The COVID-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into everyone's plans. A lot of things were simply postponed, including Ironman races around the world. Some were moved on-line. The annual TrainingPeaks Coaching Summit is a good example. In the past it was a week-long live event held in a different location each year. For 2020 it is on-line and free. If you coach long course triathlon, or are self coached, or thinking about it, check it out.
One adaptation that has become increasingly popular are virtual races. When the Ironman VR series was announced I dabbled with it, then decided my training style did not revolve around doing a race every weekend so I gave it up. Next thing I knew, a couple of friends were doing them, and I got hooked on the idea of doing a virtual half Ironman. Along came a hurricane that was supposed to flatten Oahu the weekend of that first HIM, so I had to wait a month.
Way back before COVID was a thing I decided not to do Honu because of the cost, but I decided to keep following my training plan. Then, as previously noted, I started looking to the vision and heart issues I have been struggling with for years, only to discover that, yes, I had some very real problems, but they are correctable.
Honu falls in early June. My vision issue had cut severely into my long run progression so I decided to push my target race further to the right. I decided to train as if I were doing Ironman Kona. Why not? Everything was upside down. I needed a goal, and this was crazy enough to hold my interest. I have had a blast doing this, and have learned a lot along the way.
Somewhere along there I decided to become a coach. There was a lot to do. Website, social media, certification. On that last item and speaking of moving on-line, USA Triathlon used to require a live week-long training course and regardless of where they held it the transportation cost to me made it impossible. Due to the pandemic they have moved everything on-line, and have done a remarkable job given how fast they had to get it done. I just finished the on-line course yesterday. All that is left are a few formalities and I will have my certification.
Having decided I wanted to be a coach I realized it was time to get my act together regarding what I would do as a coach. I see myself working with senior athletes who need a little help translating all the wild and crazy stuff they are bombarded with on-line into actionable plans that take into account the special needs of the senior athlete.
Remember that Ironman VR series? I was still high-fiving myself for having finished the half Ironman when they announced -- out of the clear blue -- that they will host a full virtual Kona race. Like all of their previous races the event is spread over multiple days, except instead of three days we get an entire week, the same dates as the week leading up to the original Kona race in October. At first this sounds a lot easier, but let me tell you from experience that doing your own private race on open roads without support is tough. No police directing traffic, no aid stations, no cones, no signs, no cheering fans, no medical tent. Maybe it is not as tough as a one day race, but believe me, it is no picnic.
I plan on going into more detail about that race in a later post. For now I want to fall back to the underlying philosophy that guides my planning. Most of it is culled from Joe Friel's fantastic book, Fast After 50, which I have mentioned many times in this blog. Friel does a wonderful job making a case for why we need to do these things, along with commentary from other experts. I am going to leave that with him. Please, if you have any interest in that, buy his book. It is priceless.
Friel makes a good case that as we age we gravitate towards long duration, low intensity training. It feels good, and it is a better fit with social activity. While this is happening the aging process slowly erodes our ability to perform. There are aspects of aging that are visible: the loss of muscle mass in our arms and legs, an increase in belly fat, dry, wrinkled skin, graying or loss of hair, just to name a few. But there are changes to our metabolic systems that are more insidious in that we do not see them happening until we try to run a local 10K and wonder when we lost our ability to run.
Friel goes on to lay out in clear, easy to understand terms the generic building blocks from which a training plan can be constructed. It's like a box of Lego -- all the pieces are there, what is absent is a finished design. Follow his instructions and you will end up with your very own training plan. Well, it helps to know something about how athletes in any given sport train, and about periodization.
Here are the essential activities.
Aerobic Capacity
Best done as short intervals at or near maximum effort, separated by recoveries of equally short duration. These target the cardio vascular system, especially its ability to process oxygen. The benefits from work done on the bike carry over for the run, as since doing such high intensity efforts is much safer on the bike on a turbo trainer, that is how these should be done. Apparently this overlap does not work for swimming, but in my experience only the very best age group triathletes are limited by aerobic capacity.
Lactate Threshold
These workouts improve the body's ability to process fuel efficiently, using work intervals of moderate length separated by recoveries that are much shorter than the work interval. The benefits are specific to the activity, so these should be done on the bike and the run, and in the water for advanced swimmers.
Aerobic Threshold
These are similar to the workouts a typical senior athlete gravitates to, with one important difference. Most athletes do these too hard. This is especially true of group runs and rides. Unlike the high intensity stuff, these are not done as intervals; simple, long and slow is what is needed.
Strength Training
Recall what I said about aging and muscle mass? The best defense to loss of muscle is strength training. Moving heavy weights. The be useful this must be done with case. Too little and the desired response will not happen. Too much and an over-use injury will set back your progress. The goal is not body building in the traditional sense. The goal, rather, is to be lean and strong, with enhanced range of motion.
These activities are more or less relevant at various times over the course of a complete training program. The help with that Friel uses a concept of dose. For example, early in a training plan we may want to emphasize aerobic capacity development, so we assign those workouts at a high dose. To compensate we might assign aerobic threshold workouts at low dose.
Another critical component to manage is recovery. This will always be true regardless of the athlete's age, but as we run past fifty we find it takes longer to recover. To be clear, we can do the work. We just need a little more time before we can do it again.
This is where training plan design gets interesting. The goal should be to identify and focus on the athlete's weaknesses -- Friel calls them limiters -- early in the season, then gradually move into a workout balance that best supports the target A race, all the while managing training stress much more tightly than for younger athletes.
So, what do we do when there is no A race? That is the question that has plagued many of my fellow athletes.
One solution is to go into a sustaining mode. Several coaches have training plans designed with that in mind. Even Friel did one specifically for athletes under pandemic restrictions, and it only costs $10.00. That's a great deal. I chose instead to train as though I had an Ironman race. The pools were closed, but for most of this spring and summer the oceans were open, so I moved all my swim workouts to open water. The point here is, I never dreamed I would actually do an Ironman this year, but I trained for it anyway and had a great time.
When I began this project I was not thinking about becoming a coach. I would say that it was going though the process of developing my own training plan that allowed me to see what was possible.
Perhaps there is something that you have always been interested in. Jump in, explore, learn all that you can. You too may find a new calling. At the very least, have fun.
