Nope…no check in required from me.
Briefly toyed with the idea of doing the one-off IM Indiana. Had a great 70.3 there in 2017 so thought “why not.” Made a hotel reservation, did a couple short (painful) runs this week.
But just too much on the plate right now…new job responsibilities, my wife’s health and too many house projects.
So I’m sticking to the bike only and crossing my fingers I can do The Rift in July.
I feel kind of bad not really talking much here, and I see I am dropped on the roll call hahaha! Figures, I have not done anything the past few months. No races and no structure from me.
I am basically doing heavy base riding. My running dropped after a minor stress reaction/fracture scare, so i dropped running for 2 months and now I am starting again. I am doing around 12-14 hours of ride and run. Mostly zone 2 riding, although I am throwing in some polarized stuff in terms of 1-2 races a week, 1 of them being in the zwift racing league races. Those are really hard and they keep the fire burning.
I have basically thrown races out the window. If they happen, I know i can jump on and ramp up in 2 months and likely have some stupidly fast run and bike times, assuming I do not drown in the swim (have not touched a pool in a year). My riding has never been stronger, hovering around 4.6W/kg but I do not do ramp tests anymore, and I am really confident my 20 min max power is much higher than a 4.6 equilivent (my last race was a 1hr race and a 4.8w/kg for 20 mins at the very end), so I suspect I am actually in 4.7-4.8 territory, but tbh i dont really care.
I am actually learning to read japanese right now. My 1.5-2hr trainer rides are basically me trying to learn to read. It is hard and challenging, especially with how difficult kanji is. But it is exactly what I need right now with no races happening and lots of time with my lack of work. Hahaha, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
I would love to do a half marathon time trial and also see what my actual riding power translates to. On one hand I feel like I would absolutely blow my old times out of the water, but on the other hand I feel like my new times might only be marginally better than before…
Like clockwork!
I’m maintaining about 500TSS total per week a Ross bike and run, which is about my race year average. Still easy on the intensity, with my targeted race in September I don’t have the guts yet to fully commit to a TrainerRoad program. Instead I am doing a poorly planned polarized program inspired by TBLV plus one interval workout, typically something like 30/30s or so. Gives me a lot of time to spend in my aero bars and catch up on Netflix. It also a million times easier to recover.
For running I initially targeted a 5k PR in April, but currently a lot of ice and snow make the speedwork pretty difficult to impossible. I’m loosely following a 5k plan by Jack Daniels trying to complete at least one of the recommended interval workouts per week. Haven’t done 200s and 400s in a while, forgot how much fun and suffering they are. I’m also trying to run on more varied terrain, incorporating more hills and do some strength work for my hips and core.
No swimming at all, sadly. Pools are closed, lakes frozen over.
"A new year a new start. January for me is what is traditionally called PREP training with an aim to re-establish consistency but not with as much volume as BASE.
Still no swimming but about half of the OTHER sessions are swim band work, to maintain swim strength.
Week of the 11th and things go downhill with a back injury and trip to the physio but the following week I was back into things, all be it with short sessions, and some of the ‘Other’ sessions including exercises the physio gave me.
Overall I feel quite good with what I managed to do in January"
Training for the month has gone really well. I had covid in the beginning of December so had a couple weeks to recover then Christmas cam. So in total i had 6 weeks off. First month back has been a solid month so far.
I had never done a MV plan so decided to help my fitness get a head start i would go for it. I lost around 35w on my ramp test to give me a starting point. So far so good. A total of 47hours in the bag for the month on bike and run.
I am only doing easy running at the moment and slowly building the mileage up as i am prone to injuries on the run.
Thanks Joe.
Added! 
Thanks @JoeX
Just a brief check-in. Still coming back from fractured ribs. Taking it super easy for the next few months as my only race for the year is in November.
Completed TB 1 LV with BarryP running, Super slow and easy. I average around 300 TSS per week whereas I was doing around 800 last year on HV cycling plans.
Pretty much just maintaining some level of fitness and consistency, ready to ramp things up mid-year. LV also allows me to do the odd Zwift race. I’ve done a few Fast Fridays Bologna TT evenings which I really enjoyed.
Thinking about getting in the pool sometime soon; I haven’t swam in over a year.
Given that pools are still shut and likely not to re-open anytime soon (looking at late Feb/early March at the earliest), will most certainly not achieve goals set for IM Hamburg, hence motivation is like a seesaw. Contemplating transferring to IM Tallinn in early August. Haven’t been able to run for past 3 weeks due to stress fracture/shin splint like injury so just banging out big volume on the bike. Enjoying the TdZ Group R (aces) ides at the moment though.
Thanks @JoeX
Ran my 50km ultra and everything including nutrition and hydration, cramping went well. Used Maurten gels as usual, and tried Precision Hydration 1500 in my soft bottles. Snacks at halfway included Pringles and Jaffa Cakes out of the boot of my car, which I think is a great advantage of doing trail running.
Started to break down at about 27miles (out of 31.25) which is kinda expected as I followed a marathon training plan. Was tough but doable, around 7 hours with 3000ft of climbing. Taken nice and easy to ensure success. I don’t know htf people run 100 milers though, my quads were shattered at the end.
Starting Sweet Spot Base II LV today for six weeks and then Sustained Power Build (LV or maybe MV).
Trip to Mallorca (maybe) in May, then a rebuild for Im Weymouth 70.3 after.
Managed 2x Baxter -1 most weeks during my run training phase, so I’m hoping the ramp test will not see too much of a fade in power tomorrow.
Thanks for the roll call @JoeX! I just moved, so I had a few weeks of reduced consistency, and it looks like last week was the first week back to mostly normal consistency. Still pretty low on the overall volume spectrum, but considering I’m happy with it.
Not expecting to race much this coming up year, going to have a lot of guy jobs to do for the new house, so race budget and time budget just won’t be there this year. Also, since I can’t swim regularly without taking excess time on the weekends or before/after work to do it, I’m just going to wait until I can swim at lunch again before I start back up. If I can do a Du this year, I’ll do it. Other wise, this is just going to be a super extended base period.
I’ll stay on this thread but I’m about 90% sure I won’t be racing this year. Covid has had a significant effect on my fitness and I think I just need to try and build up my fitness slowly instead of worrying about trying to ramp it in to be ready for an Ironman. With the best will in the world I don’t think I would be able to race an Ironman in 6 months time so I’m going to treat this year as just building base gradually.
Thanks @JoeX
This has been a distinctly average month of training overall. Still following Full Distance MV Build and compliance with the bike workouts during the week has been pretty good. I’ve been replacing the long weekend ride with c. 2 hours of sweetspot as the UK is too cold/wet at the moment to get outside and I can’t face doing 4/5 hour aerobic rides indoors.
Motivation is gradually slipping away though, the more I think about it, the less I think it is likely that big races (IM Copenhagen for me) will go ahead this summer. I’m trying to stay relatively positive but I just can’t see countries being comfortable with taking the risk of 2000+ athletes and friends descending on cities/towns. I can see the smaller, local races going ahead but would be surprised if Europeans countries are willing to allow anything large/international.
. Well done, impressive.
I am registered for a 70.3 on June 6 (shifted from last year’s registration). Will train “as if” until there’s an official confirmation or cancellation.
I am following, almost to the letter, the HIM MV plan created with Plan Builder (currently in week 2 of Build) with the exception of swimming as pools are closed where I live. I should have replaced swim sessions with strength training, but almost never did 
Cycling is almost all indoor so far, but helping as I finally bought a TT bike in December and am trying to adapt to the position 
January has been frigid, and I haven’t been able to run since Late November with a knee injury. It works out ok though since I hate being cold! Biking and swimming is going well, but tomorrow is my ramp test for the base phase of my race build. I did a 1 mile run yesterday and it felt ok, so I think ignoring the TR running plan and a slow ramp up of running volume is in order.
I’ve also picked up a planking app to do 5-10 minutes of planking each evening. It’s been a great, if annoying, reminder to actually do it before going to bed.
I am registered for 70.3 Wisconsin in September and hoping to do several local sprint and Olympic distance races in June/July. Training is going slow. I have pulled my calves so many times in the last couple years I think there is more scar tissue than muscle. I am slowly building my long run and doing a lot of body weight strength and mobility (at recommendation of doctor) to help with the re-occurring injuries. 50 minute run without a pulled calf this past week, longest run a months without pain!
Thanks @JoeX .
Starting full distance low volume next week for the bike. Still on a general build run program until end of April after which I will go into a FM run program until the race in August (fingers crossed). Been on about 400-500TSS (bike/run only) for the last 4-5 weeks. Pools are closed. Been adding some stretches, finally, to the routine.
Here comes my list of excuses…
Just kidding. This past week was the penultimate (11th) of the first 12 week base. I fell apart due to cold temperatures (running), work stress, and an undercarriage “blemish”. So even though I missed a lot of training last week, I adjusted my diet accordingly and treated it as a recovery week. I’m ready to go this week! Next week will be my first ramp test in months and start of the first build. I manually bumped up my FTP but will be interested to see the actual. Sadly, I think I’m starting to see the affects of aging and a slower response to training.
January was my best month of running in the past year. Hoping to keep that momentum going.
Even though my pool is open, it is 25 minutes away and I’ll be working 55-60 hours a week for the next month. March will be my swim technique month before I start building volume again. Establishing a routine and making swimming fun will be the first two goals.
All things considered January was a good solid month of training. Still training for IMLP, but have to say motivation is challenging. I’m talking myself into thinking it’s going to happen, but hard to see it. Between that and general life stress it’s not the easiest, but super grateful for the process and still able to find joy in it.
Starting week 10 of my plan this week
Swim: Pools are technically open here, but haven’t been and likely won’t for a little while.
Bike: Nailed all the workouts in Full Distance MV Base, off an FTP test in early January that got me within two watts of my lifetime best. Hoping to get a nice bump at the end of base.
Run: Been following an adapted Barry P plan, and just been focused on building hilly, easy mileage. I did run a 5k PR off that a few weeks back which was a pleasant surprise, and am starting to mix in some hill reps. Overall I think I’m happiest with my run progress so far.
Strength/ Other: Been keeping up with at least 1 XC ski a week which I’ve been really enjoying. Starting to get the technique down and finding some “flow” which helps with getting a good workout in. Hoping the storms this week materialize and the pack sticks around so I can try some new spots out. Also been good about sticking to a nice little core/ strength circuit after easy sessions.
Anyone up for an OWS in Lake Michigan? 
