Athlete Series: Return to Training
It’s been three weeks since Age Group Nationals, and the unfortunate positive Covid test for Kelly. I’m happy to report in that Kelly is now back to training. In this post I’ll discuss his time off of training and what we are doing now that he is able to work out again.
The Rest Period
During Kelly’s bout with Covid his symptoms, thankfully, stayed out of his chest. His experience was a ridiculously sore throat that lingered on for days and a lot of fatigue. He developed a cough that was pretty constant but other than that seemed to feel okay. He took eleven days off of training as his body recovered. The only exercise he felt up to doing was going out for a short, daily walk. During this time is focus was on rest and allowing the body to recover as much as possible. He slept nine plus hours most nights as his body demanded rest. When he felt like he was recovered enough to begin training we had a conversation about what to do, and what to expect.
The Return to Training
Kelly and I discussed what training would look like for the next couple of weeks and developed a game plan to return him to full on Ironman training. We also set expectations as eleven days off of training would make paces and power feel a lot different. Kelly knew he might feel a bit slower and his power might not be where it was before.
Below is how we are planning to work through the next few weeks:
Week 1: Short Aerobic Efforts. Since Kelly has an indoor training space set up (both a smart trainer + treadmill) I started him off with a couple of days of aerobic rides only. His goals for the workouts were a.) keep the power in zones 1-2 only, b.) pay close attention to his Heart Rate. If it crept up above zones 1-2, he needed to back off the power.
Week 2: Short Aerobic & Mid Aerobic Efforts. The second week I reintroduced a “normal” training week with intensity tweaks. Again, everything was aerobic. This week Kelly had short swims and runs, a strength session, and some longer rides. Just like Week 1, his goals for the workouts were a.) keep the power (or run pace) in zones 1-2 only, b.) pay close attention to his Heart Rate. If it crept up above zones 1-2, he needed to back off the pace or power. c.) for the swims if he felt odd or abnormally fatigued he had the go ahead to cut any swim set short.
Week 3: Aerobic Efforts & Testing some Intensity. Next week will be Week 3 of training. Kelly will have one tempo run and one tempo bike to see how his body responds to a little more intensity. In between these sessions will be aerobic workouts of mid-length as we start to build his weekly volume again. His goal for the tempo workouts will be a.) adjust power or pace accordingly but try to hold your zone 3 power/pace, b.) watch heart rate closely and back off if it creeps above zone 3. He has the go ahead to cut anything short or stop the tempo efforts if he feels abnormal fatigue.
The Progress
So far all of his training is looking good coming back from Covid. His heart rate has stayed low while riding in both power zones 1 and 2. During his run training, he slowed his pace and kept his heart rate in zone 1, with no crazy spikes in his heart rate or red flags that we need to be concerned about. He has been able to complete all of his swim training without issue. I think we are both excited to see how next week goes, as it will be a bit more of a test on what he can do moving forward.
We’ll continue to take it day be day. Progress can be slow, but it’s there. There are a lot of positives to take away with how things are going so we’ll continue to build on those! For now it’s working through the new plan and working toward his ultimate goal: Ironman California.