Another thought, and Race Plans

A few days ago, I wrote:

During 2006, I was running 56 minute run splits for Olympic races. I blamed my slower run splits in 2007 on the 15 pounds I put on while working as a teacher that year. But I have lost half of that excess weight, and my training runs are faster than they were back in 2006, so I expected my run splits to be better than they were in 2007.

So, what else changed between 2006 and 2007? It dawned on me this week: Gatorade! I used to fill my bike water bottle with Gatorade. In 2007, I switched to water with a pinch of salt in my bottle, and Gu for energy.

After writing this, I did a long bike ride followed by a short hard run where I used Endurolytes during the workout. I was pleased with my run pace, and immediately thought – Voila – electrolytes are the answer! But it was only a short run. And the bike was an easy pace. That’s not really the same thing as a race!

And, I felt awful for two days afterwards…I had an aversion to salt and felt sluggish. I will keep exploring the use of Electrolytes, but I’m not ready to call it a magic bullet. Actually, the more I travel down this triathlon journey, the more firmly I believe in “Kaizen“.

Another thought occurred to me today. The two olympic races in 2006 in which I ran a 56 minute 10k were ‘A’ races, where I had followed a hard 3x training plan that peaked for those races. (By 3x I mean 3 workouts per week of each sport.) Currently, I’m sort of winging a 2x plan. It’s silly for me to try and compare “Over the Mountain” to those two races.

I have decided to make Pinehurst my “A” race again this year and see if I get a top three spot there. Lake Norman, which was going to be my “A” race this year, has now been demoted to a train through race. I had originally thought it was my best bet to get a top three spot. But now that I’ve accomplished that goal, I’m shifting my focus to olympic distance races. I like the training volume best for that race distance, and I want to figure out the bike/run pacing equation for that distance. So, I need to start following a hard 3x plan again!

I’ll do the Duke 1/2 again this year for “fun” and as a benchmark of my fitness level. I will work it into my training plan as a hard bike workout. That’s what I did in 2006, and found the race to be quite satisfying. OTOH, I found it to be quite unsatisfying in 2007 when I treated it as an “A” race. My favorite thing about that race is the challenging choppy swim!