Racing Consecutively

Over the past month, I raced duathlons on 4 consecutive weekends. This is quite untraditional and often not recommended. That said, as I mentioned in a prior post, this type of race volume made sense for me for a few reasons. Most notably, all of the races were short-course duathlons [so pretty good recovery in between events was possible], and I knew that I would be reentering a base-building phase of training in June [as my focus shifts to preparing for long-course racing in the fall]. My objectives for the month were quite simple: to go as hard as I could at each event and to gain race experience. Now that I’ve made it through the gauntlet and come out the other side, I’ll share a few thoughts on racing consecutively.

First, I’ll speak to the physical. This certainly isn’t rocket science, but racing places an immense stress on the body. No matter how well trained you are, the compounding effect of race-efforts wears you down. Minimizing the physiological breakdown through good recovery becomes absolutely critical. Ironically, “good recovery” for the next race starts before the current race begins. Following a proper fueling plan is absolutely critical not only to your performance in a race this Saturday, but also to your performance in a race next Saturday. The less time your body spends running on near-empty [or in scientific speak, the less glycogen deprivation that occurs] the faster you will bounce back from that effort. What you consume directly after the race is also very important; much like during training, aim to get a good carbohydrate/protein [4 to 1] food into your system immediately after finishing. Chocolate milk works great, and if that is logistically hard, most Powerbar-type products work too. While this seems pretty easy, when the post-race food tent is offering pizza, chocolate milk and Powerbars have a way of becoming much less appealing.

This transitions nicely into my the next point, which is be especially smart with how you treat your body in the 48 hours after finishing a race. I know that personally, after racing, I usually really let loose; we’re talking total crap consumption, in solid and liquid form. This is actually a huge part of a smart annual training/racing plan, and important for both physical and especially mental health. While the natural inclination is to go nuts after finishing a race, this isn’t such a good idea if you are planning on revving things up in full force just 6 to 7 days later. It’s more than OK to celebrate a good performance, but if you are racing consecutively and want to be celebrating the next weekend too, make sure not to do anything tonight that will leave you in the bathroom for over 20 minutes tomorrow morning. This was actually quite hard for me [I give myself a B- here] and has a lot to do with my “do everything 110% personality” which is common amongst so many endurance athletes. It takes a lot of mental strength to hold back after a race, especially when we are literally trained, encouraged to, and in the habit of doing the opposite in most other situations. Be aware of this, think about your next race before you act, and if it’s not just a couple of days later, by all means go nuts!

In the few days between races, strive to find a balance between passive recovery [total off days], active recovery [very easy training], and “stay-sharp” workouts [short and sweet bouts of intensity]. The right mix varies by individual, but the key that holds true across everyone is to have some kind of mix. Also, don’t be wed to a plan. Observe how your body feels, and make real-time tweaks. I often substituted a total off-day for a recovery workout, or the opposite, and if my body didn’t feel great on a day that was meant to include a 20-minute tempo interval, I nixed it. Again, while it sounds easy to do this, scrapping the plan can be hard, especially when it’s the plan that got us to where we are.

You may be noticing a theme, which is maintaining the physical strength needed to race consecutively relies heavily on mental strength. Before touching on that, just a few additional things I have to throw in. Eat lots of fresh green foods [vegetables], which are high in alkaline and work to balance acidity in the body -- very important when so much acid is created from race-efforts. Get a pair of CEP compression socks and wear them often. Of all the things marketed to endurance athletes that are supposed to work but sound suspect, these by far and away “actually work” the best. Probably the smartest $50 I have spent in the past year. Pick one race to be your true priority, and ideally, make it the first one. This comes into play because although you can kind of peak for one month, you really only peak for one day. The easiest way to illustrate this point is through the concept of race-weight. You hit your race weight on week 1, but then, in order to recover to race on weekends 2-4, your training volume and intensity decreases dramatically from what it had been. Meanwhile, if there was ever a time to make sure you are getting sufficient nutrition, this is it, so your caloric intake is going to stay constant, if not go up a little. By the end of week 4, you are likely going to be decently above race weight. No big deal since we are talking about seconds here, but since seconds can matter a lot, build things around a priority race in which you want every second to count.

Now, on to the mental. Instead of getting very long-winded here, I will introduce a foundational premise and offer some pragmatic advice. The mental discipline it takes to race consecutively is enormous. This entails everything from not getting cocky after good outings, to forgetting bad ones, to tempering celebrations, to focusing on each event individually as its own [while still keeping the big picture in mind], to accepting the more-than-usual suffering inherent to racing hard.

Maintaining the mental edge is an enormous challenge, and simply being aware of its importance is the first step to knocking this down. Next, try to create an environment keen to supporting your mental edge. Minimize other stresses to the extent that you can. Since you know how much discipline will be required in this realm of your life, splurge a little in other realms; now is the perfect time to read a stupid book [or just quit reading altogether!], put Rihanna on repeat, or wear only underwear while you walk your dog around the block. Communicate your situation to other key people. This list probably includes significant others, colleagues, friends, family, etc… You can’t expect any of them to be accommodating or supportive if they don’t know where you are coming from. Meditate. The power of mindfulness exercises is huge. I got in the habit of doing 30-minute body scans as often as I could. And when time is tight, there are plenty of good 5-10 breathing meditations that really helped me refocus and cleanse my mind of the anxiety and excitement that comes with racing all the freaking time.


None of this easy and I can’t imagine anyone will be even near perfect. My best advice is probably don’t race consecutively. But, if you find yourself in a situation like I did and want to give things a go, then hopefully revisiting some of the above points will be helpful. And the last thing to remember, unless you are winning nationally recognized high-profile events, the awards are not going to compensate for the race fees…but whatever…rack up that hardware!

Until next time, train hard, live hard!

Race Report(s): The End of My Short-Course Season at Starkermann Stage Race (May 13-15) and the Gross Ile Duathlon (May 21)

This post won’t be as detailed as past race-reports, but figured I would keep integrity on the blog by making sure I gave at least something from these races. I’d rather take the time to go a bit more in depth (to come soon in a separate post) from a topical standpoint surrounding my thoughts on racing consecutively over 4 weeks.

Starkermann Epic Challenge (3rd Overall): This was a weekend stage race, meaning that athletes compete for the best cumulative time across a series of events. Friday night 5K, Saturday morning Olympic Triathlon, Saturday night 40K bike time-trial, Sunday morning Olympic Duathlon. The weather was just miserable all weekend: cold, rainy (which turned to a sleety ice) and extremely windy. As a result, the entire field was slowed, and the 40K TT was cancelled, a last-minute call by the race director that I fully agreed with, especially given the course was all sharp climbs and descents, which is not very conducive to slick roads and 25mph wind gusts.

Friday Night 5K: I ran this just a hair under true 5K pace. Probably right in between my 5K and 10K pace. I ran neck-and-neck with another guy the whole way, and for some reason I couldn’t understand, he kicked real hard at the end (remember, this is a cumulative race, and saving energy is important) to beat me by a few seconds. After Friday night, I sat in second place, but the top of the field was separated by mere seconds with all kinds of racing ahead, so this didn’t mean much.

Saturday Morning Reverse Tri (4.4mi run, 30K bike, 300yd swim) Since I didn’t go full-tilt (or kick at the end) the night before, my legs felt fine going into this race. Again, knowing that there was still a lot of racing to follow (theme of my approach to the weekend) I tempered things again, and paced everything somewhere in- between a hard workout and a true race effort. As the field separated, I learned I was probably the strongest runner competing, but relatively weak on the bike. As for the swim, I’m a duathlete -- I was happy that I didn’t drown, and as expected, pretty much everyone put 60-90 seconds into me here. At the conclusion of this race, I sat in 4th place, a little over a minute out of 3rd. As much as I would have liked to say it was due to losing time in the water, I also lost time on the bike. The 3 guys ahead of me were simply stronger in the saddle, not good considering that in combination, the next two races involved 70K of biking and only 10K of running…or so we all thought that was the case…

40K Bike Time-Trial Cancelled due to weather. Bummed about this since I really wanted to test myself over all 4-weekend events, but it would have been downright unsafe to race such an already technical course in a hail storm with icy roads (yes, icy roads in May, Pure Michigan for ya). What this did do, though, is open up the podium to me. I wasn’t catching Chad (one of my best friends and Greater > Than teammates) who was sitting pretty in 1st place, but, the door was open to get the guys in 2nd and 3rd, who had about 70 and 80 seconds on me respectively. Even though these guys had proved they were stronger cyclists than me, the Duathlon is my bread-and-butter event, so I was ready to make things happen and try and hit the podium.

Duathlon (5K/30K/5K) Knowing that I wasn’t going to move up on the bike portion of this final race, I pushed the pace running right out of the gates. The guy sitting in 3rd (Glenn Goodman) ran with me again (I guess that kick on Friday night didn’t hurt him so bad) so he basically said “I’m matching you in your strength, you are not getting me today,” but the athlete who was in 2nd (Justin Vasseau) fell behind pretty quickly. I pushed entire first run knowing Justin would get time back on me during the bike. Exactly that happened, as Justin passed me at about the 25K point of the bike, but I was able to keep him in sight for the final descending 5K, and he hit transition up about 20 seconds on me (for the duathlon) which meant about 100 seconds up on me cumulatively. I had my work cut out for me with only 5K of running to go. While 100 seconds is pretty enormous to make up during a 5K (almost unthinkable actually) I knew a few things: 1) My training is built for me to run strong off the bike and on tired legs, so this was good given how trashed everyone’s legs were at this point of the weekend 2) I had proven that I am a much better runner than Justin, 3) I really wanted to join Chad on the podium. I left transition and ran like a bat out of hell. I caught Justin about a half mile into the run, which meant that I needed to make up 80 seconds (the time he had on me going into this race) in the last 2.5 miles. I ran my ass off and didn’t look back once. This is probably the hardest I have ever run in my life, it certainly felt like it, as I was really suffering out there. When I crossed the finish line I immediately hit the lap button on my watch and let the waiting game begin. An extremely long 80 seconds passed, and still no Justin. He ended up coming in about 100 seconds later, meaning I beat him by a mere 20 seconds over the entire weekend!

Overall Cumulative: I literally ran my way onto the podium in this race, and caught some luck with the TT being cancelled. It is pretty remarkable how close things were amongst the top 4, with just 2-3 minutes of separation across us over the entire weekend of events. My buddy Chad proved his durability as a multi-sport athlete and had a great and consistent performance to take the win. I would love to race here again next year, and see some of the same guys (Chad, Glenn and Justin) out there, as we really pushed each other hard, and competed with lots of intensity, but also in a very honorable and respectful manner. If I plan on placing again next year, I’ll have to come back much stronger on the bike, since Chad, Glenn, and especially Justin are really all quite strong and consistent cyclists.

Grosse Ile Duathlon (6th Overall, 1st Age Group): I’m going to keep this one real short and sweet. This was my last race in a stretch that began with Du Nats on April 30. If you count all 3 events at Starkermann, this puts me at 7 races in 28 days, or maybe more representative (since Starkermann was really one big “race” with pacing strategy coming into play); 4 events on 4 consecutive weekends. Knowing this would be my last time racing for a while, and my last short-course race of 2011, I did my best to re-focus and treat this as its own individual morning. Fatigue (mental and physical, more on this to come in my next post) had definitely set in, but my training had prepared me to deal with fatigue, and the results from this race proved exactly that. On a calm day and a flat course I ran 6:06 pace for the first 5K, road at 23.1mph for the bike, and ran 6:18 pace for the second 5K. Pretty much exactly what I would have predicted.

I’ll take a week off and then ramp up with a focus on long-course racing in the fall, with my A-race coming on Sept 10 at the Tawas Multisport Festival (4.4mile run/56mile bike/13.1 mile run). The past month of racing was great. I performed well, learned a lot about myself as an endurance athlete, and identified areas for improvement heading into the summer.

Race Report: Willow Duathlon [5K/20K/5K] New Boston, Michigan

I approached this race hoping to build on the momentum I gained from the National Championships the previous week. I was undeniably still excited about that result, but in the 72 hours leading up to this race, I did a pretty good job of redirecting my focus. Lesson here: when racing frequently in a short period of time, it is important to have a short memory. This was a true short-course race, with only 20K on the bike. The subsequent plan was to temper the first run, but then to push hard from the minute I got in the saddle and carry that energy over into the second run. Things came to fruition nicely. I went 1:10:56 [6:04/23.2mph/6:05] which was good enough to win my age-group and place me 6th overall.

Race conditions were great. 55, sunny, and very little wind. In combination with a pretty flat course, the day had potential to be very fast for the entire field.

The First Run [5K] wasn’t perfect. I went out with the lead pack and felt fine, but when we clocked a 5:45 first mile, I knew I was running way too fast. Although I could have held that pace [for the first 5K] just fine, it would have put me in a bad place just a few miles into the bike. I quickly dropped back and slowed things down a lot. Another athlete [John Kahler] dropped back with me, and we basically ran the last 2 miles together, coming into transition in 5th and 6th position. Things netted out to a 6:04 pace. Still kind of fast, but the decision to run those last 2 miles much slower had me feeling fine getting on the bike.

The Bike [20K] was an out-and-back on flat roads. It didn’t take long for John to create separation from me, and only 2 minutes into the bike, he was gone [I wouldn’t feel too bad about not hanging with him, he averaged 24.7mph, the fastest bike split of the day]. This left me totally alone on the bike. When I hit the turn-around, I was a minute back of 5th place, and over 2 minutes ahead of 7th place. Without anyone to race, I told myself just time-trial hard, and that’s what I did. Nothing too heroic here, I simply bit my lip and put myself in pain for a little over 12 miles of flat road. I locked into a cadence of 90-92 rpm and hammered away, which worked out to be a 23.2mph average. Good split for me, although I think the course may have been a little short, which means I was probably a bit slower than that.

The Second Run [5K] was the best part of this race for me. I got into a good groove right off the bike, with the Garmin telling me I was running a 6:00 pace. It hurt, but not to the point where I even thought about slowing down for a second. I stayed consistent for the entire run, never going faster than 6:00 or slower than 6:15. I made good progress on the racer in 5th position throughout the run, but when I realized I was still about 40 seconds back with a mile to go, it sunk it that I probably wasn’t going to catch him. I ended up averaging a 6:05 pace here, which is a new PR coming off the bike for me.

Overall, a just-fine result in a field that brought out a lot of Michigan’s best. Although I really don’t like short-course racing, and am much more built for long-course stuff, the experience I am getting at these distances is great, especially in regards to the “just-right” execution and steady suffering it forces. And while I had no problem in my age-group [or with anyone under 35 for that matter], it became clear that the majority of Michigan’s strongest short-course duathletes are a cadre of men 35-50. When one of these guys told me “I am an up-and-comer,” I remember thinking I want to make the “coming” period as short as possible.

*Note: Transition(s) One and Two can be summarized by huge improvements. Went under 40 seconds for both of these. Again, neutral against the field.

Race Report: USAT Duathlon National Championships 2011. Oro Valley, Tucson Arizona

I went into this race with a strong belief in my training, and the sole objective of “realizing” the full potential it has put into my body and mind. I was very happy with the result; I put together a well-rounded race, the foundation of which was an extremely aggressive bike. My finish was good enough to qualify for the Duathlon World Championships as a member of Team USA, placed me well within the top 100 overall [and given the field a national championship brings, I’m quite pleased with that], and quickly put me on the map in the state of Michigan. Details are below.

Race conditions were great. It was a calm morning, in contrast to the pretty much daily winds in Ann Arbor. And while it was hot and sunny, the temperature never rose above 85, so it was tolerable.

The First Run [5K] went exactly as planned. In the face of the increasing [over the course of the race] heat and a very hilly course profile, Coach Doug wanted me to take this very conservatively. The plan was to go out at 6:20, which is right around my half-marathon pace. It took discipline to temper the pace, especially when lots of former collegiate distance runners flew out the gates, but I managed to complete this first leg at precisely a 6:20 clip. The run concluded with a mile climb which no doubt took something out of my legs, but all and all, I hit transition* feeling extremely good.

The Bike [35K] consisted of two laps, which in the words of the locals, “didn’t have a flat piece of road.” The course was rolling the entire way. There were no intense climbs, but rather, many elongated [think 3-6 minute] steady climbs and descents. I pre-road the course a few days earlier and decided I would stay in the big ring at all times. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the conservative first run was a good idea. Just 4 minutes into the bike, I found myself in a great rhythm, and passing nearly 2 athletes per minute. After I finally got some clearance, I continued to settle in, working about 15% harder on the uphills than on the downhills. We anticipated I would average around 21mph for the entire bike, and at the end of the first lap, my computer had me at a 21.5mph average. At this point, a few things happened: 1) I spotted a pack of athletes in my age group just 40-50 seconds behind me, 2) I got passed by Greater > Than teammate Jenn Finn, and 3) I took in my largest single caloric nutrition of the day. Those 3 things worked together to have an “OK, time to leave it all out there” affect on me.

I vividly remember telling myself “trust your training,” and then something more eloquent along the lines of “F* it, let’s go…” I can confidently say that the next 11 miles on the bike was one of the better athletic performances of my life. I’m not really sure what got into me, but I just kind of accepted a new sensation of pain in my legs, and hammered hard over the rollers at 23.2mph. I would find out later that when I started the second lap, the chasers in my age-group were anywhere from 45 seconds to 2 minutes back. By the time we hit transition 11 miles later, I had put a good 3-5 minutes into them, dropped over 15 other athletes, and didn’t get passed by a single person. I netted a 22.3mph average on the bike and took down 300 calories with no stomach issues. This amounts to a big ride for me.

The Second Run [5K] can be characterized by a shift in focus from “F* it, let’s go,” to “be smart and make sure you finish where you need to.” The run course took us through numerous turn-arounds, so I could pretty much always figure out where my age-group competition was, and develop a subsequent strategy in real-time. I quickly caught sight of 2 racers about 90 seconds ahead of me, but I knew both of these guys were former collegiate runners. They were flying at well under a 6:00 pace; I wasn’t going to catch them. On the flip side, I started to see a handful of other guys in my age-group over 2 minutes behind me. These guys were not collegiate runners, and visibly bigger dudes. Aware that the last mile of the run was a straight-up climb, and that things had gotten pretty hot, I was confident that if I could just hold a good pace, I would be able to stay comfortably ahead of this relatively “bike-strong” chase pack.

Meanwhile, I had a decently painful [e.g., more than annoying] cramp come on, so I decided to tentatively slow things down very early in the run. I dropped my pace from about 6:10 to 6:40. At the next couple of “viewpoints” I realized I was still putting time into most of the guys behind me [who all looked pretty uncomfortable], so I just sat at my relaxed pace. By the time I hit the 2 mile mark and saw the final climb ahead of me, my cramp had dissipated enough for me to confidently pick things up to complete the race. I charged up the hill [eerily familiar to Broadway St. for those familiar with Ann Arbor] hard and crossed the finish line in 1:39:48 [leg-by-leg: 6:20, 22.3mph, 6:29].

Although we wanted to negative split my runs [e.g., faster in the second run], given the circumstances, it was no big deal that I didn’t. This race was about that second lap on the bike. That is where I made my time and earned my spot on the map. That said, there are still some encouraging take-aways from this run. Mainly and obviously, I could have run faster. And, my training, which is explicitly built for me to be a strong runner off the bike, is clearly accomplishing its purpose; my super-controlled [of a somewhat out of control bike leg] second run was still the 44th fastest of the day, making it by far my best single split compared to the field.

Overall, a solid result in a stacked field. My celebration with friends and teammates was great, but also time-bound, since I’m racing again in just 6 days. As I get back to work, I’ll focus mainly on recovery and just a few quality workouts to get my body ready to roll at the Willow Duathlon next weekend.

*Note: Transition(s) One and Two were both uneventful. This is a big deal for me. Just a few weeks back at my first race of the season I struggled mightily in transition and lost 3 places in that race as a result, which in this sport, is inexcusable. I focused heavily on working out those kinks. I can still improve here, but the bottom line is, my transitions were pretty neutral in the championships.