[mpg2001]

Hey team,

Quick question for the hive-mind. have really enjoyed the program and it has led to a lot of improvement over the past 6 months. just ran a half marathon yesterday, and my LT pace was qui quite a bit lower than i thought (for me, nothing special). I adjusted zones accordingly. however, as i look at my new pace zones, i feel like i would struggle to be “conversational” at my easy zone 2 pace; would surely flunk the talk test. should i update or not?

thank you all in advance!

[David Warden]

M,

It depends on who you ask. Matt would place the talk test as the highest priority to establish zones, I’m a time-trial advocate. Usually, they line up, but sometimes they do not.

Regardless, you should be updating about every 3 to 6 weeks anyway. Even if you were completely confident in your zones, confirming them regularly is important. Therefore, independent of your level of confidence in your current zones, you should update at some point in the near future.

David

[Bstarr]

Quick question as to why run and bike updates aren’t specifically incorporated in the plans.

In the tri maint. and half plans (level 1) an STT2 swim is scheduled on the calendar every 3 weeks yet there is no similar scheduling of threshold testing for the bike and the run. Why aren’t these workouts placed in the schedule for where they should be executed?

As for me, I’m not a talk test fan so I’d be looking for the 20 min FT run and cycle.

[mpg2001]

thanks david. I’ll rest a bit from the race, then try the new zones. can always pull back a little if i’m not responding. appreciate the quick reply.

[David Warden]

Bstar, just saw your question.

The 20-minute TT is a tough workout for the bike and run. We didn’t want to prescribe it every single rest week, you don’t need to do it every single rest week. But, if we prescribed it, almost all athletes would do it, even if we said, “you don’t have to.” So, it’s an option every rest week and the athlete decides.

However the Swim TT is not hard on you. You could do that test every week, so we leave it in as a scheduled test.

David

[Bstarr]

Thanks David.

One last question. I’m guessing that doing both a bike and a run TT in the same rest week would kind of negate the idea of rest week. Do you suggest doing them in the same week or choosing one week to do one and a different week to do the other.

[David Warden]

B, I do actually recommend both every rest week, particularly now that we’ve changed it from a 30 to a 20-minute TT, and you’ll note we always scheduled the bike test option first on those rest weeks.

Another option might be to perform the Talk Test every week for each sport and alternate the 20-minute TT between the bike and run.

David

[Author]

Posts