I truly cannot say enough good things about the gym. The coaches are absolutely fantastic and my fellow athletes are pretty badass as well.
Amy Chow is an endurance athlete that has been training with Atomic Athlete for almost a year now. Always wanting to test her fitness she expressed interest in combining her Atomic Athlete training with endurance training to compete in a Half Ironman distance race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). We sat down and wrote her a training schedule that cut down her time on the bike and the run to two days a week, kept her at Atomic for 3x a week and had her swim 2x a week. This was considerable less volume than any of her previous training cycles and the final result was an almost 20 minute 1/2 Ironman PR and a new desire to compete.
Shortly after she decided to compete at the Ironman distance race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). She completed the race two weeks ago and after letting her rest for a bit we sat down and did a little After Action review.
1) What was your average weekly training volume by time and distance?
Run- 3 hours/22 miles
Bike- 7.5 hours/125 miles but a lot of this was on the trainer so mileage is sort of weird there
Swim- 3 hours/10k yards
Atomic Athlete- 3x a week
2) How much more volume was this than your 1/2 Ironman Training?
Same amount of swimming and Atomic, almost double amount cycling, and about 50% more running.
3) Did you feel mentally and physically prepared going into this race?
I felt pretty good mentally and physically. I had approached this race differently than the past 5 full ironmans I've trained for in the past - instead of the traditional, pure cardio swim/bike/run I put a much larger emphasis on strength training/hybrid athlete training. The basis for the training plan this time was the bike and 3 sessions of Atomic. I also trained with a powermeter consistently for the first time and actually tracked my numbers. This gave me a quantitative pacing strategy on the bike that I was confident about as opposed to going by feel like I had in the past.
4) How did the race go? Overall and by each leg.
I think I did the best I could on the day for what the conditions were and my training load/execution.
Swim - Goofed up right at the start because the cannon went off as I was still getting into the water and the in-water start line was still a good 100yds away from the swim entrance. Had to swim through the masses to find some clear open water and probably lost a couple minutes here. I pretty much ended up in no-man's land in the water and swam mostly by myself.
Bike - Best I've ever executed an ironman bike leg. Usually I go out to hard and blow up around mile 80 or 90. This time I stuck to my power number and rode easy. The bike was generally flat with a lot of turns in some sections and I'm not great at cornering so definitely lost time there decelerating/
Run - Earliest I can remember dying in an ironman run. Usually I'm good for at least the first 13-14 miles but the wheels started falling off after the first loop, so about mile 8-9. The entire run course was concrete which was tougher on my legs than expected. My brain wanted to go faster but my legs felt like they were only a few hard run steps away from breaking down and I didn't want to test them in the middle of the run. I started walking the aid stations earlier as well in order to make sure I got fluid and calories in me. Upside that I was still able to pick up the last 2 miles and run them about 30 sec faster than the previous miles.
5) What went wrong, what went right?
Bike definitely went right, both training and racing wise.
Run went wrong during the race. I had been hitting appropriate paces in my training for a faster IM marathon, but I think a combination of low run volume and the concrete surface when I had been training on half trail and then a combination of asphalt and concrete. I think that if I didn't have the run experience that I have (first marathon in 2005 and about a dozen total since then plus a couple ultras) then the run could have been a disaster.
6) In hind sight did you feel adequately prepared?
Yes and no. If I look at this as purely an experiment in can I be successful with incorporating strength/hybrid athlete training into an ironman training plan with a lot of previous long-course experience then yes, I was prepared to complete an ironman. However if I look at it if I was prepared to do a fast ironman and actually race it, then the answer is probably no. That would have required more running I think. Quantitatively put, on what is a faster (flatter) run course, I improved less than 8 minutes since my first IM marathon (hilly course) in 2009 (granted it was about 20 degrees cooler at that location). Back then I was doing similar swimming and cycling volume (though much less intense), 1x a week of strength training (triathlon focused), and 40-50 miles of running weekly.
7) Would you have shaped your training any differently going into this race?
Run more, except I don't know where I would have fit that in. I probably would have had to decrease my sessions at Atomic (2 instead of 3) and put an extra run day in. I wanted the best of both worlds - train for an ironman and get faster AND still keep going to Atomic and make gains - and that's a lot to ask a human body to do!
Sitting down and examining the race and learning what went right and what went wrong will give us the tools we need to tweak her race prep for the future.
Amy Chow is truly a bad ass and she earns her respect by training her ass off in the gym and continually testing her fitness outside of it. We are all very proud of you Amy keep kicking ass.
-Coach
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