Cross-posted from www.endurancecorner.com

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Now that races are appearing all over the world, at all times of the year, it becomes more difficult to signify the “end” of the season. Having said that, many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are working towards our final season peak (between the months of September and November). This is a tricky time for many of us. On the one hand, we want to be our fastest of the year. On the flipside, we do not want our fastest day of the year to be on our local training roads.

Here are a few pointers to follow in your final build of the season:

Mix up the routes. It can be really tempting to go out and set PRs on some of your favorite training routes as you begin to reach your season’s final peak. Give some of these routes a rest until the next base period and find some new and interesting routes to train on. This will help keep things fresh as well as helping you avoid the constant need to set weekly PRs on the same terrain you have been training on all season.

Consciously hold back. When things are going well in your training, make a conscious note of how well you are feeling. Instead of picking the pace up or going even harder, just relax and know that when your race arrives, you will have that final gear. When this feeling becomes a constant in your training, you will know you are ready. Resist!

Learn from the season’s mistakes. Every season provides us with numerous learning experiences; in training and in racing. Take some time to actually sit down and write down the lessons you learned and how you are going to apply them to your last race of the season. Without recognizing the mistakes we have made, we are likely to fall right back into the same patterns. Allow yourself to have a moment of self-realization to become a new (and smarter/better) athlete this fall.

Do not forget to have fun. As the season comes to a close, it is common to feel as though certain sessions are a bit of grind. To help avoid this, remember what you truly enjoy. Allowing yourself to have a bit of fun in between the serious sessions will keep your more consistent in the long run. Nearly all of us got into this sport for this factor; don’t let anything take that away from you.

I hope you all have had a great season to date. Use the above tips to help you close out this season successfully.

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Epilogue: I would add: learn from the season’s successes. I mentioned learning from mistakes, but you should never forget what has worked as well.

Another day; another race. The more of these I do, the less I seem to have to write about them.

I had never raced Lake Placid until this past weekend, but I have known plenty of athletes that have. I have often been told its a course “that suits me” so I decided to give it a try this year. Having trained on the course a bit before the race, I would tend to agree with other folks’ thought process; it is a course that suits me: flat lake swim, balanced (and fair) bike course with a difficult finish, and a run course with some real hills in it. Coupled with a solid training block in June; I felt I was ready.

Race day turned out to be slightly different (as is often the case) and I found myself battling some unfriendly demons throughout the day. After a decent swim and first loop of the bike I just started to feel pretty wiped out and tired, but I did my best to hold the position I had been riding most of the day in (5th) until T2. Even though I was light years behind the two leaders (Twelsiek and Hoffman crushed the bike and I was 20+ minutes down), I was still within 7 minutes of 3rd and one minute of 4th at the start of the run so a position move (or two) was hopefully still possible.

Running out of T2 I could tell I was missing a pep in my step so I threw all concerns about mile splits out the window and just tried to find a zen place to run. I did move into 4th place within about a mile, but 3rd was nowhere to be seen. By the time I hit the first turnaround (around mile 6) I could see I was nearly 10 minutes off of third, but fortunately 5th place was still about 6 minutes behind. I kept myself motivated for the remainder of the marathon by trying to hold a solid gap on 5th place. I was really struggling to hold myself together on the run, but my position was holding and I did not concede; finishing the race in 4th place.

I know I didn’t really convey the message above, but this was one of the most challenging days I have had in racing. My body just did not seem to want to race an Ironman that day, but unfortunately WTC wouldn’t postpone the race to another day. Just getting to the finish line seemed like enough of a challenge on Sunday and I took a lot away from that experience (and was proud to finish 4th). I hope to push myself that hard on a day my body does want to race.

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Congratulations to Ben on his first Ironman win. He raced like a champion from start to finish.

-j

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Greetings from Upstate New York. I’ve been here in Glens Falls, New York since Saturday evening and will be heading to Placid tomorrow (wed) for the remainder of the week. I’ve enjoyed arriving out here a little early as it has allowed me to adjust to the time zone and climate (much more humid here). I should also get a chance to ride a couple sections of the course before we race on Sunday.

I have not done this race before and I’m looking forward to racing on a new course (and a new month; never had an IM in July). I got out of Boulder just as it was getting ridiculously hot; and even though its pretty warm here, it seems mellow compared to the 100-degree desert days back home. We didn’t have much of a summer last year, but mother nature is making up for it right now.

At any rate, all has been going well over the last couple months and I’m looking forward to getting back at it on Sunday. I’ll be sure to turn around a quick race report after I race.

You can follow the day-to-day activites before the race on twitter: www.twitter.com/justindaerr

-j

I never made an update about my couple races in May; one a local sprint, another Memphis in May.

The Sprint race was a fun event that kicked off with a swim in 51 degree water. Even with 8+ minutes of swimming, I still had numb feet until Mile 2 of the run. I felt pretty out of my element since it was my first race since January, but it was good to go hard again. I pretty much got my butt kicked by everyone, but that’s kind of the way it goes sometimes.

Memphis was an event to remember. The professional race starts at 10:30 in the morning and Memphis was forecasted to have record highs. I’m not sure what the exact temperature was at the start, but I think was well above 90 with the normal Mississippi Delta humidity to go along with that.

I started the race with an OK swim then headed out on the bike. All I could think about at the start of the bike was how damn hot it was. I was actually sort of chuckling to myself as I thought about how warm I was. BUT, I had anticipated the heat and made adjustments: I held back early on in the bike, ditched the aero helmet, and had two water bottles with me. Eventually I found a good rhythm keying off of Zach Ruble after he passed me and I came in off the bike with him and two other athletes.

Again, the run was hot. Once again I started to chuckle as I thought about how hot I was. I was running around the pace I would run in a long training run and it felt like I was running all out. I posted a 39:16 10K and it actually ended being the fastest run of the day to help give you an idea of how slowly we were all moving out there.

At any rate, it was fun. I finished 6th; one spot of the money, so I guess that part wasn’t as fun. But I had a great homestay and the local triathlon club/community there was awesome.

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Boise 70.3

I didn’t start. Unfortunatetly, a little more than a week out I tweaked something in my calf that forced me to take some rest from running. I’ve since recovered, but opted out of racing as I want to stay healthy for my training for Placid. I’m more focused on long course events, so I opting out of 70.3 was an easy choice in this situation.

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Next week I’ll be participating in an Endurance Corner Camp here in Boulder, then four weeks later will be racing in the Adirondacks of NY. I’m climbing a lot of mountains on my bike at the moment so that Maik doesn’t embarass me too much.

-j

I got back from the desert last Sunday and frankly, I should have stayed out there. Its been cold, wet, and sometimes snowy for the latter half of this week in Boulder. Should make for some cold water at this weekend’s Sprint race. They claim the water is 53, but it really hasn’t even gotten that warm in the last 3-4 days.

The camp last week took place in Fruita/Grand Junction for 3 days, then another 3 days in Moab, Utah. I have trained in Grand Junction before as I was there for over 3 weeks in 2006 for family stuff. However, I had yet to do two of the rides we did: Douglas Pass and the Grand Mesa.

Douglas Pass is an out-and-back ride from Fruita (for us) with a turnaround at the summit of Douglas Pass (8800 feet). For anyone that did the Desert Sun race back in the day, it includes the majority of that bike course. You spend the first 20 miles rolling through the desert before making your way to more “Colorado-like” terrain on the second half. The real climbing takes place over the last 4-5 miles, but you ride a false flat for a long, long time before then. The return would normally be a quick one, but we were greeted with strong crosswinds to end the day. At any rate, it kept us honest. Bring lots of water, there’s nothing out there.

The second ride was up the west side of the Grand Mesa. We started the ride at the base of the climb below the town of Mesa and continued up nearly 5000 feet to the west side summit of the Mesa. You could ride down the other side and climb back to the top via the east summit. This will likely be an option we will take up next year, but it all dependent on the warmth of the weather in May. We had coffee and snacks at the Blink cafe in Mesa which was fantastic. Stop in and tell them I sent ya!

One last thing about this ride is the speed of the descent. It has long, open striaghtaways on good roads and many people reported seeing their fastest speeds on a bike EVER. I hit over 50 mph while braking.

The final ride of the trip is the loop that goes through the Colorado Monument. I opted out of this ride since I’ve ridden it countless times and I wanted to get one last swim in before we left for Moab (Moab pool is closed). However, it really is an amazing ride that takes you through one of the most unique spots in the country.

Additionally, while in Grand Junction we had several swims in the new Mesa State College Pool. The College built a brand new, 40-million dollar facility that includes a beautiful new 50-meter pool. On several occassions we had the whole place to ourselves. The staff was very friendly and accomodating to us and the general public drop-in fee is 5.00/visit.

After my trip to GJ in 2006 I told everyone that the training there was solid, but the swim facilities were the missing link. Well that sorted that in a big way. The final push might be getting them to set it long course once and a while when its not the summer months.

Off to Moab.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the training in Moab. My only experiences in Moab have been camping, hiking, and mountain biking. And that was years and years ago. In fact, I had not been to town in ten years before last week.

While we were there we did three primary rides:

First: We did a short, late-day ride along the Colorado River to Potash. We did some paceline work here and just generally had a good time checking out the scenery and riding on the flat for a change.

The second ride we did was my favorite of the whole trip: The La Sal Mountain Loop. This ride takes you along the Colorado River, then up a 4000+ foot climb with some sweet sections of gravel, switchbacks and broken road before dropping you down to the South side of town. If you summit it from the South you get a nice climb that locals call “The wall.” I really wanted a chance to ride it in the other direction, but that will have to wait for another trip.

The final ride we did was in Canyonlands Park on the Southeast side of Moab. This was one of the shorter rides unless you were one of the folks that rode back into Moab (another 35 miles). Next year we plan to make this a long ride by rolling from town to the park, ride the park, and ride back. Should end up being nearly 100 miles with some good climbing.

Its a fun area of the country and while its known for its mtn biking, you can definitely get some good road riding in. May has got to be one of the best months to be there, but book early because even the shantiest of motels was full while we were there. Camping is a great option and something I would likely do if I went there on my own.

I took it pretty easy this week so hopefully I can go alright in my first race since January. 20 men are toeing the line in the pro/elite race so it should be a hammerfest. Thankfully, its not too long of race.

j

It doesn’t seem to matter that we are a couple days from May; it still snows in Boulder. I rode my bike to 10,000 feet yesterday without knee/leg warmers and I woke up this morning with a couple inches of snow on the ground. That seems to be the story this winter/spring. Boulder is known to be a great training locale, but the weather this spring has made it a bit up and down. I’m on my sixth week of training for the season and every week was somehow compromised because of the weather. Nevertheless, I think the extra rest has been good because I’ve managed to make myself plenty tired in the available time.

I have another article coming out next week (I think) on the Endurance Corner website that addresses warming up so be on the look out for that.

Next week Gordo, Denny, Chris, Marilyn and I will be running/coaching a training camp in Grand Juntion, Colorado and Moab, Utah. It will be my first time back in GJ to train since 2006 when I was there for unexpected reasons. I haven’t ridden my bike in Moab since 2000 when my dad and I went on a camping trip there. Interestingly enough, this was literally right when Gladiator came out and Robin Hood will be coming out while I am there. Ten years exactly from one Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe blockbuster to the next.

Until later,

j

You can read my latest article from www.endurancecorner.com here:

http://www.endurancecorner.com/Justin_Daerr/return_to_racing

You’ll start to see monthly articles from me on the Endurance Corner website in the future.

I’ve been short on updates as of late. Following the Endurance Corner Tucson Camp I started my training up with a more structured focus. The first three (well, really four) weeks were tough simply because training made me tired and recovery was prolonged. However, now that a few weeks have gone by I’m starting to feel like I’m absorbing the training instead rejecting it.

I also finalized plans for this upcoming season. Technically my 2010 season started with Wanaka in January, but in my mind, it was an extension from last season. I took a break in late January and February and have only been back at things for a short while. Having said that, I look forward to returning to a couple races I did last year: Memphis in May and Boise 70.3. I tend to have good luck with my second attempt at races so lets hope that rings true in the coming months.

As for Long Course races; I have Lake Placid and Hawai’i on the list for the back half of the season. I have never raced Lake Pacid and I haven’t been to Hawai’i since 2004 so it should be a fun year of trying something new.

-j