Trains, Travels

Building a training plan to take me to a sub-9 Ironman starts with setting targets. It’s the easiest step, designing the program and following it will be tougher. Targets are essential in building the plan they give a focus to workouts and a benchmark for testing performance.

I could set simple goals to ‘go faster’ or ‘work harder’, but generic ideas provide little direction. Specific paces or power can be measured, tested and compared allowing a feedback cycle into the training program. If I’m not making progress I’ve time to adapt the plan and focus on what’s holding me back.

Swim

The goal is to be on the bike with an hour on the race clock so my swim pace needs to allow time to get through transition. Austria is relatively long and I’m not the fastest between swim and bike, I need four minutes at least. Working back gives a swim target of 56 minutes for 3.8km or a pace of 1:28 per 100 metres.

Having a target pace gives a point to measure swim performance against. The coming months need to focus on reaching the level where I can sustain 1:28 per 100 metres. If I can’t manage that I’ve little chance of doing it on race day without expending too much energy in the water.

I need my Critical Swim Speed (CSS) to be faster than 1:28 to ensure I can comfortably swim that pace in a race. Ironman New Zealand backs this up – I swam 58 minutes for a pace of 1:31 per 100 metres tallying with my CSS at the time. A Wetsuit and drafting provide sufficient performance benefits that I know once CSS reaches 1:28 I can hold that in an Ironman.

To achieve my swim PB in New Zealand I had six weeks of consistent pool work with average distance close to 20km. There was a spread of sessions focussing on endurance, technique and also swimming at CSS to develop threshold. A month of similar training proved equally effective for Kona where I took three minutes off my previous time there.

The longer timeframe leading to Austria allows me to incorporate regular CSS testing into the regime and ensure my program is heading in the right direction. The consistent mix of sessions that’s worked well this year will remain, but testing enables me to tweak the plan and adjust timings.

Bike

I’m going to be bold and set the goal of a 4:45 bike split. It’s 10 minutes faster than my current Ironman PB though Austria is potentially a faster course than Western Australia. That’s still a step up especially considering I want to be riding at a comfortable effort.

I’ve taken confidence from the 5:04 in Kona if I can do that now what will another six months of hard training achieve? The lack of run training makes it hard to tell if the subsequent marathon was affected by the bike. There were bigger issues than how hard I’d ridden.

I’m focussing on developing the power I can ride an Ironman at. Metabolic testing suggests that I can fuel anything up to 250W enough to spare glycogen for the run. I’ve yet to ride an Ironman close to that my best approaches 230W so there’s room for advancement. In 2007 I raced Austria averaging 190W for a 5:12 bike split, 50W more would be a significant move in the right direction.

Over winter bike volume is dropping whilst I turn my attention to running. I’ll maintain the dose of intensity with work to develop threshold power and sustaining Ironman pace. Endurance work will return in Spring, spending more time on the bike a lot of it working on the ability to ride an Ironman ‘hard‘.

Run

After recent months any target marathon pace seems ambitious and aiming for three hours particularly so! That’s 4:16 min/km (6:50 min/miles) and 15 seconds per kilometre faster than my current Ironman PB. I know I can sustain that pace during a seven hour race from Immenstadt. If I achieve that run form how much impact the extra two hours of Ironman will have is an unknown.

Similarly to swimming it provides a baseline, I know that I need to be able to comfortably sustain 4:16 min/km pace for at least two hours in training. It’s essential that running at that speed is easily manageable with minimal perceived effort. Ironman running is about efficiency whatever speed you achieve it needs to be at relatively low exertion.

Having discussed run training in my last post I’ll not go into detail, but reiterate key points. The aim is to build back to running high volume over four months. I’m unlikely to run as much as I did before, I don’t think every mile of the hundred mile week was essential for developing run form. The growth in volume will be gradual and so more sustainable.

It will culminate in some testing Spring races to see if my run has stepped up. Assuming my Ironman marathon should be within 10% of a standalone marathon I’m looking for a 2:40 standalone. I’m not a fan of marathons in Ironman prep, but can handle a half. If I can manage a 1:15 in March I’ll know I’m on the right track.

Next Steps

With targets set the next step is to work on a plan that can deliver the results. The past two years have been about the volume of work the next is about the quality. That’s not to say there won’t be volume, but the emphasis will be on ensuring I’m doing the training needed to reach these goals.

Of course the big step is embarking on the plan.

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The last blog raised questions around my winter running plans. I put my thoughts into the public domain, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for them to be critiqued. It’s not the first time I’ve had to justify the way I’m choosing to train. In this case the questions centre around my high volume winter run focus.

On the road to Kona I adopted a Lydiard style high volume approach resulting in a notable run performance at the ITU Long Distance Worlds in Immenstadt. Around the race I also developed an injury that plagued the rest of my preparations and ultimately led to a disappointing run. The simple conclusion is high volume running leading to injury leading to poor performance.

It’s my belief that the injury was not directly volume related. My training logs note the first sign of problems at the end of a recovery week, seven days after my run block. The injury worsened from this point peaking during an easy club run shortly after Immenstadt. You can’t rule out the contribution of high run volume, but neither can you explicitly state a causal link.

If I believed run volume was the cause then repeating the approach would be wrong. There’d be a huge argument to repeat the training that saw me run well in Roth, Ironman UK and Hawaii. Given it worked then why not follow it now? I agree with the suggestion that you need to stick with an approach to fully reap the benefits, but you also need sufficient progression to make real improvements.

A long Season of Running

Fourteen months have seen a lot of running and racing. The graph above shows that run volume by distance in red and compares it with run fitness (CTL) in blue. This time period contains a mix of run racing from highs like the ITU Long Distance Worlds down to this year’s Kona. You can see the volume and frequency of training during each build along with its impact on my CTL.

Consistency and moderation were the back bone of success in 2009. Running in the build to Roth and Ironman UK can be divided into two categories a long run or a thirty minute run. I worked to a rule of a minimum of thirty minutes running for thirty consecutive days. For Kona ’09 I returned to this approach with two peak weeks seeing jumps in volume as I regularly went beyond the minimum.

The next three Ironman races disappointed while I placed well I never felt I delivered a performance I should. There’s erratic amounts of training, irregular days off and occasional attempts at more extreme volumes. I was ignoring my own rule on the importance of consistent training.

Run volume alone presents a simplistic picture so I’ve also included CTL. Immediately it’s obvious that each of my ‘good‘ races have higher CTL than the disappointing ones. The moderate, consistent approach resulted in steady growth of CTL through regular training load. Inconsistent training never delivered comparable weekly training loads and growth in CTL was poorer for it.

Moving to the right side of the chart the build to Immenstadt was consistent with greater volume. Daily thirty minute minimums are replaced with increasing amounts of running. Combining consistency and volume of running resulted in higher training loads and rapid growth in CTL. I ran well in Germany because the training had built significant levels of run fitness.

Adopting a Middle Ground

It’s not that 2009′s consistent, moderate running didn’t work, I don’t think it can develop my run to take me sub-9. That’s the goal and the coming season’s training has to be focussed towards that.

The two month block before Immenstadt resulted in a run averaging 20 seconds per kilometre faster than Kona ’09. Though the race was shorter on bike and run that’s a significant difference in pace. Without power files for either race it’s impossible to truly measure intensity, heart rates suggests I rode harder in Germany. Comparisons have their problems, but I feel it helps justify higher volume running.

Supposing I adopted the Roth approach again, thirty minute runs each day, one run longer and possibly a weekly race. Simulating my winter’s Performance Management Chart (PMC) above there’s steady growth through till late February when I approach a plateau. CTL levels would be close to Immenstadt levels with a very gradual ramp rate. There’s the potential to deliver a good run performance over the time frame.

The PMC before Immenstadt presents the other end of the spectrum. The level of CTL achieved is higher and the ramp rate is extreme (scale might not make this obvious). In a month I’d plateaued unless I continued with high volume running and increased intensity of sessions. Were I to jump into this approach again I could see a similar level before the New Year.

I’ll be aiming for higher volume, but I’m planning a more balanced approach. Another simulation of a winter run PMC this time with consistent running and growing volume. Every few weeks I take a recovery week then increase volume of running and training load. Fitness still plateaus towards the end of February, but at a much higher level hopefully in time to PB at the Reading Half Marathon.

The winter run plan retains the consistency that’s present in all the best run training blocks. Starting with the simple thirty minutes minimum as Roth it grows to the volume of Immenstadt over four months. I’m unlikely to reach the same volume, a hundred miles of running is interesting, but not specific for Ironman.

This isn’t radical or revolutionary. It’s simple consistency with progressive growth in training load. Intensity will come in time, but I won’t work on that till 2011 once I’ve established a period of good running and feel my legs are ready. Every training program has risks, presence of mind and a willingness to be flexible are the best ways to avoid them.

The progression isn’t set in stone, there’s no requirement to run x miles in a week. I’m willing to adapt to the reality of the training load adjusting the plan to ensure consistency above anything else. I won’t achieve my Ironman goals following a moderate strategy even if it may be the ‘safest‘ option.

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A week since race day and I’ve been acting out my off season plan. For seven days I’ve eaten whatever I want, slept in and avoided anything resembling exercise. I extended the off season into every aspect of life doing the absolute minimum needed! It’s been fun, but can I return to normal now?

Another fortnight of this holds no appeal. I’m itching to do something active again and I’m fed up eating cake! There’s a tradition of taking a break at the end of a season and following it with ‘off season‘ training. Two year’s chasing an endless summer means I’ve dodged tradition and know it’s not essential.

What happens when you take a training break? You start losing fitness and combined with a relaxed diet you’ll gain weight. There’s room for a little of this, but if I extended mine to three weeks I dread the point I’ll reach. The longer the break the more fitness lost. Every week off leaves me more work when I start again.

A break has its benefits – long periods of focussed training are mentally and physically tiring. Down time allows for high quality recovery. I’m not immune and needed time off during the last two years. More on the mental side when the pressure of continual structured training all seemed too much!

Costs and benefits should be balanced if you don’t feel mentally or physically drained there’s no reason to extend down time. I’m not going to force myself to take a break I’ll do whatever activity I feel like. After a few weeks I’ll think about structure and sessions.

Beyond the end of season break comes the off season. A confusing period with conflicting views on what should be done. Don’t do too much or you’ll be burnt out by race season… Winter miles, Summer smiles… Focus on intensity not mileage… If anything it’s a worse mess than the advice on Ironman training!

Being a long way from races the off season provides an opportunity to do something different. The perfect time for a single sport focus whether to eliminate weaknesses or boost strengths. A month or two dedicated to one sport can reap real benefits. When training balance is restored you come back an improved triathlete.

Winter isn’t about avoiding intensity or logging big miles nor is it just about training intensively. I see no reason to view the off season any differently to the rest of the year. The aim is a consistent training load, i.e. a mix of volume and intensity that you can perform week after week.

Admittedly weather is a good reason to adjust plans, but it’s not a good reason to train less effectively. Rather than view it as an excuse to train less view it as motivation for a focussed period of training. Identify areas to work on (probably avoiding endurance) and build the program round them.

It’s the perfect time to work on threshold power. Riding outdoors is less pleasant and I can only manage the turbo for so long. A large chunk of my riding will be spent indoors working at threshold pace. I’ll get outside a little, but I’m not going to worry about regularly long rides until Spring. Endurance will come back easily especially with a few months of FTP work.

Swimming can really benefit if any environment is unaffected by winter it’s the indoor pool. My program will continue the regular swim sessions that worked well in the build to Hawaii. There’s no magic to them it’s a combination of consistency, regularity and ensuring there’s hard work in each one. An entire winter of that will set me up for the New Year.

I realise this reads like I’ve no off season focus, but running is where I’m looking to make gains. I can chip away at times in the otherss, but know that good run training will significantly improve results. The build into ITU LD Worlds set me up to run three hour marathon pace the aim is to develop that for Ironman Austria.

It’s not a weakness, but the best area to place my efforts as the returns are huge. A high volume period of running will set me up for a faster 2011 season. It sounds like winter miles and effectively it is. I know I respond well to running a lot then running harder. Too much of the latter and I’m far more likely to injure myself.

My winter involves fewer hours of training overall, but the workload will remain the same. Time will be divided differently with a run emphasis and a reduction in cycling. Training intensity will be adjusted I may not be cycling for as long, but I’ll balance it by cycling harder. Less time on the bike, but not too large a drop in training load.

My athletes are mostly in their off seasons. For each of them I’m establishing a basic week that we’ll carry through the winter and into next year. The focus of their week is determined the same way as mine – where are the biggest gains to be made? Some sports are maintained and some developed it’s hard to improve them all at once. There’ll be harder weeks to come in the season, but none of them are taking it easy.

(When I take a break I really take a break. Regular blogging will return, but don’t expect daily posts that’s tough work! I’ll also be contributing a monthly column for Endurance Corner so watch out for posts there. The focus here will be on building my sub-9 Ironman plans, run training and working towards goals. I’m always open to suggestions by e-mail, Twitter or Facebook too.)

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