Normally before an execution they offer you a blindfold or cigarette.

July 4, 2009

I see some tweets about final workouts and taper beginning from prospective Lake Placid Ironman participants. This is disturbing, as I have really not been training enough to call what I do next a taper. In fact, i have barely trained for the swim or run since February. I have a certain comfort level for the bike leg, having done numerous 100 + mile rides, and good familiarity with the race course from last year and a camp in June. It's really sunk in that i am facing the jaws of this beast with no prep, and no time to do anything about it.

Last year I finished Tupper Lake Tinman 70.3 in just under 7:00, so am assuming something around 14:00 for Lake Placid. That assumption was made at the end of last season. Now with my nonexistent training, I am looking at the cut off times, and figuring max time for the swim and biking until the bike cutoff at 530pm, i would have 6:30 to finish the marathon. That would bring me to 17:00, the midnight cutoff.

I reached out to Coach Adam for some advice on how to attack the race. His advice is to focus on 'keep moving forward' and don't burn out in the first 10 miles of the run. Thanks Adam, very helpful indeed.

I also called on Pat and Rich of Endurance Nation for their advice. Beyond the excellent training plans they provide, they have also produced an amazing array of online resources and assistance. "Race day is about execution, not fitness". Seems right up my alley.

Begin Off Season Training

Tomorrow, Monday December 1 , I begin 16 weeks Endurance Nation "Out Season" training.

The basic concepts on which EN bases their off season training:

• Fitness is the ability to do work,
• Improved fitness will naturally follow from doing more work,
• To get faster you need to train faster,
• Build 'go fast' now, add 'go far' later,
• Rest and recovery are as important as work,
• Measure for benchmark, set goals, work, remeasure to set new benchmark.

Week one looks like this:

Monday
Day off , listen to podcast and read off season plan overview
Tuesday
1 hour- bike time trial to establish functional power threshold
1 hour- bike time trial to establish heart rate threshold
20 minute run (easy)
Wednesday
1 hour-run 5k to establish heart rate threshold and vdot
Thursday
1 hour bike, main set 2X6 minute 90-100%, remainder 85%
Friday
Day off
Saturday
1 hour bike, main set 8 minute 95-100%, 5 minutes easy, 2x10 minutes 85%, remainder of hour 75-80%
Sunday
45 minute run- 15 min warm up include 4x30 strides, main set 3x800 at threshold pace/zone 4 w/2 min recovery, 5 minute cool down

No swimming! There is no swimming anywhere on the out season plan. I will probably add 1 or 2 swims per week focusing on form/drills on easy/off days. I also plan to do daily core a al Grease The Groove, but will not start that until Iweek 2 or 3 depending on my Rolf series progress.

This first week work totals around 6 1/2 hours, and that's fairly representative for the next 16 weeks. Through March 2009 my main focus is marriage, family, keeping healthy, getting my business in order and getting all my soldiers in a row and ready to launch the main training block, in mid to late April.

I am excitied to see where my threshold numbers start, and to establish some meaningful and realistic goals for improvement.