Our coaches offer phone calls after every race, so at the end of my season, I scheduled one with Patrick. We talked for about 20 minutes. He promised to consolidate his thoughts for me in an email, which is below, followed by my response.
Al –
Great to chat the other day; really appreciate your focus and journey towards improvement. I think your goal of really racing and competing in Kona is pretty damn exciting / intimidating.
Here are my thoughts overall:
1. Go back and find Top Ten performances across S/B/R for the last 5 years. Should be a wide enough sample to include all types of conditions, as well as the “aging up” effect. Would be nice to have an “average” top ten time benchmark for each discipline. Note this is a training tool only, not a race “whip”, etc.
2. From a training standpoint, I see the bike and run as key. (A) Commit to the bike miles. I think bike strength on this course is critical, whether it’s for performance or survival. The Tour of CA camp is great, but I’d look at another big Bike push in the August timeframe as well. (B) Plan on Swimming, A Lot, in September. The swim miles matter, and the later they are, the better. Sure you are prepping to handle the miles all year, but Sept is the big month.
3. Define the Intangibles. Body Composition is off the table for you, but what can Functional Core Strength do for you? Or perhaps real “get in the gym strength?” Is there room to improve your race day nutrition? Daily recovery nutrition? It’s almost like you have to go “down” several Age Groups — where are all the areas where you can prepare to outperform the competition?
4. Begin outlining the mental process of preparing…you are doing this when you steel yourself for your workouts, but I think there is some solid visualization and prep work you can do over the last 8-12 weeks that can really impact your performance and execution.
On top of all of this is your experience. While you haven’t “Raced” it like you are talking about, you have so much racing experience there that you should be able to find some areas where things “worked” and where they “didn’t” as well…don’t underestimate how valuable that information is!
I hope this helps you out…please feel free to reply to me, you just might have to bump me on the EN side so I see it!
Best,
Patrick
Patrick – Thanks for the in depth thinking and advice here.
To close the loop, what follows are both my current plans, and changes, based on your bullet points.
1. “Go back and find Top Ten performances” : I had already done this by the time we talk, and it was the genesis of my goal for Kona, and my search for changes I’d need to could make. I discovered that a top ten performance in Kona for the 65-69 AG in recent years has been right around the 13 hour mark. Instead of looking at individual S/B/R times were for those who achieved that, I asked myself what I could conceivably do in each leg in order to get under 13 hours, given what I know about my current speeds and abilities. That works out to 1:32/6:40/4:36 + 12 min for trans.
Here’s my reasoning on why this is reasonable for me to expect.
•The swim is a minute faster than 2014. I will emphasize for swimming in Sept, but don;t expect to gain anything here.
• The bike is 4% slower than what I did in 2006; my research shows that best case scenario for “how fast does an old man slow down” at my age is 0.5% per year.
• The run is 5.5% slower than what I did in 2006. I’m putting in a fudge factor here to acknowledge that year was cooler than normal (it even rained right after I finished!)
The above exercise showed me that 13 hours, and thus a top ten finish, should be an reasonable expectation based on past performance on that course, and expected rate of decline. I have posted those times on the white board I use to remind me of my daily workouts.
Comparing to others… my head is not there.I have enough to occupy me silly trying to achieve the goals I’ve set. If I make 13 hours and don’t get top ten, I would feel better than being, say, 9th with a 13:30.
2. “Commit to the bike miles” Again, I have the following my my white board at the bottom: “100K swim 3000K bike 500K run B-4 LP & Kona” Meaning, I intend to achieve those volume goals during the ten weeks if each IM build this summer.
Your comments about September have spurred me to add a bike volume pop during the last two weeks of August, when I’m planning on being in Colorado. Part of that may include following pros on the USPCC (aka Tour of Colorado), similar to what I’m planning for the ToC. I will add an expectation of 12K swimming weekly during September as well.
3. “Intangibles” I’ve been meaning to work on training with a SpeedFil/straw set up between the aerobars to aid hydration in Kona. Since my accident, I’ve let my worries about my decreased ability to swallow solids get in the way of my need to increase my fluid intake. This is the year, I guess, I’ll have to deal with that.
Gym and core: I’ve been a minor gym rat all my life. I routinely spend 2-3 days a week there, 30 minutes at a time, with a well oiled routine which has me at 20 minutes work time, 10 minutes rest time. Also, I have added a commitment to getting in a daily “Seven Minute Workout”, which is twelve fairly intense body weight and core activities each last 30 seconds, with 10 seconds rest between them. I can see the difference already after about a month in what I can handle in the pool, on the bike, and in the weight room.
4. “Mental Prepping” – I’m adopting our local NFL team’s mantra to guide my work this year (come Monday, I may have to get mack to you with some pre-SuperBowl trash talk). The coach and all the players are imbued with the idea that every practice (what we would call a workout) and every game are “championships”, each one is a chance to compete. Literally embodying the idea that you will play/race how you practice/train. Every time I step out the door, and every time I step to the starting line, I will be imagining that this is an opportunity to show what I can do in a championship arena, whether it’s the local 10K against 5 other old guys, or an Ironman against the 50 best 65-69ers in the world.
Go Hawks.