After years of racing a new goal

I'm going to try something new for my last race of the season.  I am going to try to win.  OK so I am NOT going to try to win the race overall, I am realistic, but I am going to try to win my age group.  I have had some success racing shorter sprint triathlons and duathlons in the past.  In fact, this year I came in second in one and third in another.  But this race has one MAJOR difference, I am training to WIN this race.

What's the big difference?  Normally I go into a race with a goal, sometimes its a time goal, other times it's a training goal, and often it's just an I love to race goal.  But there is a fundamentally different mindset required going into a race with THE goal of being first.  To start, training quality becomes paramount. What do I mean by this?  Every training session takes on a distinct role, as you build toward your higher fitness level.  It is no longer good enough to just get out there.  Each training session has a specific purpose and fits into a specific part of my race plan. Oh and did I mention I have a race plan!  I will approach the weeks and days leading up to this race as a rehearsal.  I will not be satisfied with merely getting fit, I will perfect and practice disciplines I normally take for granted (transitions anyone).

OK, so I put it out there, now I have to execute.  As I write this my training journal is informing me that I have 9 weeks, 4 days, 13 hours, 22 minutes, and 56 seconds until the race.  I already have week one of my training / race plan in the books and it went exceptionally well.  I missed one workout, but I managed to adjust my plan to compensate somewhat.  I didn't stress over missing that one workout.  I have been at this long enough to know that flexibility is just as important as sticking closely to the plan.

My plan involves getting significantly stronger on the bike in the next 9 1/2 weeks.  How will I do this?  With a couple of cool tools!  My Compu-trainer is the main weapon in my arsenal and I have been monitoring my wattage very closely over the last 8 weeks.  As I embark on my race plan, I am just below my best watts / per kilogram ratio and the goals is to hit a new personal best 2 weeks prior to the race.  I am relying heavily on training videos by The Sufferfest (if you haven't used these training videos, you are missing out).  I also plan to drop 3 - 4 pounds which should help immensely.

I am setting my time goal to be slightly faster than the guy who beat me earlier this year.  Now of course, someone faster could show up at the race, but I will tackle that problem during the race if necessary.

My race and training analysis has told me if I am going to win this race, it will come down to the second run.  This has always been my Achilles heel in the duathlon.  Looking at my second place from earlier this year was very enlightening.  I was 1:25 behind the front runner after the first run ,which I ran very conservatively (so maybe I won't do that this time....).  We basically had the same bike time ( I was definitely not at my best in April so I plan to take back some time on the bike) and I out transitioned my nemesis (sounds much better than the guy who beat me) by 35 seconds.  So after the two legs of the race I was 50 seconds behind which means, I would have needed to run about 20 seconds per mile faster than him to win.  Of course that didn't happen and in fact I gave back 1 minute and 16 seconds over the last 5k.  One glimmer of hope in my analysis was that my nemesis ran a full minute per mile slower on the last 5 k where as I ran 38 seconds per mile slower, perhaps I had a bit more left relative to when I started.  This give me hope (although as my boss like to tell me, "Hope is not a strategy").  So it's pretty obvious a big part of my plan will be doing a lot of track work over the next 9 + weeks.

I am looking for some training partners as well, so if you need some very challenging workout (or some really easy ones) look for my posts on Facebook and come join me for a winning good time.

See ya out there......


Robert