I've already mentioned that I will be racing for PBM Coaching this season. However, it feels so much more official now that I have the uniform, which is badass. Not only does it have a solid design, but I am a huge fan of orange and black. While I don't really feel like I am in race shape - I am definitely aware that I am at a level of fitness that I am content with. But if you know my mindset: the word "content" is merely a stepping stone to something like "ecstatic" or "amped". What has surprised me is that even though I'm 12+ lbs over race weight, I have been rather comfortable hitting 7:00/mi pace on runs of any distance (even 13 miles) and my cycling is continuing to improve quite a bit - I averaged 22.3MPH on a 20 mile ride that was a very comfortable tempo. That is something that I've never really done much of before, but know it's a good sign this early in the year.
The Kit.
The greatest difficulty I have been having is remaining disciplined and focused in my own training. I feel this is purely a matter of having had no structure whatsoever to my training for well over a year and wanting to take my competition to the next level, but not knowing fully how to do it. I had a long period of mental lapse, which hurt my fitness quite a bit, but really hurt me in that my weight jumped from:
- January 30: 160
- March 5: 145
- March 15: 156
- March 24: 152
- April 11: 163
- April 23: 157
- April 29: 162
Now, that's a frightening fluctuation in weight. Athletically, sure, it sucks - but it is horrible to jump weight around like that for general health. So, in order to 1) be smart and 2) be fit, I need to slowly get back to where I belong at below 150. I have always felt smoother, stronger, and overall better when I am down at that range. I've been reading Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes by Monique Ryan, which is a great resource and has an excellent focus on proper planning for optimizing training. The timing of meals is something I know was beneficial, but this book has shed some great light on it for me.
Above written April 28,2011
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April 30, 2011: Post Race.
So, for the race: The Flower City Duathlon, Rochester, NY. 5K/20mi/5K (actual distances: 3.20mi/20.06mi/2.80mi). Two nights before I could not sleep at all, I slept a total of about three hours and just could not get comfortable. This resulted in me eating 250g of chocolate bars and just overall feeling like junk.I made sure to get in bed as early as I could while still actually being able to fall asleep. I got to bed around 9:15PM, giving me 8 hours sleep - which is quite good for a 5:15AM wake up time. At 6:00 I brought my bike over to transition and got a great spot (the TA is about 1K from where I live), then came back and walked over at 6:35. I arrived at 6:45, and got everything together. Met up with Mike Hoffman, a good friend of mine, and got situated then did a 1.5mi warm up. The area wasn't optimal for a bike warm up so we stuck to the run.
(Badass pic of Mike Hoffman and I at the start...and the only time I looked any bit good in the race! Although Mike was quite solid throughout.)
The race started out at a good pace, not too fast, but my legs could not find a groove. There were 4 of us up front (in the under 40 group) and at around 2.25 one guy made a bit of a move and Mike went with him. I was feeling strained already and decided to hold back just a little to save for the bike and second run. I was also confident in my T1 to gain back some time. They finished at 18:30 and I came through in a fairly weak 18:43 (5:51/mi). 5:51 should be a pretty comfortable pace and something I should be able to tempo hard (but not race) for 10K. I had a good transition, 0:49 and four of us left T1 together. Mike and I took off pretty well on the bike, flipping the lead a couple time and moving along. Had a quick chat being pumped about rolling as the top 2, which was pretty sweet. Then bad things started to happen. At about mile 5, on a small (and this course is flat) hill I felt my calf start to twitch - early signs of a cramp. I ate properly coming into the race and was confused as to why I was already getting signs of cramps. I kept rolling, but Mike started to get away from me. I kept hold of him as best as I could without forcing cramps, but he was able to get a full minute on me on the bike. At mile 16 I threw up a little in my mouth and was burping for the following 5 minutes, which threw off whatever I did have going for me. Also, I was passed by 3 people on the ride - 2 from the U40 age group and one guy who was 45 and started 3:00 after the U40 field. He absolutely demolished the bike (fastest leg by 2:00). I finished with a 54:36 (22.0MPH), 38 second slower than my comfortable tempo ride on Tuesday. Coming into T2 as I was pulling my left shoe off, my hips and hamstrings cramped simultaneously: luckily I was able to somewhat quell this by standing up and stretching (slight downhill helped me out). I had an okay dismount - struggling to not force more cramps - and went into T2. My fingers were a bit numb as it was still low-mid 40's, and I had the worst time trying to get my helmet off which was pretty frustrating. T2 was in 0:37, and I got out on the road again and was 20 seconds behind 5th place and 30+ seconds behind 4th. At this point the wheels were falling off and I was just focused on keeping my turnover and heel striking so I wouldn't cause the calves to fully lock up (typically I'm midfoot, especially in racing). I just focused on the back in front of me and caught 5th place in about 1.3mi, he stuck with me until about mile 2 when I put on a surge to drop him. He started to hold but then I opened a gap. This single surge was the only time I felt like I was moving during the entirety of the race, and it was only 30 seconds or so. I tried to reel in Mike as much as I could, but nothing was working for me and I only gained 6 seconds on him in the run, whereas I can normally drop 30+ seconds like nothing. I finished the 2.80 mile run in an abomination of 17:30 (6:15/mi). Total time: 1:32:14 for 5th place (3rd in M20-24), 0:25 behind Mike (4th place) and 4:03 behind the leader.
Now, after the race I have two options: be disappointed because I had a pretty bad race overall or learn from this. First lesson: I need to train properly for tri's and du's, recently the whole of my focus has been on cycling, which has paid off in recent races. However, this has left running on the back burner and I haven't done a single real workout since December. Workouts begin next week and so do bricks! Second lesson: SLEEP is extremely important. I felt pretty uncomfortable during the entire race today and the race was a constant grind, from the gun. Third lesson: Get fit - both physically and nutritionally. These go hand in hand and I am working toward this, effective really yesterday (Friday).
The good thing about losing a race: it highlights areas of improvement and lets you know there is a lot of work to be done. Considering how horrible I felt throughout the entire race, it went quite well. I'm definitely going to talk to Kurt about the next steps to take, but it will definitely include work towards triathlon - not bike racing. I have a road race tomorrow morning (which will be interesting) and a race next Saturday. After that the UR Cycling season is over. However, next week's bike race will simply be a hard effort at the end of the week and I won't be specifically training for the race itself.
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