(Note: I mostly wrote this to document the swim and bike workouts given to me by Coach Brian Stover of Accelerate 3 for my own future reference, but it turned into a blog post. Brian graciously is allowing me to share those workouts. If you want to skip to them they are at the bottom of this post, but if you use them it wouldn't be a bad thing to give him credit.)
Fun times with Brian before IM Arizona after he had helped me so much in my taper for the race.
So, one night about 4 weeks out from Ironman Arizona 2018 I was feeling behind on my training and under motivated. Just one week to go til my taper (that is, a 3 week run taper, 2 week bike taper, and 1 week swim taper) I felt like I was about to bring a fly swatter to a sword fight. So I texted my friend Brian Stover, coach for Accelerate 3, knowing he’d at least offer some decent smack talk. Instead what happened was a series of really challenging workouts that jolted me into better fitness and boosted my confidence the final weeks leading up to Ironman.
Swim
At that point, I had put in some not great but okay mileage – around 10,000 yards/week. A lot of the workouts were trash laps and I was just going through the motions. I reviewed a 4200 yard time trial I had done in 2012 (the year I PR’d at IMFL) and couldn’t come close to holding that pace (1:28/100) for a mere 400. I needed a shock to the system, and there was still time. I just didn't know what to do (this is why people get a coach). I had planned to increase both my swim volume and intensity throughout the taper anyway, but my workouts weren't cutting it.
This was shortly after Ironman World Champs in Hawaii and Slowtwitch had posted an article on their website about a German guy, Jan Sibbersen, that had broken the age group swim record. He said the most important length of intervals to prepare you for Ironman was 400’s, and though it was super boring a 10x400 main set was a typical weekly workout for him. So I gave it a shot, targeting my old pace from 2012 which, again, I couldn’t touch. The intervals in Brian’s workouts were in the range of 400-600 yards, so when he sent the first one to me I took it that he agreed with Jan. I felt like I was following a good path. I remember telling Brian after doing a couple of his sessions, “I like your workouts except when I’m doing them.” It was meant as a compliment. 😊
These are a few of the workouts below. Before committing to them I was looking at what I thought would be a 1:08 2.4 mile swim for Ironman. I was blown away to come out of Tempe Town Lake in 1:05:26.
The first 2 workouts are designed to make sure you’re not slowing down on the backside of your Ironman swim. Simple set, but once you commit to a challenging goal time for yourself you find you're in a position where, uh oh, I gotta cowboy up.
Main Set:
2x500, 2x400, 2x300
Goal: Swim faster per each set with the first 500 being about IM pace, 400’s at half IM pace, and 300’s at oly pace.
Main Set:
2x300, 2x400, 2x500
Goal: Swim the 500’s at the same pace as the 300’s.
Main Set:
6x100 :10 ri
400 :20 ri
4x100 :10 ri
400 :20 ri
4x100 :10 ri
400 with last 150 fast
Goal: Maintain the pace through the workout with energy to up the pace in the end of the last 400.
Goal: Maintain the pace through the workout with energy to up the pace in the end of the last 400.
Main Set:
2x(4x150 :10 ri, 600 :30 ri)
Goal: Round 2 to be < :01 slower per 100 on the 600.
Bike
My cycling workouts were the same story – mediocre volume and not much intensity. But the 5-6 hr 100+ mile sessions were there. I just was lacking creativity in my workouts and wasn’t motivated enough to put intense intervals into them. I had fallen into a rut where they were all at aerobic intensity. Brian urged me to keep the long rides long even into the taper but added some serious intensity. I did the following workout twice in the last 3 weeks as part of my 5+ hr rides, and it totally crushed me, but just like the swim workouts, it gave me some much needed confidence heading into the race. For reference, I included the power range that I worked in for each effort based off of my FTP.
45 min @ half IM effort (200-230 watts)
30 min @ aerobic effort (160-200 watts)
11 min @ half IM effort (200-230 watts)
1 min easy
11 min @ threshold effort (230-280 watts)
1 min easy
11 min @ half IM effort (200-230 watts)
1 min easy
11 min @ threshold effort (230-280 watts)
1 min easy
Thanks for reading, and again, if you find this helpful and try any of the workouts give Brian a shoutout on social media. He's accelerate3 on Instagram and Desert Dude on Slowtwitch.
Bike
My cycling workouts were the same story – mediocre volume and not much intensity. But the 5-6 hr 100+ mile sessions were there. I just was lacking creativity in my workouts and wasn’t motivated enough to put intense intervals into them. I had fallen into a rut where they were all at aerobic intensity. Brian urged me to keep the long rides long even into the taper but added some serious intensity. I did the following workout twice in the last 3 weeks as part of my 5+ hr rides, and it totally crushed me, but just like the swim workouts, it gave me some much needed confidence heading into the race. For reference, I included the power range that I worked in for each effort based off of my FTP.
45 min @ half IM effort (200-230 watts)
30 min @ aerobic effort (160-200 watts)
11 min @ half IM effort (200-230 watts)
1 min easy
11 min @ threshold effort (230-280 watts)
1 min easy
11 min @ half IM effort (200-230 watts)
1 min easy
11 min @ threshold effort (230-280 watts)
1 min easy
Thanks for reading, and again, if you find this helpful and try any of the workouts give Brian a shoutout on social media. He's accelerate3 on Instagram and Desert Dude on Slowtwitch.
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