EMERGENCY RACE REPORT (Race report 6) and race week!

As per last post, I had a last minute race race. A local 5k in Sault Michigan. I may have mentioned eariler that I was coming to the end of my last big training block. My legs were nice and tired but I had enough juice to race. I didn't think a PB necessarily, but I knew I would have a good workout.

The course was more or less flat, though officially "downhill" for the first 1.5 miles, slightly uphill and on dirt road then flat for the last 800 meters. Pretty much one of the faster courses you could expect to find for a 5k road race. Looking around at the field prior I decided I would take it out at about 16:20 pace to potentially get into the lead, then get into a comfortable (as comfortable as a 5k race will allow) pace, then just go for it for the last mile or whatever. I took it out fairly hard as I had hoped, and found I was being chased. There were a good number of bends around this forested, nice neighbourhood course so I tried to lose him around each bend, but every straight stretch I would see him behind me again. It started to feel like that Twilight Zone episode with the hitch-hiker, I would get comfortable and feel like I'm alone and then he would be there. Never the less, I held out to the end, crossed the line in 1st. The best part? PB. 16:16. Splits are as follows.

3:08 - 3:13 - 3:20 - 3:25 - 3:23

I blame the 3rd and 4th km on the dirt road, though I'm not upset. Not upset at all.

ADDITIONALLY:

The race proceeds went to charity! How dare I forget to mention that!
http://www.girlsontherun.org/
Sounds like a good one, I'm happy to have my race fee go towards that.

Also! I won a rock. It's about the size of my fist and has a bit of a gloss to it. They put a sticker on it. I won a rock.

In other news, it's big race week 1! Yahoo! This has been my easiest week since iunno, January, but by no means has it been easy. As anyone can attest to, cutting back... and the way you feel before you really recover... not so great. But I'm finally feeling like I'm getting all rested and recovered. Yesterday I went out for another frigid swim, open water. I managed 10 minutes this time, but exited with hurting hands and feet, and a wicked ear ache. Today I had my last solid race prep workout - 30 minutes riding at goal power (~270W) into 10 minutes of goal race pace running (3:36/km). This was done indoor due to the rain in the Sault. People seem to think that indoor riding is more difficult and I hear things like it takes away around 5% of your power. I don't believe this, it makes no physical sense. I think its all mental (possibly another post), so I just ride the watts I want to ride. It was tough, but it was enough to keep sharp I think. Tomorrow I'm going to do a bit of quality swimming, Saturday I head out to Huntsville with my dad, and Sunday I race! Sweet! I have to admit though, I'm getting nervous. This is my first olympic distance race and second TT-style 40k. I'm feeling very confident with my run, I know I'll do my best in the water... But I'm nervous I'll explode on the bike or something. Anyway, I'll do my best and see what happens!

Adam "A rock!" Fortais

Run the Great Lakes 10k Road Race, or, NEW RECORD! (Race Report 5)

Am I the only person who runs in their running glasses even if it's overcast? I don't know if it's just habit, or a comfort thing from working in labs that required all-day goggle wear, or if I'm really worried an errant sun ray will pierce the clouds and blind me... but I'm over being worried about looking like a dummy. I'm wearing them.

This morning was particularly overcast and I noticed some rain earlier on while I ate breakfast. Do you wanna know what I had for breakfast? No, didn't think so. It was kind of cold too, 10C, but moved up to probably around 13C by gun-time. I went for the business-time look today, settling on purple shorts, white-and-orange singlet, black arm warmers, red shoes, and obnoxious running glasses. I had to make sure everyone knew I was there to race... or possibly entertain children with balloon animals. Sorry, I don't think there are any pictures of this. Shame shame...

So there I was, on the start line. No wait, rewind. I warmed up with buddy Scott whom I believe I will be training with in the near future. We did about 5k of easy running with some longer race-pace efforts. Nice. I felt a little light and wiggly.. whatever that means... but knew this would later be replaced with heavy and stiff. All right, so we get to the start line, ready to roll. Wait, one more thing. During the warm up I strapped myself up with the ole' HR monitor and flicked my GPS watch on and surprise! It didn't charge overnight. Also, it was completely dead. I don't have a backup or any other kind of watch for that matter. For the significance of this detail, please refer to the previous post where I in detail explain my race plan and pacing strategy. Needless to say, all that was out the window. Bro, we're running by feel today.

More specifically, we're running the other people's race. I could do nothing else but let them set the pace and try to out speed them in the final kms (unless they were running too slow at the beginning (which they weren't (just wait, I'm getting to that.)))

So we're at the start line. I find a guy who looks pretty darn fast and follow him into line. He lines up near the front. I analysed the finish times from the last year or so and expected to be near the front of the 5k race going into my second 5k, so I didn't let nobody push me off the front of the line! That, or no one wanted to go near me. Anyway, gun goes off, a 5k-er literally sprints off the line. 5 of us take a more conservative approach and start running. I realize I'm in a group of 2 other 10k runners, a 5k runner and being led by a 5 and trailed by a 10. We all run fairly well together for the first 2km. I'm sitting on heels, feigning leads here and there. This is weird, how fast do I think that first 2k was? It feels pretty good. Just shy of the first 2.5k turn around the only other guy with arm warmers makes a surge of a hill... though not a convincing one. I don't really make any effort to increase the pace to match. He falls back into line. Still lead by a 5er and trailed by a OH CRAP. The guy who was behind blasts by my group of three to catch the leader. I've never seen someone make an acceleration like that, but all of a sudden he seems like he's a contender. Coming around 4k, other-arm-warmers guy has fallen back (highlander rules, there can only be one) but otherwise no change in positions. The 5er I was with made a small surge to finish off his race, but was too far back to catch the other guy. Coming around the corner past the finish line timer I predicted a slightly faster than anticipated 17:20 or something. Nope. 16:50. What the... Still about 15 seconds down from the leader, and running strong with an old ex-teammate... who I had a sneaking suspicion had gone out too fast and was on the verge of crashing. With 5k to go I decided I would just sit at this pace because if he does crash, great, but if he doesn't, we've got to work together to catch the leader. However, at about 6k the route got twisty and he crashed. By twisty I mean actual right-angle corners along a bike trail. Wide open field/parking lot between corners though so I could see the gap between me and the leader. Actually, I could see the gap falling. And falling. And falling... Until we slogged uphill about 400m to the final turn around at 7.5km. I caught him at the turn. The goal was to hold on to his heels until about 1k to... woah, where's he going? He must have seen me at the turn and decided he did not want this to come down to a sprint because the pace was lifted. He got a gap again... but not by much. Maybe 5 seconds. I knew I had to close it, but I didn't have much in the tank and I could feel myself slowing... By 1km to go he had put a comfortable lead on me and I knew I was in that no man's land of 2nd place. I barely made it through the last km, but to my surprise as I turned the corner into the finishing shoot, the clock was reading 34:40... 41...42... I had very little left but I tried my hardest to keep it under 45. No dice, but close. I think 46. I found out (after some speculation) that the winner was one of the great local runners, Nathan, who typically hangs out around the 20-40k distances. We both went well under the previous winning time. I found him afterwards and tried to thank him through giddy and tired gasps for dragging me along for a PB. I don't know how much of that he understood, but we shook hands anyway.

So, how would things have been different were I running my own race? Iunno. I probably wouldn't have run 16:50 for the first 5k. But I also may not have pushed myself as hard. Being forced to stay with the group, regardless of their idiotic pacing (sorry guys... but I had a 55+ second positive split. everyone but Nathan was worse) probably forced me to dig a bit deeper? I don't know. I probably have a better PB in me somewhere, but I'm extremely hesitant to say I could have had the win. I am extremely happy with my performance, glad I had a chance to run by feel, grateful for the competitors who helped drag me to a PB... and uhhh.... thanks for putting on the race, race people!

I got a nifty long sleeve shirt for winning my age group.

There was a bit of a wind but it wasn't a big deal. headwind for 2.5, tail for 5, head for 2.5. I guess it was fairly unpleasant in the last 2.5k but what final 2.5k isn't unpleasant?

Adam "Maybe if I write a race report before the results are up I'll get more hits..." Fortais

Summer Races, Explained

I guess there isn't a whole lot to explain, my A races are the Muskoka 5150 in three weeks, followed by the Toronto Triathlon Festival three(?) weeks after that. They're coming up!

Why these races? Well... I don't have the ability to travel around and race tonnes every summer, for better or for worse. I decided I didn't want to piddle around with low attendance races. I worked really hard this year and want to see what I'm really made of! So I picked two Ontario races that I thought would be the most competitive. Also, they're AG World Qualifiers. Don't get me wrong, this fact isn't the biggest thing... But I mean come on! That's really cool! And by virtue of World's being in Edmonton next year, this is as good a year to try and qualify as any - I may even be able to go. Never the less, they're both Olympic distance because I also figured, I might as well "do it right". Not to belittle the sprint distance, I just think the Olympic distance will be the most competitive.

I'm running a 10k tomorrow as a sort of final run-prep thing. After this point I'll pretty much be finished with single sport stuff. Bricks will abound. That's what really matters.

This really only brings me to August. I am debating a bike bike block, I'm debating a big run block. I want to run the Halloween 10k again this year, so it might make sense to move into a solid run season, reduce the other sports a little, you know. But depending on my race performances, it may become evident that cycling has become a limiter... It's well established by now that I will be doing a lot of pool work over the winter, but I will have some good weather to use up. Maybe I'll continue with some solid bike work, but move into a base-building run phase, reduce the speed work and just try and hit a new volume-high. Actually, yes. I like that. I think I'll do just that. Thanks guys.

Uhhm, so as far as race specific work goes, I will have two weeks starting Monday to get in some last minute quality, then I will take the week of the race easy to recover. I'll take a day or two (max) off after the race and use the 7 days directly after as a sort of crash week. Then I have two taper weeks and it's back to race week! A little break from training, perhaps a week, and I'm back to training. I might do a local race in August (St Joseph Island Triathlon) because it's the best. I might do a half marathon in September to say I did it. I dunno. Stay tuned I guess.

Adam "Race season!" Fortais

Race season swim test, Specificity and testing protocols

I am fresh out of the pool after my first new swim test and have a bit of extra time so why not another post before I forget some details?

First and foremost, my new swim test is a simple 1000m TT, short course. I completed this in exactly 15:00, or, 1:30/100m. My first 100m was 1:26 and I held that little time gap up until about 700m. I hit 11:13 at 750m and dropped a little further off the pace, but in the last 100m I managed to climb back to that nice, round 15:00. HR tested after completion was 198 BPM. I have no direct comparison, but I do have times from other races this year. I've done 1:33/100m for 1000m long course at the UWO Splash and Dash, and 1:27/100m for 750m at the Queens Spring Fling. Both had enough of a gap between other events that I went all out, and both had competitors in other lanes which helps bring out your A-game. With a completely empty pool and only my brain to keep me motivated, I am satisfied with this time. I'm certainly no Phelps, but I've definitely improved a lot this year and seem to be holding on to those gains despite shifting my focus to overall triathlon fitness as of late. 

Secondly, I believe I've briefly touched on this subject previously but would like to make it emphatically clear why I've changed my testing protocols, and why I chose now to do it. The next two paragraphs contain a large portion of boring personal details. I've underlined the main point I'm trying to get across. I won't be offended if you skip the fluff. 

My understanding of the idea of specificity in training has been somewhat of a roller-coaster ride and perhaps you can identify with me on this. Early on when I first started in sports (and I'm talking baby-Adam) it made complete sense that if you want to be good at something, you have to practice that thing. I want to be good at kicking the ole' soccer ball? I'd best be kicking that soccer ball a lot. I want to be able to beat 3 of my friends at Super Smash Bros. at the same time? I best practice 3-1 matches. I want to beat my neighbour at running 1 lap of my block? I should be running around my block a lot more than him. However when I began taking training more seriously I was introduced to interval training, periodization, and many other fancy training methods. I loved reading about this stuff and would eat up every piece of writing I could get my hands on - perhaps way more than a young, driven, naive boy should have read. I think I was sucked in and overstimulated with ideas about training and began to hyper-focus on new-to-me concepts that seemed to really make sense. In particular, interval training just made sense. If you're stuck at 60 seconds for your 400m (I was an elementary school track-star!) but can only do 28-29 seconds for a 200m, then if you focus on lots of very fast 200m intervals, holding 30sec/200m will be no problem. I became obsessed with fast intervals all through high school to my own peril. I think there were only a handful of times through my entire high school career where I ran more than 9km in one day, or 40km in one week despite claiming to be a XC runner. I suffered from burn out, and hard, by grade 12, never having a truly successful year of racing. 

Fast-forward to now. I've matured a lot, and completely changed my training. Yes, I still feel drawn to short, fast intervals but I've severely curbed my addiction to overspeed training. I consistently run long and slow, I worry about weekly volume, and I'm faster than I ever thought possible. I attribute the difference to a number of things, but the number one improvement is specificity of training. No longer do I focus on 200-400m intervals while eschewing the tempo runs and long, slow days. In fact, I may have done 3 or 4 workouts this year that included speed work like that. I've realized that the stress it provides is too great for the return on fitness in most cases, and the returns I do get may not be beneficial for my goal races. This year I will be making the jump from sprint to olympic distance triathlon. I will be increasing race duration from 1 hour to 2 hours. I will have to run after 1 hour of cycling, not just 30 minutes. My current 10km PB is 35:28, and my current 10km PB off the bike does not exist. Now, if I were to worry about anything running related, would it be that I don't have enough top-end speed this year, or that I need to work on my threshold and running strength to be able to run well off the bike? (It's the second one.)

Thesis: Think about what the goal of your training is and focus on the things that hold you back.

This relates to my choice of testing protocol throughout the year. In the early season, far out from races, I thought about my fitness, selected aspects of my fitness that I believed were holding me back or would allow for greater improvement this race season. In swimming I could hold a pace fairly close to my maximum 100m time for a good length of time, but that 100m time was pretty pathetic (1:27). Cycling, it was threshold endurance. In running... well, I pretty much just wanted to hit my peak fitness from last year at the same time as swimming and biking were hitting their peaks. If I can maintain that fitness and bring the other two events up I would be in a good place. So for swimming I knew the main energy pathway I would be using during an olympic race is that threshold area, that "comfortably un-comfortable" region you probably know and love. This means that the majority of my training should be targeted at improving my speed at that effort level. Specificity tells me I should train at that level to be better at that level. However, a whole year of focusing right at that level would suck a lot and in the long run probably not get me the results I would like. So in the base seasons I take one step back and take the same approach as before but rather than think about what is holding me back in my race, think what is holding me back in training at that level. Base is the perfect time to work on these supplementary skills and effort levels. So I recognized that technique was holding me back, and short, max speed fitness was holding me back. Therefore I allowed my training to target these things - I had my stroke analysed, worked on a lot of drills, and worked on bringing my 100m time down with short intervals. Now, during this phase as with any other, you had better find a way to measure your progress. Hopefully you can guess where this is going. If I'm training my short interval speed and my technique specifically, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have a test set which tests my threshold fitness. I need one that focuses on short intervals and technique if possible. 

With this in mind and a little help from my friend Theo, I designed the short test set described in an earlier post. 50m on 45 seconds, coming in at any time I'd like, until I can't make the pace time any more. I know, not a pure speed test set, but straddling the line between endurance and speed, with an emphasis on speed. I knew I was making progress because my results increased from 6 to 10 throughout the winter. Additionally, in workouts I noticed my 100m time dropping significantly... My 100m PB was once 1:27, but within a workout I've hit 1:17.

Fantastic. But now the Base period is over. Summer is upon us and I'm but a month and a bit out from my first important race. The focus has switched from training the supplemental skills that will allow me to train at the most important effort levels, to training those specific effort levels I will be using in a race. My swim focus has moved from a fast 100m to a fast 1500m swim split, so I am starting to train like it. But as I've said above, you have to be able to measure your progress (or lack thereof). And so alas! We arrive at the conclusion. :.  QED. I care about my threshold speed, so I will test my threshold speed. 1000m TT. Very similar to a 1500m swim split, but toned down to reduce the stress and fatigue after doing it (I do these on my rest week, I ought to be resting). I am also switching my bike test to 30minutes max power outdoors, and my run test to a 5km TT. 

Adam "Makes sense to me at least..." Fortais