Beer Drinker Appreciation Society (BDAS) - Open (Page 107)

I recommend taking 2 weeks off of real training before you start your 28 week plan. Don't stop working out but limit your volume do the bare minimum. Training for an IM is such a long and exhaustive process, so you don't want to do any more training than you absolutely need to. You mentioned in another post that you've only been doing this for 14 months and have only done a few events. I don't think this will hinder you if you do the training required. But in my experience, the less experience someone has with training (not necessarily competing) the longer it will take to get back into it. I wouldn't count on doing any other events after IM. And that's not just because you'll be tired and worn out physically, you'll be mentally drained and it'll be hard to want to get back into training again for probably a good 2 months after IM (maybe more). 

For an off season plan, you'll want to start by determining your weakest discipline (in terms of base fitness) and focus your off season plan around that. Then determine your specific weaknesses for every discipline (pedal stroke, gait, swim stroke etc.) and build your other workouts around those. In any case, you don't need to really work on swim fitness at all right now, it comes so quickly that it would be a waste to develop it right now. But DO focus on swim stroke. Better swim stroke is the best way to gain speed an save energy. If you're a strong runner, spend more time doing Z2-3 rides on the bike. If your bike is the strongest, do z2-3-4 runs. Form for every discipline is especially important for IM events. With such long distances, energy loss from bad form is accentuated. 

The two most important things in IM are making the swim cut off time and having a strong bike (and I don't mean fast, but a buttload of endurance). Spend the winter (if you can't ride outside) doing 30min tempo interval rides. Start with 2x30 Z3 with 3min of recovery between at the lowest end of the zone and build up to being able to do 4x30 at the top end of the zone with 3min recovery between each. When you can get outside, do one of two things based on how much time you have to ride. With 3+ hours to ride, do long Z2 rides. With less than 3 hours continue to do tempo work (work up to doing 90mins of mid Z3 without having to recover). 

Think of your bike training as building the gas tank that will fuel your run. The bigger the tank, the better your run will be. You don't need to ever run more than 32km during your training if you're getting enough volume on the bike. 

A good sample of a week might look like this:

Monday: Rest (day off or easy 20min spin/form drills on the bike)

Tuesday: 20min all out run effort. 2x30min Tempo Interval bike

Wednesday: Swim workout (10-15min working on form, pull, kick sets etc.)(30-60min depending where you are in training endurance workout)

Thursday: 40-60min Tempo run (z4) 

Friday: Rest or Easy long swim in the pool. 

Saturday: 2/3/4x30 or 90min Tempo or long 3+ hour endurance ride (depending where you are along your plan)

Sunday: Long Run 1.5-3.5hour depending where you are along your training (mellow run z2-z3)

If you followed something similar to that with a median weekly hourly volume of 7 hours (max at around 12 hours), you'll be good to go. 

I finally decided a few days ago to just move the bike down into the basement on the trainer. The weather is still great, so it kind of pained me to do so, but I just wasn't getting outside and now at least I can get some time in the saddle after the kids are in bed. I signed up for a Zwift account because it's free for 2 weeks and will give me some time to build up the nerve to do a proper FTP test in TrainerRoad. Alan, your assessment was spot on - the 3D world was kind of neat for the first 10 minutes or so, but lost it's novelty fast. I could see it working well if you had a group of friends that you connected with, but solo it's kind of meh.

On a related note, I've got a trainer question for you all. I have an old CycleOps Magneto, which admittedly is not the best trainer ever. However, over the past few years I've noticed that when I tighten the flywheel according to the instructions and have my tire fully inflated, it's sooooo much harder than what I would expect. To maintain the same cadence and RPE as outside I have to drop a lot of gears. Is that normal for trainers, a function of my specific model, or am I doing something wrong?

Probably a little bit of everything - your specific trainer may have a pretty steep power curve, so it might "feel" harder than outside while others might be the opposite.  Speed on a trainer is completely meaningless because of this (though oddly my Kurt Kinetic Road Machine is pretty close speed/power-wise across most of the power ranges).  If it's giving you fits mentally, just ease up on the tension a little but I wouldn't worry about it if you're still getting in your efforts.  Are you using virtual power with it?

I'd say it's fairly normal that your trainer doesn't match up with what you'd expect. Some trainers feel easier is big gears and other feel hard in small gears. Mine is like yours, I usually don't use my big ring on the trainer because it's so much harder. 

Just transitioned over to my off-season work, lots of yoga and strength training and sprinkling in some SBR work so I remember how to do it.  I was doing a pretty good (for me) build up of swim volume but had a setback from a neck injury so I had to take a week off.  Took my power meter outdoors for a spin today (it's 80* here today ) - great, one more thing to pay attention to while riding LOL.

I'm planning my schedule for next year assuming my body holds together (always a big assumption).  Looking at an Oly in June and a couple of sprints during the summer.  My training plan starts mid-December (24 week), which gives me enough time to go through a full Daniels run training plan plus it accommodates for the expected injury and time setbacks.  I do a lot of yoga and strength training up until about 4-6 weeks out from my races, so that will still be ongoing.

If anyone is interested, "The Plan" looks something like this:

Monday:  6 AM Bikram Yoga, optional afternoon bike (easy spin)

Tuesday:  morning quality run, lower body ST and core work, cool down swim

Wednesday:  morning 60' bike (intervals - either SS, threshold, or VO2 max), evening swim (long....like 3500)

Thursday:  6 AM Bikram Yoga, EZ lunch jog (short)

Friday:  endurance ride 90-120' Z2 or SS intervals

Saturday:  long run, short swim

Sunday:  OFF or makeup or hiking

3 weeks on, then a recover week with like 1/2 the above.  I followed something similar a couple of years ago (albeit with more running) and had some success).  Once I get 12 weeks out I'll eliminate the Monday bikram session and add another bike/run combination workout.

GREAT plan.  I work out of the house and I can occasionally catch a few catnaps when I'm really cooked.