The Ironman Training 2021 Thread

Training
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Still on the wagon here, following TR’s IM HV plan religiously. Well, at least on the bike. I’m more a backslid Catholic on the run, and my swim is stuck in COVID purgatory.

FTP is almost where I want it. Weight is 1-2 kg above goal. I figure that will change once I drop ice cream as my primary source of calories.

This is shaping up to be a fight on many fronts. The two that worry me most are mild Achilles tendinitis, which has kept from doing any fast running for the past few months; and COVID, which may well prevent St George (May 1) and Thun (July 11) from happening at all.

In better news, I lost my job, which I highly recommend. This has given me some time to play with bike position, which is still a challenge. I finally bought a front end that allows me to angle my bars upward a bit, and that has helped a ton. Did a 90 minute ride w/ 3x20 in SS and a total of 67 minutes in TT position. This is a huge improvement for me, but still not good enough and my taint wasn’t having it by the end. Used the excuse to buy a Dash saddle, which should arrive this week.

Any case, thanks for keeping this thread going. My wife says I have an addiction, so I guess you guys and Slowtwitch are the closest things I have to a support group :wink:

Keep up the good work, ya’ll.

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Yeah, you’ll want an Australian exit for that.

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Anyone having expersience with doing a sprint tri week before a HIM?

It’s a team triathlon in which the time of the 5th finisher of the team matters (team can be bigger as 5).
I’m will probably the worst swimmer, but biking and running I will keep up or do better then them.

Oh yes, sprainted my ancle this weekend :confused:
was able to still run to home so I hope it’s not too bad. Still a litle swollen today but pain is mostly gone.

Hope I can start biking again tomorrow. I will see how that will go.
Swimming and running I will keep off for at least a week. Running maybe longer.
If anyone has advice on this please share :slight_smile:

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Anyone on here done Run Rabbit Run 100? Curious on your experience and thoughts if so.

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Role Call!

Last month was pretty solid for me. Just finished the base phase in the Full Volume IM Plan for Tulsa '21. That means I get to enjoy rest day today, then ramp test tomorrow to kick off the build phase. I had a great training block, I am hoping I may get to a longtime goal of 4 W/kg on the ramp test (currently at 3.9)

I also saw some good swim improvement in the past month. Spent a lot of time doing drills, dry land core work, and listening to the advice from those that shared here on the forum. Was able to set a 1600m PR last week (28:30) and have seen my 100 time drop. Feeling very good about this

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I’ll do that next Mandela Day :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :joy:

(google “67 minutes” if you’re not familiar)

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It’s been a good, consistent start to the year.

Currently in the first rest week of the Low Volume Half Ironman plan. I’m following the bike workouts, but planning my own runs (run volume consisting of more Z2 sessions, with a tempo workout once per week). Doing higher volume/TSS from running than the TR plan suggests but it’s working well. No swimming as pools are closed and it’s bloody freezing outside!

This is my first year using TSS to track my workload, rather than aiming for a certain number of hours per week. In previous years, in the base period I would just do hour after hour of Z2 work so I knew more or less where I was at, and listened to my body and took it easy when I needed to recover. I was self coached following Joe Friel’s plans from Triathletes bible.

Now I’m using TR and doing more Sweetspot on the bike, using the TR calendar to log TSS is really helping me stay consistent and helping me know where I’m at. Have never done so much Sweet Spot training before, so occasionally feeling a bit of fatigue but body seems to be adapting well to it. Tested FTP at 280w before starting the plan (down from 285w a few weeks earlier, but had a bit of a break early December) so looking forward to the next test.

Running Z2 heart rate has dropped significantly in recent weeks. Partly due to me being more disciplined at keeping it steady, knowing I need to save it for the bike. Adopted a slightly slower pace for a big drop in HR - seems to be keeping the runs fairly low tax, so they double as aerobic base and also recovery from the harder bike efforts.

TSS for the last 6 weeks has been 257, 329, 343, 252, 339, 373, 387. Now in a rest week. Logging TSS is helping me programme and achieve a steady progression more easily.

So far that seems to be working when combined with work/life stress. I have time to get the workouts in. After a big weekend (like today) I can feel a bit fatigued mentally at work, but the balance seems to be about right.

Things I need to improve on are strength and stretching. It’s always easier to bike or run than do an hour on the mat, but I know I need to do more. A side effect of some of the Muscular Force bike workouts has been a bit more pop in my running, so need to build on this with more strength work.

To conclude, fairly pleased with where I am at this point in the year.

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I was not familiar, that’s awesome, thanks!

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Solid week post Covid illness. I’ve been able to quickly get back to strength on the bike.
Only 1/2 week behind on bike progression, but almost 2 weeks behind on the swim and the run.

2 more weeks of threshold block for the bike, then starts the vo2 block.
Re-doing my run plan a bit. I wanted to peak my run mileage and then was going to drop my 5th run day. Have now decided to spend the next 4 weeks on hills, R, and I intervals while maintaining 2 solid longer runs/week
Working thru the propulsion phase of the swim. 2 weeks or so until I do a 1k TT

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Challenging indeed if your first language is English. I would argue that it’s not hard or difficult though, but time consuming. Memorization via flashcards is necessary in the beginning. Once you have enough of a base to actually read something (e.g., children’s book, etc…), start reading what you can. Pick something of the level where you can read and get the meaning or almost get the meaning even if you don’t recognize all the words. Don’t get hung up on having to know every single word. Until you see the same unknown character/word say three times, don’t look it up.

These days there should be a plethora of browser extensions that provide popup dictionaries and translation. The former would be a Japanese dictionary entry in Japanese. The latter would be an English translation/equivalent.

And no, I don’t read Japanese, but I do read Chinese. I could always speak, but having been educated in English, I was an adult before I decided to become literate and learn to read and write as well. So, I feel your pain.

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Yeah, I am actually around 5 months into it and upfronted about 2000 kanji with a RTK memorization method in the first 2.5 months, so i can read and write them (ish) and then i am filling in the blanks with the readings. Theres a ton of “methods” out there with no “right way”, only wrong ways… kinda like training! Hahaha! Flash cards are a must for me, as there was NO way I could have done this as fast as I have without modern technology. TBH I have no idea how people did it in the old days, it seems painful as hell. I am old fashion though and I love writing them down, so I am basically trying to get fully literate.

I found some browser extensions that have been insanely useful. I am basically N4-N3 level and now its basically the kana that messes me up for adverbs or grammer words. I can read english learner books okay and I would like to eventually get into actual novels, although thats a long ways away (I think I could do it with a dictionary though and googling grammar). I can read Manga now with a dictionary, and its actually enjoyable with the OSR Kanji reader i have.

I might eventually try Chinese out one day once I feel really comfortable with Japanese (I hear it takes years though to be “comfortable” with japanese). I don’t think Japanese will help me with work, but I think Chinese would! I love the difficulty with learning this language. I used to hate learning languages (was forced to learn french) and I also hated practicing (and I now do triathlon) so I think I am actually a masochist.

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`Actually after I typed this out, you made me remember something: 5 months ago I said “I am going to give this thing 6 months and study like a MFer and reassess while racing is tits up” as I heard this language is just insanely difficult for English natives and i was getting bored out of my skull. FFWd 5 months, and I can actually read and write. Its crazy. Still a long ways away from N1 or some form of fluency and I am doing basically 0 speaking, but yeah… i never really looked back before now.

Also, thanks for the advice!

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Thanks for the roll call @JoeX! What with lockdown and working from home the last few months have been extremely monotonous but great for training consistency. Currently averaging 10-12 hrs per week.

Bike - 26h55m - since last summer I’ve basically been doing LV bike plans with extra Z2 workouts thrown in. Finished the last few weeks of Half-Distance LV Build in mid-January and got a nice FTP bump from 313 to 333W. Now back to Base for a few weeks.

Run - 20h40m - zero intensity except for a few strides, focusing on getting the volume up. After averaging 35k / week through 2020 I’m trying to bump this up to 50+k for a few months. December (192k) and January (253k) have been my two best months of volume ever.

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@sthwaite - Impressive consistency and FTP bump. :clap:

Roll call. I hit all but two Half-Distance MV Base runs and rides. Am not swimming right now, but got a Vasa setup this past week and am getting used to it. Hope to come out of this shut in winter with a solid base and not over cooked for AC 70.3 next September. After this round of base and having the chance to add in some extra outdoor rides (I can’t mentally do more than MW indoors) to get my volume up. All in all, most balanced January ever so feel pretty good. Also think there’s chance of my race happening in the fall. Not holding my breath though for many interim races, maybe in NH.

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I’m still training (hoping that St. George 70.3 still happens) and still checking this thread. See what you guys are doing helps keep me motivated.

I’ve been doing the Half Distance Medium Volume Plan. It switches back to base phase next Monday.

I’m limited to 45 minute swim sessions so I’ve had to shorten the workouts that have called for more than that. I don’t think I’ve skipped any swim workouts for the past month, but I have missed about one run or bike workout a week for the last month. I’ve been super busy at work and just haven’t been recovering as well as I should be and it shows in workouts. I’m hoping to get caught up in the next week or two so that I have more time to relax and recover.

Best of luck to everyone with their training. Thanks, Joe, for the roll call.

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Yeah, these early season ones are tough. I’m starting to mentally treat it almost as a C race; a long, well supported training day, if it happens at all.

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Can I be added to the roll call crew please?

I posted a bit in the 2019 thread. Had a successful race in the June having followed the IM MV plan through BBS stages. I got a bit carried away and entered a second race for the year, the Patagonman, in that Dec, everything was looking good until 6 weeks out from the race, when I came off my bike and fractured my hip. Kind of a bummer. So didn’t regularly look at the 2020 thread… it was me, not you :slightly_smiling_face:

Like a lot of people on this thread, I have been finding motivation tough with the race uncertainty etc. I haven’t entered a race yet, but I’ve decided to. A local half in June. I think it might have been the roll call and seeing people at it!!

I did SSB LV before jumping on the WKO/SS progression band wagon for Jan. I plan to do the half distance LV speciality plan when closer to the time.

I had a good month, averaged just over 4 hours on the bike and ran 99.6 miles (I almost went out late Sunday night for the extra 0.4 miles), kept the S&C going but no swimming (is it bad that I like having a good excuse not to do it?).

(Cheers @JoeX for keeping it going)

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:laughing: :+1:

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Well, I don’t really know how to do this Roll call thing, but here we go:

Swim: pools closed since forever, probably can’t even swim anymore.
Cycling: Progressed to consistent 15-17 hour/week range, last week manager to get 19:30 actually (mainly due to 3-hour ride on Wednesday and 4-hour ride on Sunday). 3 hard sessions a week, others are easy Zone 2, sometimes after work a Z1 recovery.
Running: I’d like to get a bit more volume in to be honest; I do 1x interval work, 1x tempo effort and 1x long run (21+ km) every week, the total is around 3:30 hours. I’d like to get it to 5, I’m going to try to do a short 15-minute brick run every day after my morning bike sessions and see how it goes.

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You’re in!

And welcome back.

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