HIM or Century 11 weeks before IMLP
Here's my race schedule for 2010:
April 3: Golden Gate Headlands 7 mile race (C race): This is a trail race that I'm doing with my sister in law in California on a visit to see the family.
April 11: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler (B race); This is my favorite running race, and I'm hoping to improve on my 1:09:25 from the Army Ten Miler last fall. This will take the place of the end of the Outseason half marathon.
April 17: Rumpass in Bumpass Olympic Distance (C race): Early-season race to get me motivated to get swimming again. It seems early in the season to be swimming outside in Virginia, but the lake is heated by a nuclear reactor . . .
July 25: Ironman Lake Placid (A race, obviously):
I'm considering doing the Kinetic Half or the Virginia Capital-to-Capital century; both are on May 8. This is 11 weeks before IMLP. I know that the coaches don't like us doing a Half within 12 weeks, but one little week couldn't hurt, could it?
Both events are in or close to Richmond, which is where my in-laws live. So this would kill two birds with one stone--a visit to the inlaws, and an excuse to be out of the house all day! Coincidentally, the century goes from Richmond to Williamsburg and back, so I could see my own parents in Williamsburg for a few minutes at the turn around point.
This is my second season doing triathlons. Last year, I did four sprints, an olympic (2:26), and a half (5:21). My main focus is IMLP, but I'd like to get in another race or two as long as doing so doesn't jeopradize IMLP too much.
What's the consensus?
a) Kinetic Half
b) Capital-to-Capital Century
c) Regularly scheduled training
Comments
There's a pretty sizable opportunitiy cost to a HIM. Much less so with a century. The biggest thing is that you don't want to have to take 2-3 days before (taper) and 3-5 days after (recovery) out of your IM build.
Century sounds like a fun training day (you could still get in your FTP intervals during the ride, and accumulate a bunch of 85% time). HIM sounds like opportunity cost. I'd do the planned training or the century if I were you.
Mike
I would go with the century as well, less cost to the body.
A half in early May is fine for IMLP. Gopher it
P
@ Rich: what about a half exactly 1 month out from LP just before the taper begins in earnest? Dont mean to throw him into this without being able to answer for himself, but Gleason and i have talked this over quite a bit and he makes a good case for using it as trianing to round up the build and begin the taper.
Remember that my reasons for doing tupper a month before LP have little to do with maximizing performance at LP. If you recall correctly the reasons were [not in any order]:
-cause its close and it is fun and my friends are always there and I like to talk smack, drink beer etc.
-cause I never wanted to put a year of training or six months or whatever all on one day that I could not really control. What if my crank breaks or someone kicks me in the head at placid 5 mins in, what if I crash the day before and can't play etc. I have never had a reason to be tiger focusing only on the majors or lance on the tdf, this is all for fun.
-I raced on zero taper, moved the long run from thurs to tuesday, swam longish on friday and raced saturday. Swam sunday and was back on the schedule on monday. I also shut it down the last few miles of the run, when it came time to really hurt and push through I made the conscious decision not to as I knew I would need to go deep into the well of pain at LP and wanted to minimize time spent there.
-I need to race to be able to race. Playing with the race toys, focusing on the transitions and actually racing is good for me as I tend to get very unsharp otherwise and do stupid stuff.
-It had worked fine for me in the past pre EN. There are about a million variables to this IM thing and no one can predict what is better or worse on any given day. We have seen people with ideal prep leading up fall apart and those who have crazy things happen, getting crushed by a car, being hurt and not being able to run for 6 weeks etc. have kona qualifying races. IM is not a math problem, all you can do it get ready the best you can and hope for the best.
ALL THAT SAID, R and P's advice not to race that close to an IM is something that I totally agree with. IIt is entirely logical and has yielded good results over many seasons and a lot of people. The really hard thing about all of this is it is hard to know if you have good and or bad results because you do certain things or in spite of them.