Schedule week of Apr 3, Hapalua Looms

This week culminates in the Hapalua half marathon. The Hapalua is only a "B" race for me so I am not supposed to do a full taper, yet I am such a speed challenged runner that I have to pull back a lot in order to have any chance of finishing.  Result: pretty much a full taper. Emotionally this is hard because I see CTTS coming fast, only eleven weeks out, and until now my bike training has had to share energy with my run. Not to mention that my run pretty much sucks and I really need to run more.

Early in the week I started laying out my timeline for the end of the year. I was curious when I should start training for Honu next year, which backed up into when I should start training for this year's Honolulu Marathon. The way it looks now marathon training begins Sep 25, the week after the Century Ride, and Honu training begins in late December.

This got me to thinking about my goals and how realistic they are. I did the Hapalua in 2016 as a prep race for Honu, and that seems like a good idea. My Joe Friel Half Ironman training plan even calls for some running races around that time. But is it wise to do a marathon the preceding December, given my age and fairly dismal running ability?

I did a first draft of a periodization plan that followed traditional practice of building to a twenty mile long run a few weeks before the race. I have heard people say that spending too much time out on the road -- especially running -- is counter-productive. I do not expect any dramatic breakthroughs in my training pace between now and November, and at my current pace that would have me out running for nearly six hours! (Perhaps that is what led to my ankle injury last year.) 

On Wednesday we had a Strength Running on-line meeting and I asked Jason about my marathon training. Jason recommended a cap of three and a half to four hours for a long run. So I plugged that onto my plan and ended up with a lot of weeks of twelve mile runs.

Which leads straight to the question, how do I improve? The answer is simple. Lots and lots of speed work from now and through summer. Especially hills. But wait. Right after Hapalua this week my focus shifts to the bike, for CTTS in June and DEMRR in August. Every training hour spent running takes one away from cycling. While there is some potential overlap, it involves aerobic and cardio development, improvements that happen in the base period. Long, steady, distance training. The greater the intensity the more event specific the work needs to be, which is the nature of the build period. Next week begins the build period for CTTS.

When I laid out my Hapalua training plan I had my last really long run two weeks out at fourteen miles, then a nine mile run one week out. That fourteen mile run went really well -- slow and steady -- but for some reason after that my old stiff and sore left leg thing came back. I had a massage with Samantha Wong that Sunday night. Extremely painful, but even so she was unable to get a release on that leg. I continued working on it with a roll stick and foam roller during the week. On Saturday morning I decided to shorten the run to seven miles, and at Kawaikui Park, 2.5 miles out, I decided it hurt enough to turn around there instead of the church. No point beating on that leg one week out from the race.

Sunday's planned long bike got converted to a group ride with Dorian and his Honu training group. I was already planning to do Pineapple Hill, and when I found out that was where they were going I decided to give it a try. I did consider doing the Tantalus Time Trial, also on Sunday, but I checked the 2015 results and the slowest rides were about twice as good as my best up the same route. I decided there was no point in me paying all that money to ride up a hill I can do any day I feel like it only to prove I am the slowest one there. As it turned out I did pretty much the same thing up on the North Shore.

My original plan:

WU ride 20 min
3 x 10 min @ 160-177 watts (FTP), 8 min recovery (shorter if descending)
30 min @ 94 - 128 watts (zone 2 - endurance)
16 min @ 10 - 94 watts (zone 1 - recovery)
Total 2 hours, 110.7 TSS @ 0.74 IF

OPTIONAL

2 hrs base, flat road, Haleiwa east one hour out and back. Do this after hill work. Can shorten.

Dorian's plan:

WU Waialua Park to Mokuilea end of road and back, about one hour
Two rep full climb up Kam Hwy (Pineapple Hill), on to Wilikina Dr, loop around on Kaukonahua Rd and down Kam Hwy. then back to park. About 50 - 60 miles.

My modified plan:
Do the steeper sections at SS (148-160 watts), flatter sections at Tempo (128 - 148 watts)

What I did:

Dorian's warm-up and climb to Dole Pineapple Station, turned around there and rode to round-about, ended logging there to wait for group, never saw them again. Did not log ride back to park. Followed my power plan which had me get dropped right away. Some combination of them being a lot stronger than me, or going up way too hard.

Dist: 30 mi.
Time: 2:47, 143.3 TSS @ 0.72 IF

Dorian describes the climb as having five steep sections, so I went back and looked for them in the data and found these results. Goal was 148 - 160 watts. Obviously some fatigue setting in, but those last two may also be the result of the increasing pain in my left quad.

Section - Avg Pwr
1 - 167
2 - 161
3 - 160
4 - 145
5 - 139

So it turned out my ride was about what I had planned in terms of effort. I was considering a second rep until my leg began to hurt. Given its history this week I was not surprised, and decided to call it a day. It was a hard effort, but not a killer effort. I rode (in the car) back along the coast to Kaneohe to check out the MCR route -- too much road damage to ride to Swanzy -- with a stop at Ted's for coffee and cornbread, then off to a Burmese concert and dinner party. I did finally pass out waiting for the ten o'clock news.

This week's ramp rate chart is one day off because I am writing this on Monday. That last peak is Sunday.

Here is a snippet from my PMC that shows the rise in form I can expect providing I rest this week as much as I should. As the purple CTS lines goes down, the yellow TSB line goes up. This is called shedding fatigue.

One last thing. Last week Garmin announced their new triathlon watch, the Forerunner 935. I stopped by IT&B and put down a deposit. Was going to get a Fenix 5, but this seems more like me.

Last week

ATP: 700 TSS
Planned:664.1
Actual:530.7

This Week

Week of 4/3 - Base 3 Week4/Race

Focus: R&R, race

ATP:450
Planned:455.5

Mon
AM Rest
PM Strength with Dorian

Tue
AM Run, taper repeats
PM Massage

Wed
AM Bike, extensive endurance
PM Bike, spin class

Thu
AM Strength with Dorian
PM Off

Fri - rest day

Sat
AM Run, taper repeats

Sun
Run, Race, Hapalus

Next race: 3 weeks,Haleiwa Metric Century
11 weeks until CTTS.