This is will be posted on xtri.com soon:

Bad Racin’

Joe Friel recently posted a statement on his twitter page: “The only difference between a good race and a bad race is that you learn something from a bad race.” I cannot say the tweet was written directly to me, but I do think our conversation from the day before was likely what reminded him of that statement. We had recently sat down so that I could vent about one of my own ‘bad races’ and he recited that statement to me.

I probably would have preferred to have learned nothing on the previous weekend, but his words were choice ones and it did make me think about all the lessons I have learned over the years. I am always impressed by athletes that perform consistently well because it always seems as if my best performances have been coupled by some rather dismal ones. I have to pay my dues before I can withdraw a solid result.

It is never easy to deal with a bad race, but I can confidently say that it is not the end of the world. No matter what you believe within that moment, trust that things can, and will, get better. I seriously doubt that every training day or work day goes well for everyone reading this and the same can be said for racing.

Ok, so a bad race happens. Then what? What can be learned from the day?

There are a lot of variables that go into a race, whether good or bad, and isolating the one instance that caused a poor performance can be difficult. Some common pitfalls include: poor pre-race or race day nutrition, improper pacing strategy, too much training leading into the race, too little training, too short of a taper, too much of a taper, too much travel, bad equipment choice(s), inclement weather, cramps, etc. In other words, you might never know all the variables.

The one bright side to having a poor race is that you might get to check one of those off the list! After the race passes, take the time to really sit down and think about what might have led you to underperforming. The best athletes are the ones that take the time to understand where their shortcomings were so that the same mistakes will be avoided in future races.

Many athletes have come to me to confide in their disappointment from a poor race and it certainly is unfortunate to see anyone fall short of their goals when their commitment and work ethic are in tact. I often tell these folks the same thing: No one can take away the fitness and experience that you have gained from all the days leading to this one. The difference from this race to your next is that your next race is going to be the day that you show the world what you are capable of.

Get back in the saddle!

I got back into Boulder last Sunday and decided to go back out and race this past weekend (Saturday) in Loveland, Colorado. I did this race (Loveland Lake to Lake) in its inaugural year in 2002, but have not returned since. It has the standard distances of an Olympic distance race (1.5/40K/10K), except the bike is about 5 miles longer (30 total).

I managed to feel much better than last weekend in Boise. I spent much of the day in 2nd place, but in the last mile of the run I took the lead and won the race by a small margin.

There was an article in the Loveland paper that gave us some nice local press. You can check it out here.

Cheers,

jd

I traveled out to Boise last week to race the 70.3 on Saturday. Unfortunately the day wasn’t really what I had in mind. For whatever reason, I simply had a lot of stomache problems which affected me rather adversely on both the bike and run. I enjoyed the venue and the course, but it just wasn’t meant to be for me on the day.

Having a poor race never goes down easily no matter how many years I have been doing this sport. I considered dropping out from about mile 5 of the bike to the end of the run, but I just decided to take what the day had given me. I don’t think I have enough race experience to justify dropping out when the day is not going well. Every bad race seems to happen for a different reason and I want to see it through so that I can look back and learn from it. If I drop out; I’ll never know if the day gets any better (it really never has so far!).

I’m bummed things didn’t go my way, but I’ve been through this enough times that I know its just part of the deal. I’ll be back out there soon enough.

Until next time,

jd

I’m hitting the road today. First stop in Steamboat for a few days and then I’ll be going over to Boise to race the 70.3 there next Saturday. You can follow all updates for the week on twitter.com

www.twitter.com/justindaerr

I sat in on an Endurance Corner webinar yesterday and discussed Long Course Pacing. I will post the link once its ready, but for the time being I’ll add my notes from the discussion.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Long Course Pacing

PACING SESSIONS

1. Long Ride: 8 Miles easy; 112 Mile TT; 10 miles Bonus
• Session should not last longer than 6 hours
• Water breaks should be brief

2. Long Run
• Get to steady pace and hold; Brief Warm Up
• Too many sessions are too easy early (or throughout)
• Maintaining strong pace on the flats
• Session should be capped at 2.5 hours (option of double run day for experienced)

3. Long Swim
• Pick an interval distance and hold pace on tight rest (10 sec)
• Main Set should build up to 75 minutes or 5K; whichever is first
• Don’t use 100s.

REALITIES of RACE DAY

1. Swim harder than you planned
2. Bike is harder than you planned
3. Went out too fast on Run

All of these things will likely happen in some capacity no matter what. When it does happen, simply calm down and get back on the wagon.

Most fit athletes can recover from a hard start of each leg of the race (less the run), but it will cost you time.

People take entirely too long in transition; particularly T2. Recover while walking; not sitting

There is no such thing as a perfect race. The fastest athletes succeeded IN SPITE of everything that went wrong that day; and NOT because everything went right that day.

I’m heading to Memphis tomorrow to race Memphis in May. I’ve always wanted to do this race so I’m pretty excited to check it out.

I’ll be posting updates on twitter over the weekend so follow along….

www.twitter.com/justindaerr

jd

I know I haven’t updated my race calendar in some time, but I am actually racing this year. It all starts in a couple weeks with Memphis in May and then it will lead into some longer stuff later in the year. Short course racing really isn’t my thing, but I wanted something to do in the month of May and MIM has always been on the ‘to do’ list. I also think that a tri with a time trial format will be a nice way to ease back into racing again.

While Memphis will be a nice way to ease back into triathlons, I needed something to ease back into the ‘easing back’, so I did a few local events over the past couple weekends. Last week I did a small 10K (on dirt) on Saturday and a 28K (bike) Time Trial on Sunday. The double-race weekend went pretty well, but I felt much better racing on Saturday than I did on Sunday (big surprise). I actually recovered pretty well from the 10K, but I clearly struggled at the front end of my time trial on Sunday. My legs were flat until 15 minutes or so had passed when I began to ride with a much better rhythm to the finish (36 minutes total).

Yesterday I decided to do another Time Trial; the Rabbit Mtn TT. Its a 11K course that is essentially flat for 5K; then climbs 180 meters (little over 500 feet) for 5K; descends 500 meters; then 500 meters @ 16% or something like that (whatever it is, its steep and requires complete anaerobic commitment).

I headed over to the race site early in the morning (I started at 7:45) and proceeded to go out for a warm up ride prior to my start time. The roads were all wet (rain all night beforehand) and I intentionally went down a certain road to avoid crossing train tracks. I didn’t realize that this road had tracks too, but I crossed them carefully and proceeded to do my warm up. As I headed to the start line I had to cross the tracks again so I slowly rode over them and then WHAM. I hit the ground hard as my back wheel completely slid out from under me (which was exactly what I was trying to avoid).

The thing is, I have actually crashed on train tracks in the rain before (seven years ago!) and I was being extremely careful not to repeat that act. And, as it goes, when I was mindful of something happening… …it happened.

Anyways, I crashed going very slowly which wasn’t so great because I slammed my full weight down on my knee, hip, and ankle. I had less than ten minutes to my start so I gathered myself up and headed to the start. Fortunately, this happened close enough to the start that I didn’t really have time to stiffen up. After drilling myself for 17+ minutes the race was done and I began to feel the crash. The combo of road rash and a 16% climb left me feeling pretty crappy. I spun back to the car and went home to clean my wounds and ice up.

Its been a while since I last crashed so it was a nice reminder of why we want to keep the rubbber side down when riding. I was pretty sore yesterday, but I’m starting to feel much better today and should be back to the normal training plan by Wednesday.

Good times,

jd