Thoughts on Racing

After an early morning scare [read; 4:50AM call from a 1-800 number informing me that my flight had been cancelled] I am en-route to Tucson AZ for the USAT Duathlon National Championships. I’m flying through Dallas instead of Chicago, and arrive an hour later than planned. Hardly a stressor at all. Unfortunately, my girlfriend Caitlin is holed up in Ann Arbor studying for her law exams, but I’m happy to be traveling with Jenn Finn and Jason Palmer, multisport athletes and members of Team Greater > Than, a recently launched team/community of endurance athletes out of the Ann Arbor, MI area. As a brief aside; if you are an endurance athlete interested in becoming affiliated with a team, don’t hesitate in reaching out to me. We have a great initial roster, an amazing tally of sponsors and partner organizations, and we feel primed to accomplish big things fast.

The race isn’t until Saturday, so I’ll have plenty of time to settle in and shake off what will end up having been a 10-hour travel day. In addition to enjoying Tucson, a place that I have never been, the extra time will also allow me to preview the bike and run course. This will help me figure out gearing on the bike and pacing on the run -- all in an effort to minimize surprises on race morning.

In terms of pre-race thoughts, I actually don’t have many. Excitement will undoubtedly be running high. The field is strong and filled with many of the best duathletes in the country, so this will be a great chance for me to see how and where I stack up. Although there will probably be some nerves, I honestly don’t anticipate that being much of an issue. For almost all endurance athletes, racing literally makes up [at most] 1-2% of the total time spent in our respective sports. The other 99% percent is the process of getting to the start-line. In daily speak, this process piece is commonly referred to as “training” and encompasses far more than the physical exertion involved in running and biking workouts. It is a litany of daily decisions that includes not only how hard I am going to run my next mile repeat, but also everything from what I put into my body, to how often I stretch, to how much I sleep.

How does this relate to nerves, or lack thereof? In an attempt to make the connection, I’ll share with you what is probably the best piece of advice my coach has ever given me: “Trust your training.” During the build-up [which started in Dec] to this upcoming month of races, I have been consistent, focused, and given strong efforts in physical workouts. Off the bike and the road, I have been pretty good too, with a real concentration on getting enough sleep and eating the right foods at the right times. I’ve been far from perfect, and to be honest, haven’t had too many remarkable days, but I’ve been steady. Maybe the most telling sign that I have done something right; I haven’t missed a single workout due to injury or illness in the last 180 days. This is actually somewhat shocking, and when I look back at my training log, the thing that I am most proud of.

Even against that backdrop, is there a chance that I still question myself over the next month? Absolutely. It’s human nature. But, if I catch that happening, I will fall back not only on the leg strength that results from 5-hour workouts and 18-hour weeks, but also on the mental strength and confidence. With all that “training” sunk into my legs and my mind, there really isn’t much to worry about.

Aside from the sheer bad luck of a crashing or getting a flat tire, endurance sports are pretty democratic. Once you establish your genetic baseline, beating yourself is simply a manifestation of the training process. And since I can’t control the genetics of the field at any race, my goal is to keep beating myself. If I can do that, beating others will take care of itself. Following that logic, if I “win” the process of getting to the start-line, I should “win” the majority of races I compete in. Trust your training.
Along those lines, I am a big believer in using key words/phrases/mantras to bring myself back to a mindful and fully aware place. At race weekends on the horizon, my mantra will be “realize,” which literally means to bring to fruition or to make real. I’ve put in the work, and now, I’ll make it real and tangible by testing myself against the most honest broker of all; time.

So, over the next month, I look forward to both realizing and celebrating my training in four short-course races. I am well rested and the physiological and psychological adaptations to my training have sunk in. Coach Doug MacLean [who I owe a good part of my success to] has built a schedule that will bridge me from race-to-race, balancing the need to recover with the need to stay sharp in just 6-day increments. Racing consecutive weekends like this is far from conventional. But in my case, it makes sense:

- I want to ride out the fitness I have built and gain more experience in race situations
- The race distances are short enough that I should be able to recover from them
- I will be taking some time off in early June when I settle into Salt Lake City [where I will be doing a summer internship at Intermountain Health Care]
- When I ramp back up, I’ll re-enter a base building phase and switch my preparation to focus on long-course races in the Fall [formats like 6mile/50mile/6mile versus 3mile/20mile/3mile]

That is what is on my mind heading into spring race season. By the end of May, I’ll know where I stack up both nationally, and in the state of Michigan. While I won’t lie and say that those things matter to me [because they do], I’m already pretty happy that, on balance, I’ve “won” the process of getting here. Let the party start!

I’ll do my best to post short race-reports after each event. A race calendar is below.

Train hard, live hard!

Brad

Race Calendar:
- Saturday, April 30: USAT Duathlon National Championships [5K/35K/5K] Tucson, AZ
- Saturday, May 7: Willow Duathlon [5k/20k/5k] New Boston, MI
- Friday May 13 to Sunday May 15: Starkerman Epic Challenge [multi-race weekend involving a 5K, mid-distance triathlon, 40K cycling time-trial, and short-course duathlon] Gaylord, MI
- Saturday, May 21: Gross Ile Duathlon [5K/25k/5k] Gross Ile, MI