Short Course Week of July 6-12
Race day is over team, time to get back on the training schedule for the next event.
Tomorrow is swim day on most plans. After my race, I certainly need that! Showing improvement though so the work seems to be paying off. Remember to practice your nutrition plan at every workout to get your body used to taking in those calories while you work.
Have a great week team.
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To celebrate (?) I'm doing a crazy triple this weekend starting Friday night with a 5K Run followed on Saturday late afternoon with a 2-16-2 Duathlon and ending on Sunday morning with a Sprint Triathlon. Piling it on to say the least. Should be fun if I can recover enough to race on Sunday morning.
@ Ralph - Great job setting a PR by 4:54 on the James Island Sprint race.
We went for our second open water swim with wet suits today. It's harder than it looks. I'm having a hard time with my pace because I don't have any cues to how fast i'm going. I tried counting my strokes. Not too helpful. My sighting was better today.
@ Cousin Ralph- How do I pace a sprint? The rides got one decent hill. Will be riding small shoulders with traffic. Is it more of a pedal to the metal and hope I can make it across the finish?
I'm planning a gel at each transition and a bottle of scratch on the bike. Thanks for any help or guidance.
@ Jacklyn I've been focusing on Sprint Tri’s (ironically) since joining EN. Primarily because after my first 14-week OS, my speed increased dramatically so I’m taking this as far as it takes me. Tim Cronk told me this last year about pacing a Sprint:
“Swim like there’s no bike, Bike like there’s no run and Run like someone is chasing you”
The truth is that a Sprint Triathlon is not really a sprint – in the literal definition. But it *is* going as all-out as your conditioning will allow – or at least going faster than your comfort zone. That is, except for the swim which I find that its better to negative split – starting too fast can be trouble even in short races. Good Luck.
Last year, I joined EN 8 weeks from my final tri of the season, which was a sprint. The distances were .47 in the water, 13 on the bike and 5K run. One of the WS members in the haus told me to swim as I usually do (I've been swimming since I was knee high), get on the bike, take 5 or so min to get my groove on, then break the bike into 2x20 min pushes a la what we've seen in some of the SC training, and then run like hell. I followed that advice and had a super amazing race. I am doing the same race again this year and will be following the same protocol.
Good luck, have fun, and we will expect a full report!
@ Jim and Elizabeth- Thanks.
The 2x20 for the bike leg sounds like a good idea! The run is what concerns me. I'm a newborn runner so I don't have a lot of endurance yet. I'm working on it.
I rode the course yesterday. Averaged 17 mph without trying to hard. I'm a much stronger rider than runner.
Next question? would you take the time to put on your heart rate monitor in T1?
For the SC races, T1& T2 are areas of free speed and faster times. I spend a good amount of time practicing T1 & T2 (usually during the taper days before a race) and I'm always in the top 10% getting in and out the Ts. I also don't wear socks on the bike and run - but that takes some getting used to during normal wko's.
A point in case on how important transitions can be, two weeks ago I raced the ITU Chicago Sprint and the transitions were rather long due to the logistics in downtown. I had the fastest at 4:00 & 3:00 min while the 2nd place guy was 4:45 & 3:30. That's 1:15 free time!
@Jacklyn - I agree with the strategy with the 2 X 20 for the bike and the run like hell. For the swim, I go with the "T-pace". The few extra sec/100 you get by "red-lining" I think you lose when you exit the water and run uphill (usually) into transition. Besides, with the adrenalin, a T-pace on race day is still pretty darn good pace!
@Ralph - way to go! I remember last year you were wondering if all the training would pay off, now you see the results!
After two weeks of mostly "maintenance" fitness stuff, I tackled week #16 and did the entire scheduled workload! So, I think I am back on track to my SC goal this year - week #20 at the Sprint Nationals - with Jim (kinda, he is in the next age group and way faster). This week I will back off a bit on the run and bike since I have a local sprint race as a rehearsal. Although it is only 800m. 15mi bike, and a 5k run, it will give me a good assessment of where I am heading into the last three weeks!
@Joe, Even though I am doing the long course plans mostly this year, it is nice to see improvement.
Ok. I see that Oceanside HIM just opened up for next year. I haven't even done a sprint yet. Oceanside is the HIM I want to do but is it too soon to jump that far? I understand the concept of signing up for motivation sake but I don't want to over reach to soon. I'd prefer not to be a walking wounded. I'm trying to build a solid base of core fitness before I jump to the moon. What do you WS people think?
I think the WS and Coaches mantra would be to think about what is going to work for you, your schedule and your family. HIM training will be pretty intense, but a "oh, what a feeling!" when you cross the finish line! Keep us posted!