Planning 2016: The Data

Last post I outlined my goals for 2016. Next up is looking at the data to help with the actual plan. I had looked back at my results at the end of the season (detailed in this post) in order to assess my relative strengths and weakness, with the hope of rectifying the weakness over the offseason. The data yielded few surprises, and my main offseason focus was on improving my run. Since then I've gotten back to a more even distribution of the 3 sports, starting my preseason in mid-November. Here's where I stand in terms of the data.

Swim
I've been swimming using SwimSmooth's CSS protocol. I've only been at it for about 5 weeks now, and it's up in the air whether or not I've seen any gains. My second CSS test showed a faster 200 but a slower 400, which resulted in a slower overall CSS. But then two nights later I was coming in on 200 repeats at about the same speed as my 200TT two days earlier, so perhaps the TT was on off-day. I'm going to keep one weekly session dedicated to CSS but get back to speedwork with the other session.

Bike
The power meter has given me good data, and after 6 weeks of base-building with Trainerroad, I did a second FTP test to see my progress. My FTP had gone up by 30W, which is a lot for 6 weeks. However, I'm sure a significant portion of that is me regaining my bike fitness after the offseason, so it's not a "true" 30W gain, more of a reflection of my poor fitness when I did the first test back in November. Still, the progress is encouraging and gives me confidence in the results I can get if I stick with the plan. 6 more weeks of base then into the build phase.

Run
Since my 5K in October, I haven't done any assessments, and have been running exclusively on the treadmill since I started my preseason. I don't really trust my treadmill's distance readout, and don't have a footpod, so there's no real way to assess speed. And that's not been my focus anyways. I've been strictly doing Zone 2 runs. However, I am seeing progress - I can run at higher speeds for longer while keeping my heartrate in the prescribed zone, so this is a sign that my body is adapting. Realistically it won't be until I get outside again (late March? April?) that I can really see my progress here.

The Plan
So the current plan is mostly based on last season's data, but I'm watching the numbers from this current pre-season as much as possible in order to monitor progress and make adjustments to my goals and to the plan itself.