as the week hasn’t already started). You do this on the web by clicking the three dots by the week number on the right.
@Scheherazade has it, but if youre not running more than 5k per week you might want to consider sustained power build instead. A bit of a dramatic change from FD base I know, but nevertheless.
To be honest, my training has fallen off a cliff since accepting Copenhagen was going to be cancelled. Not been in a pool since March and the running has gradually tapered away to barely anything. I have been enjoying the bike for the sake of it though, though no structure or end goal in sight.
Starting to get that itchy feeling back where I need a goal to aim at and looking at next year’s options. Have deferred my Copenhagen slot to 2021, though the dates aren’t great for me but it’s something to aim at.
Just been playing with plan builder which has me going through the full cycle from the end of the month before a shorter compressed cycle. Leading me to think an early season race might be something to go at. Traditionally, I always have good compliance over the winter and so might look to make my A event early in the year with something slightly different for the second half - series of Olympics or similar?
)
I need to increase mileage like a lot but my priority was the bike fitness. Swim is being very inconsistent with the pools still closed and my own pool being only 10m long.