B Race Date Change, How to Adjust?
Looking from some advice from the smart peeps out there. Here's the details and some possible courses of action (COAs):
Problem - My B race for the year (Incheon 70.3) got moved from July 5 to September 20th due to the ongoing MERS outbreak. That places it 3 weeks from my A race (IM Louisville - 11 October).
Good - My last four months have been crushed with work travel. Not demanding in and of itself, but I've spent exactly three weeks with my bikes and ready access to my pool in the last three months at my 'home-away from home in Okinawa'. I've jumped the international date line too many times to count. The rest of the time has been spent in hotels or at my real home in Louisville (no bikes). Run training has been decent, swimming some but not ideal, bike very little with gym stationaries. I had exactly zero expectations for the July date and was doing it only because I wanted to race and get overseas race swag. Now that the race is in Sept, it should be MUCH cooler.
Bad - I'll probably eat the airfare and possibly the hotel I've already paid for. Although not in prime shape, I was looking forward to this race. All the other timing issues currently in discussion
So, now I have some options:
COA 1. Full refund, forget about it, focus on Louisville.
COA 2. Transfer to the September date and decide how to race both.
Obviously, COA 1 is easy and clean. However, I did want to do this race for a couple of reason (I spend a significant amount of time in South Korea for my job, racing overseas is fun and a bit different from racing state-side, I wanted some different t-shirts that few other tri-geeks would be sporting). None of that has changed.
If I go with COA 2, that puts a whole new set of possibilities in front of me. The timing will be three weeks out, should be 'okay' from a recovery perspective but it has definite 'mess with my race rehearsal' potential, specifically RR2. IM Louisville remains far and away the highest priority to me. Once I get back to Japan, my schedule will settle down significantly and I should have a relatively clean build without much work travel thrown at me. So here are the thoughts that come to mind if I do the race:
COA 2A - Race Incheon all out, RR2 a week later, and IM Louisville as planned. Is that a 'good' idea / do-able from a physical standpoint given a quality, EN style IM build. Will that allow a quality IM Louisville execution?
COA 2B - Race Incheon as a training day with reduced intensity on the bike/run. Would probably give me a similar outcome to if the race was on its original date from a performance/results perspective and would come at a lower physical cost, enabling a better RR2 and IMLou. Potential downside to this is that on game day, I would have a hard time not going 'all-out' (relative to me and whatever fitness I had at the starting line). I know me and regardless of what actual fitness I have, its hard for me to not push it when other doodes are kitting up and going at it around me.
COA 2C - Execute RR2 a week out from Incheon, race Incheon all out, and recover and do IM Louisville. No idea on the 'smart-ness' of this COA.
COA 2D - Some other option I haven't considered yet???
Random context - Incheon will be / would have been my second half. Louisville will be my sixth full (3rd time on that course). Other races between now and Louisville are not an option due to timing/location, other race / event organizer availability, and my unwillingness to give WTC any more money until they address the 5Q issue to my satisfaction. Right now, I live on Okinawa, Japan and our races fill quickly. Louisville will probably be my last WTC event for the foreseeable future as I'm going to do a Japanese event company long course race next spring and then start to work on a Boston qualification marathon as I look at the 45-50 AG window in my not-to-distant future. Any fiscal costs (although not insignificant) are not a major driver in this decision either way.
What say you guys?
Comments
Racing an HIM 3wks out from an IM is a bad idea, especially if you want to do very, very well in the IM and both are races that will require you to travel a lot, bouncing international date lines, jet lag, tossing your bike around the world, etc. I can't even begin to imagine that.
My advice, given your stated goal of doing well at IMLou, is to bail on Inchon and move on.
Nope. Doing an HIM 3wks out from an IM is bad idea, regardless of the travel, admin stuff that may or may not be involved. Would be a MUCH better use of your time to stick to the plan and get in the IM-specific training and volume in that week vs racing an HIM.
^This^ would be my advice for an HIM + IM combination for anyone, with a separation of only 3wks.
Roy, You already know the answer --- COA1 is the only option that preserves your highest priority. All others will seriously impact Priority#1.
Just kidding. Refund and double down on the Ville it is. Thanks for the feedback.