Hi All –

A great weekend of personal bests in Arizona. A very fast day across the board, but great, consistent and courageous performances by all the AIMP (and former AIMP) athletes.

IM AZ reminded me about an important aspect of our season. IM performances are often fast late in the season (or feel good) because the amount of base work build up during the season. It works out to be natural base – where a summer of training and good weather helps build a giant aerobic platform. But many will also note that this can make us tired/fatigued, given the volume and then the additional race prep phase. IMPORTANT for all of us to understand is that the specificity of certain workouts must be understood and followed. A race intensity workout, with lots of steady state – Z3 – tempo intervals, followed with another harder ride or run, will gradually ruin our great natural base. Know that we always try to follow up an intense day with an aerobic, lower HR day. And if the weekend lines up only for certain workouts to be crunched together on Saturday & Sunday, stick to the plan of an easy/off Monday and a gradual progression into our training week. REWARD yourself with an easy/active recovery day after any hard intense day. Absorb the training, don’t force the training.

Some of you are well into the preseason and we are about to move into our next Strength phase. This phase will include the 7 core exercises & jumprope, but now add bench press, squats, dumbbell work, plenty of leg work and shoulder work (rows). Look for the detail in your plan as well as in aimpcoaching.com Athlete section.

Where do we go from there? Some of you have heard me say this in previous seasons, but the aerobic engine on the bike starts with a 1000 miles at Z2. Yes, that simple – give yourself a 1000 Z2 HR (!!) miles on the bike and BASTA, you have your aerobic base for the next test as well as for more intensity. Some of you will get this mileage in one month: Coast Ride plus a bit here and there. Others require 2 months (120-150 miles of cycling per week) – but either way – THAT is the magic number. Running? A different mileage, but similar sweet spot: 250 aerobic Z2 running HR miles. This needs to be a bit more careful as it requires more off days – but trails and the proper spacing between runs helps many of us reach this in 2 months too.

Therefore you can see: If you start this in January, by end of February you will have a great platform to work from. AND it allows you to have fun doing other zones/efforts as those miles won’t count towards your 1000/250. Simple right?

Of course we look to build different physiological concepts into the other workouts, as well as COMBINE aerobic training with some strength, interval, cadence and aerobic capacity work, but overall: if you can keep an eye on your aerobic Z2 1000/250 mileage – you’ll know where we stand!

Have a great Thanksgiving week, hopefully an enjoyable, rested, healthy and ‘somewhat’ fit one!

Talk to you next week from Kona!

Chris