I have two weeks to go until EagleMan 70.3, a major A race for the year (I realize that sentence was redundant and repetitive). This past week I ended up having to miss THREE FUCKING WORKOUTS!!! I had to miss two runs because I did something funky to my back helping a friend move and then today my pool was closed for some weird reason. Fortunately this past week wasn’t my peak week - that was two weeks ago and I peaked at 17 hours of volume. This past week I was supposed to do around 14 but I was only able to get in 12.
Would it make sense to throw in an extra workout or two for the coming week before I start my taper? I know making up workouts is a big no-no but missing three in one week with only 13 days to go to race day is also a big no-no! FYI swimming is my weakest sport by far - I am a very FOP biker and an FOP runner.
Nothing you do in the final 3 weeks before a half Ironman will add that much to race day performance, but you can do stuff that will tank your race. My rule of thumb regardless of time of you year is if you miss workouts, you just move on. As long as you don’t miss too many run workouts, you’re good to go (just make sure you are running 4x per week). Swim and bike you can fake pretty good if you miss a bunch as long as you were pretty good before!
If you’ve figured out how to be a very FOP biker and an FOP runner on a max of 17 hours, implying that you’ve learned how to make the most of the time you put into this sport, then I’d wager a guess that you’ve got the tools to cope with missing 3 workouts. Fix your head and get over it.
Nothing you do in the final 3 weeks before a half Ironman will add that much to race day performance, but you can do stuff that will tank your race. My rule of thumb regardless of time of you year is if you miss workouts, you just move on. As long as you don’t miss too many run workouts, you’re good to go (just make sure you are running 4x per week). Swim and bike you can fake pretty good if you miss a bunch as long as you were pretty good before!
Paul as a runner who has lost his mojo this year working on my off road cycling and neglecting his run, this point you made here is an interesting one to me. “just make sure you are running 4x per week)”
Would you say thats the magic number to maintaining the run fitness while juggling the other disciplines?
I feel your pain. Last Monday, after returning home from a week vacation in Italy (read: not much training at all), I had my first road crash in like 15 years and seriously mess up my shoulder (rotator cuff impingement and AC separation), with my A race being June 13, Boise 70.3. Haven’t done a blessed thing since Monday at 1pm.
At this point I doubt I will be able to swim. Even if I miraculously heal by race day, and can get through the swim, I’ll be a mental train wreck from having done close to nothing for 3 -4 weeks. The concept of this being my A race is down the tubes as is the $250 (insert F bomb) entry fee. I had high hopes of a top 3 AG finish. Oh well, it could have been worse, right?
So I sit here on yet another prefect hot sunny day unable to do shit except troll ST and feel like a disgusting and fat blob of ass.
sto-
that sucks, but couldn’t you hop on a trainer or stationary bike and just pedal like mad to get your legs going again?
To OP:
I feel your pain, but you will be fine. I got a cold in March and I missed three solid weeks! I was pretty pissed, but tried to get back on track slowly. I am still behind schedule, but will just go into the race with a goal of nothing more than 6:30, but hope to break 6 hours. ( I am doing Eagleman too).
I missed what I considered my last “key” big workouts prior to my first HIM this year, a solid long steady run, and a hard long ride on the race course itself.
Bizarre injury issues kept me from doing either, and I frankly was worried whether I’d embarrass myself out on the course that day, given that my training hadn’t gone nearly as I would have intended.
I ended up having a great day, set a new course PB for me on the bike (and I think maybe the run too - the swim got nixed due to heavy fog).
Don’t sweat it. And definitely do NOT try to make up for the missed workouts now.
You can only do harm, not good, by doing too much right before the race.
This should not hurt you at all. Do not try to make up the workouts. The hay is already in the barn, you are better doing too little from here on in than too much.
In 2007 I was hit by at car at the Vineman 70.3, was hospitalized and did not swim, bike or run for almost 4 weeks. 5 weeks after Vineman I raced IM Kentucky and qualified for Kona. Was not ideal but the 4 weeks off acted as a big taper. Where it came back to bite me was in Kona because I had to recover from Kentucky and got in 2 weeks of training for Kona and then was “tapering” again.
sto-
that sucks, but couldn’t you hop on a trainer or stationary bike and just pedal like mad to get your legs going again?
To OP:
I feel your pain, but you will be fine. I got a cold in March and I missed three solid weeks! I was pretty pissed, but tried to get back on track slowly. I am still behind schedule, but will just go into the race with a goal of nothing more than 6:30, but hope to break 6 hours. ( I am doing Eagleman too).
The most important workout you do is the one six months before your A race.
The second most important workout you do is the one six weeks before your A race.
The least important workout you do is the one six days before your A race, at which the only point is ‘don’t go too hard; don’t get hurt’
At this point, you’re in the zone where nothing you do is going to significantly build for the event so you’re just trying not to get hurt. Don’t make them up.