by: Mike Hamberger - DC Running Coach, LLC
Planning your race schedule for 2012 may not be as hard as it seems, but of course I'm a coach and this is one of the main services I offer: The mental approach to training and racing…the thinking before the actual doing. Before you even lay out which workouts you're going to do, you have to know how many weeks or months you have to work with before some meaningful event. Planning the races (and often the specific race distances) in particular months of the year is the first step to ensuring your training plan isn't a hodge-podge of workouts as you attempt to juggle triathlons and road races at various distances, plus the prospect of century rides and open-water swims events.
Here then are the 6 basic considerations to help you make sense of it all:
1) Weather. First things first, I write this blog to anyone living in the Mid-Atlantic region, who must contend with the different seasons. If you live in San Diego, for example, or somewhere else with 365 perfect days to train, this Blog may not be for you. :) If we accept that we typically only have about a 3-week window for which to be in "peak condition" then you may want that time to coincide with the most optimal weather, the fall. This combination of peak weather and peak workouts creates a powerful combination. And to be totally candid, this is why National Championship races in the earlier months of the year put us Mid-Atlantic athletes at a disadvantage. Your most important race can certainly be in July or August, but in terms of being in peak condition during that time, don't count on it, as endurance athletes will struggle to truly maximize the training in the muggy summer weather. Therefore, the best season to hit your own personal peak is in the fall. It doesn't mean you can't be fit and race well (or even win your age-group) in the hot summer months, it just means on a person-to-person basis, you should expect to be in top shape in the Fall. Having said that, use late July and August as "training months" and save your peak races for the Sept – Nov.
Also, because the winter weather is not conducive to prime outdoor training, don't expect to peak in April or May. Again, it doesn't mean we can't train hard and become really fit in the winter, but that is also a time typically reserved for more recovery, strength training, and technical correction, which implies that peak workouts must be put on the back burner. So, if you follow this logic above, you can hit a peak in June and September (DC Tri + Nation's Tri) based solely on using the seasons as your guide.
2) First triathlon? Because most first-timers struggle with either learning how to swim (period) or getting open-water experience prior to their first race, your first triathlon should not be in April or May. Use April and May as a time to get 2 more months of swim practice in the pool, plus its two more months to potentially get out in a lake, pond, or ocean prior to the race. The same rationale holds true for cycling. Use April and May to gain experience cycling outdoors. As much as they kick our butt, spin classes don't offer the same lessons in positioning, pacing, and stress as the real thing. Running takes less of a hit in the winter months, so the rationale here for the first timers is more related to swimming (primarily) and cycling (secondary). I talk many first-timers out of early spring races and they are better off for it.
3) Century rides. Related to #2 above, if you're preparing for your first century ride, give yourself as much time as possible to make this an enjoyable experience and wait until the summer or fall. The summer weather isn't as big of a factor in choosing to do a century ride. There are plenty of rest stops and the ability to cruise at your own pace.
4) Marathons. Once again, this is related to the weather. Can you run an early spring marathon, or even one in the winter? Yes, you can, and you can do quite well. However, if you are looking to run your best marathon, or get a Boston qualifying time, the winter weather in the Mid-Atlantic region just simply isn't conducive to making this a reality, where not all of your key workouts can be done without any hiccups from frequent scheduling issues. I convince the athletes I coach to register for a half-marathon in March rather than the full marathon, like the Suntrust Rock-n-Roll event in DC each year. You'll have much more peace of mind knowing your training is adequate for 13 miles (which is very manageable in the winter) rather than 26, for which the winter weather can often have the average runner feeling behind the 8-ball during training.
If we follow the rationale in item #1 above that the early fall is a great time to hit your peak for triathlon (races stop around Oct 1st), then a late fall marathon makes perfect sense, in which you would significantly cut down swimming and cycling for 6 – 8 weeks and use the base you have already built all year to ramp up your final approach to a marathon with a run-run-run approach. Of course, this assumes you were doing marathon distance run training throughout the bulk of the year.
5) Road races. This is an easy answer, run them as often as you like, generally without seeing them as a conflict. The one common theme I saw in most of my triathletes over the years was that they didn't compete in enough open road races, which often left them less confident (and perhaps less fit) for the run portion in a triathlon. Just as swim and cycling races help us become better swimmers and cyclists, if you want to run faster then you have to race faster! Without going into an entirely separate blog, all the light bulbs you want to go off about race-day pacing, intensity, stride, breathing, etc will all come as a result of your open road races (2-miler – 10k). The fact you did not swim and cycle beforehand is irrelevant. Do not use these races as "workouts", rather, race them 100% full tilt! Treat them as a race, no special pacing limitations! Again, there would only be a handful of times throughout the year where these races might conflict with your triathlon training/racing, and a coach will help answer those questions.
6) Longer means faster! Too many triathletes have the misconception that training for the longer distances has a negative effect on speed. WHAT!? Show me one triathlete that did not become significantly faster at the sprint and Olympic distances after training for a full or half Ironman, and I'll pay your next race registration (excluding injury from long-distance training as the problem variable)! Everyone gets faster at the shorter distances while training for the longer ones. This would even hold true for most pros, but admittedly, this is where the misconception originates, and there is some truth to it with these special athletes. When you are in the top-1% in the world at whatever you do, specificity of training is at a premium. Diverging from the norm in this regard could hurt your performance, as there is now little room for error as you near perfection in any realm of human performance. For us mortal triathletes, we have nowhere to go but up, and we have lots of room for improvement no matter what we do. Hey, we could have a bad week of training and still gain fitness, just because our starting point is relatively low compared to the pros. So, if a pro is an Olympic distance specialist, then yes, workouts that are too long, too frequently may conflict with the gains they are seeking in power/speed, but let's remember they are an exception to the rule. I am yet to meet an age-grouper who did not decimate their old PRs in short distance after they made the jump to the longer races. The physiological adaptations from longer-distance endurance training are incredible!
*Finally, remember that there is an exception to every rule and you can bend the rules of the seasons/distances as they suit your needs. These are just the general guidelines factoring in the human element.
Train hard and race hard!
Mike
Multisport World NYC is an exciting day filled with educational seminars, hands-on clinics, theToga Bikes Indoor Bike Time Trial, anindoor triathlon, a huge vendor expo and so much more, held at Columbia University. Many great speakers including Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Terry Laughlin, Dr. Jordan Metzl, Karen Smyers and not to mentions the clinics, workshops and competitive events.seminars, training clinics and workshops, competitive events, activities for the kids a vendor expo and more! Many great speakers including Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Terry Laughlin, Dr. Jordan Metzl, Karen Smyers and not to mentions the clinics, workshops and competitive events.
