On May 13, 2012,
in Swim: 7200 yards
Bike: 174 miles
Run: 25.5 miles
Time: 16:49
Half of these totals were over the last two days after coming back from Jamaica….
Enduring and getting the itch to go for it again….
Life is fun but definitely not supporting my tirahtlon ambitions right now.
We’ll just have to carry on!
May 5th, 2012
Background
Location: Cedarville, NJ
Distance: 0.47-mile swim/20.9-mile bike/4.23-mile run
2012 Triathlon Race Number: 3
Career Triathlon Race Number: 117
Conditions: Overcast. Mid 60s to low 70s. Humid. Light breeze. 68-degree water.
I awoke at 4 a.m. and drove the 52 miles to Cedarville for my 6th Devilman race. This was to be the 4th year in a row that I competed in the Sprint after earlier doing a Half-IM at this race site twice. This was my 3rd race of the 2012 campaign and I was coming off two narrow AG wins down in Virginia.
234 triathletes were racing as individuals with 15 in my AG. Typically, this race is very competitive and indeed in my 5 prior attempts, I had only achieved 1 AG win. Looking at the roster of guys in the M55-59 YO AG there were some pretty strong triathletes but my sense was, at least on paper, that I was probably the favorite.
I had a 27+ hour training week the week prior and the days before the race I felt quite sluggish, which I attributed to my body absorbing the training load. What I didn’t know, that I now do know, is that I had most likely caught the bug that had been plaguing my son for the prior week and my wife for the past three days. I didn’t know this on race morning, and my expectation as awoke long before dawn
Last week was very light:
Swim: 6780 yards
Bike: 128 miles
Run: 29 miles
Time: 14:20
Be patient, RC!
secondly, I did not do well at the Devilman sprint.
I had an excellent swim followed by a very distressing bike and an even worse run. Will be spending a few days evaluating the data to determine why and what I should do about it. Like all tri data I suspect there are ins and outs but my guess is that I’ll need to make a mid course adjustment between now and when I flip the switch on 7/1 for my Kona prep. Maybe, I’m getting older and now a lot slower or maybe is was a blip and I’ll be right back on it. As to the latter, after 117 triathlons I suspect not. My guess is that I’m not nearly good enough right now–even considering my holding back training wise. Could be old age but my guess is that I’ve taken the “holding-back” thing too far….
Race report shortly as my life gets very complicated going forward. Jamaica next week–my wife’s best friend’s 50th. Annapolis sprint next Saturday. Two graduations the week after….yikes…Eagleman and RAAM right around the corner. MY initial thought is to bail on Eagleman, especially given my domestic duties before and after the race when Judy and the girls go to Europe and I’m with the the two dogs (after Alex goes to his post-grad beach house)….It’s really difficult to even find the time to train hard given my schedule….
I want
10,000 on 3/10/11
20,000 on 9/27/11
30,000 on 5/1/12
Averaging around 50 per day!
http://www.trackpackpa.com/union-rags/#.T5VuEMAnch0.facebook
Swim: 36,750 yds
Bike: 897.5 miles
Run: 160.9 miles
Time: 90:50
Swim: 10,500 yards
Bike: 282 miles
Run: 42 miles
Time: 27:08
so obviously, a big training week. Certainly, it would look right at home during my 14-week IM build that starts July 1st. Although, if I was truly in IM mode, I would have worked out 6-8 fewer times and several of my workouts would have been considerably longer.
Still, this was my first real deal, I’m serious about this, week of the year. It’s of-course, too early for this, but with a three week window between races and no work overnight travel (for once–yea!), I was able to make triathlon job one this week. and to be honest, I skipped 3-4 workouts because I could see where the week was heading (30+ hours).
The actual doing of this week was great. the quality of the workouts was at a much higher level so I brought both quality and quantity up this week. I’ll spare you the details, but it was good! I’m thrilled that I can just crank out such a work-load and still have my body say no big deal and still have my mind wanting to do more. I could feel the fitness beginning to come on this week. Exciting!
Next week, I need to step back from the ledge and have an easy week. It’s too early to peak up but this week told me that it’s available. I could get a whole
I measure my %-tile finish against the Overall pool of racers in each triathlon. I do this for the race as a whole and for each of the SBR legs. I then take the top 5 (roughly my top third each year) %-tiles in each category and average them and set that average as a measure of my best potential performance for the year. Once I establish this empirically derived %-tile potential, I can compare any race to it and determine how far away I was from racing to my potential.
To illustrate, let me show you the calculation for my 2011 swim legs. My top 5 %-tile (Overall not Age Group) finishes in 2011 were:
1. Walker Minnesota Sprint: 98.6 %-tile
2. Tuckahoe Sprint: 96.4
3. Bassman Sprint: 95.3
4. Philly Sprint: 93.6
5. Lake Lenape Sprint: 92.8
The average for these five races
