Race Report - Cascade Lake Sprint Duathlon

Race day started cold and dreary.  Wet roads, clouds, and sub 40 degree temperatures meant this race was easily outside of my comfort zone.  Despite the conditions, I was determined to repeat the success of the previous two years in which I had come in 1st and 2nd respectively in this race.  In conditions like these, nutrition is a key element.  This being the case,  of course,  I forgot to check my supply of Hammer nutrition Endurolytes that I carry in my bike bag.  Normally I take 2 Endurolyte tablets 1 hour prior to race start.  However, when I checked my supply I found I had run out!  Never a good sign, I decided to drink a little extra Hammer nutrition Heed prior to starting the race.


Run #1

The race went off on time and and I stuck to my plan of running slightly faster than my training pace since the first mile is downhill.  I went through the first mile @6:52 so I knew I was just about on target.  The next mile is uphill so I expected my time to slow and it did.  I was looking to run a 7:45 to 8:00 pace, but I was slightly off that time and the cold was definitely affecting my breathing.  Despite feeling winded my pace was about the same as last year even though I didn't feel nearly as good.

T1

T1 went smoothly and I made up time on some of my rivals and even passed a few as I left transition.

Bike

I started well, passed a few people in the opening 1/2 mile, which is straight downhill, before you turn onto the first climb of the race.  I was rolling at close to 30 mph just as I hit the first climb and took a few swallows of Heed. Within a few pedal strokes I knew this was going to be a long day.  The Cascade Lake bike course is nothing but one hard climb after another.  I can usually tell on the first climb how I am going, and I knew pretty early on I was not going well.  Despite putting up good power numbers in training, I was unable to replicate those numbers in the race.  Look at the difference in time between the first climb (0.6 miles in length) last year and this year:

• 2015 Climb #1: 3:04 12.6 mph
• 2016 Climb #1: 3:29 11.0 mph

That's a huge disparity coming so early in the race.  Granted there was a headwind, but that does not explain the entire time loss.  I was also none too pleased to see 2 of my age group rivals pass me on the climb.  So I began a chase that would last the entire bike leg.  My times as the race went on got better, but nowhere close to last year.  For most of the bike leg I could see my rivals but whenever I tried to close the gap, it would get a bit smaller then balloon out again on the way up the next climb.  Finally I decided to just pace the bike as best I could and let the run decided the outcome.

T2

T2 was quick and uneventful.  I finished off my Heed from the bike and out I went.

Run #2

My running has been improving greatly the last two years so I felt confident I could close at least some of the gap on my rivals.  I wasn't sure if it would be enough but I was going to give it my best shot.  It really just depended on how much time I needed to make up.  Unfortunately the last run is only 2 miles.  I was running strong right out of transition and immediately passed some other runners.  After about 1/4 of a mile I could see the two guys in my age group who were ahead of me.  They were a good 90 seconds up on me by my estimation.  I needed to run really fast to close such a big deficit.  One guy I passed latched onto me and we ran together until about 1/4 of a mile from the finish, when I upped the pace just to make sure I didn't lose my overall place.  To make a long story short I didn't catch my two rivals and ended up third in my age group.  I did manage to pass other runners and hold off any chasers so the race was not a total loss.

I didn't feel tired at all after the race.  That is a good sign my fitness was there even if my race results didn't show it.  I also stuck to my nutrition plan (with the exception of the missed Endurolytes, which I re-ordered I might add) and I think that kept me in the race.  I downed a bottle of Recoverite to jump start my recovery as soon as I crossed the finish line.  Hard to be too disappointed with third place, especially when the top step was in reach.  Check back in 3 weeks time to see how I manage in my first triathlon of the season.

Peace and good training.

Coach Rob

Hagerstown Duathlon #1

Well the first race of the season snuck up on me!  I was sick for a good part of February and my son decided to share the flu with me, so I missed a bit of early March as well.  As luck would have it, my family was scheduled to go on vacation near the end of March and I got a much needed rest and some great open water swimming in while vacationing in Barbados!  Unfortunately, we had to return back to the cold northeast, but when I got back I was rested and relaxed.  I dove into training with vim and vigor, but I knew I was a bit short of training due to illness.  I decided to race my first duathlon of the season as best I could but I had no real expectations of a great result.

The Hagerstown duathlon is a sprint duathlon consisting of a 1.9 mile run, 10 mile bike and 5k second run.  It's a fast course.  It has now been added to the USAT duathlon series, which in addition to giving some props to duathlon, also attracted a stronger field.  The increased competition is great and makes it all the more challenging to have a podium finish.

The weather started off cool, but warmed up nicely by the time the race started.  I positioned myself in the front of the field and made sure to check everyone's calves for numbers between 50 and 54.

Run #1

The race started off fast, my plan was to run a conservative 7:30 per mile pace and try to keep the competition has close as possible.  However, there were a number of racers in my age group clearly running sub 7 minute miles.  It was tempting to try and pick up the pace and stay with them, but I stuck to my race plan and kept a conservative 7:26 pace (clock time said I ran faster but I swear by my watch!).  I came into transition in 7th or 8th place.

I had an uneventful T1, I was just trying to focus on picking off age groupers on the bike.

Bike

I had the full TT rig for this race, featuring my new PowerTap P1 pedals for transmitting my power data.  I had set a goal of riding the 10 miles @100% of FTP.  This should not have been to hard since I anticipated the whole bike portion would take 30 minutes or less.  I set a goal of 100% FTP for the 10 mile course and I totally nailed it.  Maybe when I re-visit this course in the fall I will shoot for 102%.  The bike course really didn't take too much out of my legs (it is fairly flat with just a few sections to climb) and has some slightly downhill sections where you can really push the big ring.  I managed to work my way up to 6th place on the bike and I could see a gaggle of people in my age group maybe 30 seconds up the rode, but I could never get any closer than that.  Seems they were pushing the pace as well.  Just as I got into T2, I saw one of my age group rivals who I race against frequently still in transition.  I figured with a good T2 I might have a shot at catching him.

T2 was equally uneventful. I switched shoes, ditched the helmet and got out of there.

Run #2

I ran out of transition hoping to catch a few more people (I was still dreaming of the podium) about 1/4 of a mile out of T2 I caught my first rival, thanks to latching onto the heals of a young lady who paced me like she was my own personal rabbit!  I was now in 5th place and hoping to move up.  As I ran downhill toward the turn-around I saw 2 other racers in my age group.  They were at least a minute ahead and did not appear to be waiting for me.  I had to accept the reality that this was as close as I was going to get.  I still kept a good pace as I approached the finish, always weary that someone might be trying to catch me too.  My goal was to run as close to 7:45 per mile as possible and I ended up running 7:40 per mile and running a personal best 2nd run on the course by 10 seconds.  I missed a race PR by 20 seconds but considering I am rarely in my best form this early in the season I am cautiously optimistic.

All things considered, a great way to start the season.  It was all the more enjoyable since one of the women I coach made the podium. I feel a sense of accomplishment, even if I didn't get a chance to stand up there with her.  My next race is 4 weeks out and I already feel good about it.  Check back in a month's time for the full story!

Peace and good training!

Coach Rob

The Year in Review - Looking ahead to 2016

Before looking ahead, very often it pays to look back.  In my role as a coach this is very often the first thing I do with new clients when I start to create a training plan for them. Before I decided to do actually analysis, I tried to remember how I felt about the races I did to see if my perception actually matched reality.  So here is a brief description of my recollection of the 2015 race season.

Race 1 - Hagerstown sprint duathlon: I remember I was not feeling well going into this race.  I got sick a week or so prior to the race.  I thought I did OK all things considered, but I definitely was not pleased with my time.

Race 2 - Cascade Lake sprint duathlon: I went into this race feeling pretty good and rested.  I came in second in my age group in a sprint to the line.

Race 3 - Meals on Wheels Sprint triathlon - I had no real goals for this race, I was "training through" this race. I felt that my run let me down a bit however.

Race 4:  MD Olympic duathlon: This was my A race.  I trained hard and did really well.  I was very pleased with the results.

Race 5: Fort Ritchie Olympic duathlon:  This was a "filler race", thrown in for "fun".  No fun was had, as the course was brutal and I was fighting a bit of a cold.  Despite this, I managed to win my age group.

Race 6: Parks 1/2 marathon: I got hurt 2 weeks before the race, but I am too cheap to give up my entry fee.  I struggled the last 2 miles but still managed a new PR.

Race 7:  Hagerstown sprint duathlon: I was ready to pack it in for the season and recover from my various niggling injuries, but since it was a sprint I decided to have a go at it.  I managed to win my age group, but just barely.


Last year I began paying attention to my training stress balance or TSB.  Training stress balance helps you predict when you are in peak racing form.  Of course there is an element of trial and error when you first start looking at your TSB to know what TSB will produce the best results.  According to Allen and Coggan in their book Racing and Training with a Power Meter, "The majority of personal bests occurred with TSBs between -5 and +15." Based on this statement and using my perception of my training fatigue and perception of the quality of my training I decided to try and hit TSBs that were slightly positive going into my races.  Let's see if my TSBs were at all predictive of my results.

Race 1 TSB: +11

As noted I was not feeling well going into this race so I took the last week before the race off.  Hence my TSB shot up to 11.  Coupled with my less than perfect health I had only a mediocre race.

Race 2 TSB: -2

I had a great race!  Read the full race report here. I ran and cycled to my training potential in this race and it showed with a very competitive second place in my age group just missing out on first in the sprint to the line.

Race 3 TSB: +5

Despite the fact I had no real goals for this race, I felt I underperformed.  When I looked back on my training leading up to the race, I saw I took the 4 days leading up to the race as either totally rest or very easy.  In hindsight, I should have continued training normally right up to the race with perhaps only 1 day rest day.  Since I am racing this race again this year, I will modify the run up to the race accordingly and see if my results are better.

Race 4 TSB: -2

This was my "A" race for the year.  Check out the full race report here.  My goal was to PR the course and I did, so I was very happy with my performance.  Scoring a top 10 didn't hurt either.  I had my best and most consistent training of the year when I look back on my training leading up to the race.  Three weeks prior to the race I hit my highest FTP of the year during my quarterly FTP test. This is probably a good 8 week period to emulate in the run up to future import races.

Race 5 TSB: +2

I added this race late in the season to have something to do.  It was fun and very challenging. Unfortunately I got sick and missed some key workouts so I went in undertrained.  Given that there was a 4 mile climb on the course, this obviously had an effect.  I still managed to take first place in my age group, but I chalk that up more to luck than preparation.

Race 6 TSB: +17

I upped my run mileage significantly going into my longest run of the year and the result?  Hamstring tendonitis.   I had to cut back on my training significantly to even be able to run the race.  Hence the super high TSB.  Luckily I had built up enough stamina to run a decent race and I collected a PR in the process.  Despite that I feel I have a better race in my legs since I was unable to really run fast on the downhills.

Race 7 TSB: -1

Not my best race, but not my worst either.  I was nearing full recovery going into the race but not with the volume of training I normally would have had going into a sprint.  I managed to grab first place with a strong second run, overtaking the leader with about 1.5 miles to go.  In addition, I had a good ride in some very bad crosswinds.

So what conclusions did I reach after all looking back?  My best performances came when TSB was 1 or less.  In addition, in all cases my TSB was increasing, i.e. coming from a lower TSB to my race day TSB.  The races I was most unhappy with were a result of injury or illness which caused me to miss sufficient training and which ultimately sabotaged my results.  It will be interesting to see how low my TSB can be before it affects race performance.  I should note that I always taper a bit before a race, even sprint races, so my TSB is always rising going into a race.  I may experiment with training right through some of my less important races this year.  I should also not that on many occasions my TSB was very negative during training, as low as -40 at one point!  Evidently rest (too much rest anyway) seemed to doom my results so I will up my volume this year assuming I can stay healthy and injury free, which is tough with a 5 year old son running around!

I hope the above analysis proves useful for you own training.

Peace and good training!

Coach Rob