Race, Recover, Repeat

It's June and summer has unofficially arrived - the days are long and beach weather is here.  In my last post I mentioned some of the early season races I had planned.  It's been a relatively unusual early season for me with bone Island back in Jan when I'm typically taking some down time and unstructured training.  Instead, I trained through the holidays and cruised into February needing to take things easy and go with the flow a bit more than usual.  I definitely stayed active but never really got settles into a consistent training progression.  My primary goal for this season is IM Chattanooga on Sept 28, so I knew the timeline didn't require too much through early spring. So even though I stuck with my racing plans I haven't been as prepared as previous years for these early events.  I just finished a month of what can best be described as race, recover, repeat...although the recoveries have been less than complete due to the 7-day turn-around cycle.  I didn't plan it out specifically but this was essentially a one-month kick-start to my 2014 training - a little fitness by brute force.

Here's the rundown:

May 10 - Kinetic Half - A perennial event for me with a challenging run course.  The swim always feels like crap this early in the season but my run is typically pretty decent despite the two significant hills on each of the 3 loops.  This year I had a solid bike but dialed back the run knowing that I wanted to get some quality training on over the next few weeks before Raleigh 70.3.  Still, I probably couldn't have run more than 3-4min faster if I was giving it 100% - definite sign that my run training is lagging.

May 17 - Cary Long Course Duathlon -  Another race I've done every year for 4-5 years.  The run course was different this year because this was the USAT National Championships and they moved the transition area to accommodate a larger field.  I'm usually top 5-10 in this race but this year actual duathletes showed up - guys who had been training for this specific race for months. I struggled some on the second run and I got my ass handed to me but didn't think much of it. Still qualified to race for Team USA at the World Championships in Zofingen, Switzerland this September - as if I can afford a trip to Switzerland for a 3-hour race.

May 24 - Mountains of Misery -This isn't technically a race but if you are at all competitive then a 100+ mile ride with 10,000ft of climbing is a challenge you might be interested in accepting.  I learned last year that the lead group doesn't stop at aid stations...EVER.  They literally rode over the the first climb at 60 miles and kept on trucking.  I had no choice but to stop to fill my bottles and grab some calories.  This year I was prepared with 4 bottles and plenty of nutrition.  I didn't stop but just barely missed hanging with the lead group to the finish.  This was still my best ride on this course in about 5 years and I was in the top 20 overall - not bad for having one 60-mile long ride in dead flat VA Beach for for training.

Here is my TrainingPeaks file and Strava log for the data geeks.

June - Raleigh 70.3 - This was initially planned to be an "A" race but really turned into a "B" race because I simply hadn't been training specifically for it as a priority.  Still, it was a good test of my current fitness to see where I'm starting from.  I had my typical swim, a good bike although on the slow side based on my split, and respectable run.  I'm basically a perpetual 32min swimmer no matter how early or late in the season.  I suppose I could put some focus on my swim training but it would take an inordinate investment of time to trim a couple minutes off my race...and I don't like swimming.  There was a light but steady head wind for most of the ride so I'm assuming that's why my split was slower than I expected.  My goal for the run was to go out easy and not blow up despite knowing that I didn't have good long run training.  I struggled a bit around miles 7-10 but managed to hang on well enough to finish 4th in my AG and earn a slot for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mont Tremblant, Quebec on Sept 7.  I passed on the slot because IM Chattanooga is 3 weeks later and that's my priority this season.

Splits from IM 70.3 Raleigh - HERE

June 8 - Jamestown Gran Fondo - Another NOT race but why not go as fast as you can?  This is a pretty flat course and we had a small lead group of 5-8 most of the morning.  Around mile 20 I looped back to help a friend who got a flat and had to push it pretty hard for the next 20min to get back on the group.  I don't know if that ultimately hurt me but I cramped up badly with about 6 miles to go and had to sit up and cruise it in easy.  I logged a decent 4:31 for 100+ miles on a road bike.

All in all it's been a busy month with a series of big weekend events separated by a week of marginal recovery training.  I still managed an AG podium at Raleigh 70.3 and a couple of World Championship qualifications so I guess I can't complain. Overall I think it will do me some good and it's early enough that it won't impact the start of my IM training.  One last kick in the nuts before I settle in for a few months though - Ragnar Trail Appalachians this coming Fri/Sat at Big Bear Lake Campground in WV.  I'm racing with an ultra team so I'll get about 35 miles of running over ~18 hours.  My team was second overall last year and this is probably the best trail running I've done in my life.  I highly recommend checking it out.