JohnnyKay and Fred Doucette's HIM/IM focused Mentor group-CLOSED (Page 9)

I've always used pace for HM because I've always been able to nail that down pretty good based on my training runs.  I try not even to look at HR for the open HM unless there is extreme heat or some other weirdness that might affect your planned pace.

Or very scary if you are like me and very non-fish-like.

Here is a great swim set that I picked up training for an olympic but can carrry a goos speet set for HIM and IM. I started it three weeks ago and use it once a week right now.

All sets should be swam at the pace you currently can swim at. Do not swim at your desired race pace you will burn out before you can finish the set. Rather swimming at your current pace will build you towards your race pace. It goes like this;

8x200 at olympic pace (current)

That is it! With a warm up and cool down of course, and maybe a small set that follows. Today I left the wall at 3:20 and was planning on swimming at 3:00 on each set but came in at 2:55. Two weeks ago I could barely swim each set at 3:00. After 4-6 weeks this set changes to 4x400 and you swim the first 100 above race pace and then settle into your race pace. And finally after another 4 weeks you move into 4-6x 200 above your olympic pace. I am trying this for the first time and I do it once a week. I really enjoy swimming 200's as it is long enough to work you out and focus on pacing, but not too strenous on the lungs. You can swim multiples of these before you burn out and it is easy to incorporate into the distance you are training for. Just some food for thought!

Alright I am sitting down this weekend and I am going to write out my first "block"of training for Racine which will start on the 23rd of this month. I am doing 3 "blocks" of 23 days with 5 easy days inbetween each "block". I am trying to shy away from the traditional weekly based plans and move my long rides, and possibly long runs onto other days then the typical Saturday, Sunday regime. As well I plan on doing more TT'ing in training on the bike, then mostly interval rides as well. Running at first will seem to be mostly easy runs (mix of open and bricks), while I build my base still and work on my longer runs. I might do some tempo work and fartleks but that has yet to be determined. I do know for the first block I will swim M, T, R, and Fridays each week will be a swim only day.

So with the above mentioned days anyone have any ideas of how to structure my workouts or advice to give? What days to follow what efforts, how many bricks should I do? etc. I am just trying to find the path that will benefit me the most in training without overloading too much intensity in too few days for me.

I'm just feeling really good about my training right now.

I have really enjoyed following along the last few days and being in this group has already helped me...I have a big jump in swimming volume coming up and I was thinking it would be time better spent on the bike, but now I see I should definitely not sacrifice the swimming.  Thanks for that.

I am leaving tomorrow to escape the dreary midwestern spring for a week, so I will have limited access for posting.  No bike (this is killing me) but tons of running and OWS, so that will be fun.  We stay very active on vacations, but this is the first time I have departed much more than a few minutes from my plan, so I am a bit anxious about that.  Tell me it will be ok!

Anyway, I won't post or probably update logs until next Sunday, but I'll be back!

Q

Yup...I'm pleased to say you were right.  Did a 1000y TT after work...probably the first one I ever did at exactly 1000y and paced 1:38.  And I don't even think I did it well.  I wasn't that tired at the end...maybe similar to the feeling of how you would feel if you went a tad bit too hard during the swim portion of a tri...but certainly wasn't crying bloody murder at the end.

One thing that really felt good tonight was my recovery arm was working a lot faster.  I wasn't really pulling harder, but my arm went from my thigh to up front a lot faster.  I think this sort of emulates the catch up drill...making sure I always have the balancing hand out front before starting the pull with the working hand.  In previous long swims, I think I was focusing on going easy to the point where my recovery hand was getting lazy...and I was starting to pull with my working hand when my recovery hand was still behind my head.

Its going to be warm at some point.  I'm hoping when I get home from FL the weather will have magically warmed up in CT.

OK, so this was a humbling morning (as tri training often can be).  I did my 1000 yd TT and completed the swim in 18:59.  Slower than I had thought but I feel good that I now have a set point from which to improve.  From reading the threads I know I have not put enough time in the pool, nor have I focused enough on drills.  This is in some ways exciting too because I am going to incorporate more drill sets, including the ones I'm learning from this post and I plan to do another TT in a few weeks. Will keep you posted.

IM Texas is coming up quickly.  My goal for the swim is 82-84 min.  My IM swim times have been all over the map from 75 min (which I think was a fluke) all the way to 90 + min.  Usually I avg about 84-86 min.  So definitely not a fast swimmer but I do see lots of room for improvement.  I would love to join a masters but due to my unpredictable schedule it is too difficult to have set workout times. 

This weekend I have my two teenagers with me, and will have to work my training around their schedules.  On tap is a long run either today or tomorrow (depending on the weather) and a long bike the other day.  Next week is a 7 day stretch of long days so its going to be more challenging to meet my goals.

Nice job on your swim!

Plan for today is a 62 mile bike and 4 mile run.  Glad I took it a tad bit easier this week as the legs feel slightly more fresh compared to last weekend.  Hoping to pace around 200 watts throughout and run 8:40ish miles (open marathon pace).  I did change from a 12-25 to a 11-26 cassette that came with my road bike and never made use of.  I think that one extra tooth on the biggest cog will help just that tiny bit in spinning up the few hills I have and keeping my power more consistant.

Will also be focusing on my nutrition race plan. 

I guess I should rephrase and say that instead of how to design a program, what is your advice, experience, with building certain workouts in order off of each other. For example, should long runs always follow long rides, is it better to split them up. What about hard TT efforts? what should follow? etc. I more or less know the type of training workouts I want to incorporate, I guess I am just looking to see what has worked for others in the way they build them off each other.

Planned for a 2.5-3 hour ride with a 5k off the bike today, but now it is snowing again here in Wisconsin so I may just move it inside add some intensity and watch the brewers. Spring was short lived here in Wisconsin and now we are back to winter yet again.

MIserable weather outside so I was indoors watching a movie and riding the trainer.  Good thing is that I was able to ride my HIM course with my trainer software.  Got through about 70km, and decided that was enough considering I'm supposed to have my longest run of the year tomorrow.

BUT - we're expecting 40km/h winds +some rain/snow.  How do you guys train with wind like that?  Would you bother running or just head for the closest treadmill.  If it was a short run, I'd man up and get it done, but this is going to be close to 2 hours- maybe longer with this wind.  I've never gone longer than an hour on a treadmill, so I'm not sure which would be worse.

Had a pretty good long bike/run brick.  Learned a lot...you can read more about it in my logs if you want.

Time for a nap...hope everyone has a good training weekend.

I would go insane trying to run that long on the treadmill. What about half and half? I do that sometimes when the weather stinks. I don't think I can stand the treadmill or the wind so I just split it up.

Or, I'm fortunate to have a local state park nearby (15 min) that has a wooded trail. I go there a lot and let the trees give me some protection from the elements.

Have fun tomorrow!