The Coach asked me to review my recent race performances, and made further suggestions for building a personal training plan:
Very excited to hear that you’ve gotten a second opinion and that we have some new modalities to try. New science plus your focus and discipline will absolutely have a positive impact.
For right now, I think our top priority should be mapping out what this basic week will look like for you, at least Monday through Friday understanding that your weekends are flex based off of hiking or racing or other situations.
Do you think you can sketch something up based off of these “rules?”
So I went to work, and came up with this:
I never did like homework, or appointment books for that matter (although I spent 35 years chained to them), but here goes for July/August routine:
Daily (ie, 4-6 x/week): Stretching, PT exercises
Monday: Early AM Bike 60-75′, either Recovery or FTP work (if no race the previous weekend), Weights (25′), Run 30-45′ (3-5 Mi). 2-2.5 hrs
Tuesday: Swim (probably Open Water Swim 1 hour/3000 yds), Run 30-45′ 1.5-1.75 hrs
Wednesday: Weights, Run 50-60′ c strides or “easy” intervals. 1-1.5 hrs
Thursday: Bike in the mountains 4-5 hours (minimum 2000 KJ) 4-5 hrs
Friday: Weights, Always Be Pushing bike, 75-150′, Run 30′. 2.25-3.5 hrs
Sat: Sprint or Oly Triathlon to cover Bike FT work, swim intervals/speed work and run brick. 1.25-2.75 hrs
Sun: Long Run, 60′ until 3 weeks x 30 miles; or hike 1 hr
Total hours/week, including weight training, but not including PT and stretching: 13-18 hours; estimated TSS >> 700-1000. I’m starting at a Chronic Training Load of 115 yesterday…
I found this helpful. The past three months, training has been repeatedly disrupted by the big races and camps I’ve done, and I’ve really been making it up as I go along, doing whatever seemed right at the time. Given that, since March 1, I’ve had 11 weeks of 15-17 hrs/week (including 2 x 20 weeks during camps), and 5 weeks @ 10-12, mostly taper before and recovery after races.
And his response:
This is fantastic. I agree that you’ve done a lot of great work over the last four months, but I believe that there is a benefit to being a specific as possible with our plan.
The bigger the race or goal, and more specific the plan needs to be. We are juggling the need to get ready for the race and maintain your current health.
I have no data to support this, but I believe the people who are good at scheduling and following a schedule do far better at Endurance sports.