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W.D.L. August 2017: Finding the Best Place to Push Your Next Race
Time for another installment of this coach video and learning series. This is a chance for me to cover some of the topics that have come up in my coach calls and conversations over the past month. No surprise then that racing is on everyone's mind. Everyone wants to be faster, and who can blame them? There is nothing wrong with expecting or searching for extra speed on race day… but you have to do within the context of how we operate here at Endurance Nation.
In this video I discuss not only the baseline criteria for a successful race, I also cover how you can identify and execute on areas of performance by discipline and distance. While there is no one way to get faster on race day, there typically is a right and a wrong way! 
As long as you set the proper understanding and define your strategy, you should be successful. I look forward to your comments.
Key Points:
As long as you set the proper understanding and define your strategy, you should be successful. I look forward to your comments.
Key Points:
- Know the basic EN pacing strategy for your race (Racing Member Central).
- Set baseline performance targets off of your own personal history (training or ideally racing at that distance).
- Be successful doing ^that^ first, before advancing to the next level...
- "Push Option 1" is to improve the logistics of transitions and aid stations to capture all available free speed.
- "Push Option 2" is to focus on the bike, by body type, according to the terrain.
- "Push Option 3" is to focus on the run, first by extending your final kick, second by targeting key terrain.
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Comments
Transitions are one that anyone can take advantage of to gain time over their competition. At LP 2017 there was a guy who took 90' in T1, but even 3-5' can make a difference.
In my most recent IM race of 15:42:XX at Lake PLace I did not have any bike push option. I was just trying to get over the hills without burning my self out, 7:50:XX with a 302 TSS, 1.16 VI, .63 IF were the final numbers. This pacing while not optimal because of my w/kg's, too many kg's was reasonable to allow me to push the final 3 miles of a 6+ hour marathon (6:01:32) ~4 minutes slower on lap two. So even if you are on the back end of an IM race with respect to overall time you are still rewarded by reasonablly good execution. I call it reasonable good as my VI and NP were not where they should have been on say a flatter course but I also knew this going in and knew that I would have to push the final 1.5 hours into town X2 laps with watts in the .85 section more than I would like.
So even if your primary goal is just to finish these principals apply to everyone. Pushing for a 26' PR in Lake Placid this year or you could be like my 2015 Lake Placid finish in 16:5X:XX where I only finished with 5-6 minutes to spare and not pushing in transition or slowing down on the run (walk) would have cost me a 17 hour finish.