{"id":6213,"date":"2016-09-15T13:12:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T19:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/?p=6213"},"modified":"2020-03-05T02:16:57","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T08:16:57","slug":"i-need-a-little-specificity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/15\/i-need-a-little-specificity\/","title":{"rendered":"I need a little specificity&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Probably for no one&#8217;s interest but my own sanity, it&#8217;s time for me to check in a bit more specifically on how the first half of 70.3 training has gone, since, holy crap, we&#8217;re more than halfway there!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-6215\" src=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-1.jpg\" alt=\"sept15-1\" width=\"403\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-1.jpg 597w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-1-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-1-300x298.jpg 300w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-1-88x88.jpg 88w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>My outdoor riding game is almost as on fleek as my selfie game as the kids probably no longer say.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>First of all, as I&#8217;ve mentioned before, the comparison game is SO HARD to avoid.&nbsp; Each year with a 70.3 has been unique but has always centered on the <a href=\"http:\/\/kerrvilletri.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kerrville Half <\/a>being my A race.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2012, I trained so hard to make sure I could do the distance, and arrived at the end of the summer in burnout (though I finished, and learned a lot along the way).<\/li>\n<li>2013, I overcame injury earlier in the year to conquer the first on minimal training and on the second, PR (and probably indirectly saved myself from some burnout by being benched for 6 weeks).<\/li>\n<li>2014, I took a mid-summer offseason, and banking on previous endurance, did a short and steep 8 week climb to the race, which resulted in another awesome PR.<\/li>\n<li>Since that worked out so well, in 2015, I did the same thing, and ended up having the universe and my uterus conspire against me and barely salvaged not-a-personal-worst on a mildly broken bike and body.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After the spectacular 2015 fail, I didn&#8217;t want revenge.&nbsp; I wanted this year to be different.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First of all, I have given myself about double the runway (16 weeks instead of 8).&nbsp; This has allowed me to ramp up more gradually.&nbsp; Frankly, I spent about half this cycle with the plan of &#8220;doin&#8217; stuff for about 7-10 hours a week&#8221;, but that fluidity built me a good endurance base without all the burnout that is associated with having to run 6 miles at 7am on a Tuesday at x pace because the plan said so.&nbsp; I&#8217;m now at the half of the cycle where I need to train specifically for about two months and I&#8217;m ready for it.<\/li>\n<li>Also, I&#8217;ve chosen a different race, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ironman.com\/triathlon\/events\/americas\/ironman-70.3\/austin.aspx#\/axzz4KG5xCRwW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin IM 70.3<\/a>, 5 weeks later.&nbsp; The record high is 90, and the record low is 30, so it&#8217;s a grab bag of what we&#8217;ll actually get, but it&#8217;s MUCH more likely to be cooler.<\/li>\n<li>Speaking of different race&#8230; different course!&nbsp; I can hope for a PR\/to hit certain numbers\/etc, but a different course means it&#8217;s not a direct measuring stick of I MUST PR EVERY LEG OR I&#8217;M A FAILURE.&nbsp; The bike is a little harder with ~500 more feet of elevation gain, more steep hills vs gradual hills.&nbsp; The run should be a little easier with 100-ish feet TOTAL elevation change, a 3 loop course that gives you a dose of AC each time, and it&#8217;s also highly likely to be a cooler day, which give me a bonus of as much as a minute per mile with similar effort than feels like 90-100.<\/li>\n<li>The other huge plus is the race starts 15 mins away from my house, so I get to sleep in my own bed, can do a warmup swim in my own pool\/lake the day before, and eat familiar food.&nbsp; The drawback is the day before, I have to establish STRICT boundaries about no chores, no other humans around, just relaxing, because a whole day off on the weekend?&nbsp; That never happens, and it will be so tempting to do all the things.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-6192\" src=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-4.jpg\" alt=\"sept7-4\" width=\"402\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-4.jpg 595w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-4-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-4-300x297.jpg 300w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-4-88x88.jpg 88w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 402px) 100vw, 402px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>And I get to ride bikes here! Total perk!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So, we&#8217;re 7 weeks (ok, 6 weeks, 5 days, but whatevs).&nbsp; How am I doing?<\/p>\n<p>Overall headspace: turning a corner just this week.&nbsp; I had some freakouts last week that I&#8217;m not training enough, I&#8217;m going to be woefully unprepared, etc.&nbsp; Then I started looking at what I&#8217;ve done and how much time I have left, and I started to feel wayyyy better.&nbsp; I need some specificity in my life, as I said above, but the foundation and basic structures of this house are pretty well built, actually.&nbsp; The next four weeks about filling out the major features, and then the last three are about painting the walls, putting up light fixtures, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Strengths right now:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Strength.&nbsp;<\/strong> I&#8217;m pretty solid right now in terms of core and body strength (thx u weights).&nbsp; I don&#8217;t feel like I&#8217;m pushing the boundaries of what my body is capable of and enduring tons of minor aches and pains.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Swim endurance.&nbsp;<\/strong> Thanks to the swim challenge, I&#8217;ve done at least the half iron distance (1.4 to 2.8 miles) 4 times in open water this summer, and haven&#8217;t felt too much worse for wear after them.&nbsp; My regular swims of 1500m just feel like happy fun water time with very little fatigue after.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bike endurance.<\/strong>&nbsp; I still can improve here, but I&#8217;ve done two outdoor rides already (63, 53) that are longer than my longest last cycle (50). I have done four 3+ hour rides, and I have a few more planned before shutting it down.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bike handling.&nbsp;<\/strong> Obviously a work in progress as well, but I was able to ride with a group of non-n00bs yesterday and not feel completely like a square peg in a round hole.&nbsp; I ride my bike outside at least 3 times a week now and I don&#8217;t suck at it nearly as much.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Accidental run endurance.&nbsp;<\/strong> I had this as a weakness two days ago when I started writing this post, but then I went out and ran 10 miles (almost double my previous long run) with 2 race pace miles at the end like it was no big deal.&nbsp; Endurance is endurance is endurance, I guess.&nbsp; I&#8217;ll take it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Weather acclimation.<\/strong>&nbsp; I may bitch about it, but I&#8217;m handling the summer temps like a champ.&nbsp; I was super excited about today&#8217;s run which wasn&#8217;t even in the 90s!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-6193\" src=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-5.jpg\" alt=\"sept7-5\" width=\"400\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-5.jpg 596w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-5-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-5-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept7-5-88x88.jpg 88w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>I&#8217;m sure this me doesn&#8217;t completely agree on the acclimation part.&nbsp; I don&#8217;t have to like the heat, I just have to get through (and I did).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Weaknesses right now:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Overall speed.&nbsp;<\/strong> I found a glimmer of hope in my relay race, but then figured out I was 13 sec\/mile slower than last year (8:48 vs 9:09 pace), so there&#8217;s that.&nbsp; I have been sacrificing any real speedwork to log enough hours to build endurance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brick work.<\/strong>&nbsp; I usually do a lot of these, but tallying up my training, I&#8217;ve done only done 10 bricks in the last 4 months (counting races), and nothing longer than 4 miles (and mostly 1-2).&nbsp; I used to push about 2 per week, and that might be overkill, because I tend to run really well off the bike in practice, but maybe that&#8217;s because I practiced it so often, hmmm?&nbsp; Either way, I should be doing more than one every other week.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ease on the TT bike.<\/strong>&nbsp; I&#8217;ve solidly PR&#8217;d my last 2 bike legs, so something is going at least sorta right, but it&#8217;s hard for me to stay in aero.&nbsp; On the trainer, it&#8217;s a comfort issue.&nbsp; My crotch is simply not used to being smashed that way for that long yet in tri shorts, and I have to wiggle around to find the upper body position that&#8217;s correct and doesn&#8217;t make my arms and shoulders sore.&nbsp; On the road, I&#8217;m just not confident in the position with traffic on the road.&nbsp;&nbsp; Every car that passes, every turn, everytime something makes me jump&#8230; I am up out of aero.&nbsp; Luckily, during races I&#8217;m less of a weenie.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, how am I going to bridge the gap in the coming weeks?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-6216\" src=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-2.jpg\" alt=\"sept15-2\" width=\"400\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-2.jpg 595w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-2-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-2-300x298.jpg 300w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sept15-2-88x88.jpg 88w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>This is the goal.&nbsp; This is always the goal.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last half September focuses:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eeking out more bike endurance.&nbsp; I&#8217;d like a 50 mile ride to be NBD by October 1.&nbsp; It&#8217;s totally doable right now but still kind of a BD.<\/li>\n<li>A long ride approaching race distance on the TT bikes outside.&nbsp; Planned for this weekend.<\/li>\n<li>Ramping up the run miles.&nbsp; I don&#8217;t plan on doing ANYTHING with intensity, save racing the Kerrville Olympic on Sept 25, but I need to be running: a) double digits every other week and b) running more often\/more miles.<\/li>\n<li>Weights are now in maintenance mode.&nbsp; I will not be increasing reps or weights at this point. 1x week at the gym lifting, 1x week with bodyweights and bands at the most.<\/li>\n<li>Swim, continue with the status quo. Twice a week, about a mile per session, open water when I can.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>First half of October:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Longer run bricks.&nbsp; I need to run some 10ks off the bike to feel better about running a half on race day.&nbsp; I&#8217;m planning on a long simulation day, where I ride the actual 70.3 course and follow it up with a 10k run, as the last workout before taper time.<\/li>\n<li>Bike intensity.&nbsp; After I&#8217;m clear of the 3+ hour rides (which will start to ramp down at this point) and the fatigue fades, I want to at least CONTINUE with harder rides, if not up the ante to prepare my legs for those hills.<\/li>\n<li>Continue with the run mile increase.&nbsp; I plan to top out around a modest 25 mile peak week a few weeks out (and most should be about 15-20), so my legs should be in decent shape just in time.<\/li>\n<li>This is where weights can start falling off if they need to.&nbsp; I won&#8217;t be happy about skipping them entirely, but a quick 15-20 min band\/core session 1-2x week will do.<\/li>\n<li>Swimming as above.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Second half of October:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bike and run endurance is in the bank by this time.&nbsp; I need to use my best judgement to shed fatigue and keep form.&nbsp; The best things I can do for myself are workouts that keep my sharp and that increase my confidence, which is usually shorter speed workouts (but not *too* many &#8211; I&#8217;ve <a href=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/22\/lake-pflugerville-triathlon-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">done that<\/a> and spent all my cash before race day).<\/li>\n<li>Swim &#8211; since I&#8217;ll be backing off on the bike and the run, I&#8217;ll push this a little.&nbsp; More open water race pace swims.<\/li>\n<li>Weights &#8211; cut out entirely 2 weeks before the race.<\/li>\n<li>Taper &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>25% reduction 3 weeks out (about 9 hours). Pretty much a normal week with a shorter long ride and long run.<\/li>\n<li>50% or more week 2 (6 hours).&nbsp; This will really be my rest week.&nbsp; If I&#8217;m feeling fatigue or burnout here, things will be cut to be shorter, less intense, or eliminated entirely.&nbsp; There are two key workouts on the plan totaling 3 hours.&nbsp; If that&#8217;s all I do, that&#8217;s fine.<\/li>\n<li>Race week &#8211; something every day (save 2 days out) to keep myself sharp.&nbsp; I generally don&#8217;t perform great IMMEDIATELY after a rest week, I need the training to pick up a little first.&nbsp; I should have energy, enthusiasm, and feel like each session is way too short.&nbsp; If not, the scissors come out again, because rest is priority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-5085\" src=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/june19-2.jpg\" alt=\"june19-2\" width=\"399\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/june19-2.jpg 629w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/june19-2-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/june19-2-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Attacking specific training for the next month and a half like&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Going through all this has helped me lay out a specific plan for the next 7 weeks.&nbsp; Some of the stuff coming up in the next few weeks is a little intimidating, but exciting.&nbsp; I&#8217;m genuinely excited to see what happens when I toe the line October 30th, and I haven&#8217;t been able to REALLY say that with enthusiasm in quite a while.&nbsp; And that makes me more excited!<\/p>\n<div data-counters='1' data-style='square' data-size='regular' data-url='http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/15\/i-need-a-little-specificity\/' data-title='I need a little specificity&#8230;' class='linksalpha_container linksalpha_app_3'><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='facebook' class='linksalpha_icon_facebook'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='twitter' class='linksalpha_icon_twitter'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='googleplus' class='linksalpha_icon_googleplus'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='mail' class='linksalpha_icon_mail'><\/a><\/div><div data-position='' data-url='http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/15\/i-need-a-little-specificity\/' data-title='I need a little specificity&#8230;' class='linksalpha_container linksalpha_app_7'><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='facebook' class='linksalpha_icon_facebook'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='twitter' class='linksalpha_icon_twitter'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='googleplus' class='linksalpha_icon_googleplus'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='mail' class='linksalpha_icon_mail'><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/15\/i-need-a-little-specificity\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"standard\" show-faces='false' width=\"225px\" size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Probably for no one&#8217;s interest but my own sanity, it&#8217;s time for me to check in a bit more specifically on how the first half of 70.3 training has gone, since, holy crap, we&#8217;re more than halfway there! My outdoor riding game is almost as on fleek as my selfie game as the kids probably [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,86,81,29,94,89,28],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUhDu-1Cd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6213"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6213"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11974,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6213\/revisions\/11974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}