Maine 70.3 progress report pulling the metrics together towards a peak - Commentary with TSA Northeast Peter Ekvall

CLT for biking going up?

Why is running CTL going down?

“Cliff:

See attached my 2018 “Race Plan”.. I updated it today.. ”

— Peter Ekvall (TSA in training for Ironman Maine 70.3)

“Peter Please find my thoughts in line to yours below 🙌



On Jul 30, 2018, at 2:15 PM, Peter Ekvall wrote:

Cliff:

See attached my 2018 “Race Plan”.. I updated it today.. …nice progression on the chart here.

I been focusing attention towards my RUN performance .. Cadance and Min/Mile pace.. …good. Also want you to focus in on your “natural efforts”. In key training phases like this perceived effort is way more impactful. Meaning, don’t limit your potential by constantly fixating on the pace targets…. Listening to the body at times will be better for you. I do love the data as you KNOW! Key is to from time to time cover up the data and ride by feel.

So my “best” Olympic Run pace is 8.50 min/mile and my “best” 70.3 Run pace is 9.27 min/mile…..yes : )

At the bottom of the attached sheet I just listed that “if” I run 9 min/mile for the IM Maine that would represent an improvement of about 5 1/2 minutes … yes assuming things are static and live in a “box” yes. Remember course dynamics dictate races HEAVILY. Temp, humidity, wind etc etc. This cannot be overlooked..
and “If” I run a 8.30 min/mile for the Westchester Olympic that would represent an improvement of about 2 minutes.. …true : )

My “Feeling” is that BOTH of these “targets” are pretty realistic... “Who knows” over time I can probably do even better... But for right now this feels as worthwile “goals”.. …agreed.

What I find interesting with the RUN training right now if you look at LAP # 42, 43 & 44 (of yesterday’s RUN session). This was a time when I “accelerated” and kept running hard for 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 1 minute.. My heart rate increased from “comfortable” 130 BPM to ~ 145 BPM and my pace hovered around 8.0 - 8.15 min/mile. For a PACE around 8.0 - 8.15 min/mile my IF seems to be 0.8 - 0.82. …….mind you ♥
Rate and pace do not track directly though the interplay does reveal things to us. You are achieving threshold via ♥ rate when things go up that dramatically.

GARMIN is telling me that my threashold is 8:42 min/mile at 150 BPM... (Yesterday was all pretty much FLAT running as well..)

So what I am feeling is that 8.30 min/mile pace Olymic and 9.0 min/mile pace for 70.3 is pretty much my current run TRI speed “line”..
Do you agree with this assessment?? ….yes I agree at the current temperatures. As things cool off at the end of the summer this will all flip on its head and your HR will be lower and pace higher! Humidity and lower total temps...

Regarding BIKE last year my IMAC 70.3 Bike was 2:34.
Patriot BIKE was 2.29… ….again, NOT apples to apples! Two very different courses even flat races have differences… wind / open stretches vs wooded roads can produce very different splits…. I know the Bike was “fast” because I rode with the Aqua Bike group and they were “hammering” on the bike leg... and YES this did HURT my RUN pace, most likely... But in any case my 70.3 (flat) Bike time should be “around 2.30 hours +/- …….thats the zip code ; )

For the OLYMPIC Bike speed you can see my Quassy bike time was 1:21 and my NYC TRI was 1:10... So I really “hammered” pretty hard, for me, on the bike to achieve a 1:10 and as a result my run pace was “only” a 8.52 min/mile.. But all in did an Olympic PR 2:33 vs. 2.50 at Quassy.. So that was ok.. :-) (Although the SWIM “gives you” about 10 minutes... AND the T1 adds about additional 3 minutes of running..) …true. And True.

So for IM Maine.. my “realistic” goal should be to try about a 5:10 hours which would be a PR of about 6 minutes from my Patriot 5:16:35.. Agree?? …by calculations yes - by conditions not so. Could be +/- 15min to that target.
For Westchester Olympic, if I would to a similar time to NY Tri ~2.33 that would be ... good...(becuase the TRI would be a “regular” Swim).. Agree?? …..yes : )

Today I just booked to do a 10k Sep 29th at Governor’s Island NYC to “finish the season.. The week after Westchester TRI… …..ok, this could be highly risky to race it and very likely to produce an injury only a week after

As you can see from the “annual plan” I did a 10K in March and 13.2 in April and the TP run CTL reflects this as my RUN “peak(s)” …..yes.

What I do NOT fully understand is WHY my CTL have just kept on “declining” from the peak(s) in March and April?
Can you shed some further wisdom about this please? Thanks.

Think I replied to this but here is the logic from a coaching perspective

#1 Does the athlete have fitness enough to race at the level he/she is looking for? Yes, you do in fact higher than most of the ironman athletes I work with. Jeff Schleppy for instance CTL of 105 when tapered heading into IMLP.

#2 Specificity - biggie here - do you have the intensity over distance for the output you want. This is IF …. You are doing this as we speak on harder efforts over distance.

#3 A third endpoint - TSS for each leg of the race - Do you have ~15-200TSS / long ride, and ~90-120 TSS per long run.?!

If all of these are calculated correctly then you don’t need excessive volume which will only fatigue you. The MORE is MORE approach is a dated coaching approach ; ).

#4 To hit the higher IF sessions over distance you MUST be close to positive TSB … therefore growing TSS and CTL at this Build II phase / juncture would be a mistake - you would be tired / flat and not have the output due to fatigue levels being high….

#5 Peak CTL fitness levels will rise and fall throughout the season. If you feel you “want to train more” you can however we must agree on the time available that you have and how long it takes to achieve even higher peak CTL’s. Though as my points above indicate this is more for your “head” vs the body!

Stay fit and keep battling Peter!

Coach Cliff”

— Coach Cliff Scherb, TSA Level III Coach