My Escape from Alcatraz/IM Base Building Plan
My plan.
As a disclaimer. I am not a coach. I have not had formal training. I do not have a coach. I have had a couple of coaches over the years, I’ve done numerous triathlons, I read lots of books and stuff on the interwebs. I have a ton of very knowledgeable friends. That’s where I get this stuff. My posting of this plan is not meant to be a training guide, it is merely the workout plan that I have decided to follow. If you decide to take any of my workouts or use my training plan, you do so at your own risk. You never can be too careful.
There are 18 weeks until Escape from Alcatraz. Well, at least there were when I started my plan – week 1 is officially in the books now. My plan is broken up into three different phases for a few reasons.
- to give my foot some time to continue healing
- to get me stronger
- to ease my foot back into running consistently
Phase 1 will be 4 weeks.
For the next month, my schedule looks like this:
- Monday – Strength at lunch
- Tuesday – Spin Class (+15 extra mins) in AM, Run/walk 30-40 mins at lunch
- Wednesday – XTrain at lunch (1 hour strength training class at Durham ATC YMCA)
- Thursday – Swim ~2500-3000m (alternate between a focus on distance, speed and form)
- Friday – Off
- Saturday – Strength in AM, Bike 2 hrs in afternoon
- Sunday – Run/walk 30-40 mins, Swim ~2500-3000m
My biggest focus is on strength training and I’m planning to do strength training 3x/week. I’ll be swimming 2x, biking 2x and running 2x. This keeps me working very slowly at my foot rehab and building up my run/walk to more running and less walking for the next month. It also forces me to let it rest in between.
Phase 2 will be 4 weeks.
For phase 2, my schedule will theoretically look like this:
- Monday – Swim in AM, Strength 30 mins at lunch
- Tuesday – Spin Class (+15 extra mins) in AM, Run/walk 30-40 mins at lunch
- Wednesday – XTrain at lunch
- Thursday – Swim ~2500-3000m, Run/walk 30-40 mins at lunch
- Friday – Off
- Saturday – Bike 2 hrs, followed by 10-15 min run (depending on how foot feels)
- Sunday – Run/walk 45-60 mins
My focus in phase 2 is more obviously more running. More days per week and hopefully more running, less walking. I’d like to be back to my 4 min run, 1 min walking by the end of this phase. How I move through this phase completely depends on my foot and how it’s feeling. But, I need to be running fairly normally by the end of March if I’m going to seriously race in San Fran. I will also start increasing my long bike from 2 hours to 3 hours in this phase.
Phase 3 is 10 weeks.
Phase 3′s schedule is similar to phase 2. But, I start building distance in the bike and run. I hope to peak at about 60-65 miles on bike and at 10 miles running. I’ve got a few things to plan around – I’m working in the Riverwood Sprint Tri at the end of April as my pre-Alcatraz race. Also, I am taking a vacation in early May (horrible timing, I know, blame my mother), but I’ll use that as a recovery week and then push one last big, hard week before I slow down and taper for Alcatraz. I’ve got it all worked out (again, theoretically.)
The thing I have to remember is that I think I have it all figured out, but I HAVE to listen to my body. My foot may not agree with this plan and if that’s the case, I need to get myself to the pool to pool run…. or hop on the elliptical or something else to give it a rest. So far, it’s been healing pretty well (more on that later)… but I know I’ll end up with a few set backs because of it. I *have* to be ok with that and incorporate that into an updated plan. I have to make sure I keep my plan dynamic. That’s why I’m posting so many details of my plan on my blog… so my friends and colleagues can see it and help keep me real. Please help me remember to listen to my body.
Finally, some updates…
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post… so it’s time for some updates.
Sad news first, as it affects the rest of the things I’m going to talk about in this post. I decided to stop working with my coach, Stacey. Without going into a lot of personal details on this public blog, I’ll just say that I decided I couldn’t afford it every month.
That being said, I am still 100% committed to my goals. I’m still racing Escape from Alcatraz in June and B2B in October. I am signed up for both races and have already booked travel – hotel and flights, as well as rented a road bike for the race.
As of Feb 1, I’ve been on my own for training. Well, actually, as of Feb 6th – Stacey had my schedule in Training Peaks through the 5th, so I followed it through the end. I am officially self-coached now. I’ve been doing triathlon for the last 5 years. I’m a smart girl… I like to research and figure out new ways to do things. I also like to push myself. I think I can do it. I’ve trained for races of similar distance Alcatraz – and I know what the trouble spots will be for that race (ahem, hills and stairs, oh and running.) With help from Jenn D. and Ruth, I think I’ve come up with an awesome schedule that gets me trained for Escape from Alcatraz on June 10 and will give me the base I need for IM training.
B2B is on October 20. Every IM training plan I see recommends a 20 week training plan. Since 20 weeks before October 20 is 2 weeks before Escape from Alcatraz, my current plan also gets me up to 60 miles on the bike and 10 miles on the run (hopefully), so once I get home from San Fran, it’ll be hardcore – build up the mileage – IM training time.
I don’t know what I’m going to do about IM training and a coach. I’m not sure that I can train myself to do an IM. There are so many parts to it that aren’t swimming, biking or running… I do think I will need a coach or someone to help me get through it. So, I’m going to reevaluate the IM plan when I get closer to Alcatraz.
What all this means is that I can be more open and transparent about my workouts . Before I didn’t want to (and couldn’t) share all of Stacey’s workouts with the world, which makes sense since she gets paid to write them. I’ll probably post more about where I get them from and all the details. Feel free to comment or ask questions.
More on said plan in a later post…
