Any thoughts on swapping the mid plan Half Monty with a Full Frontal ? The plan before and after the scheduled Half Monty looks fairly gentle and I would prefer to get the consistency of measurement from another FF. I’ve done HM just once and it came out with higher numbers than expected compared to a FF test. Only downside would seem to be slightly higher stress from FF but the plan seems to accommodate that OK.
I was just about to ask the same question today, though for a different reason. I’ve got HM coming up next week and I don’t have a heart rate monitor, so I was thinking of subbing in FF instead. Any reason I shouldn’t do that?
If you’ve done a few HMs and are aware of your HM results v FF results, then stick to HM. I prefer to do HM about a week before FF
Pulling a Full Frontal test into your plan where Half Monty is scheduled comes with a couple of considerations. Half Monty is used mid-plan because you generally need less taper/recovery before doing it, and it produces less fatigue afterwards. This means that you can maintain more intensity on the overall week or two surrounding Half Monty than if you were to do Full Frontal there. In order to be rested enough for a valuable FF, you really need the entire week to prep for it, and then another 5-7 days to recover from it. If you’re not on a plan that ends with an event, then the plan will end with a Full Frontal, so you’re really better off maintaining the consistency of intensity through the middle of the plan and doing Half Monty. You’ll have the pleasure of doing FF 6 weeks later, and you’re more likely to see better improvements after 12 weeks of solid training than 2 blocks of 5 weeks with a week of recovery in between.
@huliyska, since you don’t have a HR monitor, then yes, you can either do FF or skip it and do a regular workout instead so that you don’t end up having to take all that time to prepare and recover.
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Thanks Suzie.