Goal: I started the year with the goal of becoming a full time duathlete. No triathlons or bike racing this year. I had begun seeing good results as a duathlete and I decided to see what I could do if I focused on the discipline.
Let's start with the race reviews and then work backwards looking at the training that led up to the race and seeing why the races went the way they did.
Race #1: Hagerstown duathlon #1 - read the race report here.
Grade: C
Too many mistakes for someone who has been racing as long as I have. Add that to the fact that I was racing a duathlon with a mere 25 TOTAL run miles on my legs and that explains the C grade somewhat. Despite those facts I had a decent race for the first race of the season. I had a fair amount of bike training under my belt, but not much outdoor riding due to the bad Maryland winter. I actually road faster over the course than I had 6 months prior, mostly due to a lot of VO2 max work and functional threshold work on the Computrainer. My second run let me down a bit, but this was to be expected owing to the few miles I had run in training. I paid the price for the hard effort and within an hour of finishing the race my calves were already getting sore; a sure sign of too hard an effort on too little training.
I had little time to recover as the next day I was off to a 5 day training camp in the Blue Ridge mountains. Peaks Coaching group offers a power training camp where you ride in the morning and then analyze your power files when you return. This was a great camp, but I suffered greatly the first few days, having not fully recovered from the race the day before. I put in over 17 hours and 240 miles on the bike that week. Needless to say I was tired when I got home! I took it easy most of the week and then re-tested most of my key metrics. Just as predicted, all my metrics, FTP @ 20 mins, 5 mins, 1 min , all rose after the huge workload and some active recovery. I now had 4 weeks until my next race.
Race #2: Cascade Lake duathlon
Grade: A-
Unfortunately I never did a race report for this race so I will do a brief synopsis now. The short of it is, I won my age group and placed 7th overall! So why the A-? I was unhappy with my bike split as I had predicted a faster split having raced this course faster previously. Still, it was hard to be too dissatisfied with a win! So how did I get there? After my huge workload from the training camp and my recovery week I started working on longer, tougher workouts on the bike and run. I ran more miles in the 4 weeks between this race and the first race then I ran in the first 3 and 1/2 months of the year. Cascade Lake is known for its short, but very tough (read hilly) bike course. I was toughening up for the hard effort ahead. I added a long run every week and a run / bike brick every other week to get ready. In hindsight, I should have added some hill climbing on the bike and perhaps that bike split would have been closer to what I expected.
Race #3: MD Olympic duathlon
Grade: C-
This was my goal race for the year and it was a major disappointment. I had raced this race 3 times prior, so I know the course (it's hard) and I should know what is required to do well. Now a major reason why this race went as badly as it did was I got sick two weeks before the race and could not train at all week leading up to it. I arrived at the race medicated up to my eyeballs, with an upset stomach and slight case of vertigo. The smart athlete would have just used this as a training race and moved on, but alas since this was my goal race and I tried to race it anyway. Bad idea. I was lightheaded and dizzy and really out of it to start the race and about an hour in, even though I was feeling better, I could feel my energy levels fading. The last 2 miles of the bike really took their toll and although I transitioned quickly and started off at a reasonable 8:30 per mile pace as soon as the road spiked upwards the wheels (or legs in this case) fell off. The heat coupled with being sick brought on a wave a nausea that forced me to stop and walk. After the wave subsided, I would start running again only to be hit with another wave of nausea. This went on for the rest of the race. I finished with my worst time ever in this race. Even though I was sick I went back and looked at my training over the 7 weeks between races. Most of my training was bang on, but I did note one glaring omission. I had no long runs! My longest run in the seven weeks was 5.5 miles way too short for such as hard race. I need long runs of at least 75 minutes to harden up for a race with 10k of running over hot, hilly terrain. I will definitely rectify this next season.
At this point in the season I had no other races planned. Since my A race had turned into a disaster I decided to target the second Hagerstown duathlon as another A race. I had quite a bit of time before this race so I scheduled another duathlon about 3 weeks ahead of the final race to test my fitness. With my race schedule set for the rest of the year a new wrinkle emerged. I had to go to Florida for a month in August! Its freaking blazing hot down there! I found this out the hard way as I tried to start my long run around 9 am in the morning. I was fried in 45 minutes and had to walk a fair amount of it. After that experience I was on the road by 6:30 AM every morning! Being forced to get up so early forced me to get every workout in because I knew if I missed the morning opportunity I would not get a second chance again that day. This was by far my most consistent training of the year and my results were incredible. By the time I returned back to Maryland I was in the best shape I had been in a few years. The addition of the long runs had made my run really strong and the bike workouts even included a Strava KOM. After a nice recovery, I headed off to my next race. Oh yeah one other point of note; my run mileage TRIPLED between races.
Race #4: Central Park Duathlon - read the race report here.
Grade: A
One of my goals for the year was to get to the point where all of my duathlon runs were sub 8 minutes per mile. The Central Park duathlon was where I made that goal a reality. I also started using a new tool for pacing on the bike; Best Bike Split. Best Bike Split helps you predict your pacing based on your FTP and a profile of your bike and the race course. It will then create a Garmin (or PowerTap Joule) workout that you can follow during your race to ensure proper pacing. I tried it out as a test in the race and it worked fairly well. Best Bike split predicted a time of 34:36 for the course, and my actual time was 34:56. Given the conditions on the course (read the race report for details) this was startlingly accurate. I subscribed to the service the next day. Against a very tough field I finished 4th in my age group and 27th overall. Even more importantly to me, my first and second run splits differed by only 25 seconds. This is significant because it showed I paced the bike perfectly and was able to have a strong run off the bike; a significant improvement over previous years. This left 3 weeks to get ready for my last race of the season.
Race #5: Hagerstown duathlon #2 - read the race report here.
Grade: A
This race was as close to perfect as I have been in a while. My planned time was 1 hour ten minutes which would have been a PR by about 2 minutes. Instead I went 1 hour 8 minutes 9 seconds! I demolished my PR and I actually think I may have underperformed on the bike! Best Bike split had predicted a split of 27 minutes and 16 seconds based on a normalized power of 225 watts. My actual split was 29:07 with a normalized power of 196 watts. The Hagerstown course is back loaded, meaning the toughest part of the bike is the last 3 miles. Even though I rode fast, I was somewhat conservative in the opening part of the course saving my strength for the end. In retrospect, I probably could have pushed harder on the bike. I know this for my next race in Hagerstown, which incidentally will be my first race of 2015. I once again used Best Bike Split to pace my race and for the most part it was pretty good. One gripe I do have, for courses with lots of grade changes some of the segments are very short requiring frequent changes in power output. For instance, look at the first five race intervals for this race:
Race #5: Hagerstown duathlon #2 - read the race report here.
Grade: A
This race was as close to perfect as I have been in a while. My planned time was 1 hour ten minutes which would have been a PR by about 2 minutes. Instead I went 1 hour 8 minutes 9 seconds! I demolished my PR and I actually think I may have underperformed on the bike! Best Bike split had predicted a split of 27 minutes and 16 seconds based on a normalized power of 225 watts. My actual split was 29:07 with a normalized power of 196 watts. The Hagerstown course is back loaded, meaning the toughest part of the bike is the last 3 miles. Even though I rode fast, I was somewhat conservative in the opening part of the course saving my strength for the end. In retrospect, I probably could have pushed harder on the bike. I know this for my next race in Hagerstown, which incidentally will be my first race of 2015. I once again used Best Bike Split to pace my race and for the most part it was pretty good. One gripe I do have, for courses with lots of grade changes some of the segments are very short requiring frequent changes in power output. For instance, look at the first five race intervals for this race:
#1 00:00:36 0.22 mi 0.22 mi 21.37 mph 180 watts
#2 00:00:33 0.13 mi 0.35 mi 14.45 mph 273 watts
#3 00:00:32 0.2 mi 0.55 mi 22.74 mph 172 watts
#4 00:00:48 0.32 mi 0.87 mi 23.89 mph 219 watts
#5 00:03:03 0.99 mi 1.86 mi 19.43 mph 237 watts
#2 00:00:33 0.13 mi 0.35 mi 14.45 mph 273 watts
#3 00:00:32 0.2 mi 0.55 mi 22.74 mph 172 watts
#4 00:00:48 0.32 mi 0.87 mi 23.89 mph 219 watts
#5 00:03:03 0.99 mi 1.86 mi 19.43 mph 237 watts
Trying to dial in a certain power output for 30 seconds is pretty tough, by the time you get it dialed in you are switching to the new power output. Its not until interval #5 that you can really dial into a pace (perhaps a better strategy would be to find a reasonable mean value for a series of short intervals and use that instead). At any rate, I plan on giving the guys over at BBS some feedback and seeing what they say. The other notable improvement in my training leading up to this race was a commitment to weekly run intervals on the track. This allowed me to have my best run splits of the year and maintain my goal of sub 8 minute miles for both runs. My run splits were also quite close in this race, only about a 20 second difference per mile between the 1st and 2nd run.
After I reviewed the year, I went back out of curiosity and skimmed over my races from other years. I noticed an interesting trend. My best races always seemed to come in September and October. Interestingly, a lot of my goal races were in May and June. I have decided to change this for obvious reasons! One of the things I have struggled with, is getting my athletes to keep good training journals. I think a lot of them don't see the point or the value. Hopefully this will give them some insight into just how useful this information can be. So I am gearing up for the new season using this data, I hope everyone takes the time to look into their data as well. If you have questions or comments I would love to hear them. Have a great 2015!
Happy New year!
Coach Rob
After I reviewed the year, I went back out of curiosity and skimmed over my races from other years. I noticed an interesting trend. My best races always seemed to come in September and October. Interestingly, a lot of my goal races were in May and June. I have decided to change this for obvious reasons! One of the things I have struggled with, is getting my athletes to keep good training journals. I think a lot of them don't see the point or the value. Hopefully this will give them some insight into just how useful this information can be. So I am gearing up for the new season using this data, I hope everyone takes the time to look into their data as well. If you have questions or comments I would love to hear them. Have a great 2015!
Happy New year!
Coach Rob
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