Just a quick recap to bring us up to the present. I ended my last triathlon season with the Long Horn 70.3 race, where I had successfully executed a 12 week build up, and saw the fruits of that build up on race day. It wasn't perfect, but I exceeded my expectations, had confidence that I could self coach myself to newer highs, and was enthused for the coming off season.
I entered the off season with a run focus, and procured the assistance of Gorilla Multisport's David Gillen to write my workouts and give me guidance. I made some good strides in improving my run, and had several PRs over the course of the 4 months of focus.
On the heels of my last running event of the run focus, I jumped in to tri training upping the bike and swim volume from 1-2 times per week, to normal tri prep levels. I spent 4.5 days at a tri camp in Tucson logging a lot of miles in a short period of time, and within a few weeks, my cycling fitness felt very good for this early in the year.
For the Jan-April period, my training volume was up 65 hours over those same four months the year before. Year to date I have swum 90k yards, biked 1,228 miles, and run 333 miles.
All are stats I should be proud of, and I am. What I'm a little disappointed about is that I failed to execute on the prescribed volume in my most key weeks leading up to this race on Sunday.
It wasn't for lack of motivation, but illness. In early March I came down with a wicked GI infection that knocked me out of commission for 5 days, knocked 6 lbs off of me, and just so happened to occur on the first week of a big 3 week block. That week was lost, so I scaled down weeks 2 and 3 of the block knowing I was going to be a bit weak from the weight loss. I was able to hit the prescribed 11 hours of training the following week (3/16-3/22) however I couldn't bring it up to the prescribed 13.5 the following week coming in at just 10.5.
The second big 3 week training block was slated for 4/6-4/26, and again was derailed by sickness. This time, a respiratory infection, probably worsened by allergies that just go nuts up here in North TX every spring. I was able to hit the 11 hrs prescribed in week 1 (4/6-4/12) which came on the heels of a pretty good race in Galveston the weekend before, and was off to a great start to week 2 of the block until it came on. I went to the Dr. early, got antibiotics, but the cough lingered and fear of bronchitis forced me to keep the volume in check. Rather than hitting 13.5 hrs in week 2, I hit 7.2, and rather than 15 hours in week 3, I mustered 5.5.
Not ideal to say the least.
So the down side to all of this is that I don’t have peak fitness, and don't have a block to taper down off of, and I still have a lingering respiratory infection that hasn’t fully left me. I've had to modify the taper a bit by just keeping the volume consist in the 8-10 hrs range and will hold that clip right up to race day. any more and I'd fatigue, any less and my fitness would drop too low too fast.
The upside however is that I’ve got a pretty big block of fitness under me that has built up over the past 10 months. I also know that fitness being equal, I am a better runner now than I was 7 months ago. The other upside is that I think I can fine tune my race strategy a bit having had two 70.3s under my belt going in to this one.
I’m not really anxious or nervous at all which I attribute to experience from the prior two 70.3s, and just need to always be playing it conservative at every turn out there so I don’t wilt. The opportunity for an epic bonk is very real!
So my thoughts for the race are that I need to play it conservative, NOT GET SWEPT UP IN THE EXCITEMENT OF RACING, and focus on executing my race strategy. That means that I need to chill out as soon as I can on the swim, especially after the beach start which always sends the HR up, and makes for a little more chaos than I'm used to at the start of a swim. On the bike, I know I'm going to feel good out there. I'll have the race wheels on, the aero helmet on, and it is going to feel fast. I need to chill out and go SLOW for the first 20-30 miles or so.
I wouldn't be surprised if I swim a 30 min swim (6 mins slower than PR), bike a 2:50 (7 mins slower than PR), and have 7-10 mins of transition time before I even hit the run. That means I hit the run right around the 3:30 mark. The run is a complete crap shoot still unfortunately. I'm pretty comfortable running sub 10 min miles, but am not confident I won't be forced to walk because I'm a little concerned about the heat and humidity when I get onto the run. It should be approaching the low 90s as the run ends, and I’m sure it will be steamy. We’ve actually had a pretty mild spring thus far so I have not had the opportunity to bake myself a little bit in preparation.
I don't think I'll PR at this race. Part of the reason is because the swim at my PR race was about 5 minutes short. If I can come in around 5:45, I'll take it.
So here are my race goals in no particular order:
- Swim smart, stay on course
- Don't let my HR sky rocket in transitions
- Stay aero, but sit up and stretch at opportune spots (up hills, tailwinds, turns, etc.)
- Supplement wisely
- Chill out until the 10 mile mark on the run (because I'll be in survival mode at that point any ways)
- Minimize the walking on the run course to aid stations only
- PR my run split, which is currently 2:21.50 (a whopping 29 mins slower than my stand alone half)
- Shoot for 5:45, but don't watch watch. If it happens, it happens.
So there you go. I'll check back in post race.
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