Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 15)

It looks like I might be next on the race schedule.  My HM is coming up on May 21 and I feel I am ready for it right now.  I should set another PR and my overall goals are: 1:35:00 and be pretty happy with it or 1:31:00 and be ecstatic about it.  I feel pretty comfortable about the first, the second will be an ideal day with the best circumstances.

My first race is a sprint..."C race" on May 8th...I think.  I'm not really sure how to race a "c race" but I guess I'm going to do it. :-)  Is this one of those things where you do the race like you are training, but if anything starts to hurt or you have an issue, you call it a day?

Fell off the wagon the last two days.  Went to the Red Sox game on Tuesday and then yesterday I got home around 6, went to take a power nap before my bike/run and woke up at 9:30...then layed there for an hour and fell back asleep and woke up this morning at 4:45. 

I'll be back at it today.

I would say that if you have it classified as a 'C' race, then you train right through it.  So your prior week's workouts are all according to plan, even the day before.

As for race execution, do your best.  It's practically mandatory that you race for your best time in order to practice for your 'A' races in terms of preparation and pacing.  Make it a goal to have the fastest transitions you can since that's a source of free time.  And because it's a 'C' race it won't be a big deal if you make a mistake or two while rushing.

'C' races are also a great time to play with nutrition and hydration strategies and pacing strategies.  Let's say you've always wondered how well you would run if you gave it your all on the bike?  Or how would you run if you purposely slowed the bike down by 1 mph?  'C' races give you this opportunity.

Plus you are getting a great 1+ hr training effort at threshold....something I don't have the balls to do when training on my own on a Saturday. 

You get all these benefits for the low low price of $45!  BUT!  If you act now, you can also get a t-shirt and some gels and maybe even a finisher's medal.... 

Good luck Greg!  I'm excited for my Very First Tri on 7/2. 

Good luck Jonathon!  What's a "C race"??? 

Good luck to everyone racing soon.  It's great to see the season really starting up.

A "C" race is just a very unimportant race.  "A" is the main target race(s) you are training for.

I had never considered using the "C" as a test of something like what would happen to the run if you hammered the bike all out.  My running is so bad I've often wondered if I'd be better off hammering the bike to get a few extra minutes and letting the run fall out.  I may try that on my first sprint (which is a "C" race also).

As we discussed HR zones previously, this gives you a great opportunity to determine your threshold, both as a running pace and a heart rate.

Do you have any idea how fast to set your pace from the start?  You may have a 'feel' for how fast you can go from your previous training experience or you may have done some other event or distance that can give you an idea?

Do you own a heart rate monitor?

Right.  I don't like 'A' races.  The reason is that (as I understand it) this is a race that is super important to you.  You only have 1 or 2 of these in a season.  If I'm that invested in having my best possible performance with only 1 or 2 shots at it, I'm setting myself up for failure and disappointment.  A large part of that is due to my particular performance-under-pressure issues.

'B' races are races that I want to do really well in, but I'm not going to structure my training around that race itself.  I have a lot of these.  I structure my training around a whole 'season', or around a 5 year plan.  For a 'B' race I will take a 1-2 day 'taper' and do my best.  Since I have 5-10 'B' races per year odds are a few of them will be good performances and I'll be happy enough.

The 'C' races I train right through....like mtn bike races and 5k races.  It's probably a 'C' race on Sunday if I also raced on Saturday.

If I ever stretch myself to race longer, the first time I do a half IM I will probably be treating that like an 'A' race.  Or maybe I'll plan 2 of them with the first one being a 'C' race just to familiarize myself about the race distance before trying it for real.  And the same would go for an IM which I don't plan to ever do at this point.

I have yet to plan any C races but I have done a few B races.  I try not spend to much money on racing unless it is a race I want to perform well at.  I am on a fairly tight budget most of the time and I would rather spend my cash on gear and a few good races.  After my girls are out of school and I have a little more disposable income I will probably race a little more, including more 5k and 10k races and some sprints.

Good luck Dirk!! 

What kind of HR monitor do you have?  If it is a Garmin you can download that info into your log, which would be very beneficial to help understand where your HR is during some of your runs. 

A way to look at any 5k race is "pain management" if you are looking at trying to blitz the course for a personal PR.  Personally, because I am a competitor, I try bust out on these races and go hardcore.  Races of longer distances require a little more pacing strategy.

What are your goals for the upcoming race?

I was pretty upset I couldn't collect heart rate data from my half since the monitor wasn't catching my beats.  I have a Polar bike version, and it's a few years old so I'm not sure if the battery is finally dying or not, but I bought some Buh-Bump cream to try to make the contact better.  Has anyone ever used this stuff?

Hopefully an upgrade to a Garmin GPS/HR watch is in the future, but I'm also a bit tight on the tri budget.  I have a Garmin 205 (GPS only) and the Polar bike watch (HR but no GPS), so I look like a total nerd with both of them on to get both HR and GPS data.

A weak battery is certainly the most likely culprit.  I bought a closeout HR monitor/watch a few years ago.  It had dead batteries when I got it.  Probably had been on a shelf for 3 years.  But new batteries are pretty cheap and easily replaced--especially in the chest strap.

In fact, I still use it quite a bit because the equipment at the Y all read polar straps. 

If your HR monitor has the ability to store and access the data later it can give us the ability to make some inferences after the race.  If not, just use it to show you your max from the race.

Is this your first standalone 5k race?  Do you have a plan as to how to pace it?

Deb, just looked back over your training log and I see a lot of 5k training runs that are in the neighborhood of 35:00.  I am guessing that those runs feel challenging, not easy.  So a great goal to set for this 5k (or for this season as a whole) might be 30 minutes.

The most important thing you can do to get your best performance (after the training is done) is to properly pace your race.  As we've discussed before, that's usually a perfectly even speed throughout (or depending on the course and hills...the equivalent of an even pace).

After the race begins, pace tends to take care of itself.  But the early stage of the race is where pace is most easily blown.  With the excitement of the event, you will find that what feels like a 10:00 per mile pace is really probably a 9:00 per mile pace until reality sets in.  Your first mile needs to be within a few seconds of 10:00...and even more importantly, that first 1/2 mile needs to be within a few seconds of 5:00.

What I always do when running a road race is to start at a pace that feels too slow.  If it really is too slow, it doesn't ruin your race because you will make that time up later.  But 90% of the time it really isn't too slow, it just feels like it for 1/2 a mile.

A GPS watch can help.  If you don't have one you need to go by feel.  And as I've already suggested, 'feel' on race day isn't the same as on a training day which is why you go at a pace that feels slower than 10:00/mile.  Since you train around 11:00/mile, if you try for that pace off the start...you will probably be around 10:00.

There will likely be a mile marker at the first mile and you can either glance at your watch, or listen for someone shouting out the times.  But regardless of what the clock says, you can't just will yourself to run faster.  Either way, no matter what the clock says, that first mile must still feel within yourself.  You shouldn't have the urge to walk until maybe around mile 2. 

Hope this helps.

yeah, sorry...I was looking at the wrong calendar.  My "C" race is actually June 12th. 

That's some good advice, Jeff.  I have already started practicing the mount/dismount every time I ride outside...but to date it's only been like 8 times or less.  I will obviously consult my coach, but I do limited nutrition for sprints.  Maybe a bit more for olympic and I'm sticking to those shorter races this year. 

My longer runs have, in a couple instances, worked up my stomach pretty good.  This is something to look for during my races.  I always end up having a lot of gas for some reason.  Maybe because these runs are at the end of the day after I have eaten all day???

Looks like we're about to hit race season for the group.  I'll try to list everyone's next race so we can keep track - update if I'm wrong:

Deb (colwin21) - 5/15 5k

Dirk (dirkp) - 5/21 half marathon

 Greg (gti123) - 5/22 *** FIRST TRI ***

Jeff (Jeffy) - 5/29 sprint tri

Bryan (bdj6020) - 5/30 duathlon

webert (Tim) - 6/11 (and HIM on 6/18)

Warren (wbayek) - 6/18 Sprint tri

perdium - 7/24

Thanks Warren, I think I'll paste that into my log so can keep track of it a little better.

____________________

I just completed my largest overall tri training week I have had.  I have had some big run weeks prior to my marathon but nothing for all 3 disciplines has taken in this mus time and distance.  Now that I think about it, I have had larger weeks in each of the three disciplines independently, but overall this is at the top of my volume "gauge."

Here is the week totals:

I just changed my HRM battery.  I was getting some really outlandish readings yesterday during my ride.  Nothing real high but the readings were lower than they should have been for where I was in my workout.  I was about miles into my 6 mile interval when I looked and saw my HR at 125-ish, I should have been 145-150.  I saw other low spikes that were lower a few minutes later and then everything seemed fine with it until about 12-15 miles left in the ride, then I saw more stuff all over the board.

BTW, mine is a Garmin 305 w/HRM.