@JoeX thanks for the shout out.
Still having health issues. Heart checks out fine but am told my ongoing symptoms are long covid and have been advised no exercise for another 4 months.
I’ve deferred my entries to 2024 and am going to try and concentrate on getting well this year. Put me down for the 2024 thread!
survived and got some good base stuff in
I survived March, and nailed all my running and cycling workouts, including all the 4+ hour indoor rides, plus a few Zwift races for good measure. I hoped to be training outdoors by now, but winter has been unrelenting this year.
Unfortunately, I’ve barely been able to swim due to construction at the local rec center, which is closed until the 9th. When it reopens, my goal is to try to get as much swimming fitness back as I can in a month just so I can finish the swim at St. George without being totally wiped out, and then do the best I can on the bike and run. Hopefully I won’t have any more interruptions after that, but I’m feeling pretty good otherwise.
A couple of Monday’s ago I was sitting at my desk and my back started to ache. I walked all hunched over for the next couple of days. It then moved from my middle back to my lower back. Not sure exactly the cause but can assume hips, hip flexors, or glutes are pissed.
Try to workout over a few days and it hurts, hurts when I sit, hurts when I sleep, swimming is the worst.
I’ve been icing, rolling, hitting it with a massager trying to get to release, but of course I can’t do just a little, more is more, and now everything hurts more.
Last Thursday was lectured by my 16 y/o to take few days off, he said three days off. Went a bit stir crazy, but did a run/walk on Sunday pain free, no dull pain or zaps of sharp pain. So feel like I am on the mend, today is good as well.
This week is a recovery week so will take it really easy to recovery so I can get back to it.
My big learning this first quarter has been using my arms on the run and my legs on the swim! Really feels different and more dynamic 
Didn’t see the progress I’d hoped for in March but a shoulder injury then illness caught me again:
But activity times slowly increasing. Mainly due to joining a swim club properly for the first time. They don’t mess around, even in the slow lane.
Consistent running volume is what I’m, after, so that’s still looking good. Bike has been a bit off and on - either running out of time or being unwell.
Did see a new PB in the pool last week, 6:34 for 400m, slowly chipping away towards my goal of 6:00.
I have two weeks off work to boost my fitness which will take planning not to overdo - so no intensity this week, just longer hours hopefully and more strength work…but already aching like buggery from ‘easy’ squats yesterday.
Bike:
March went alright, still didnt manage to bike remotely as much as i should. Starting a polarized block though, ftp is back to where i “peaked” last year so it can only go up from here?
Especially considering that i’ve been basically 90% running and swimming.
Bicycle commutes are back so thats an easy 4 hours and if i can get a threshold workout in and a long ride on the weekend ill be golden.
Run:
Adding more intensity on the run as i have my half marathon at the end of the month and then ill go back to low intensity mid may (gonna do 2 weeks or so of intensity to wake the legs up before my oly tri)
Swim:
Generally steady about 2x per week. I’m already at 40km swim YTD where my top year of swimming was 60k. So it should reflect in my HIM results.
Hi TRpeople!
March in stats
65h48 Total training
Swim 10h27 30k
Bike 35h31 mainly turbo+364k outside
Run 16h26 207k
S&C 3h30
I’ve skipped some sessions due to a serious cold, which was a pain in the A…
I try to be cautious with my running as my achilles are both painful at the beginning of each run and after a couple of km it’s manageable.
Looking forward to race! 1st prep one in spain in 2 weeks
March was a so so month
Swim 27k yards
Bike 253 miles, One ride 6 miles at 9 mph, memorial ride for local bike shop owner Michael Shipp
82 miles of running
4.5 hours of strength and yoga
Six days of travel
Shamrock Half Marathon was just like the month of training, so so.
External stressors
Weather forecast was 10 degrees colder than race day, so was overdressed.
Lack of proper fueling
I did redeem myself at Smithfield Sprint Triathlon this past saturday. Steady 20 MPH winds, gusts over 40, ended up 3 seconds faster than last year in far worse conditions. Third of 23, difference between first and third 47 seconds, second Navy Triathlon Legend Don White got me by 15 seconds.
Longer rides and runs start this week, building towards Eagleman with another test at Kinetic Multisport Festival Oly in May
Hi @JoeX - It’s a wrap for me in 2023 already, unfortunately. Had a good 2022, completing my first IM in Lake Placid, but withdrew from Musselman 70.3 today. My bulged L5-S1 is taking a lot longer to heel, but hoping to be back for a strong 2024.
March has been a good training month, aided by a triathlon training camp last week in Mallorca where I got to pretend to be a pro triathlete for 1 week. Absolute blast.
Monthly totals:
Bike: 37:21
Run: 14:13
Swim: 7:59
Strength: 8:58
Total: 68:30
Can’t say that I can see obvious fitness improvements but consistency is key!
Holla @JoeX
March was bit of sine wave. I’ve completed a few very respectable benchmark workouts, but also fell ill a few days and had to bail on a few other tough workouts.
Swimming is coming along nicely. Due to illness and standing in front of a closed pool a few times I did not come near my target volume or frequency. I did meet my benchmark of 12*100 LCM on 2 in <1:35. Pretty poud of that. Currently I am working on my kick - or more precisely I am doing kick sets to improve hip stability and alignment. I’ve been speaking to the coach of high school team who are often in the lane next to me and he suggested one-legged kick sets, alternating 3-6 kicks on each leg (no kick board, arms out front). Surprisingly I am not a lot slower than with both legs. And it already uncovered that I am slightly bending at the hip on left kick.
Biking is unremarkable. I keep my FTP setting low and intensity to one workout per week, haven’t ridden outside yet apart from the morning kindergarten commute.
Running is going okay, I guess. I overcooked my first interval run of the month pretty badly and was out of it for a few days afterwards. Second interval session was 8x1k in slightly under 5k pace, hitting sub 3:40s all the way. The most recent interval workout I completely bombed after 2*1k and jogged home after that. Long run is now around 22-23k, two succesful at around 4:40 pace, one completely cratered and shuffled home after 16k.
I am a bit worried that the good workouts came as a result of illness- and work-induced low volume over the previous weeks. Hope to bring up frequency and volume next month again for some peace of mind.
Thanks Joe. March was another good training month but had the race week blues instead of being amped. Ready to get back into training for the rest of the reason asap.
Jonathan: congrats on a solid 70.3 debut!
…Can I tempt you into a race review?
Hi
Almost finished SS base and Sustained Power build…went well and followed almost to a tee with a few minor modifications. Also added in an endurance spin or group ride at the weekend.
Now planning on using the full distance mid volume plans to prepare for Italy full IM (mid September). For anyone that has used the MV plan before, do you have any tips or recommendations/adjustments? Wondering what the logic is in stacking the tempo, sweet spot and endurance rides on consecutive days…feels like it could be too much on top of each other but keen to hear others experiences
It can all be personalised, there’s no “right way”.
A few general rules people try to adhere to, but don’t have to;
Personally I think total rest days are overrated, and swimming is generally best in the morning
Some of my beefs with the recent plan changes. I’m not sure if they hit the MV plans or not.
Some of the plans hit too many zones. I recall one of the HV plan phases (spec I think) I did last year hitting Endurance, Tempo, SS, Threshold and VO2. As a result of zone hopping, you don’t get a great progression. A lot of zones were 2 weeks apart, so if you missed one, it was 4 weeks between workouts in that zone and AT would reduce your PL because you hadn’t done productive work in that zone in the past 3 weeks. Some were 3 weeks apart, so if you just moved one a day in the plan, it would also see the 3 weeks between zones and dock the PL.
I’m not sure all of the PL of the endurance rides are as good as they could be. It tends to skew higher PL for higher power more than longer distance. See the picture below. As such, you may need to use alternates if AT isn’t giving your progressively longer workouts for the long ride as would be traditional for IM training.
At the end of it though, picking the right workout (SS vs Threshold?) isn’t going to make or break your race. It’s the consistency week after week after week. If you find yourself starting to be trashed, reduce load and add rest.
Thanks Joe…why would you suggest moving long run/ride to mid week?
Agree…this is a concern for me…feels like too much intensity on the bike layered on top of challenging runs. I’ll be programming my own run training but will still be hoping to get 1-2 quality runs a week.
Would love to know what the logic is with stacking so the 3 bike sessions like that on Thurs/Fri/Sat…was thinking maybe its to make that long ride on Saturday more challenging (doing it after 2 harder days)
It can be hard to do two days of long workouts one after the other.
I do my long sessions midweek because I hate them and it’s too easy to blow them off over the weekend. 
I would avoid ‘quality’ on the run during build and speciality - let the bike and swim be your ‘quality’.
People disagree on this but imo Sweet Spot is not a Hard session, it’s the upper end of aerobic - obviously harder than endurance. It’s effective and time efficient, but not hard to recover from.
Running will vary depending on what state your running is in, yes it should have drills and strides for quality but your aim isn’t to get faster it’s to become a more durable runner. My fastest running at the moment is 5k pace. Consistency and good form beats reps on the track hands down.
